Definitions

A cooling system used to attain and maintain desired low temperatures in infrared systems. The Stirling type is a mechanical refrigeration system capable of temperatures from 10 to 77 K.

A mask-alignment microscope used to produce and inspect microcircuits in the electronics industry. It provides flat-field, distortion-free images at all magnifications with a high-intensity vertical...

Radiation emitted when a quantum mechanical system drops spontaneously from an excited level to a lower level. This radiation is emitted according to the laws of probability without regard to the...

The distribution of energy about the image of a point source in the focal plane of an optical system.

Sputtering equipment is machinery used in the process of physical vapor deposition (PVD), specifically sputtering. Sputtering is a method of depositing thin films of material onto a substrate surface...

A memory system composed of a stack of holographic plates, a mode-locked laser and a rapid detector array. Ultrashort laser pulses are used to extract information from the stack. In this way, storage...

The determination of distance based upon the known size of an object and the size of its image at the image plane of an optical system.

In infrared imaging systems used for mass screening of printed circuit boards or other quality control applications, an image of an ideal component that is stored in the system's memory and then...

A technique for creating optimal performance in a system by producing a specific beam irradiance distribution, usually through the use of geometric optics. A common design involves the use of ray...

That characteristic which makes a weapon system less visible to radar, optical, acousto-optic, infrared and other military sensors.

The projection of the image beam by a cathode-ray tube through a mask, where it is deflected through the suitable character position in the mask and then deflected by another system to its suitable...

A television system in which the images produced appear three-dimensional.

In Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS), an incident photon (usually laser light) interacts with acoustic phonons in a medium. The energy and momentum of the incident photon are transferred to the...

The ratio of the illuminance at the peak of the diffraction pattern of an aberrated point image to that at the peak of an aberration-free image as formed by the same optical system.

A pulsed interferometer that permits the continuous quantitative mapping of the surface deformation of an adaptive optical element (e.g., a deformable mirror) and provides the capability for...

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...

Correction of an optical system at four separate wavelengths. This correction, longitudinal and lateral, is possible with the help of three selected special glasses.

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...

Superresolution refers to the enhancement or improvement of the spatial resolution beyond the conventional limits imposed by the diffraction of light. In the context of imaging, it is a set of...

The standards of MIL-O-13830 set by the US government relative to tolerable surface scratches and other such defects in an optical system. A series of standard glass plates that have been...

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 lens system made up of two sets of similar lenses, each of which compensates for many of the aberrations produced by the other. The lens sets are arranged symmetrically on either side of the...

Any systemic process that ultimately reassembles all the system's components into their initial alignment, or an arrangement that exactly reproduces the initial relative alignment.

The equivalent f number of a fictitious lens that has a circular opening and 100 percent transmittance, which would give the same central illumination as the lens being considered: where...

A telescope lens is a primary optical component of a telescope system that gathers and focuses light to form an image. It is typically a curved, transparent piece of glass or other optical material...

A television receiver that receives the signals generated by a television camera directly, or remotely through a radio signal. It may be used to continuously check image and sound reception; as a...

A television display system in which the television signal is converted to an image that is projected onto either a front or rear projection screen.

The material favored for study of interaction of high-acoustic intensities with free carriers. Tellurium is the semiconductor with the largest piezoelectric constants. Tellurium oxide is the material...

In the SI system, prefix meaning 1012. (T).

Refers to a notation system using a base of 3 and the numerical characters 0, 1 and 2.

The section of crystal symmetry having only one-quarter of the greatest number of faces permitted by the crystal system of which the section is a member.

Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) refers to a technology that converts heat energy into electricity using the principles of thermophotovoltaics. In a thermophotovoltaic system, thermal radiation from a heat...

Thin-film deposition equipment refers to machinery and tools used in the process of depositing thin layers of material onto a substrate surface. This technique is commonly employed in various...

1. In visual perception, the minimum value of stimulus that can be perceived on the average. 2. In optical detection systems, that signal level at which the probability of detection is 50 percent.

The time domain is a concept used in signal processing and analysis to describe signals in terms of their behavior over time. In the time domain, signals are represented as functions of time, showing...

(TOF) The length of time needed for a signal to arrive at and be reflected from the target. The basis of an active autoranging/autofocus system.

Time-lapse optical coherence tomography (OCT) refers to a medical imaging technique that captures a series of sequential OCT scans over time, allowing for the dynamic observation and monitoring of...

A time-to-amplitude converter (TAC) is an electronic circuit that converts a time interval between two events into an amplitude or voltage signal. TACs are commonly used in various scientific and...

A Ti:sapphire laser is a type of solid-state laser that utilizes a titanium-doped sapphire crystal as the gain medium. The name Ti:sapphire comes from the combination of titanium (Ti) as the dopant...

Topological photonics is a branch of physics and optics that explores the application of topological concepts to the behavior of light in photonic systems. Drawing inspiration from the field of...

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....

An instrument or system capable of both transmitting and receiving a signal.

A transducer is a device or component that converts one form of energy into another. It is commonly used in various fields, including electronics, acoustics, and instrumentation, to facilitate the...

The process whereby a quantum mechanical system alters from one energy level to another. During this process, energy is emitted or absorbed, and it usually takes the form of photons, phonons, or...