Photonics Dictionary: A

A high-brightness, short-duration source in which low-pressure gas initiates the discharge to vaporize material from the tube wall, leading to a high-pressure discharge of ionized wall material.

In display technology, an expression of resolution given by the number of pixels in both the horizontal and the vertical axes of a cathode-ray tube or similar device.

A cathode-ray tube having a screen that is coated on the back with a thin film of aluminum, which serves to intensify the propagation of light.

An analog method of moving a cathode-ray tube beam across a display screen face, commonly used in high-performance vector and character generators.

The part of an electrical circuit in which the electrons leave (a cathode-ray tube) or enter (an electrolytic cell) a unit in the circuit.

Also known as a shadow mask, a perforated plate placed between the focusing and accelerating electrodes, and the tricolor phosphor screen in a color-television tube.

In present usage, especially for spectroscopic identification, an arc between electrodes that serves as a radiation source. Gas tubes that contain mercury vapor and mixtures of helium, neon and argon...

In the discharge of a vacuum tube, the narrow, nonluminous region that sometimes may be found between the cathode and its glow.

An astronomical telescope is a type of optical instrument designed to gather and magnify light from distant celestial objects for observation and analysis. It typically consists of two main optical...