Photonics Dictionary

A disc composed of a series of holographic optical elements that diffract light at various angles. When spinning, a raster scan may be generated.

Developed for use in military reconnaissance systems, it consists of a polygonal mirror, drive motor, interface between motor and mirror, and control electronics. Also used in broadband video...

A camera, with a rotating prism, that is capable of forming multiple exposures on a constantly moving strip of film.

A circular optical wedge (prism of small refracting angle) mounted to be rotated in the path of light rays to divert the line of sight to a restricted degree.

A rotating mirror coupled with a distant mirror and used in a system by Foucault to compute the velocity of light. Light moving from the rotating mirror to the distant mirror and back was following...

A Risley prism, also known as a Risley prism pair or Risley rotating prism, is an optical device used for controlling the direction of a laser beam or other optical beam by independently rotating two...

An old name for the rotating arm moving about an axis of rotation over a divided circle used to measure angles. Now the term refers to a small stadia telescope mounted over a ruler for use in...

A rotating chamber that can be spun at different speeds to generate great radial forces used to simulate different gravity loads.

Custom lapping and polishing services involve specialized processes used to improve the surface finish and dimensional accuracy of components to meet specific requirements or standards. These...

Diamond turning, also known as diamond machining or diamond cutting, is a precision machining process used to produce high-quality optical surfaces and components with extremely tight tolerances. It...

An image-processing device that scans in a straight line parallel to the axis of a rotating cylinder to which the material to be recorded is affixed.

A maser that relies on the fact that electrons in orbital motion in high-magnetic fields will emit energy at the cyclotron frequency. The transfer of energy is from the bunching of the electrons by...

The effect discovered by Faraday in 1845 whereby nonoptically active materials or substances become capable of rotating the polarization plane of polarized radiation (light) passed through them when...

A device used to measure the speed of light by adjusting the rotation of a toothed wheel so that light passing through one tooth opening is reflected through the next. This device has since been...

The process whereby a rotating wheel carries grains of an abrasive, suspended in a vehicle, across the surface of the optical glass to be ground. The workpieces are forced downward by pneumatic...

A small mirror, sometimes plane and sometimes concave, attached to the rotating coil of a galvanometer to cause a spot of light to move along a scale.

In image processing, mathematical operations that change spatial geometry, as for instance scaling, translating, rotating or otherwise manipulating the perspective. Also called geometric manipulation.

A technique used to create an achromatic phase shift based on the principle of geometric phase. The phase shift is experienced by a light beam as a result of a cyclic change in its state of...

An eyepiece having a rotating index or cross wire linked to an external 360° scale to allow measuring of angles in an image.

A camera designed to record at rates exceeding 50 fps. For frame rates up to about 500 fps, an ordinary pull-down mechanism can be used. From 500 to 1000 fps, the film must be moved continuously, the...

A device that combines electronic and optical techniques to form a monitored infrared signal between 1 and 14 µm. It contains an internal modulator to amplitude-modulate the output signal, an...

A rotating disc that holds several lenses of differing focal length about a diameter. Used to switch lenses in a system while maintaining focus.

A camera equipped with a lens and a long length of perforated film, the latter being moved intermittently between exposures by a pulldown claw or sprocket. A rotating shutter serves to cut off the...

Also known as gatling gun laser. A system that has an array of lasers sharing a common central axis on a rotating Fabry plate to achieve increased laser firing rates by sequential Q-switching.

A camera that uses a rotating mirror to project sequential images onto lenses that are arranged in an arc. The reflected images can then be recorded on stationary film. By using an 8-mm frame format,...

A device consisting of a disc with a spiral arrangement of holes that is used to convert visible patterns into electrical patterns. Light is reflected from the subject and focused through a vertical...

A mechanical or electrical-electromagnetic device for periodically interrupting or blocking abeam of light for a brief known interval. The three most common chopper types include the tuning fork...

A device used to detect and measure small amounts of rotation. The rotating object contains a reflecting surface from which a beam of light is reflected onto a positional detector. A large distance...

Optical manufacturing tools and machinery encompass a wide range of equipment, instruments, and systems used in the fabrication, shaping, finishing, and testing of optical components and systems....

1. The angular displacement of the plane of polarization of light passing through a medium. 2. The azimuthal displacement of the field of view achieved with a rotating prism.

A document-transmitting process that uses a cylinder that rotates the document to be scanned and detected by a photoelectric cell. The cell transforms the light into electrical energy that may be...

A tachometer consisting of a light source, rotating perforated wheel and phototransistor to measure the rates of rotation of components. The phototransistor counts the flashes formed when the wheel,...

A laser output that occurs when the cavity resonator Q is first kept very low, using rotating mirrors or saturable absorbers, so that the population inversion achieved is greater than usual. A high...

A sequential scanning device, utilizing a revolving lens, in which the cathode-ray tube image is transformed into a circle of fibers. The rotating lens focuses each fiber successively on a multiplier...

A toric lens generated by rotating a specific cross section about an axis beyond its area and used in the formation of annular images.

A structured light device using a rapidly rotating laser to project a beam of light that appears to the human eye as a continuous circle; used as a reference marker on walls or landscape for...

In field-sequential color television, the rotating tricolor disc placed between the subject and the lens, or between the picture tube and the viewer.

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 scanning process in which the greatest amount of radiation determines part of a spiral motion rotating in one direction.

The fine scratches formed when, in hand centering, the forked stick used to move the lens on the chuck marks the rotating lens surface.

The law stating that the brightness of an object that is examined through a slotted disc, rotating over a critical frequency, is proportional to the angular aperture divided by the opaque sectors.

A rotating plate containing two or more lenses to provide a rapid interchange.

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...