Photonics Dictionary: S

A crystal, glass, or quartz slicing and cutting machine is a specialized piece of equipment used in the manufacturing process to precisely cut and slice materials such as crystals, glass, and quartz...

A solar simulator is a device used to replicate the spectrum and intensity of sunlight in a controlled environment for testing and research purposes. Solar simulators are employed in various...

A type of birefringent filter, similar in principle to the Lyot filter, consisting of many identical birefringent elements, often arranged in a "fan" or "folded" configuration, positioned between two...

A light valve that uses a crystal as the control layer medium and that operates on the principle of the electro-optic effect.

A ruggedized scintillation counter used in oil well logging. The cylindrical housing contains a gamma ray source, a crystalline scintillator and a photomultiplier tube. As the sonde is drawn through...

A photographic objective that uses the thick meniscus principle to obtain its power. It is designed to photograph small fields at large apertures.

The relationship between different wavelengths of light generated by a source, which may affect the spectral distribution of the light as it travels great distances in space; put forth by physicist...

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

With a repetitive object such as a series of equispaced lines, the reciprocal of the line spacing in object or image, generally expressed in cycles per millimeter.

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...

Spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS) is a technique that extends traditional Raman spectroscopy by incorporating measurements at different spatial offsets. This method allows for the selective...

Spectral domain optical coherence tomography is an imaging technique used in medical diagnostics, particularly in ophthalmology, to visualize and analyze the internal structures of biological...

Spectral flow cytometry is an advanced flow cytometry technique that expands the capabilities of traditional flow cytometry by utilizing spectral information from fluorochromes to enhance...

Spectral repeatability refers to the consistency and reproducibility of spectral measurements across multiple trials or instances. It is a measure of how well a measurement instrument or system can...

A spectral signature, in the context of remote sensing and spectroscopy, refers to the unique pattern or characteristic spectral response of a material or object across different wavelengths of the...

An optical instrument for forming the spectrum of a light source and recording it on a film. The dispersing medium may be a prism or a diffraction grating. A concave grating requires no other means...

Characteristic of the relationship between photoelectric activity and the wavelength of incident radiation.

Spectroscopy is a technique used in the study of interactions between matter and electromagnetic radiation. It involves measuring and analyzing how different materials absorb, emit, or scatter light,...

A spheric lens, also known as a spherical lens, is a type of optical lens with at least one surface that is part of a sphere. This means that the lens surface is curved in a symmetrical manner,...

Spherical aberration is an optical aberration that occurs when light rays passing through a lens or curved optical surface do not converge or diverge to a single focal point. Instead of focusing to a...

Reciprocal magnetic interaction between nuclei in a molecular system facilitated by the binding electrons of the molecule.

A container which secures multiple splice trays and protects the trays and their contents from damage.

A sputtering target is a solid material used in the process of physical vapor deposition (PVD), specifically sputtering. Sputtering targets are typically made of metals, metal alloys, or compounds...

STED microscopy, or stimulated emission depletion microscopy, is a superresolution imaging technique in fluorescence microscopy that surpasses the diffraction limit, enabling the visualization of...

A projection printer that is capable of reproducing a multiplicity of images from a master transparency on a single support coated with a photosensitive layer by indexing the receiving material from...

Stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) is a superresolution microscopy technique that enables imaging of biological specimens at resolutions beyond the diffraction limit of conventional...

A streak camera is a specialized instrument used to capture and analyze ultrafast phenomena, such as extremely short pulses of light or rapidly changing events. Unlike traditional cameras that...

In polarization-preserving optical fibers, the element used to induce birefringence. The SAP is highly doped to provide a different coefficient of expansion from the rest of the fiber material; when...

Structural color refers to coloration in materials that is not caused by pigments or dyes but is instead a result of the physical structure of the material. In structural color, the interaction of...

Structured illumination microscopy (SIM) is an advanced optical imaging technique used in microscopy to enhance the resolution of images beyond the diffraction limit imposed by traditional light...

The pattern used as a probe in morphological image processing to manipulate the size and shape of objects in an image.

A method used in surface quality testing for accurate positioning and rotation of metal spheres about an axis or fixed point in space that involves a sliding contact between the indicator and tip and...

Supercontinuum refers to a broad spectrum of light that spans a wide range of wavelengths, typically from the visible to the near-infrared or even mid-infrared regions of the electromagnetic...

Observed phenomenon in laser pulses in which a large number of excited electrons are created and in which multiphoton processes have produced seed electrons, and excited neutral atoms are...

Superluminal transmission refers to the hypothetical process of transmitting information faster than the speed of light, which is commonly denoted as superluminal or faster-than-light (FTL)...

A wave that is guided by the interface between two different media or by a refractive index gradient in the medium. The field components of the wave may exist (in principle) throughout space, even to...

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is an analytical technique that combines the principles of Raman spectroscopy with the enhancement provided by nanostructured metallic surfaces. Raman...

A surface-mount device (SMD) is an electronic component that is mounted directly onto the surface of a printed circuit board (PCB) rather than being inserted into holes drilled in the board (as with...

Instruments used for measuring angles and occasionally lengths on the ground. The principal surveying instruments are the level, the stadia telescope, the transit and the theodolite. Laser...

A small telescope mounted on a tripod and free to rotate about a vertical axis. A spirit level is mounted over the telescope and adjusted so that when the bubble is central, the telescope axis is...

The technique of generating ultrashort -- down to subpicosecond -- pulses by pumping a dye laser with mode-locked laser pumps with cavity lengths the same as, or a submultiple of, that of the dye...

A mode of transmission whereby the sending and receiving stations operate continuously at a fixed relationship of phase and frequency, generating signals to control the timing of the data that are to...

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...

Radiation emitted by electrons when they travel in circular orbits at speeds close to that of light. Synchrotron radiation occurs in the x-ray and ultraviolet regions of the spectrum. Once considered...