Photonics Dictionary: V

A phase-shift interferometer used to detect the relative angular speeds or positions of two concentric rotors.

A laser that has a surface-emitting semiconductor gain element coupled to an external mirror designed to complete the laser resonator. VECSELs can be electrically or optically pumped. The extended...

Consists of a pair of radio telescopes concentrated on a single celestial object. This technique creates a single radio telescope with a diameter equal to the distance between the pair, which allows...

Equipment dependent on the effects of a vacuum. The principal applications in optics are in the coating of lenses and substrates and the fabrication of multilayer interference filters.

A vacuum chamber is a sealed enclosure from which air and other gases are removed to create a low-pressure environment, typically close to or at a complete vacuum. These chambers are often...

Also known as cathodic etching. Surface etching achieved by bombarding an evacuated surface with gas ions.

Short-distance scattering of light in holography caused by random index inhomogeneities and the developing index that interferes with the incident beam, thus recording a hologram of the scattered...

The point of intersection of the optical axis with any centered optical surface.

An aerial photograph produced when the optical axis of the camera is perpendicular to the surface below.

A two-sided mirror suspended by a pendulum mechanism. An autocollimator set normal to such a mirror surface will, by definition, have its optical axis set horizontal.

A type of surface-emitting laser diode that uses dielectric mirrors to produce surface emission. The laser cavity is established in a vertical direction with respect to the plane of the active region.

A disc whose surface contains recorded digital data at high-packing densities arranged in concentric rings. The data, representing video frames, are both recorded and read by a laser beam.

The use of miniature scanners to project raster-scanned video images directly onto the surface of the human retina, eliminating the need for a projection surface.

A photometer that permits visual comparison of the luminance of two surfaces.

Volume Bragg gratings (VBGs) are specialized optical elements that consist of periodic variations in refractive index throughout the volume of a transparent material, typically a photosensitive glass...

Volumetric imaging refers to the capture, visualization, and analysis of three-dimensional (3D) information from a volume of space. Unlike traditional two-dimensional (2D) imaging, which provides...