Photonics Dictionary: S

A sheet of plastic material containing microscopic crystals of herapathite or some other similar substance that transmits light polarized in one direction, but absorbs light polarized in a...

A double-plate device used to transmit polarized light and form interference fringes of the light, thus indicating its presence. It consists of two calcite plates of equal thickness, cut parallel to...

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...

An optical waveguide in which only the lowest order bound mode, which may consist of a pair of orthogonally polarized fields, can propagate at the wavelength of interest.

A form of liquid crystal in which flow does not take place in the usual manner. When examined with polarized light, the substance often forms drops that display a series of fine lines. X-ray...

A transmission interference microscope that produces interference patterns of a sample by using birefringent plates that split a polarized beam of light into ordinary and extraordinary rays, then...

A type of birefringent filter, similar in principle to the Lyot filter, consisting of many identical birefringent elements, often arranged in a "fan" or "folded" configuration, positioned between two...

The parameters, relative to polarized light and the Poincaré sphere, that are usually represented as: I, the intensity of the light beam; M, that part of the beam polarized in the horizontal plane;...

A viewer that uses the transmittance of polarized light through glass or a similar medium to examine strained regions. See polariscope.

In polarization-preserving optical fibers, the element used to induce birefringence. The SAP is highly doped to provide a different coefficient of expansion from the rest of the fiber material; when...

A synchrotron is a type of particle accelerator that uses magnetic fields to steer charged particles, typically electrons or positrons, in a closed, circular or elliptical path. The name synchrotron...