Photonic technology employs light rather than electricity to carry
information through a crystalline medium known as a photonic bandgap
structure. These non-conductive photonic crystals have a periodic
organization, and control the behavior of light-carrying photons just
as the crystal structure and bandgap of a semiconductor will control
the behavior of electrons. Photonic crystals have already begun to
make their appearance in information management and communications
technology, putting photonics squarely on the cusp of becoming the
next major paradigm shift in these industries.
The list of the 20 most-cited papers in photonics is headed up by a
pair of review articles covering the history of the technology, the
relevant theoretical issues, and the important properties of photonic
bandgap materials. A secondary but dominant theme in the top 20 is the
synthesis and fabrication of photonic crystals and elementary photonic
devices—wires, fibers, amplifiers, and lasers, in particular—and
discussions of the potential for making even more advanced photonic
devices. A third theme of note includes investigations and
measurements of the behavior and properties of photonic crystals in
one, two, or three dimensions.
Methodology
To construct this database,
papers were extracted based on title-supplied keywords for Photonics. The
keywords used were as follows: photonic*
The baseline time span for this database
is 1992 - 2002. The resulting database contained 3,890 papers; 6,306 authors;
61 countries; 394 journals; and 1,259 institutions.
Rankings
Once the database was in place,
it was used to generate the lists of top 20 papers, authors, journals,
institutions, and nations, covering a time span of 1992 - 2002.
The Top 20 papers are ranked according to total cites. Rankings for author, journal, institution, and country are listed in three ways: according to total cites, total papers, and total cites/paper. The paper thresholds used to determine scientist, institution, country, and journal rankings according to total cites/paper were as follows:
21, 31, 22, and 26, respectively.
