Photonics Dictionary: S

The movement of the eye as it focuses on details of a scene. Some imaging systems mimic this movement by small, rapid scanning motions of the sensor.

A motion-picture camera that can be advanced one frame at a time, either randomly or at set intervals. Used in animation and time-lapse photography.

A type of motion-picture camera in which single frames are photographed either automatically at a predetermined rate (as slow as one frame per minute or hour), or whenever the operator presses a key....

A type of motor that acts as the control element in a servomechanism. It is powered by an amplifier circuit and drives the load with linear or rotary motion.

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...

A scanning process in which the greatest amount of radiation determines part of a spiral motion rotating in one direction.

A telescopic light-sensing meter used to measure illumination levels of small regions at a distance of many feet; it is used in professional motion picture and television production to ensure proper...

A positioning drive that rotates a fraction of a 360° turn when the motor coils are activated, resulting in linear or rotary motion. They are generally one of two types, either variable...

In positioning, the friction that prevents immediate motion when force is first applied to a body or surface at rest.

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...

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...