Photonics Dictionary

Adaptive optics (AO) is a technology used to improve the performance of optical systems by reducing the effects of atmospheric distortions. The Earth's atmosphere can cause light passing through it...

The smallest amount of photon energy to pass a detector window and be counted.

The Casimir force is a quantum phenomenon that results in an attractive force between two closely spaced uncharged conductive surfaces. This force arises from the quantum vacuum fluctuations of the...

A fiber optic gyroscope (FOG) is a type of gyroscope that uses the interference of light waves to detect changes in orientation or rotation. It operates based on the principle of the Sagnac effect,...

A device, also called a fluorescence lifetime instrument, that measures decay curves of fluorescing samples. It generally consists of a gated pulsed flashlamp or a cavity dumped dye laser...

Photon flow created by imaging of light into a detector array; IPD is the electrical signal used by the image processor in a laser radar angular tracking system.

An intensified charge-coupled device (ICCD) camera is an advanced imaging device that combines the capabilities of both an image intensifier and a charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor to achieve...

A laser, which stands for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation," is a device that produces coherent and focused beams of light through the process of optical amplification based...

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...

A photon-counting instrument for use in both space-borne and ground-based photometric and spectroscopic instrumentation. This style of detector is composed of opaque photocathodes for photon to...

A near-infrared (NIR) spectrometer is an analytical instrument used to measure the absorption, transmission, or reflection of light in the near-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum....

Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and its manifestation as both particle and wave phenomena. It encompasses the...

A device used to evaluate the luminance of a surface by determining the number of photons emitted from a sample surface area.

Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon in quantum mechanics where two or more particles become correlated to such an extent that the state of one particle instantly influences the state of the...

A type of interferometer in which two coils of optical fiber are arranged so that light from a single source travels clockwise in one, and counterclockwise in the other. Rotation of the coils causes...

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 ruggedized scintillation counter used in oil well logging. The cylindrical housing contains a gamma ray source, a crystalline scintillator and a photomultiplier tube. As the sonde is drawn through...

Time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) is a technique used in photon counting applications, particularly in the field of experimental physics, biophysics, and fluorescence lifetime imaging...

A time-to-amplitude converter (TAC) is an electronic circuit that converts a time interval between two events into an amplitude or voltage signal. TACs are commonly used in various scientific and...

Total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy is an advanced fluorescence microscopy technique that leverages the principle of total internal reflection to selectively illuminate and image...