Photonics Dictionary

A silicon photodiode is a semiconductor device that converts light into an electrical current. It is a type of photodetector specifically designed for detecting and measuring light intensity. Silicon...

Any ray through an optical system that is not a meridional ray. The plane created by a refracted skew ray does not contain the optical axis.

An array of active optical devices (modulators, laser diodes and/or detectors), each of whose electrical inputs or outputs are directly connected to electronic logic circuits, which also are a part...

A transmission interference microscope that produces interference patterns of a sample by using birefringent plates that split a polarized beam of light into ordinary and extraordinary rays, then...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Optical aberration such that image magnification varies with ray distance from the optical axis in a radial distortion.

There are three types of telecentric lenses: -Image-space telecentric lenses are those in which the aperture stop is located at the front focus, resulting in the chief rays being parallel to the...

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...

An image that is formed when rays emerging from an optical system are diverging from the optical axis. The virtual image is formed where the bundle of diverging rays appear to intersect each other...

Specified curved optic intended for maximum collection of light, including off-axis rays, before leaving the exit aperture.