Photonics Dictionary

A polishing machine in which the rouge slurry is contained in a bowl and is constantly diverted mechanically so that it flows over the work.

The circle that contains the slit, grating and primary astigmatic focus of a concave diffraction grating.

In spectroscopy, the false images arranged symmetrically on both sides of the true line and caused by irregularities in the ruling of diffraction gratings.

The mounting of a concave diffraction grating and a plate holder at the ends of a rigid bar. The ends follow separate straight tracks that intersect perpendicular to each other. The slit is located...

Technology that corrects the shape of reflective optics; primarily applied in large telescope systems, in order to compensate for slowly varying changes in temperature, wind and mechanical stress.

The process of heating and slowly cooling a solid material, like glass or metal, to stabilize its thermal, electrical or optical properties or, as in semiconductor materials, to reverse lattice...

A CubeSat is a type of miniaturized satellite characterized by its standardized size and modular design. CubeSats are typically used for scientific research, technology demonstration, educational...

Design and engineering consulting services refer to professional services provided by specialized firms or individuals to assist clients in various aspects of product development, system design, or...

A field of physics that deals with light as if it truly were composed of rays diverging in various directions from the source and abruptly bent by refraction or turned by reflection into paths...

1. A faint second image caused by reflection that is sometimes seen when observing through an optical instrument. 2. With respect to spectroscopy, a false image of a spectral line formed by...

A furnace, generally electrically heated, with a control system capable of following a cam by which the temperature can be made to go through a definite cycle over a period of days, or even weeks, if...

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...

An instrument designed to measure the index of refraction of a gas by the interference patterns formed by two beams, one of which passes through a vacuum tube in which the gas is slowly released.

A fiber optic component or system designed in such a way that it can be operated by people without specialized knowledge of the field.

Metrology is the science and practice of measurement. It encompasses the theoretical and practical aspects of measurement, including the development of measurement standards, techniques, and...

A mounting used for large concave gratings, whereby the slit, grating and plate holder lie in the Rowland circle, and the photographic plates lie along a large portion of the circle. In this way, a...

A pathogen is a biological agent, such as a virus, bacterium, fungus, protozoan, or parasite, that causes disease in its host organism. Pathogens have the capability to invade host tissues,...

A chemical substance that exhibits fluorescence when excited by ultraviolet radiation, x-rays or an electron beam. The amount of visible light is proportional to the amount of excitation energy. If...

A type of laser welding that produces short-duration vapor pockets without buildup of heat in the part, useful for parts that are too thick for conduction welding and that move too slowly for keyhole...

Ability of a laser to resist variations in output power caused when it is slowly rotated about its optical or symmetrical axis.

The process, used with a positive photoresist, in which the photoresist is immersed in developing chemicals while being exposed to the optical pattern. The newly exposed surface is continuously...

A transparent block shaped accurately to reverse curvatures of the components it is used to test. By contacting an accurately finished negative lens shape with a newly made positive, the conformity...

A cine camera that exposes a series of individual frames to record the changes in a subject that slowly alters with time. This results in the eventual showing of an event that happened over an...

The Weissenberg method, named after the German physicist Karl Weissenberg, is a technique used in x-ray crystallography for obtaining high-quality diffraction patterns from single crystals. This...