Photonics Dictionary

An image that appears when a hologram is illuminated by a suitable light source, generally a laser beam.

Holographic quantity expressed as the ratio of the reconstructed first-order image to that of the incident reconstructing beam.

A galvanometer having a small mirror that is mounted on a moving element and that reflects a light beam onto a scale.

A device employed to identify toxic agents lingering on the ground or in the air from up to three miles away, by using laser beams to detect infrared light-absorption patterns that can be analyzed to...

A robotic process commonly employed by automakers that enables high-speed and flexible production throughput by using swiveling optics for precise beam positioning.

Loss mechanisms that degrade the performance of all thin-film optical devices by removing radiant flux out of the specular beams.

The phase change of one of the two split beams of an interference microscope.

A type of 45-90-45° prism used to bend a beam of light through a right angle with the surfaces forming the 90° angle acting as transmitting faces.

A ring laser gyroscope (RLG) is a type of gyroscope that uses laser light to detect and measure changes in orientation. It operates based on the Sagnac effect, which is a fundamental principle of...

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...

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...

Sagnac interferometry is a technique used to measure rotation or angular velocity based on the principle of interference. It relies on the Sagnac effect, named after the French physicist Georges...

Also called scanning laser acoustic microscope. A device that uses high-frequency ultrasound waves to penetrate surfaces. A scanning laser beam is used as a detector, which transmits information...

The picture formed by the scanning beam of electrons in a scanning electron microscope.

A scanning electron microscope (SEM) is a powerful imaging instrument used in scientific research, materials characterization, and various industrial applications. Unlike traditional optical...

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is an advanced imaging technique used in microscopy to obtain high-resolution, three-dimensional images of the surfaces of solid specimens. SEM achieves this by...

1. The continuous thin strip marked by the scanning beam. Generally, during return of the scan, the line is blanked out. 2. The thin strip marked by the scanning process and composed of the...

Change of the spatial distribution of a beam of radiation when it interacts with a surface or a heterogeneous medium, in which process there is no change of wavelength of the radiation.

A flat plate having its surface formed into a random pattern by abrasives. Radiation wavelengths that are longer than the scale of the pattern are specularly reflected; shorter wavelengths are...

1. The variation in intensity of a light beam as it travels through the atmosphere. 2. In radiation physics, a light flash formed by an ionizing event in a phosphor; a flash formed when rapidly...

A self-interference effect that generates random patterns; secondary speckle pattern (SSP) typically occurs in diffuse reflections of a laser on paper, white paint or rough surfaces. By tracking both...

Selective laser melting (SLM) is an additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing technology that belongs to the powder bed fusion category. SLM is primarily used for metal additive manufacturing, where...

Self-phase modulation (SPM) is a nonlinear optical phenomenon that occurs when an intense laser beam passes through a medium, causing a change in the phase of the light due to its interaction with...

A polarizing beamsplitting prism similar in design to the Rochon prism. However, the Senarmont transmits the extraordinary ray without deviation and deviates the ordinary ray due to the orientation...

A type of color-generating cathode-ray tube that uses a shadow mask, a thin perforated electrode, located close to the display screen. Each hole in the mask coincides with a triad of three phosphor...

Also referred to as the width of the dark pulse. This is the time interval between the instant the particle approaches the beam and the instant the particle leaves the beam.

Sisyphus cooling is a technique used in atomic physics to achieve ultracold temperatures of atoms or molecules by exploiting the periodic motion of particles in optical traps or lattices. The name...

A system employing a dark trace tube in which the opacity of the screen is varied as a function of the power of the beam.

The investigation of microstructures by an instrument that generates a narrow, highly collimated beam of x-rays.

A transmission interference microscope that produces interference patterns of a sample by using birefringent plates that split a polarized beam of light into ordinary and extraordinary rays, then...

A gelatinous fluid that can be used as a porous thin-film coating for optical components, including laser beam collimators, or as a protective coating for glass and crystalline materials.

A solid-state laser is a type of laser that uses a solid gain medium (as opposed to a liquid or gas) to produce coherent light. The term "solid-state" refers to the fact that the active medium, where...

The diagnostic procedure that uses ultrasonic energy to probe the body and, with the help of laser beams, a reflecting membrane to produce a three-dimensional picture.

The maintenance of a fixed-phase relationship across the full diameter of a cross section of a laser beam.

1. Generally, an emulsion mask having a clean annular region in an otherwise opaque region. It is designed to eliminate undesired information. 2. A pinhole in a metal plate, placed at a focal plane...

A beam instability, induced by index of refraction inhomogeneities and component damage of dirt and dust particles, that exhibits exponential growth and causes both system degradation and energy loss...

Spatial light interference microscopy (SLIM) is an optical microscopy technique that belongs to the category of quantitative phase imaging methods. It is designed to provide high-resolution,...

A spatial light modulator (SLM) is an optical device that modulates or manipulates the amplitude, phase, or polarization of light in two dimensions, typically in the form of an array. SLMs are...

Also known as transverse mode. The configurations of energy storage, relative to the structure of a laser resonator, that define the relative intensity distribution of the laser beam.

In laser systems, the granular effect that is noted when observing the expanded cross section of a laser beam.

A power intensity pattern produced by the mutual interference of partially coherent beams that are subject to minute temporal and spatial fluctuations.

Ratio of the luminous flux in a beam of radiation to the spectral radiant flux in the same beam at a given wavelength.

When, for example, a beam of monochromatic light passes through a diffraction grating, the emergent rays that have remained undeviated are included in the zero spectral order. The light flux in the...

A spectrophotometer is a scientific instrument used to measure the intensity of light at various wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum, typically in the visible and ultraviolet regions. It is...

The superimposing of holographic pages in a thick, erasable storage material by changing the reference and object beams. This extends the capacity of holographic memories.