Meadowlark Optics - Wave Plates 6/24 LB 2024

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342 terms

Photonics Dictionary: C

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Callier coefficient

The coefficient termed by Callier as the ratio between the density of photographic negatives measured by parallel light and that measured by diffuse light, due to scattering effects. This effect is...

Callier effect

The selective scattering of light as it passes through a diffusing medium.

calligraphic imager -> stroke pattern

The pattern formed by a character generation cathode-ray tube system, in which the characters are composed of a sequence of line segments (strokes) generated by the electron beam motion with time...

calorescence

The production of visible light by infrared radiation whereby the light is produced by heat and not by any direct change in wavelength; the transformation is indirect.

calorific rays

Name originally given to the sun's infrared radiation by Sir William Herschel in his Philosophical Transactions of 1800.

calorimetry

Calorimetry is a branch of science that involves the measurement of heat flow in physical or chemical processes. It encompasses various techniques and instruments used to quantify heat transfer,...

calutron

An electromagnetic device used to separate isotopes of elements based on their respective masses.

Camera Link HS

Camera Link HS (high speed) is a standard developed for high-speed digital data transmission in machine vision and industrial imaging applications. It is an evolution of the original Camera Link...

camera shutter

An apparatus, designed for use with a camera, that is used to rapidly open the path from lens to film, to maintain the opening throughout exposure and to close the opening in rapid succession. The...

camera tube

The electron beam tube of a television camera that converts an optical image into a pattern of electrostatic charges and then scans the pattern to produce a corresponding electronic signal for...

camera tube target

The storage surface of an electron beam tube that is scanned by an electron beam to generate an output-signal current corresponding to the charge-density pattern stored.

camera

A light-tight box that receives light from an object or scene and focuses it to form an image on a light-sensitive material or a detector. The camera generally contains a lens of variable aperture...

campimeter -> eye test apparatus

Instruments used by ophthalmologists and optometrists to study the eye. There are, for instance, the ophthalmoscope to observe and photograph the retina; the retinoscope and optometer to determine...

candlepower

The luminous intensity of a source of light expressed in candelas.

capacitance

The ability of a conductor to store an electrical charge; its value is given in farads as the ratio of the stored charge on one conductor to the potential difference between it and a second conductor.

capacitor

A device that accumulates and stores electrical energy to introduce capacitance into a circuit. Basically, it is composed of two electrical conductors, separated by an insulating medium.

carbon arc

An electric discharge between two carbon rods that are touched together to start the arc and then separated slightly. The light comes from the heated carbon vapor. High-intensity arcs use cored...

carbon dioxide laser

A gas laser in which the energy-state transitions between vibrational and rotational states of CO2 molecules give emission at long IR, about 10 µm, wavelengths. The laser can maintain...

carbon film

In analysis, the carbon layer that is evaporation-deposited on a specimen to protect and ready it for study by electron microscopy.

carbonaceous

Consisting of, containing, pertaining to or yielding carbon.

carbonization

Carbonization is a process in which organic materials are heated in the absence of air, leading to the decomposition of the material and the production of carbon-rich residue. During carbonization,...

carcinotron -> backward-wave oscillator

An amplifying device with a wide tuning range in which an electron gun sends a beam of electrons into a slow-wave structure. The electron beam and the electromagnetic wave move in opposite directions...

cardioid condenser

An oil immersion condenser used to permit only light that has been diffracted or dispersed by a microscope specimen to enter the microscope. It is used in dark-field microscopy.

carrier injection

Carrier injection refers to the process of introducing charge carriers (either electrons or holes) into a semiconductor material. Semiconductors are materials with electrical conductivity between...

cascade image tube

An image tube that functions in low-light-level conditions by virtue of its series of stacked sections wherein the output of one section becomes the input for the next.

cascade method

A heterochromatic photometric process using successive comparison of similar chromaticities and the calculation of relative luminances of unlike chromaticities as the product of ratios of luminances...

cascade shower

A shower of cosmic rays whereby a high-energy electron produces one or more photons that convert into electron pairs, the secondary electrons producing the same effects as the primary. As the process...

case hardening

A surface heat-treating process that produces a highly stressed surface. In case-hardening of glass, a plate of glass is heated almost to the softening point and then cooled quickly in a blast of...

Casimir force

The Casimir force is a quantum phenomenon that results in an attractive force between two closely spaced uncharged conductive surfaces. This force arises from the quantum vacuum fluctuations of the...

Cassegrain lens system

A two-mirror lens design used in astronomical telescopes, the primary being a parabola, the secondary a smaller hyperbola. The image formed is free of spherical aberration and color and is located...

catadioptric imaging system

A system that uses both reflection and refraction to achieve its focal power. While the relative powers of the lenses and mirrors vary from system to system, the use of the reflective surfaces to...

cataphoretic effect

The attraction of particles suspended in a solution to a cathode, as a result of an electric field.

cathetometer

A type of comparator with a telescope equipped with a cross wire mounted on a vertical sliding column. It is used to measure vertical distances on fairly near objects.

cathode

1. The negative electrode of a device in an electrical circuit. 2. The positive electrode of a primary cell or storage battery. 3. The primary source of electrons in an electron tube, serving as the...

cathode coupling

In electronics, the coupling of power from stage to stage by the use of an input or output element in the cathode.

cathode dark space

The area of low-level luminance lying between the cathode and the negative glow in a glow-discharge, cold-cathode tube.

cathode emission -> cathode stream

Also known as cathode rays. Formerly, this term described a stream of electrons emitted from the cathode of a gas-discharge tube during its bombardment by positive ions. It also describes any stream...

cathode glow

The apparent luminosity or glow that immediately envelops the cathode in a gas-discharge tube operating at low pressures. The glow increases as the pressure decreases.

cathode radiant sensitivity

Cathode radiant sensitivity refers to the ability of a photocathode to convert incident radiant energy, typically in the form of light, into an electrical signal. Photocathodes are components used in...

cathode rays -> cathode stream

cathode sputtering

The method of disintegrating the substance of the cathode by bombarding it with ions and depositing it on another electrode or electron tube envelope.

cathode stream

cathode-ray oscilloscope -> oscilloscope

A system in which a supplied signal causes the deflection of the electron beam in a cathode-ray tube, thus forming a visible trace on the phosphor screen of the tube and providing for examination of...

cathode-ray tube faceplate

A fiber optic end plate constructed by drawing a bundle of parallel fibers embedded in glass and cutting it into thin slices. These slices are assembled in a plane and heated to produce a...

cathode-ray tube pattern

The luminous trace formed on the cathode-ray tube screen by the motion of the electron beam.

cathode-ray tube

A vacuum tube with an electron gun at one end and a fluorescent screen at the other. Electrons emitted from a heated filament are accelerated by a series of annular anodes at progressively higher...

cation

An ion carrying a positive charge and thus attracted to the cathode during electrolysis.

catoptric system

An optical system in which the only image-forming elements are curved-surface mirrors; e.g., a Cassegrain lens system.

CATV

community antenna television

Cauchy formula -> dispersion formula

All formulas that present the index of refraction as a function of a wavelength of electromagnetic radiation. Also called dispersion equation, Cauchy formula, Hartmann formula.

Photonics DictionaryC