Bristol Instruments, Inc. - 872 Series High-Res 4/24 LB

Type

Browse by Letter

SCANLAB GmbH - Laser Beam Deflection 2024 HP

79 terms

Photonics Dictionary: B

Clear All Filters x used x B x
Babinet compensator

A device containing two opposed quartz wedges of equal angle, one wedge being movable along its length by a micrometer screw. The wedges are cut so that their fast directions are along, and...

backlighting

The forming of a clear silhouette of an object by placing a light source behind it. Used in machine vision when surface features of an object are not important.

backreflection -> narcissus

A defect in infrared systems that appears as a dark circular area on a displayed image, caused by radiation reflecting into a detector. It can be reduced by low-reflective coatings or by altering the...

backscatter

Backscatter refers to the phenomenon in which radiation or waves are scattered backward, opposite to the direction of the incident beam. This occurs when the incident radiation encounters a target or...

backstreaming

The term used in reference to vacuum systems using oil and diffusion pumps, describes the migration of pump fluids and their decomposition products into the vacuum chamber.

Baker-Nunn camera

A wide-field camera based on the classic Schmidt optical system used to photograph Earth-orbiting satellites.

ball lens

A ball lens is a small, spherical optical component typically made of glass or other transparent materials. It is characterized by its spherical shape, with both its front and back surfaces forming...

balsam -> Canada balsam

A resin obtained from the balsam fir, Abies balsamea, used as a lens cement.

band spectrum

A spectrum that originates from molecules and that is composed of bands which, in turn, consist of many closely spaced lines. Band spectra are used to determine nuclear spin and statistics, and...

barium fluoride

A relatively hard crystal, highly resistant to excessive energy radiation, that is frequently used for optical windows, prisms and lenses transmitting from the vacuum UV into the IR.

barium titanate

A crystalline material used in piezoelectric devices.

Barlow lens

A negative lens used to increase the effective focal length of a telescope objective.

barrier layer

In the fabrication of an optical fiber, a layer that can be used to create a boundary against OH-ion diffusion into the core.

baseband

The simplest method of transmission on a local area network. The entire bandwidth of the cable is used to transmit a single unmodulated digital signal. Baseband transmission is capable of...

bathymetric lidar

Bathymetric lidar is a remote sensing technique used to measure the depth of water bodies and map underwater terrain features. It employs lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) technology, which uses...

Baume scale

The scale for floating hydrometers used to measure the specific gravity of a polishing suspension. The depth of immersion is a linear function of the inverse of the density. The Baume scale is linear...

beaconage

A system of beacons used in navigation.

beam bender

A mirror used to manipulate the beam in a laser system.

beam converter

A device used to alter the shape of or energy distribution within a beam of radiation.

beam divider -> beamsplitter

A beamsplitter is an optical device used to divide a beam of light into two or more separate beams, typically by reflecting a portion of the incident light while transmitting the remainder....

beam positioner

A device (e.g., prisms, lenses, tubes) used to align a beam in a system.

beam profiler

A device that measures the spatial distribution of energy perpendicular to the propagation path of a radiant beam. An energy or power meter is typically used to monitor the amount of light passing...

beam profiling

Beam profiling is a technique used to characterize and analyze the spatial intensity distribution of a laser beam. It involves measuring and visualizing how the optical power or intensity is...

beam shaper

A beam shaper is an optical device or system designed to modify the spatial profile or intensity distribution of a laser or light beam. The goal is to transform the incoming beam into a desired shape...

beamsplitter

A beamsplitter is an optical device used to divide a beam of light into two or more separate beams, typically by reflecting a portion of the incident light while transmitting the remainder....

beat length

A characteristic of optical fiber used to calculate the fiber's ability to maintain polarization. The beat length describes the length required for the polarization to rotate 360 degrees. For a given...

Becke apertometer

Device used to measure the numerical aperture of a microscope, composed of a 14-mm-thick glass block with numerical aperture gradations carved onto its lower surface.

bench photometer

A device used to compare the luminous intensities of two sources by locating a point between the two light sources where the produced flux densities are equal. The luminous intensities of the two...

bend loss

The loss of optical power in an optical fiber because radiation escapes through its bends. The radiation loss caused by fiber bending is proportional to the bend radius.

Bertrand lens

A small convergent lens, located between the objective and eyepiece of a microscope, that focuses an image of the upper focal plane of the objective in the focal plane of the eyepiece. It is commonly...

beryllium oxide

A dielectric ceramic material used in laser capillary tubes because of its high electrical resistivity and high thermal conductivity (half that of copper).

Bessel functions

Two formulas used in diffractometer analysis, the first giving the individual diffraction patterns of each aperture, the second representing the constant of the degree of an incoherent circular...

beta fluorography

The use of a short-duration electron beam to record high-speed events that occur in microscopic objects made of materials that emit visible fluorescence during electron bombardment. The method is...

bevel

A chamfer ground on the edge of a lens or prism. Bevels are used to prevent chipping or to achieve a mechanical fit.

bifocal lens

A two-part lens that has a different focal length for each part. Generally, it is used in eyeglasses to correct for both near and far vision.

Billet's split lens

An experimental lens used to produce interference fringes. A positive lens is cut into halves along its center, and the halves are separated. This produces a double image of a slit source set...

binary on-off

Signal used in optical transmission systems to generate currents in a detector that are decoded with reference to a specified threshold.

binary phase-only filtering -> phase-only filter

A type of matched filter that responds only to the phase of incoming light; the output has a much greater intensity than that of a classical matched filter, which responds to phase and amplitude. The...

binocular

Designating any instrument in which both eyes can be used to view the image to achieve a stereoscopic effect, or merely to facilitate observation. See also prism binoculars.

binocular magnifier

A device having a pair of decentered lenses, one for each eye, that focuses on a single object as a magnifier. It is often supplied with a forehead fixture or an elastic headband to leave the hands...

bioluminescence

Bioluminescence is a natural phenomenon in which living organisms produce and emit light through a chemical reaction occurring within their bodies. This light emission is typically the result of a...

biomarker

A biomarker, short for biological marker, refers to a measurable and quantifiable indicator of a biological condition, process, or response. Biomarkers can be substances or characteristics that are...

biometrics

Biometrics refers to the automated recognition of individuals based on their physiological or behavioral characteristics. These unique attributes are used to verify or identify individuals, often in...

biprism

A piece of glass polished flat on one side, with a pair of polished faces that form an angle close to 180° on the other side, the dividing edge running down the middle of the plate. It is used...

birefringence

Birefringence is an optical property of certain materials that causes them to exhibit different refractive indices for light of different polarizations. In other words, when light passes through a...

bismuth silicon oxide

A photorefractive material used in image processing, holography and optical switching.

bispheric condenser -> dark-field condenser

A condenser that forms a hollow cone-shaped beam of light with its focal point in the plane of the specimen. If it is used with an objective having a numerical aperture lower than the minimum...

bit boundary block transfer

A data transfer function that moves a rectangular group of pixels between bit maps. Often used in displaying cursors and pop-up windows.

blackbody simulator

A source that attempts to create the characteristics of an ideal blackbody. It consists of a cavity, generally spherical, made of an opaque material and insulated from thermal effects, with a small...

blackbody source

A blackbody source, often simply referred to as a blackbody, is a theoretical or practical physical object that absorbs all electromagnetic radiation incident upon it and emits radiation in a...

Photonics DictionaryB