Photonics Dictionary

A dichroic mirror, also known as a dichroic beamsplitter or interference filter beamsplitter, is an optical device that selectively reflects or transmits light based on its wavelength. Dichroic...

The separate spectral lines formed by a diffraction grating that are characterized by one wavelength difference in path length between adjacent slits.

Fluorescence is a type of luminescence, which is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. Specifically, fluorescence involves the absorption of...

Fluorescence lifetime refers to the average time it takes for a fluorophore, a molecule that absorbs light at one wavelength and emits it at another, to return to its ground state after being excited...

Fluorescence microscopy is a specialized optical imaging technique used in biology, chemistry, and materials science to visualize and study specimens that exhibit fluorescence. Fluorescence is the...

A specific, right-angle prism having a transmission grating replicated on its hypotenuse face and used in applications requiring a system that can produce in-line viewing for one wavelength.

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....

Luminescence is the emission of light that occurs without the involved substance undergoing a significant increase in temperature. In other words, it is the production and emission of light by a...

The reddish/purple color that results when equal amounts of blue and red are combined so that no one wavelength dominates.

Composed of one color; having only one wavelength of radiation.

Describing a laser that emits simultaneously at more than one wavelength.

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...

Direct conversion of a photon from one wavelength to a lower energy photon of another wavelength(s) due to inelastic scattering. In an optical waveguide, nonlinear scattering is usually not important...

A device used to count objects that pass a given point by allowing each object to obstruct a beam of light falling on a photocell. Slow counting rates can be recorded by a mechanical counter, but...