Optics Valley is a nickname for a region in southern Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

, centered on Tucson, that includes a concentration of optics

Optics

Optics is the branch of physics which involves the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behavior of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light...

 companies, spawned by the optics work at the University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences

University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences

The University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences, considered the largest institute for optics education in the United States, is dedicated to research and education in optics with an emphasis on engineering...

. Based on the idea of a technology cluster, such as Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...

, Optics Valley in the US is famous not only for the companies but also for observatories Kitt Peak National Observatory

Kitt Peak National Observatory

The Kitt Peak National Observatory is a United States astronomical observatory located on 2,096 m Kitt Peak of the Quinlan Mountains in the Arizona-Sonoran Desert on the Tohono O'odham Nation, southwest of Tucson...

, Mount Graham International Observatory

Mount Graham International Observatory

Mount Graham International Observatory is a division of Steward Observatory the research arm for the Department of Astronomy at The University of Arizona. It is located in southeast Arizona's Pinaleno Mountains near Mount Graham....

, and the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory

Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory

The Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and is their largest field installation outside of their main site in Cambridge, MA...

 on Mount Hopkins

Mount Hopkins (Arizona)

Mount Hopkins is a mountain in Santa Cruz County, Arizona part of the Santa Rita Mountains range. Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory is located on it. It is within the Coronado National Forest and was named after Gilbert Hopkins who was killed nearby in 1865 during the Battle of Fort Buchanan....

.

There are other areas called Optics Valley in France and China.

Companies

• Applied Energetics, Inc.
• Breault Research Organization
• Edmund Optics
• Lasertel
• Login, Inc.
• NP Photonics, Inc.
• Prism Solar Technologies
• Raytheon
  Raytheon
  Raytheon Company is a major American defense contractor and industrial corporation with core manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. It was previously involved in corporate and special-mission aircraft until early 2007...
  
  
• Synopsys (formerly Optical Research Associates)
• Veeco Corp
• Zygo Corporation
  Zygo corporation
  Zygo Corporation is a company that specializes in optical systems & equipment for areas such as optical metrology. Zygo's metrology systems are based on optical interferometry measuring displacement, surface figure, and optical wavefront...
  
  

External links

• Arizona Optics Industry Association, a group of about 200 firms that earned the area its name
• NP Photonics, Inc., A member of the AOIA and a member of Optics Valley since 1998. Company started by a professor at the University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences.