Definitions

A device employed to identify toxic agents lingering on the ground or in the air from up to three miles away, by using laser beams to detect infrared light-absorption patterns that can be analyzed to...

A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance, which is a phenomenon that occurs when an external force or stimulus is applied at a specific frequency, causing the system to oscillate...

Retroreflection is a phenomenon in optics where light is reflected back toward its source, typically in a direction nearly parallel to the direction from which it originated. This occurs due to the...

A retroreflector is an optical device or structure that reflects incident light or electromagnetic waves back to their source, regardless of the direction from which the light approaches. Unlike...

Rhodamine refers to a family of fluorescent organic dyes that are widely used in various fields, including biology, chemistry, medicine, and materials science. These dyes are known for their bright...

A laser using a dye solution as the active medium whose resonator is formed into a ring (or a triangle or another shape) by means of multiple mirrors.

A ring laser gyroscope (RLG) is a type of gyroscope that uses laser light to detect and measure changes in orientation. It operates based on the Sagnac effect, which is a fundamental principle of...

A Risley prism, also known as a Risley prism pair or Risley rotating prism, is an optical device used for controlling the direction of a laser beam or other optical beam by independently rotating two...

A structured light device using a rapidly rotating laser to project a beam of light that appears to the human eye as a continuous circle; used as a reference marker on walls or landscape for...

The optically pumped, solid-state laser that uses sapphire as the host lattice and chromium as the active ion. The emission takes place in the red portion of the spectrum.

A Rugate filter is a type of optical filter that is designed to have a continuously varying refractive index profile throughout its thickness, rather than the discrete layers found in traditional...

Sapphire crystal refers to a transparent, single-crystal form of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) known as corundum. It is one of the hardest known materials, second only to diamond on the Mohs scale of...

Sapphire optical fiber is a type of optical fiber made from single-crystal sapphire, which is a form of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) that is highly transparent in the infrared region of the electromagnetic...

A sapphire window refers to a transparent optical component made from sapphire crystal. Sapphire is a single-crystal form of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) that is highly prized for its exceptional optical...

1. The variation in intensity of a light beam as it travels through the atmosphere. 2. In radiation physics, a light flash formed by an ionizing event in a phosphor; a flash formed when rapidly...

A nonlinear label-free imaging technique commonly used during surgical procedures for the visualization of collagen fibers and muscle tissue (myosin) with submillimeter resolution. During the...

Second-order nonlinear optical properties refer to a class of phenomena exhibited by certain materials in response to intense light, typically in the realm of optics and photonics. Nonlinear optical...

Selective laser melting (SLM) is an additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing technology that belongs to the powder bed fusion category. SLM is primarily used for metal additive manufacturing, where...

Self-phase modulation (SPM) is a nonlinear optical phenomenon that occurs when an intense laser beam passes through a medium, causing a change in the phase of the light due to its interaction with...

The Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor is an optical device used for measuring the wavefront aberrations of an optical system. It is widely used in adaptive optics systems to correct distortions and...

A model that predicts laser-induced damage to thin films caused by irradiation of identical, randomly distributed film defects.

A single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) is a specialized type of photodetector designed to detect extremely weak optical signals, down to the level of single photons. SPADs are widely used in...

Sisyphus cooling is a technique used in atomic physics to achieve ultracold temperatures of atoms or molecules by exploiting the periodic motion of particles in optical traps or lattices. The name...

Solid-state laser geometry in which the standard rod is replaced by a slab of laser material. Often called total-internal-reflection face-pumped laser (TIR-FPL).

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...

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 laser pumped by solar radiation focused by mirrors.

A solid-state laser is a type of laser that uses a solid gain medium (as opposed to a liquid or gas) to produce coherent light. The term "solid-state" refers to the fact that the active medium, where...

1. Generally, an emulsion mask having a clean annular region in an otherwise opaque region. It is designed to eliminate undesired information. 2. A pinhole in a metal plate, placed at a focal plane...

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...

Refers to the variety of techniques that use the interference pattern produced by laser light diffusely reflected by an object. There are two basic techniques: direct laser photography, used when...

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...

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,...

A laser resonator in which a mode oscillating between the mirrors will converge upon the laser's longitudinal axis.

A type of laser used when a great amount of power is required. Avoiding the bulk of large numbers of optical lenses, this instrument offers high-output intensity and a small emitting region at...

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

The purest gas source of antimony, which is used in the manufacture of compound semiconductors for IR sensors and solid-state lasers.

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...

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...

A semiconductor laser diode that emits light perpendicular to the active region. The output radiation is taken through the surface as opposed to through a cleaved mirror.

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 terahertz spectrometer is a scientific instrument used to measure and analyze the properties of materials in the terahertz frequency range, typically spanning from about 0.1 to 10 terahertz (THz),...