Photonics Dictionary

The area of optics in which the propagation of light is described by geometrical lines (or rays) governed by Fermat's Principle. Geometrical optics is useful as long as the objects in which the light...

An interferometer similar in construction to a Fabry-Perot interferometer but having a rear mirror with high reflectivity, allowing light to escape only at the partially reflective front mirror.

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,...

A type of glass used in telescope mirrors, formed by adding a nucleating agent to standard glass and then heating it until it crystallizes.

A thermal radiation detector consisting of a small cell with a blackened plastic front face that bulges slightly when heat is received by it. The bulging tilts a small mirror, which, in turn, varies...

A mirror whose percent reflectance varies as a function of position on the mirror surface.

A telescope with an ellipsoidal secondary concave mirror that reflects rays from a parabolic primary mirror through an opening in the center of the primary, where the image is viewed with an eyepiece.

A test for spherical aberration, coma or astigmatism in which incident rays from a point source are isolated by small holes in a metal disc located close to the lens or mirror under test....

A device having a plane mirror so mounted that it can be set to reflect sunlight into a piece of laboratory equipment. It is driven by a clock to compensate for the sun's daily motion around the pole...

A helium-neon (HeNe) laser is a type of gas laser that emits visible red light at a wavelength of 632.8 nm. It operates based on the principle of stimulated emission of photons from excited helium...

Laser cavity bounded by a plane mirror and a concave spherical mirror with the plane mirror located at the center of curvature of the concave mirror.

A superthin, highly reflective mirror.

A satellite-borne remote sensing device capable of transmitting images at 10 and 20 m resolution from an altitude of 830 km, each sensor covering a ground area of 60 km, by means of a folded...

A camera designed to record at rates exceeding 50 fps. For frame rates up to about 500 fps, an ordinary pull-down mechanism can be used. From 500 to 1000 fps, the film must be moved continuously, the...

A null optic in the form of a concave spherical mirror; used for the test and evaluation of a hyperboloidal aspheric surface.

A holographic camera, also known as a holographic imaging system or holographic recorder, is a specialized device used to capture 3D holographic images of objects or scenes. Unlike conventional...

A mirror with a coating that reflects infrared radiation and transmits visible light.

Any arrangement of a bundle of optical fibers that alters the shape of the image. For example, by systematic regulation of the spacing of the fibers from the entrance end to the exit end, a...

Infrared optics refer to optical components and systems designed to manipulate and control infrared (IR) light, which lies beyond the visible spectrum. These components are crucial for various...

A small round mirror on the end of a handle used for viewing inside an inaccessible cavity.

Interferometric modulator display (IMOD) is a type of display technology used in electronic devices, known for its energy efficiency and ability to produce high-quality reflective color displays....

A laser in which the transition involved in stimulated emission of radiation takes place between two levels of an ionized gas. The gases are electrically excited in a container called a plasma tube,...

A laser cavity, also known as an optical cavity or resonator, is a fundamental component of a laser system. It is a confined region or space where light undergoes multiple reflections, leading to the...

The laser damage threshold refers to the maximum level of laser intensity that a material can withstand without experiencing damage. It is a critical parameter in laser applications and is...

Contains elements which produce lasing., e.g. gain medium, oscillator mirrors as well as housing.

Laser optics refers to a broad category of optical components and systems designed for manipulating and controlling laser light. Laser optics play a crucial role in shaping the characteristics of...

The laser output refers to the generated and emitted light produced by a laser system. This output is characterized by several key properties that distinguish lasers from other light sources. These...

Production of a repeated image of a transmitted beam through a diffractive optical element such as a holographic card or component disk. Creating moving or stationary optical designs via a system of...

A fast-action shutter inserted between one end of a laser rod and the end mirror; when inserted to prevent emission and then quickly removed, it causes the laser to discharge suddenly with great...

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...

Linear optics refers to the study and manipulation of light in a linear and deterministic manner, where the response of optical elements is proportional to the amplitude of the incident light wave....

Liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) is a display technology that combines liquid crystal materials with silicon-based semiconductor technology to create high-resolution, high-quality images. LCoS...

A mirror composed of liquid, taking advantage of the parabolic shape of a spinning liquid and the fact that the mirror's focal length can be adjusted by altering the velocity at which the liquid's...

A mirror employed with a very high incidence angle to form a pair of coherent light sources by reflection, and therefore forming interference bands.

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 Mach-Zehnder interferometer is an optical device used to measure the phase difference between two collimated beams of light. It is named after the physicists Ludwig Mach and Ludwig Zehnder, who...

Magnetorheological finishing (MRF) is a precision optics polishing technique used for shaping and finishing optical surfaces to achieve extremely high levels of smoothness and accuracy. It is...

A thick meniscus lens arranged concentric with the center of curvature of a spherical mirror to produce an image free of spherical aberration.

A catadioptric lens assembly consisting of a Maksutov corrector and a spherical primary mirror.

A double-surfaced catadioptric spherical mirror whose spherical first surface consists of a negative meniscus (concave) lens and second rear surface is a spherical mirror. This combination utilizes...

A MEMS fiber optic switch is a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) device designed to selectively route optical signals between multiple fiber optic channels. These switches utilize miniature...

A form of an element that cannot demonstrate optical activity as a result of dextrogyrate and levogyrate effects that are balanced contrary to each other in a structure. In essence, meso form...

Meta-optics, also known as metasurface optics or flat optics, is a branch of optics that involves the design, fabrication, and utilization of artificial structures called metasurfaces to control and...

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...

Micro-optics refers to the design, fabrication, and application of optical components and systems at a microscale level. These components are miniaturized optical elements that manipulate light at a...

A camera used to reduce originals onto film for easy storage. There are two basic types: one in which the film is fixed during exposure, and one in which the film is exposed while moving past an...

Output noise in a laser beam resulting from acoustic disturbances of mirror separation or orientation. Such disturbances may come either from the plasma or from vibration of external sources.

A smooth, highly polished surface, for reflecting light, that may be plane or curved if wanting to focus and or magnify the image formed by the mirror. The actual reflecting surface is usually a thin...