Photonics Dictionary

Optical glass refers to a type of glass specifically engineered and manufactured for use in optical components and systems, such as lenses, prisms, mirrors, and filters. Optical glass is...

In compact disc and CD-ROM technology, the portion of the drive that projects the laser light onto the surface of the media and picks up the resulting reflections read as data. The head includes the...

Optical manufacturing tools and machinery encompass a wide range of equipment, instruments, and systems used in the fabrication, shaping, finishing, and testing of optical components and systems....

1. The angular displacement of the plane of polarization of light passing through a medium. 2. The azimuthal displacement of the field of view achieved with a rotating prism.

1.) Generally, the electromagnetic spectrum within the wavelength region extending from the vacuum ultraviolet at 40 nm to the far-infrared at 1 mm. 2.) The wavelength or color distribution...

A group of lenses, or any combination of lenses, mirrors and prisms, so constructed as to refract or reflect light to perform some definite optical function.

Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and its manifestation as both particle and wave phenomena. It encompasses the...

A camera designed to form a continuous record of an expansive section of the horizon. The typical panoramic camera is mounted to rotate about a vertical axis. A slit opening in the film plane and the...

An optical instrument designed to displace the line of sight in a vertical direction. For submarines and other military uses the periscope is a long tube containing prisms at both ends and...

A prism used in a photometer for the adjacent comparison of separate luminance.

A type of copying camera in which the object is placed on a horizontal easel and photographed by a horizontal camera above the easel through a 90° reversing prism. The image is recorded on a...

Plastic optics refers to optical components or systems that are made from transparent plastic materials, as opposed to traditional optical components made from glass or other materials. Plastic...

A photometer having a pair of Nicol prisms introduced into the beam from the brighter of two sources to be compared. Turning one of these polarizers reduces the beam to equality with the beam of the...

A coating made up of particular birefringent materials having polarizing properties. It may be used, in some cases, to replace Polaroid or polarizing prisms.

A filter that polarizes light passing through it. It is possible to fabricate sheets of plastic or gelatin that contain birefringent crystals so oriented as to pass only polarized light. Such sheets...

A method of determining prism power at any point on a lens. Prism power equals the product of the dioptric power and the distance, in centimeters, from the optical center.

The restricting opening at the rear of a lens or prism that is commonly defined as the maximum diameter of the emergent cone for the specified field of view, at infinity focus.

The optical phenomenon in which white light dispersed by small particles in suspension appears blue when viewed through a suitable Nicol prism.

Retroreflection is a phenomenon in optics where light is reflected back toward its source, typically in a direction nearly parallel to the direction from which it originated. This occurs due to the...

A retroreflector is an optical device or structure that reflects incident light or electromagnetic waves back to their source, regardless of the direction from which the light approaches. Unlike...

Also known as a turned-down edge. A rapid change of curvature near the edge in a lens or prism surface.

A circular optical wedge (prism of small refracting angle) mounted to be rotated in the path of light rays to divert the line of sight to a restricted degree.

1. A polariscope consisting of a Savart plate and a tourmaline plate analyzer, and used to produce parallel color fringes by transmitting polarized light. 2. A polariscope composed of an analyzing...

The distance between the base and the vertex before the edging of a prism.

The process of making an abrupt break in a spherical surface on a spectacle lens so that a new center of curvature is set for a portion of the lens. This has the effect of adding a prism to that...

Spectral flow cytometry is an advanced flow cytometry technique that expands the capabilities of traditional flow cytometry by utilizing spectral information from fluorochromes to enhance...

An optical instrument for forming the spectrum of a light source and recording it on a film. The dispersing medium may be a prism or a diffraction grating. A concave grating requires no other means...

A telescope that produces an erect image. Erection is achieved either by a lens (for a long instrument) or a prism (for a compact instrument). Very small terrestrial telescopes of low power may be of...

A device used to detect elevation, pyramid and resolution errors in prisms and other components by bringing them into contact with the three highly polished, flat, perpendicular surfaces that form...

The difference in base up or down prism power at corresponding points located on the two lenses of a pair of spectacles.

A refractometer that has a greater resolving power than a standard refractometer, and that uses a pentagonal prism to split the light from a single slit into two beams.

A YAG crystal refers to a solid-state crystal made of yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG), which is a synthetic crystalline material. YAG crystals are known for their exceptional optical properties,...