Photonics Dictionary

A lamp that has mercury in a tube or bulb that has first been evacuated. The electricity travels through the vapor between the electrodes and produces a blue-green light that is rich in ultraviolet...

A metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodiode is a type of photodetector that consists of metal electrodes on a semiconductor material. Unlike the more common PIN photodiodes, which have a P-type and...

In dry etching, a method of characterizing the composition of solid materials such as metal. Atoms in the OES technique are excited by energy that comes from a spark formed between the sample and an...

A two-electrode, radiation-sensitive junction formed in a semiconductor material in which the reverse current varies with illumination. Photodiodes are used for the detection of optical power and for...

The generation of a difference in electric potential between two electrodes when radiation is incident on one of them.

Piezoelectric transducers are devices that utilize the piezoelectric effect to convert electrical energy into mechanical vibrations or vice versa. The piezoelectric effect is a property exhibited by...

A Pockels cell, also known as an electro-optic modulator, is an optical device used to control the polarization of light by applying an electric field. It is named after the physicist Friedrich Carl...

A device used in electron microscopes and particle accelerators to focus electron beams by the arrangement of four electrodes of alternating signs around the electron beam.

A gas laser in which the electrodes are mounted perpendicular to the optical resonator.

A very uncommon lamp in which a tungsten electrode is heated to incandescence by a radio-frequency electrical current.

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...

A compact high-pressure light source in which an electrical discharge between electrodes spaced no more than 12 mm apart occurs in a xenon or other gas medium, providing a visible light resembling a...

A device for converting sunlight into electrical energy, consisting of a sandwich of P-type and N-type semiconducting wafers. A photon with sufficient energy striking the cell can dislodge an...

The hollow electrode used in emission spectroscopy to hold the material to be examined and, using an arc or spark source, to vaporize it in the flame.

The light flash, produced in flash photolysis, that is triggered within a second discharge tube by the third electrode. It is to be differentiated from the photolysis flash which is triggered within...

Acronym for self-aligned polysilicon interconnect N-channel. A metal-gate process that uses aluminum for the metal-oxide semiconductor (MOS) gate electrode as well as for signal and power supply...

The splitting or shifting of spectral lines or energy levels caused by the application of a strong transverse electrical field. It often is studied with a canal-ray tube that has a third electrode...

An electron tube that has an anode, a cathode, a control electrode and another electrode (usually a screen grid).

A single long gate electrode that transfers the line of charge packets to the transport shift register in a charge-coupled device.

Imaging materials that generally consist of a polyester base, a transparent electrically conductive layer and an organic photoconductive top coating. When charged and exposed to light, an...

Abbreviated TEA CO2 laser. A gas laser that provides shorter pulses and higher peak powers than conventional CO2 lasers. The electrical excitation pulse occurs transversely to the optical axis...

An electron tube with an anode, a cathode and a regulating electrode (grid).

A pulsed laser having molecular nitrogen as laser material and a wavelength output of 337 nm in the ultraviolet region. It is essentially a channel flashtube in which a pulse is applied to the...

An electric cell having two electrodes of unlike metals immersed in a solution that chemically affects one or both of them, thus producing an electromotive force.

Also known as cathode-ray tube grid or shield. A cylindrically shaped electrode that, containing the cathode of a cathode-ray tube with opposite potential, is designed to focus and control the...

Two flat parallel electrodes that are vertically mounted alongside each other in a cathode-ray tube and produce horizontal deflection of the beam when a difference of potential is applied between...

Also known as an anticathode. An electrode or electrode section that is focused upon by an electron beam and that emits x-rays.

A small bulb containing a conducting gas, an arc being formed between a metal ring and a tiny zirconium electrode near the center of the ring. The heated zirconium emits light, and constitutes a...