Photonics Dictionary

Designed for the function of optical wavefront analysis. Shack-Hartmann camera aberration sensors use a lens array to image the wavefront to the CCD image plane. Live feedback may be applied through...

The process of adjusting input pixel by pixel at the filter plane to adapt to nondeal phase behavior in an optical correlator.

Left- and right-hand circularly polarized beams that are produced at different velocities by passing plane-polarized light through an optical substance. When recombined, they exhibit different phases...

An optical device, such as a Nicol prism, capable of producing plane-polarized light, and used for detecting the effect of the object on plane-polarized light produced by the polarizer.

An optical system with different focal lengths or magnification levels in perpendicular planes to the optical axis.

The angular spectrum approach is a mathematical and computational technique used in the field of optics to analyze and simulate the propagation of optical waves, particularly in the context of wave...

In an optical system having astigmatism, the distance between the tangential and sagittal image planes.

An astronomical mirror, also known as a telescope mirror or primary mirror, is a key component of a reflecting telescope. It serves as the primary optical element responsible for gathering and...

An astronomical telescope is a type of optical instrument designed to gather and magnify light from distant celestial objects for observation and analysis. It typically consists of two main optical...

Azimuthal polarization refers to a specific polarization state of light where the electric field vector of the electromagnetic wave points along the azimuthal direction (around the propagation axis)....

A blur circle refers to the out-of-focus region in an image captured by an optical system. When an object in a scene is not in perfect focus, its image is spread out into a circular shape on the...

A fiber optic end plate constructed by drawing a bundle of parallel fibers embedded in glass and cutting it into thin slices. These slices are assembled in a plane and heated to produce a...

Chromatic aberration is an optical phenomenon that occurs when different wavelengths (colors) of light are refracted by a lens or optical system, leading to a failure to focus all colors to the same...

A positive lens located at or close to an intermediate image plane. The collector refracts off-axis light bundles, directing them into the apertures of subsequent optics.

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 computer-generated hologram (CGH) is a holographic image produced using computational methods and algorithms, rather than traditional optical techniques. CGHs are generated entirely in digital form...

A confocal resonator, also known as a confocal cavity or confocal laser resonator, is a type of optical resonator configuration used in laser systems. The term confocal in this context refers to the...

That property of certain optical devices, e.g., a penta prism, that maintains the angular relationship between the entering and the emerging rays traversing the system regardless of the orientation...

1. In optics, the bending of light rays toward each other, as by a convex or positive lens. 2. Turning in the eyes to view a near object. 3. In a television picture tube, the crossing of the...

Fine lines, wires or threads used in the focal plane of many optical instruments to point out and locate particular objects in the field of view. They were formerly made from a single strand of...

The separation of unpolarized light into two plane-polarized elements by a doubly refracting crystal. When a crystal, such as calcite, is placed between the eye and a pinhole in a card, two bright...

A cathode-ray tube that increases the brightness or size of an image or forms a visible image from invisible radiation. The focal plane for the optical image is a large, light-sensitive, cold...

An optical resonator in which feedback is accomplished by two parallel planes. In diode lasers, the planes are obtained by cleaving, polishing, etching, etc.

A device in which slab geometry internally compensates for thermal-optic distortion; the solid host material -- glass or Nd:YAG -- is in the form of a rectangular slab with plane parallel faces. The...

The effect discovered by Faraday in 1845 whereby nonoptically active materials or substances become capable of rotating the polarization plane of polarized radiation (light) passed through them when...

A plate made up of thousands of glass fibers arranged parallel to one another, i.e., in a coherent bundle, and fused together so that it is hermetically tight. It transfers an image from one plane to...

An expression of the tolerance of decentration of a laser diode from the optical axis: the region around the axis in the focal plane of the collimator in which the facet can be located and still...

An aperture located at an image plane of an optical system that determines the size and shape of the image.

The angle measured between the focal surface containing the image and a plane normal to the optical axis.

A plate of electro-optical material that serves to rotate the plane of polarization of a light beam.

That voltage required across a Pockels, Kerr or other electro-optic light modulator to retard one polarization electrical vector by one-half a wavelength relative to the other. It corresponds to a...

The rotation of an instrument (or the line of sight of an optical system) in a horizontal plane; transverse.

In optics, an image is the reconstruction of light rays from a source or object when light from that source or object is passed through a system of optics and onto an image forming plane. Light rays...

A semiconductor platelet laser that emits a coherent image by means of plane optical pumping over the platelet surface, and that uses laser threshold characteristics to produce a pronounced threshold...

A special form of microscope that utilizes interference for observing and measuring the phase and optical thickness in completely transparent objects and specimen. The object is placed in one beam...

In an optical system with a series of lenses, images formed prior to the final focal plane.

An optical instrument containing a gimballed sighting telescope, used to measure angular relationships in horizontal and vertical planes.

In optics, a plane that emits a flux proportional to the cosine of the angle of the normal; dense opal glass is an example.

Technique using functional optical microscope with the addition of a coherent source collinear with the image path. The laser light is intended to scan the sampled plane and acquire information from...

A Laurent polarimeter is an instrument used in optics for measuring the rotation of plane-polarized light caused by optically active substances. Optical rotation, also known as optical activity, is a...

Also known as single plane illumination microscopy (SPIM), this process was designed for imaging of sensitive samples and fast biological processes in vivo. In this method, a light sheet illuminates...

A type of high-speed photographic shutter that uses Faraday rotation to produce exposure times as fast as 1 microsecond. It consists of two polarizers, set with their planes of polarization at right...