Photonics Dictionary

A laser crystal, also known as an active medium or gain medium, is a solid-state material used in the construction of lasers. The primary function of the laser crystal is to amplify light by...

An acousto-optic modulator (AOM) is a device that utilizes the interaction between sound waves and light waves to modulate or control the intensity, frequency, phase, or direction of laser beams. It...

A host crystal for chromium that emits pulsed or continuous-wave laser light, tunable from about 720 to 790 nm.

An alexandrite laser is a solid-state laser that utilizes a synthetic crystal made from the rare earth element alexandrite (BeAl2O4:Cr3+). This crystal is capable of emitting laser light in the...

The application of reversible writing with a laser beam on particular storage materials. In one method, an amorphous film is heated and then crystallized for writing. Bubble writing involves the...

Brillouin scattering is a phenomenon in physics where an incident electromagnetic wave (usually light) interacts with acoustic phonons (quantized lattice vibrations) in a material, resulting in the...

Chalcogenide refers to a class of compounds containing elements from group 16 of the periodic table, which includes sulfur (S), selenium (Se), and tellurium (Te). These elements are known as...

A computer-generated hologram (CGH) is a holographic image produced using computational methods and algorithms, rather than traditional optical techniques. CGHs are generated entirely in digital form...

A cylindrical lens is an optical component that has different curvatures along its two orthogonal axes, resulting in a shape resembling a cylinder. Unlike spherical lenses, which have the same...

Diamond turning, also known as diamond machining or diamond cutting, is a precision machining process used to produce high-quality optical surfaces and components with extremely tight tolerances. It...

Diamond turning refers to a precision machining process used to produce complex optical components, particularly lenses and mirrors, from materials such as metals, plastics, and crystalline materials...

A diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL) is a type of laser system that uses semiconductor diode lasers to pump energy into a solid gain medium, resulting in the generation of coherent light. This...

An Er:YAG laser is a type of solid-state laser that uses a crystal made of erbium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Er:Y3Al5O12) as the gain medium. The erbium (Er) ions are introduced into the crystal...

An exciton is a quasiparticle that represents the bound state of an electron and a hole in a solid-state material, typically a semiconductor or an insulator. In simpler terms, an exciton is a paired...

A solid-state laser consisting of active atoms or ions of a transition metal, rare-earth metal or actinide, imbedded in a crystal or glass material, often garnet. Excitation and transfer to different...

Fused quartz and silica are closely related materials, both composed primarily of silicon dioxide (SiO2), but they are produced through different manufacturing processes and have distinct properties...

A crystalline semiconductor alloy used as the light confinement layer in both single- and double-heterostructure diode lasers.

A laser system consisting of a planar PN junction within a single crystal of gallium arsenide. The pair of parallel, semireflective end faces produces a Fabry-Perot resonant cavity, whereas the other...

Gallium arsenide phosphide (GaAsP) is a semiconductor alloy composed of gallium (Ga), arsenic (As), and phosphorus (P). It is commonly used in the fabrication of optoelectronic devices, particularly...

A noncrystalline, inorganic mixture of various metallic oxides fused by heating with glassifiers such as silica, or boric or phosphoric oxides. Common window or bottle glass is a mixture of soda,...

Harmonic generation refers to a nonlinear optical process in which incoming photons interact with a material and produce new photons at integer multiples of the frequency of the incoming photons....

Holmium lasers are a type of medical laser that utilizes holmium-doped crystals as the gain medium. The term holmium laser is often associated with a specific type of laser used in urology for...

In the context of optical materials, the term "impurity level" refers to the presence of foreign atoms or molecules within the material that deviate from its regular or intrinsic composition. These...

Metal used in components of the crystalline semiconductor alloys indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs), indium gallium arsenide phosphide (InGaAsP), and the binary semiconductor indium phosphide (InP)....

A semiconductor device with the property of conducting current more easily in one direction than the other. It has two terminals containing a single crystal of semiconducting material that ranges...

Laser annealing is a process that involves using a laser beam to heat and modify the microstructure of a material, typically a thin film or surface layer, with the objective of improving its...

In photonics, a lattice refers to a periodic arrangement of optical elements or structures, often on a microscopic or nanoscopic scale. These optical lattices can be created using various techniques...

A liquid crystal light valve (LCLV), also known as a spatial light modulator (SLM), is an optical device that modulates the intensity, phase, or polarization of light passing through it using liquid...

A device to modulate spatially a collimated coherent beam of light with input data in optical data processing. It uses a photocathode mounted on a microchannel plate, which amplifies an electron...

An instrument that produces an intense, tightly focused beam of ions to stimulate emissions from a minute section of a sample undergoing spectroscopic analysis. The ion beams found in microprobes are...

Nanophotonics is a branch of science and technology that explores the behavior of light on the nanometer scale, typically at dimensions smaller than the wavelength of light. It involves the study and...

Nd:YAG laser refers to a solid-state laser that utilizes neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:Y3Al5O12) as the gain medium. This type of laser emits light at a wavelength of 1064 nm in the...

Nonlinear optical materials are substances that exhibit optical properties that are not linearly proportional to the intensity of incident light. In other words, these materials produce optical...

Transparent glassy and or crystalline structured materials engineered from inorganic, non-metallic materials via various methods that include heat or specific chemical reactions. Optical ceramics...

A periodic structure formed by intersecting or superimposed laser beams. These beams can trap atoms in low-potential regions, forming a pattern of atoms resembling the structure of a crystal.

Optical materials refer to substances or compounds specifically chosen for their optical properties and used in the fabrication of optical components and systems. These materials are characterized by...

A laser-pumped crystal with nonlinear optical properties inside of an optical resonator in which the output generates coherent light whose output can be tuned continuously over a variety of infrared...

Optoelectronics is a branch of electronics that focuses on the study and application of devices and systems that use light and its interactions with different materials. The term "optoelectronics" is...

The use of a reflective device, which can be fashioned from a variety of materials including gases, solids, dyes, aerosols, semiconductor crystals and plasmas, to replicate a laser beam by reversing...

An erasable data recording and storage medium that uses a laser to heat the crystalline surface of the disc to a certain temperature, at which it becomes amorphous and records a bit of information;...

A photonic crystal surface-emitting laser (PCSEL) refers to a type of laser diode that emits light from its surface rather than from the edges. Photonic crystals are periodic nanostructures that...

Photonic crystals are artificial structures or materials designed to manipulate and control the flow of light in a manner analogous to how semiconductors control the flow of electrons. Photonic...

A crystal-based device that combines and adjusts the intensities of multiple wavelengths of laser light in order to obtain the desired output wavelength.

A crystalline material with a high electro-optic coefficient, capable of operating at short wavelengths, with applications in laser, optical disc, printing and microwave systems.

A narrow channel created by cleaving a crystal made of alternating layers of gallium arsenide and aluminum gallium arsenide, and adding additional layers on the cleaved end face, at right angles to...

Rare earth dopants refer to elements from the lanthanide series, also known as rare earth elements, that are intentionally introduced into the crystal lattice of a material to modify its properties....