Photonics Dictionary

(SALI) A type of spectroscopy in which neutral atoms or molecules are ionized by an excimer laser beam and then measured by a time-of-flight mass spectrometer.

A synchrotron is a type of particle accelerator that uses magnetic fields to steer charged particles, typically electrons or positrons, in a closed, circular or elliptical path. The name synchrotron...

1. The anode or anticathode of an x-ray tube that emits x-rays when bombarded by electrons. 2. The screen in a television imaging tube that is scanned by an electron beam to determine the...

A characteristic of laser output, calculated by dividing the speed of light by the linewidth of the laser beam. The temporal coherence length of different lasers thus varies from a few centimeters to...

The process of attaching a device to the end of a fiber cable to enable the beam to be transmitted farther, to pass to another device and to avoid reflection.

The effect that characterizes an intense laser beam that is passed through an absorbing medium, causing the absorbed energy to produce density changes that can alter the intensity distribution of the...

Distortion of an optical component as a result of heat, which can influence the divergence and the mode quality of a beam passing through the component.

A thin layer of a substance deposited on an insulating base in a vacuum by a microelectronic process. Thin films are most commonly used for antireflection, achromatic beamsplitters, color filters,...

1. The process of following an object's movement; accomplished by focusing a radar beam on the reticle of an optical system on the object and plotting its bearing and distance at specific intervals....

A transmission electron microscope (TEM) is a powerful microscopy technique that uses a beam of electrons to create high-resolution images of extremely thin samples. In a TEM, electrons are...

The decrease in power that occurs when an optical beam or signal is transmitted through a system.

In fiber optic communications, a light source whose beam can be modulated and sent along an optical fiber, and the electronics that support it.

A Pockels cell in which electrical current is applied in a direction orthogonally to that of the light beam.

In the context of optics and lasers, a transverse mode refers to a specific spatial pattern of the electric field within the cross-section of a laser beam. These modes represent the different...

A traveling wave tube (TWT) containing a photocathode and window that, receiving a laser beam, produces a modified photoelectric current that is accelerated and propagated into its helical frame.

A tool used in cutting circular holes around a center. Also, a laser cutter in which the beam moves in relation to the cut surface.

Two-photon polymerization (TPP) is a technique used in additive manufacturing, specifically in the field of 3D printing. It involves using a focused laser to polymerize a photosensitive material in a...

The effect by which sufficiently small particles will scatter blue light at right angles to the incident beam. This scattered light is completely linearly polarized.

A device that uses a piezoelectric crystal to convert ultrasonic sound waves, transmitted through a subject, into a voltage that modulates the electron beam of a cathode-ray tube.

A two- or three-dimensional space grating formed when ultrasonic beams with varied paths of propagation intersect.

The optical diffraction spectra formed, or the method that produces them, when a light beam is transmitted through a longitudinal sound field.

An instrument with a fluid that modulates a light beam traversing it because of the effect of ultrasonic waves passing through the fluid.

A light-interference device whose excitation is determined by the modulation of a light beam by an ultrasonic field.

The initiation of the beam in a cathode-ray tube.

Illumination of hologram facets with a beam that covers only a small portion of the hologram in order to optimize laser energy use. See overillumination.

A device used in a free-electron laser to convert the electron-beam's energy into microwave laser radiation by creating a magnetic field of alternating polarity through which the free electrons are...

Array used in coded-aperture imaging experiments with two-beam CO2 lasers that provide an artifact-free process, faithful reproduction of the true image, and more photon collection than the pinhole...

A scanning technique in which the optical density of the film being scanned controls the speed of deflection of the scanning beam.

Short-distance scattering of light in holography caused by random index inhomogeneities and the developing index that interferes with the incident beam, thus recording a hologram of the scattered...

With respect to a television system, a pulse transmitted at the end of each field to break off the cathode-ray beam as it begins the next field.

With respect to television, the returning direction of the electron beam during the vertical blanking period.

Two electrodes that shift the electron beam vertically on a cathode-ray tube screen using electrostatic deflection.

A disc whose surface contains recorded digital data at high-packing densities arranged in concentric rings. The data, representing video frames, are both recorded and read by a laser beam.

An electron tube that stores and visually displays information by means of a cathode-ray-beam-scanning and charge-storage mechanism.

Volume Bragg gratings (VBGs) are specialized optical elements that consist of periodic variations in refractive index throughout the volume of a transparent material, typically a photosensitive glass...

A vortex phase plate is an optical device designed to impart a phase singularity, commonly referred to as a vortex or phase vortex, onto a light beam. This singularity results in a phase profile...

An optical element having two principal axes, slow and fast, that resolve an incident polarized beam into two mutually perpendicular polarized beams. The emerging beam recombines to form a particular...

Any type of interference produced by a beamsplitter.

Gas laser in which the tube acts as a channel for the laser beam.