Photonics Dictionary

An interference microscope that uses a light beam originating from a low-coherence light source. The sample is placed in one interferometer arm, and the other arm provides a reference beam. The...

A high-resolution spectroscopic device commonly used in the early 20th century as a component of double-beam interferometers. Light introduced at one end of the plane-parallel glass plate will be...

An optical experiment carried out conclusively in 1887 that demonstrated that the ether, a hypothetical medium postulated by physicists to explain how light could travel in a wave motion through...

A mirror mount is a mechanical device used to secure and precisely position mirrors in optical systems. Mirrors are essential components in optical setups for reflecting light or redirecting laser...

Optical manufacturing tools and machinery encompass a wide range of equipment, instruments, and systems used in the fabrication, shaping, finishing, and testing of optical components and systems....

Also known as a white-light interferometer. Measures surface texture and shape from nanometer-scale roughness to millimeter-scale step heights. A standard arrangement includes an illumination source,...

An optical testing instrument is a device or system used to evaluate and measure the performance, quality, and characteristics of optical components, systems, and devices. These instruments play a...

In optics and photonics, "phase" refers to a property of electromagnetic waves, such as light, that describes the position of a wave at a given point in time within its oscillation cycle. More...

The propagation or hindrance of waves reaching each aperture of the interferometer because of atmospheric turbulence.

An interferometric method for describing the surface shape of large coated or uncoated optical flats. The procedure uses a commercially available small-aperture phase-shifting interferometer for...

A pulsed interferometer that permits the continuous quantitative mapping of the surface deformation of an adaptive optical element (e.g., a deformable mirror) and provides the capability for...

A representation of the shape of a surface, including any roughness or other irregularities. The profile can be generated by direct measurements, as by a stylus, or by remote measurement, as by an...

States that in interferometers in which the separation of the maxima is equal to the half-value width, a slight drop in intensity between fringes is distinguishable and the fringes can be considered...

A precision lens designed to convert the plane wavefront output of an interferometer to a spherical wavefront for the testing of curved (spherical) surfaces.

The method used to measure the index profile of an optical fiber by placing it in an interferometer and illuminating the fiber transversely to its axis.