Photonics Dictionary

A gradual change in the output of a circuit or instrument over time.

A technique used in astronomy that requires a radio telescope to be directed at a point in the sky west of the object under observation. The Earth's rotation causes the object to drift through the...

An astronomical scanning technique for capturing images of stars without moving the sensor. To perform a drift scan, a CCD sensor's readout rate must be synchronized with the motion of celestial...

Laser drift typically refers to a phenomenon where the frequency or wavelength of a laser source gradually changes over time. In the context of lasers, stability in terms of frequency or wavelength...

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) refers to a set of safety features and technologies designed to assist drivers in the driving process and enhance overall vehicle safety. These systems use...

A rapid change, as opposed to a long-term drift, of the emission wavelength of an optical source. Chirping is most often observed in pulsed operation of a source.

A technique for removing thermal noise and drift from focal plane assemblies by sampling the system output between views of scene elements and then subtracting the resulting value from the subsequent...

In electrical equipment, power variations that are temporary (as opposed to the permanent, cumulative effects of drift).

A single-particle scattering technique in which an incident laser beam is tightly focused by means of lenses to yield a focal spot in the scattering material with a diameter on the order of the...

A ghost image that has the reverse lightness relations of the original image. This phenomenon is a common optical illusion that takes place in the human visual system, following long exposures to an...

An optical channel monitor (OCM) is a device used in optical communication systems to monitor and analyze the performance of individual channels within a wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM)...

An electronic device that minimizes short-term drift effects and random measurement error inherent in alternate ellipsometric measurement of two signals.