Photonics Dictionary: C

Collaborative Robot (Cobot): Unlike traditional autonomous robots, which usually work by themselves, a collaborative robot is programmed to work with humans, such as a guide or an assistant. They can...

Category inclusive of all radiation that is incited electronically, except laser radiation, as a function of the application of laser power to a system.

Radiation in which every ray from any given object point can be considered to be parallel to every other. This is never completely the case: The light from a star is really diverging, and all...

1. The process of aligning the optical axes of optical systems to the reference mechanical axes or surfaces of an instrument. 2. The adjustment of two or more optical axes with respect to each other....

An optical instrument consisting of a well- corrected objective lens or mirror with a light source and or object/image (i.e. illuminated slit or retical) at its focal plane. Collimators are used to...

A method of lasing in which free electrons in a laser-produced plasma collide with neonlike ions to excite electrons to states that decay at different speeds, producing a population inversion.

A particle that will not normally diffuse through animal or vegetable membrane. Larger than most inorganic compounds, colloids will remain suspended indefinitely.

The attribute of visual experience that can be described as having quantitatively specifiable dimensions of hue, saturation, and brightness or lightness. The visual experience, not including aspects...

A color center, in the context of materials science and condensed matter physics, refers to a specific type of crystallographic defect in a crystalline structure that introduces color to the...

1. A device used in chemistry to compare the colors of solutions held in flat-bottomed tubes and viewed along the length of the tube. Often a solid glass plunger is moved along one of the tubes to...

The recording of three or more separate holograms having a different color on a medium, so that illumination with a tricolor beam yields three separate wavefronts, each representing one of the...

Equipment for testing an observer's color vision. Some tests require the identification or ordering of colored samples. The commercially available examples include: the Ishihara plates, on which...

The detection and analysis of the relative response of a material to light over the range of wavelengths.

The entire range of colors a specific color model can produce, represented as a three-dimensional solid.

A colorimetric concept related to the apparent visual color of a source (not its temperature). For a blackbody, the color temperature is equal to the temperature in kelvin.

A device containing two photocells behind deep red and blue filters to measure color temperatures. The amplifier gain is adjusted to give a set reading of one photocell; the reading of the other is a...

Situation in which the observer requires fewer than three independent stimuli to make color matches. Dichromats require only two stimuli and are classified as protanopes and deuteranopes (both...

A type of compound microscope that uses three visible wavelengths to translate details produced by invisible radiation.

A colorimeter is a device used to measure and quantify the color characteristics of an object or a light source. It provides objective and standardized color information, typically expressed in terms...

Colorimetry is the science and technology of quantitatively describing and measuring colors. It involves the precise evaluation of color attributes such as hue, saturation, and brightness, using...

Transparent media which, when placed in front of a light source, change their color as a result of the selective absorption of some of the light.

A lens aberration, resulting from different magnifications in the various lens zones, that occurs in that part of the image field that is some distance from the principal axis of the system....

A filter that passes a series of wavelength regions that are at equal distances from one another, such that its output resembles the teeth of a comb. In video transmission, a comb filter is used to...

An acronym for communications intelligence, referring to the collection of communications signals in the VHF and UHF frequency ranges (20 to 1200 MHz).

An electrical problem that occurs when voltage is not the same with respect to ground at every node of a system, causing current to circulate between nodes.

The heat-treating method in which the index of refraction of glass is fixed near or at its maximum value by holding the glass for different periods at suitable degrees of heat below the range of...

A deliberately nonlinear amplitude modulation that strengthens weak signals and reduces strong signals for transmission.

Two microscopes that are coupled on a common stand, the two images being projected side by side in the field of view of a single eyepiece for comparison.

A device used for the comparison of spectra used, in turn, for the comparison of elements, such as the absorption lines in the spectra of stars and the spectra of elements in the stars being observed.

In analysis, a reference spectrum, having predetermined wavelengths, that is used to determine the wavelengths of another spectrum through comparison of the two.

An optical element that measures the phase difference between two components of elliptically polarized light to correct for mechanical or optical displacement.

Colors that produce an achromatic color when additively mixed.

Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) refers to a technology used in the fabrication of integrated circuits, particularly semiconductor devices like microprocessors, memory chips, and image...

A lens made up of a number of lens elements arranged into two or more groups.

1. A constituent part. It may consist of two or more parts cemented together, or with near and approximately matching surfaces. 2. The projection of a vector on a certain coordinate axis or along a...

A transducer composed of more than one high-pass, bandpass, low-pass or band-elimination filter.

A device for obtaining very low crosstalk in a crosspoint by arranging two simple switches along different arms of a passive crossover and connecting the switches with a curved connecting guide to...

A lens composed of two or more separate elements of optical glass that may or may not be cemented together. The surfaces of the elements are shaped to reduce or eliminate the aberrations inherent in...

A semiconductor made up of two or more elements, in contrast to those composed of a single element such as germanium or silicon. In a III-V semiconductor, for example, one or more elements having...

The phenomenon observed by A.H. Compton in 1923 -- that some scattered radiation possesses a longer wavelength and correspondingly smaller frequency than the incident radiation. It may be described...

The use of a computer to generate a series of interrelated images so that the images give the illusion of movement in space and time.

Computer numerically controlled (CNC) grinding is a manufacturing process that utilizes computerized controls and precision machining tools to remove material from a workpiece. In CNC grinding, a...