Photonics Dictionary

Agri-photonics refers to the application of photonics technologies in agriculture. Photonics involves the generation, manipulation, and detection of light and other forms of radiant energy whose...

A thermometric instrument used for the detection and measurement of radiant energy. Its essential component is a short narrow strip covered with a dead black absorbing coating and mounted at the...

A detector-Dewar assembly typically refers to a combination of a detector and a Dewar flask used in scientific instruments, particularly in the field of infrared spectroscopy or other applications...

Digital signal processing (DSP) refers to the manipulation and analysis of signals, which are representations of physical quantities that vary over time or space. In the context of DSP, these signals...

In image processing, the location of edges by employing templates that respond to the first or second derivative of gray-scale intensity in the neighborhood of each pixel.

An EMCCD (electron-multiplying charge-coupled device) camera is a type of scientific camera specifically designed for low-light imaging applications that require high sensitivity and fast readout...

A fiber optic sensor is a device that uses optical fibers to detect and measure physical, chemical, biological, or environmental parameters. Unlike traditional electrical sensors, fiber optic sensors...

Fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) is an advanced imaging technique that provides information about the lifetime of fluorescence emissions from fluorophores within a sample. Unlike traditional...

GaN (gallium nitride) distributed feedback (DFB) lasers refer to a specific type of semiconductor laser based on Gallium Nitride materials and designed with a distributed feedback structure. These...

Hyperspectral resolution refers to the level of detail or granularity in the spectral information captured by a hyperspectral imaging system. In hyperspectral imaging, the electromagnetic spectrum is...

A machine vision technique that compares a template of the desired image (the correlation kernel) with the actual camera image of an object and generates a new image (the correlation image) that...

An infrared detector is a device that is used to detect and measure infrared radiation, which lies beyond the visible spectrum of light. These detectors are utilized in various applications,...

An InGaAs photodiode refers to a photodetector device that is constructed using a semiconductor material composed of a combination of indium (In), gallium (Ga), and arsenic (As). The term InGaAs...

Machine vision, also known as computer vision or computer sight, refers to the technology that enables machines, typically computers, to interpret and understand visual information from the world,...

A microchannel plate (MCP) is a specialized electron multiplier device used in various applications such as particle detection, imaging, spectroscopy, and night vision technology. It consists of a...

MWIR stands for mid-wave infrared, referring to a specific range of wavelengths within the infrared spectrum. Infrared radiation is categorized into three main regions based on wavelength:...

A nitrogen vacancy (NV) refers to a specific type of defect or impurity in a crystal lattice where a nitrogen atom replaces a carbon atom adjacent to a vacancy (an empty lattice site) in the diamond...

A filtering device that detects what is new in a scene of interest. Often compared to that of a temporal high pass filter, these filters will remove elements that appear repeatedly throughout an...

The determination of the temperature of a source by the detection of its incandescent brightness.

A photomultiplier tube (PMT) is a highly sensitive vacuum tube that detects and amplifies low levels of light. It is widely used in various applications where high sensitivity, fast response times,...

Recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) is a molecular biology technique used to rapidly amplify specific DNA or RNA sequences under isothermal conditions, meaning it does not require the...

A scientific CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) camera is a type of digital camera specifically designed for scientific imaging applications. It employs CMOS sensor technology, which...

A scintillation crystal, also known simply as a scintillator, is a material that emits light when it interacts with ionizing radiation such as gamma rays, x-rays, or charged particles. The emitted...

Silicon carbide (SiC) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are semiconductor devices that emit light when an electric current is applied to them. These LEDs are made using silicon carbide as the...

An advanced technique that allows the detection of one molecule within a crystal or a cell through optical excitation. Single-molecule spectroscopy (SMS) can image at subwavelength scales, down to a...

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...

A transducer is a device or component that converts one form of energy into another. It is commonly used in various fields, including electronics, acoustics, and instrumentation, to facilitate the...