Optical engineering is the field of engineering encompassing the physical phenomena and technologies associated with the generation, transmission, manipulation, detection, and utilization of light.[2] Optical engineers use the science of optics to solve problems and to design and build devices that make light do something useful.[3] They design and operate optical equipment that uses the properties of light using physics and chemistry,[4] such as lenses, microscopes, telescopes, lasers, sensors, fiber-optic communication systems and optical disc systems (e.g. CD, DVD).
Optical engineering metrology uses optical methods to measure either micro-vibrations with instruments like the laser speckle interferometer, or properties of masses with instruments that measure refraction.[5]
Nano-measuring and nano-positioning machines are devices designed by optical engineers. These machines, for example microphotolithographic steppers, have nanometer precision, and consequently are used in the fabrication of goods at this scale.[6]