Photonics Dictionary: Z

A technique for determining the nonlinear optical properties of a sample material by moving the sample through a focused laser beam and measuring changes in the beam's characteristics, such as...

The introduction of a filter into an imaging system to implement a phase contrast for an intensity mapping of a pure phase image.

A mirror that supplies equal reflectance for both the S-polarization and the P-polarization of a laser for a defined angle of incidence, usually 45°.

In a single-mode optical fiber, the wavelength that causes material dispersion and waveguide dispersion to cancel each other. In a multimode fiber, loose term for the wavelength at which there is a...

The removal of the zero-order component of the Fourier spectrum distribution of an object with a small, opaque absorber or reflector in the Fourier plane, to produce images that appear bright on a...

Schott Glass Technologies' trade name for a glass-ceramic material with a very low coefficient of thermal expansion.

A two-fiber optical cable containing two single-fiber cables that are connected by a strip of jacket and that can easily be separated from one another for the installation of optical connectors.

A small bulb containing a conducting gas, an arc being formed between a metal ring and a tiny zirconium electrode near the center of the ring. The heated zirconium emits light, and constitutes a...

An infrared transmitting material used in the production of fluoride glasses for optical fibers.

Spherical or chromatic aberration in a lens having a wide aperture. It is present because the refracting power varies for different zones concentric at the axis. This is the residual when the lens...

A plate of glass, usually a photograph, on which there is a central spot surrounded by concentric annular zones, alternately opaque and transparent, the radii of the boundaries between the zones...

An optical system of variable focal length, the focal plane remaining in a fixed position. This result is achieved by moving some of the components of the system along the lens axis, other components...