Photonics Dictionary

A 45-90-45° reflecting prism whose surfaces form the 90° angle reflecting the light beam through a total angle of 180°. The corners of the prism are rounded to minimize breakage and simplify...

The arrangement of two Porro prisms so that the inverted image formed by certain types of optical instruments is the same as the object. The first prism, which is set at 90° to the second, inverts...

A prism system designed to produce a very high dispersion of light.

A prism having several plane polished surfaces, some to transmit light, some to reflect light, and some to serve both functions in succession. It acts generally as a group of plane mirrors held in a...

A prism that often is used as a dispersing element in spectrographs and monochromators.

A prism made of two elements cemented together that, depending on its orientation, inverts or reverts an image. It may be used in converging or diverging light. Sometimes referred to as a K prism.

A reflecting prism that is rhomboidal in shape. It has two parallel transmitting faces, and two parallel reflecting faces; the latter are oblique to the former (usually but not necessarily at...

A type of 45-90-45° prism used to bend a beam of light through a right angle with the surfaces forming the 90° angle acting as transmitting faces.

A Risley prism, also known as a Risley prism pair or Risley rotating prism, is an optical device used for controlling the direction of a laser beam or other optical beam by independently rotating two...

A polarizing prism assembly made up of two cemented calcite halves. The prism transmits the ordinary ray without deviation, while the extraordinary ray is deviated to accomplish the polarization.

A camera, with a rotating prism, that is capable of forming multiple exposures on a constantly moving strip of film.

A prism that inverts and reverts an image while deviating the line of sight by a 45° angle.

A polarizing beamsplitting prism similar in design to the Rochon prism. However, the Senarmont transmits the extraordinary ray without deviation and deviates the ordinary ray due to the orientation...

Two 30° prisms that are used to produce constant deviation when rotated by equal and opposite angles.

A polarizing prism consisting of two calcite prisms cemented such that they deviate the two emerging beams (which are mutually perpendicularly polarized) by nearly equal amounts in opposite...

An optical device, such as a Nicol prism, capable of producing plane-polarized light, and used for detecting the effect of the object on plane-polarized light produced by the polarizer.

A corner cube, also known as a corner reflector or retroreflector prism, is a type of optical device used to reflect light or electromagnetic waves back towards their source with minimal deviation in...

An intermolecular substance that serves to hold materials together. Two types are used in the optical industry: one, which must be transparent and colorless, to cement lenses together; and a...

The angle through which a ray of light is deviated by a refracting or reflecting surface, or a prism; the angle between an incident ray and the refracted or reflected ray.

Spectrometric analysis of the distinct and characteristic spectra of atoms of elements. The atoms are energized to emit radiant energy, which, when dispersed by a prism or diffraction grating,...

A Babinet compensator that contains the controlled motion of one prism with respect to the other. This idea was introduced by Jamin.

A relatively hard crystal, highly resistant to excessive energy radiation, that is frequently used for optical windows, prisms and lenses transmitting from the vacuum UV into the IR.

A device (e.g., prisms, lenses, tubes) used to align a beam in a system.

A beam shaper is an optical device or system designed to modify the spatial profile or intensity distribution of a laser or light beam. The goal is to transform the incoming beam into a desired shape...

A beamsplitter is an optical device for dividing a beam into two or more separate beams. A simple beamsplitter may be a very thin sheet of glass inserted in the beam at an angle to divert a portion...

A chamfer ground on the edge of a lens or prism. Bevels are used to prevent chipping or to achieve a mechanical fit.

Designating any instrument in which both eyes can be used to view the image to achieve a stereoscopic effect, or merely to facilitate observation. See also prism binoculars.

A supporting member used to hold optical parts during grinding and polishing. It also describes the assemblage of optical parts on the supporting member; e.g., a block of lenses or block of prisms.

In the optical field, a piece of glass to which a lens or prism is cemented. The unit is ground and polished as a whole to obtain a sharp edge on the finished piece.

A spectrophotometer having a pair of identical collimators with two Glan polarizing prisms, one fixed in azimuth and the other rotatable, set in one collimator. A Brace prism serves as the dispersive...

A doubly refracting mineral used to produce polarizing prisms. It is uniaxial negative and in the trigonal division of the hexagonal system of crystals. Its indices are e = 1.486, w = 1.658; its...

A portable instrument that uses a four-sided reflecting prism or set of mirrors to create a duplicate image of an object on a horizontal sheet, on which outlines of the subject may be traced by hand.

Chirped pulse amplification (CPA) is a technique used in laser physics to amplify ultrashort laser pulses to high energies without causing damage to the amplifying medium. The method was first...

A ring dye laser that uses prisms and a saturable absorber within the laser cavity to shape and shorten the pulses generated. Counterpropagating modes oscillating simultaneously in the ring...

That property of certain optical devices, e.g., a penta prism, that maintains the angular relationship between the entering and the emerging rays traversing the system regardless of the orientation...

A solid with a structure that exhibits a basically symmetrical and geometrical arrangement. A crystal may already possess this structure, or it may acquire it through mechanical means. More than 50...

A custom optic refers to an optical component that is designed, manufactured, and tailored to meet specific requirements or applications. These optics can include lenses, mirrors, prisms, filters, or...

A tool made by imbedding small particles of diamond in the working edge. In the optical field, the most commonly used diamond tools are glass saws, cup-shaped tools for curve generators, and diamond...

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...

Differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy, also known as Nomarski interference contrast microscopy, is an optical imaging technique used in microscopy to enhance the contrast of transparent...

A spectrograph that uses a diffraction grating as its dispersive element in place of a prism, and yields greater resolving power, more dispersion and a linear spectrum.

An optical diffuser is an optical component or material designed to scatter or diffuse light that passes through it. It is used to create a more even or uniform illumination, reduce glare, or soften...

A unit of optical measurement that expresses the refractive power of a lens or prism. In a lens or lens system, it is the reciprocal of the focal length in meters. For example, if a lens has a focal...

A small handheld instrument consisting of a slit and collimator that feeds light into a small direct-vision dispersing prism. The eye is placed behind the prism to observe the spectrum of a colored...

Dispersion refers to the phenomenon where different wavelengths (colors) of light travel at different speeds when passing through a medium. This variation in the speed of light for different colors...

A spectroscope having a divided circle and a means for the rapid reversal of prisms for the measurement of refractive index of the prism for a specific wavelength.