Photonics Dictionary

An array or mosaic of optical surfaces. May be a number of lenses closely packed to form multiple images or many parallel cylinders used as a projection screen.

A method of image dissection whereby a lens transfers images onto a lenticular plate that in turn illustrates the images as structures of narrow parallel lines.

In optics, a pattern, such as the Buchmann-Meyer pattern, that may be viewed when the record surface is illuminated by a light beam having parallel rays.

Pockels cell or dynamic optical retarder in which the electrical field is applied in a direction parallel to that of light passing through it.

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...

A dielectric sphere with an index of refraction that varies with distance from the sphere center. A parallel beam of rays is focused on the lens surface at a point diametrically opposite the...

High-voltage, fast-discharge circuit named after its inventor, Erwin Marx. Its capacitors are charged in parallel and discharged in series. The voltage multiplication achieved with a Marx circuit is...

A wedge in a rangefinder or heightfinder used to displace the image produced by one telescope so that it coincides with that produced by the other telescope, thus affording a measurement of the...

An accurate metal prism or plane parallel plate that is cemented to an optical element and remains with it during a series of grinding or polishing processes. The metal element contains threaded...

Microfluidics is a multidisciplinary field that involves the manipulation and control of very small fluid volumes, typically in the microliter (10-6 liters) to picoliter (10-12 liters) range, within...

The least space between two parallel lines that can be discriminated as a gap to the human eye. It is measured in terms of the angle subtended by the gap measured at the eye.

In general, changes in one oscillation signal caused by another, such as amplitude or frequency modulation in radio which can be done mechanically or intrinsically with another signal. In optics the...

The resulting interference pattern generated from moiré deflectometry, the moiré pattern is a pattern developed from interference or light blocking, when gratings, screens or regularly...

A computer architecture used in parallel processing whereby all the processing elements are operating under their own local control rather than under the direction of a central control unit.

The series of equally spaced parallel slits that make up a scanning aperture in place of a single slit, in the scanning of a repetitive pattern.

A laser having a Q-switching method that allows separate parallel volumes of the lasing material to act independently of each other and produce several separate beams. It is useful in high-speed...

A form of shearing interferometer that contains a simple wedged (plane-parallel) glass plate with a nonzero optical path difference to create interference between split optical wavefronts. The...

The structure that holds the photographic negative in a proper position that is both flat and parallel to the lens plane, as well as being placed in a fixed position that is the right distance from...

State typically studied in liquid crystals in which the dielectric coefficient parallel to the director is less than the dielectric coefficient perpendicular to the director.

A form of liquid crystal with an appearance of moving, threadlike structures, particularly visible when observed in thick specimens with polarized light. During this phase, the molecules of the...

Neuromorphic refers to the design and development of computing systems or devices that are inspired by the structure and functioning of the human brain and nervous system. The term is derived from...

A phenomenon, exploited for medical imaging, in which the nuclei of material placed in a strong magnetic field will absorb radio waves supplied by a transmitter at particular frequencies. The energy...

A polished plano-parallel plate that is contacted to an unpolished glass surface to permit see-through analysis of the material. The plate eliminates effects because of the surface quality of the...

An optical barcode reader, commonly known as a barcode scanner, is a device that uses optical technology to capture and interpret data encoded in barcode symbols. Barcodes are typically printed on...

The point on the optical axis of a lens that is the image of the nodal points. For any bundle of rays passing through the optical center of a lens, the incident and emergent rays through this point...

An optical grating, in the context of optics and physics, refers to a device with a periodic structure of closely spaced, parallel slits or rulings. These slits or rulings act as obstacles to the...

Any structure having the ability to guide the flow of radiant energy along a path parallel to its axis and to contain the energy within or adjacent to its surface.

A transparent crystalline substance in which the refractive index of the optic axis (extraordinary axis) is different from the other two crystal axes. Two polarization directions are allowed for any...

A concave mirror that has the form of a paraboloid of revolution. The paraboloidal mirror may have only a portion of a paraboloidal surface through which the axis does not pass, and is known as an...

A ray that behaves according to paraxial equations; one that lies close to and almost parallel to the optical axis.

A prism made up of two air-spaced components. It has the ability to revert, and not invert, an image, and can be used in convergent, divergent and parallel light. May be rotated to compensate for...

A form of dispersing prism, often used in monochromators, that consists of a common right-angle prism with a 30° dispersing prism attached to each of its square faces. The spectrum formed by the...

A Peltier cooler, also known as a thermoelectric cooler (TEC) or thermoelectric module, is a solid-state device that uses the Peltier effect to transfer heat between two electrical junctions. It can...

A five-sided prism containing two reflecting surfaces at 45° to each other, and two refracting faces perpendicular to the entering and emerging beams. The deviation angle of 90° is...

A crystalline substance in which all planes are parallel, or approximately parallel.

A type of computer in which the electronic circuits, which process data serially, are replaced by photonic circuits capable of parallel processing and thus of much greater speed and power. Where the...

A photovoltaic cell, commonly known as a solar cell, is a semiconductor device that directly converts light energy into electrical energy through the photovoltaic effect. The photovoltaic effect is...

A wave whose surfaces of constant phase are infinite parallel planes normal to the direction of propagation.

A type of flat panel display made up of a layer of gas between two glass plates. The glass is coated with parallel conductors that form cells which, when energized, produce a gas discharge that makes...

1. With respect to angular subtense, a source of light, such as a star, that is very small. In a lab, a point source may be simulated by imaging a large source onto and through a pinhole, or by...

The dielectric coefficient parallel to the director in a liquid crystal display (LCD), rather than perpendicular to the director.