Photonics Dictionary

The action of a biological system responding to a single or multiple coherent particles of light produced from a laser source. Examples of laser biostimulation include: retinal interaction of light...

A device having a plane mirror so mounted that it can be set to reflect sunlight into a piece of laboratory equipment. It is driven by a clock to compensate for the sun's daily motion around the pole...

A variation of tomography, which is a means of visualizing any one of a large set of parallel planes in the patient. A series of x-ray pictures taken from different angles results in developed...

An instrument similar to the spectroheliograph, but having a scanning method that is performed by a pair of rapidly oscillating slits or a rotating glass block located before a pair of fixed slits at...

A 2D profile sensor is a type of sensor used in various industrial and technological applications to measure and capture detailed information about the shape, contour, or profile of an object in two...

A 3D profile sensor, also known as a 3D profiling sensor or 3D depth sensor, is a technology that is used to capture and measure the three-dimensional shape or profile of an object or a scene. These...

3D Laser Triangulation - A technology that allows sensors to probe the surroundings. Laser triangulation systems have an ideal operating point, or the standoff distance, where its reflected spot is...

3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing (AM), is a manufacturing process that builds three-dimensional objects layer by layer from a digital model. This technology allows the creation of...

A two-lens arrangement intended to image light into a microscope slide sample. The primary aberrations present are red and blue rings observed around the image focus.

A dispersion relation defined in order to value the reciprocal amount of dispersion. It is defined as the refractivity over the difference in index values of the shortest and longest visible...

Image of a uniform source through the sample of a microscope image system. Light from the sample plane is reimaged by the objective into the image plane.

A form of roof prism used to invert an image. The prism has faces cut normal to the optical axis; therefore, the prism may be placed within the optical path of a system and invert the image without...

Device which measures the index of refraction of glass as well as the dispersion over visible range.

A reflecting prism that inverts the image. The image is reflected four times internally and emitted laterally. The prism is cut normal to the optical axis while the image is internally reflected from...

A departure from ideal paraxial imaging behavior. The distortion of an optical field wavefront as it is propagated through the elements of an optical system. The field distortion is due to the...

Designed for the function of optical wavefront analysis. Shack-Hartmann camera aberration sensors use a lens array to image the wavefront to the CCD image plane. Live feedback may be applied through...

The minimum energy required to induce atomic and molecular separation or displacement due to incident intense laser irradiation.

Ablation applied to polymers and chemical solids. Process of material removal that minimizes edge damage but will not heat the surrounding portion of the sample.

A high-brightness, short-duration source in which low-pressure gas initiates the discharge to vaporize material from the tube wall, leading to a high-pressure discharge of ionized wall material.

The alteration and reduction of color with the addition of white light. The perceived color shift that occurs as the monochromatic-white combination meets the eye and is interpreted by the brain. The...

Optical surface damage due to abrasive rubbing. Abrasion damage affects are less than the thickness of the optical coating layers. Surface investigation may be achieved by aluminization of the coated...

An instrument that uses optical filtration in order to measure the transmittance for a discrete range or specific number of wavelengths.

Method of preserving the measured color value and color information as it is translated from differing devices. For example the output of a television display may be measured to have an identical...

The minimum value of luminance for vision. The value may vary with age as well as dark adaption period. (Measured range approximately log luminance -3 through 2.) About 10 -2 ml at the fovea, 10 -5...

The value of the distance of distinct vision, minimum focusing distance or near point, divided by the focal length of the lens. Magnification is produced when the optic is placed at its focal...

Least value of color value combinations which gives white light; minimum purity as determined to be white.

The ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum divided by the speed of light in the medium.

The natural log of the ratio of absorbed intensity over the total intensity which gives a constant value assuming a stable volume as well as energy. In optical physics the absorbance may be defined...

A doped or absorbing transparent medium cut or molded into a wedge in order to measure the real and imaginary components of the refractive index. An internally reflected Gaussian beam is interfered...

The ratio of energy or intensity absorbed by the medium (numerator) to the total incident energy.

The transfer of energy from an incident electromagnetic energy field with wavelength or frequency to an atomic or molecular medium.

A group of frequencies or wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum which exhibits resonance or energy contributions near and in relation to a peak resonance wavelength.

The transition cross section constant coefficient which defines the transition probability of absorption from ground to a higher level within a given atomic or molecular species. The transition...

A hologram formed when the light of the illuminating beam is absorbed in correspondence with the recording exposure. In application, absorption holograms are intended for use in satellite...

The absorption index represents the imaginary component of the complex index of refraction, and not the real component. The imaginary component may characterize the attenuation per unit length...

An optical lens manufactured to control the transmission of light over a specified wavelength range. Low absorption lenses are produced which are anti-reflection coated for UV, VIS and IR wavelengths...

The wavelength or frequency corresponding to an absorption resonance with a given molecular or atomic species. The line spectrum will vary with the element as well as the molecular compound.

A measuring device that uses a light-sensitive cell or detector to determine the amount of light transmitted by a substance.

An absorption peak refers to a sharp increase or spike in the absorption of electromagnetic radiation at a particular wavelength or energy level. It is a distinctive feature in the absorption...

Measures the absorption or sample transmittance over a range of specified wavelengths. Sample may be placed within the device and the transmission measured to an accuracy of given percent. The...

Experimental method of measuring the transmission of a given sample as a function of the wavelength.