Photonics Dictionary: W

In the context of electronics and semiconductor manufacturing, a wafer refers to a thin, flat disk or substrate made of a semiconducting material, usually crystalline silicon. Wafers serve as the...

The graph of the oscillating variations making up a wave, relative to time.

A spectrograph in which the flux density transmitted through the entrance aperture is regulated by an optical wedge or similar device.

A statistical means of characterizing the failure of a fiber or device as related to strain or time. Results are plotted on a special graph paper to yield the distribution shape parameter.

The Weissenberg method, named after the German physicist Karl Weissenberg, is a technique used in x-ray crystallography for obtaining high-quality diffraction patterns from single crystals. This...

A wide-angle lens is a type of camera lens that has a shorter focal length than a standard or normal lens, allowing it to capture a broader field of view. Wide-angle lenses are characterized by their...

After putting a thick photographic emulsion on a front-faced mirror, and exposing the emulsion to monochromatic incident light normal to the face, Wiener discovered, upon developing the emulsion,...