Organizers of the International Year of Light 2015 (IYOL 2015) define photonics as "the science of light" and say on their website, "The word Photonics appeared around 1960, when the laser was invented by Theodore Maiman."

Further internet searching finds another reference describing how the word "photonics" came to be in a European Commission CORDIS overview that states, "The term Photonics was coined in 1967 by Pierre Aigrain, a French scientist (you can read his interesting obituary), who gave the following definition: 'Photonics is the science of the harnessing of light. Photonics encompasses the generation of light, the detection of light, the management of light through guidance, manipulation, and amplification, and most importantly, its utilisation for the benefit of mankind.'"

A paragraph in a book entitled Photonic Technology and Industrial Policy by Ernest Sternberg says: As used in its present sense, "la photonique" seems to have made an early appearance in a 1973 article by the French physicist Pierre Aigrain. "I believe," Aigrain wrote, "that tomorrow, that is to say in 1990, photonics will play an important part in the transmission of information ... Photonics is a technology of tomorrow." The Sternberg book goes on to say, "Also in the present sense, the word photonics begins to appear in print in English around 1981 in press releases and annual reports of Bell Laboratories, in internal publications of Hughes Aircraft Corp., and in the more general press in an article in the Wall Street Journal."

-Laser Focus World