Photonics Dictionary: N

A photocathode having a P-type semiconductor with a work function less than its bandgap. The photocathode can release a hundredfold increase of photoemission in the infrared region.

An artificial material, engineered to have a negative refractive index value, such that light or any other form of electromagnetic radiation bends in the opposite direction than it would in ordinary...

A form of liquid crystal with an appearance of moving, threadlike structures, particularly visible when observed in thick specimens with polarized light. During this phase, the molecules of the...

Glass containing small quantities of neodymium oxide that is used as a filter plate in color television or as a lasing medium (Nd:glass) in solid-state lasers.

Literally, neodymium:yttrium-aluminum-garnet. A cylindrical rod of yttrium-aluminum-garnet doped with neodymium that is the active medium of the Nd:YAG laser, a highly serviceable solid-state device...

An electron tube containing neon gas that uses the transmission of an electric current through the gas to ionize the neon and produce a luminous red discharge.

A type of thermoset rubber used to jacket fiber optic cables, including those used in outdoor military installations.

A Nernst glower, also known simply as a Nernst lamp or Nernst filament, is a type of incandescent lamp or radiant heater based on the Nernst effect. It was invented by the German physicist and...

A network interface card (NIC), also known as a network adapter or LAN adapter, is a hardware component that allows computers to connect to a local area network (LAN) and communicate with other...

A computing paradigm that attempts to process information in a manner similar to that of the brain; it differs from artificial intelligence in that it relies not on pre-programming but on the...

Neuromorphic refers to the design and development of computing systems or devices that are inspired by the structure and functioning of the human brain and nervous system. The term is derived from...

A neuromorphic vision sensor is a type of imaging device designed to mimic the structure and functioning of the human visual system. Inspired by the biological principles of the human eye and brain,...

A coating applied to a neutral density glass that is designed to reduce the amount of light evenly across the transmitted light spectrum with no color distortion. These coatings are designed to...

A light filter that equally decreases the intensity of all wavelengths of light without altering the relative spectral distribution of the energy.

A strip or annulus of glass coated with a semitransparent material such as inconel. The coating thickness, and as a result its transmission, varies linearly as a function of distance. The neutral...

In optics, the process of combining two lenses having equal and opposite powers to produce a result having no power.

Prediction based on observations of nuclear masses in the valley of stability that indicates the maximum number of electrons that will bind with a given number of protons in progressive order along...

The nondestructive analysis and recording of industrial components based on the absorption of relatively low-energy neutrons by material having low atomic numbers. The visible image formed by the...

The unit of force in the mks system that will give 1 kg of mass an acceleration of 1 m/s2.

A telescope with a concave paraboloidal objective mirror and a small plane (diagonal) mirror that reflects rays from the primary mirror laterally outside the tube where the image is viewed with an...

An instrument devised by Nichols and Hull for use in the measurement of radiation pressure. The device has two small silvered, glass mirrors that are suspended, in the way of a torsion balance, by a...

A prism invented by William Nicol in 1828 that is made of calcite, the end faces of which are ground to an angle of 68° between one vertical side and the end surface. The prism is cut diagonally...

A device that uses low-level visible radiation or infrared radiation to produce a visual image of a night scene. These devices may rely on the amplification of existing visible light by...

A pollution-measuring device used to detect the presence of nitric oxide regardless of other gases present. It utilizes the principle of laser magnetic resonance (LMR).

A nitrogen vacancy (NV) refers to a specific type of defect or impurity in a crystal lattice where a nitrogen atom replaces a carbon atom adjacent to a vacancy (an empty lattice site) in the diamond...

A television system used for seeing in the dark, particularly with the use of infrared rays.

A bench with instrumentation including a collimator, a microscope, positioners and a nodal slide used to rotate a lens about its second nodal point. The nodal bench is used to determine the cardinal...

Of all the rays passing through a lens from an off-axis object point to its corresponding image point, there is always one ray whose direction in the image space is equal to that in the object space....

The measurement of first- and higher order properties of a lens and its formed image, including effective focal length, back focal length, f number, aberrations, blur patterns, magnification and...

In a communications network, a point at which data are received or from which they are sent. Though the term often is used synonymously with workstation, interconnection points in a network also are...

The unwanted and unpredictable fluctuations that distort a received signal and hence tend to obscure the desired message. Noise disturbances, which may be generated in the devices of a communications...

Any noise or current fluctuation that prevents precise measurement of the signal current. Both dark current and signal current have random fluctuations that affect the arrival of pulses. Thermal...

In a thermal imaging system, the change in temperature that yields a signal-to-noise ratio of unity.

The amount of spatial noise detected equivalent to the output emission location of the giving source.

At a given modulation frequency, wavelength, and for a given effective noise bandwidth, the radiant power that produces a signal-to-noise ratio of 1 at the output of a given detector.

Also referred to as differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy; Nomarski microscopy is a unique form of microscopy especially suited for the evaluation of surface quality and defects as well...

Zone of laser operation in which the direct, reflected or scattered light exceeds the laser's MPE and (by ANSI standards) requires the use of protective eyewear.

The calculated normal distance from a photon source at which harmful interaction with the incident light will occur. Interaction distance produces the effect of MPE (Maximum Permissable Exposure) on...

An assembly of optical fibers that will not transmit coherent images or information because the relationship of the fibers on either end of the assembly is random; Noncoherent fiber bundles are...

Radiation having waves that are out of phase in space and/or time.

Radiation that does not produce free electrons and ions, or electrically charged particles.

An optical crystal that possesses a strong nonlinear dielectric response function to optical radiation. A material with a strong second-order nonlinearity must not possess a center of symmetry. See...

A type of radiation detector designed to recognize nonlinear optical effects, such as the Raman effect, by means of a directional, nearly monochromatic light beam; e.g., a laser beam.