Photonics Dictionary

Unified notation for specification of reflectance in terms of both incident- and reflected-beam geometry; i.e., the ratio of reflected radiance in direction toward the viewer to the irradiance in...

Able to rotate the plane of polarization of a transmitted, plane-polarized light beam clockwise as seen by a viewer looking in the same direction as the traveling light. Also called dextrorotary; the...

The area in a 2-D or 3-D microdisplay viewer within which the eye can move and still see the entire image.

Holography is a technique used to capture and reconstruct three-dimensional images using the principles of interference and diffraction of light. Unlike conventional photography, which records only...

A mirage that consists of an image of an object appearing below its true position as the result of abnormal refraction by the atmosphere between the object and the viewer. It is the opposite of a...

Also referred to as a funduscope, an ophthalmoscope is a specialized instrument used by ophthalmologists for observing and photographing the fundus (interior) of the eye which includes the retina,...

Ray tracing is a rendering technique used in computer graphics to simulate the way light interacts with objects in a scene. It involves tracing the path of rays of light as they travel through a...