An EMCCD (electron-multiplying charge-coupled device) camera is a type of scientific camera specifically designed for low-light imaging applications that require high sensitivity and fast readout speeds. EMCCD cameras utilize a specialized sensor...

Lithography is a key process used in microfabrication and semiconductor manufacturing to create intricate patterns on the...

The phenomenon observed by A.H. Compton in 1923 -- that some scattered radiation possesses a longer wavelength and...

A synchrotron is a type of particle accelerator that uses magnetic fields to steer charged particles, typically electrons or...

Interferometric modulator display (IMOD) is a type of display technology used in electronic devices, known for its energy...

The figure seen through or imaged by an optical system. It may contain structures, natural or artificial, or it may be the...

That point on the optical axis of a lens, to which an incident bundle of parallel light rays will converge.

Any of the constants that relate the tendency of the director to remain parallel to restoring torques throughout the media....

In the context of electronics and semiconductor manufacturing, a wafer refers to a thin, flat disk or substrate made of a...

A dispersion-shifted fiber (DSF) refers to a type of optical fiber designed to minimize the effects of chromatic dispersion,...

An ophthalmic instrument used to measure the magnitude and direction of the maximum and minimum powers of a spectacle lens,...

In a camera or cathode-ray tube, distortion that is designated by a lateral skewing of the reproduced image.

An amplifying device with a wide tuning range in which an electron gun sends a beam of electrons into a slow-wave structure....

Liquid crystals are a state of matter that exhibits properties intermediate between those of conventional liquids and solid...

In Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS), an incident photon (usually laser light) interacts with acoustic phonons in a...

A laser rangefinder is a device that uses laser technology to measure the distance between the device and a target. It...

The surface of an element of a compound lens that will produce the cemented interface. The curves of this interface are...

The decrease in the refractive index at the center of a fiber's core, caused by certain fabrication techniques. Also called...

Spatial resolution refers to the level of detail or granularity in an image or a spatial dataset. It is a measure of the...

Hyperspectral imaging is an advanced imaging technique that captures and processes information from across the...

A technique for detecting free radicals by their electronic spectra. The material to be studied is placed in a...

Also called complementary dominant wavelength. On a chromaticity diagram, the wavelength on the spectrum locus that lies on...

The degree to which a laser beam is aligned parallel to the housing axis.

Any noise with a power spectral density that is the inverse of the signal's frequency and is therefore most significant for...

Topology is a branch of mathematics that focuses on the properties of space that are preserved under continuous...

Spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS) is a technique that extends traditional Raman spectroscopy by incorporating...

A soft, malleable, stable rare-earth element. Holmium laser systems are used in surgical procedures involving the cutting...

A character generation CRT that functions on the principle of secondary emission. The target holds a set of aluminum...

A partially filled or empty energy band through which electrons can move easily. The material can therefore carry an...

Charged frozen pellets that are rapidly bombarded with a focused high-power laser to form a dense plasma that can be heated...

A lab-on-a-chip (LOC) is a miniaturized device that integrates various laboratory functions and capabilities onto a single,...

An image intensifier, also known as an image intensification tube or image intensification device, is a specialized...

A ruticon is an opto-electronic device in which light going through it can be modulated by an electric field. The...

Indium phosphide (InP) is a compound semiconductor material composed of indium (In) and phosphorus (P). It belongs to the...

Process for growth of solar cells that results in rectangular shapes consisting of many interconnected cells in a series or...

Photobleaching is a phenomenon in which the fluorescence of a fluorophore (a fluorescent molecule or dye) is permanently...

A specific gas-filled tube designed to illustrate the luminous effects of discharges through rarefied gases.

A corner cube, also known as a corner reflector or retroreflector prism, is a type of optical device used to reflect light...

1. In a polished surface, concentric waves that appear as zones in Newton's rings when a test glass is applied. 2. An...

A device composed of dissimilar metals that, when welded together, develop a small voltage dependent upon the relative...

Piezoelectric motion systems are mechanical systems that utilize piezoelectric materials to generate controlled motion or...

An area in which airborne particulates can be monitored and controlled so that given size particles do not exceed a...

A semiconductor is a type of material that has electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. In...

An electrowetting display (EWD) is a type of electronic display technology that utilizes the principles of electrowetting to...

A very high bandwidth communication line often used in fiber optics.

An approximated measure of the smallest change in color temperature detectable by the human eye, defined as the reciprocal...

The line from a spark or other very hot source that has greater intensity than that of a line produced by an arc or flame...

FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) spectrometer is a powerful analytical instrument used to obtain an infrared spectrum of...

A camera used to reduce originals onto film for easy storage. There are two basic types: one in which the film is fixed...

A light therapy that utilizes nonionizing light sources, including lasers, LEDs, and broadband light, in the visible and...

A telescope lens is a primary optical component of a telescope system that gathers and focuses light to form an image. It is...

The base used to hold an astronomical telescope. It may be either altazimuth, with horizontal and vertical axes of rotation,...

A vacuum chamber is a sealed enclosure from which air and other gases are removed to create a low-pressure environment,...

A laser system consisting of a planar PN junction within a single crystal of gallium arsenide. The pair of parallel,...

The alignment process that makes the optical axes of two related systems parallel to each other. Also, making the optical...

A miniature projecting device designed to enhance and reproduce the image generated by a smaller image-forming instrument....

Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) refers to a technology that converts heat energy into electricity using the principles of...

Thermography is a technique that involves the use of an infrared imaging device, called a thermal camera or infrared camera,...

A diffraction grating is an optical component consisting of a surface with a periodic structure of equally spaced, parallel...

The production of rough glass lens blanks that are pressed while red-hot to the approximate size and shape of the finished...

A prism produced by severing a Nicol prism and reconstructing the polarization angles of the two halves so that they are...

With respect to television, a potentiometer that allows variation of the intensity of the different elements of an image and...

One of the constants h, k, f or I, used to demonstrate any set of parallel planes in a crystal of the hexagonal system.

A photographic recording instrument that measures deviation from the vertical of a drilled well or mine.

Image displacement by a decentered lens, rotated on a chuck whose axis of rotation passes through the geometrical center of...

A controlled random search process, such as generalized simulated annealing, that has been incorporated into many optical...

Specified curved optic intended for maximum collection of light, including off-axis rays, before leaving the exit aperture.

In optics and photolithography, a phase mask refers to a device that modifies the phase of light waves passing through it....

The letter form used on visual performance test charts. The overall letter height is equal to five times the thickness of...

In biaxial crystals, the principal angle that bisects the smaller angle between the optic axes.

A fiber optic cable assembly refers to a complete unit consisting of optical fibers, connectors, protective jackets, and...

Convex is an adjective used to describe a surface or shape that curves outward, bulges, or has a rounded and outwardly...

A dark band that may appear in the field of crossed Nicol prisms with a powerful source such as the sun because the light is...

Liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) is a display technology that combines liquid crystal materials with silicon-based...

A device that provides means for accurately moving minuscule tools over the surface of a microscopic object. The motion...

A single number, defined by the computer program or the user that expresses the performance of an optical system. Also known...

A term applied to rays that possess the same focal point, which may be infinity, thereby meaning that the rays are parallel.

An electron-beam tube with power-handling capability that is essentially based on controlled electron beams. Its control and...

Swept-source optical coherence tomography is an imaging technique used in medical diagnostics, particularly in...

The frequency domain is a concept used in signal processing and analysis to represent signals and data in terms of their...

Tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS) is a powerful technique that combines Raman spectroscopy with the enhanced spatial...

In infrared imaging systems used for mass screening of printed circuit boards or other quality control applications, an...

A discharge tube filled with various gases and used as a source in spectroscopy.

A fluorophore is a molecule or a portion of a molecule that has the ability to emit light upon excitation by an external...

Cyan, magenta and yellow. They are called subtractive because they each subtract one color by absorbtion and reflect the two...

Filoviruses are a family of viruses that are responsible for severe and often fatal hemorrhagic fevers in humans and...

A noncrystalline, inorganic mixture of various metallic oxides fused by heating with glassifiers such as silica, or boric or...

A wave in which energy is focused near a boundary separating materials having different properties. Propagation of the wave...

An autocollimator is an optical instrument used for measuring small angular deviations with high precision. It operates on...

A solar simulator is a device used to replicate the spectrum and intensity of sunlight in a controlled environment for...

In a communications network, a point at which data are received or from which they are sent. Though the term often is used...

Device consisting of a laser diode, beam-correcting optics and collimating optics in a single housing. Also called a...

Magnetorheological finishing (MRF) is a precision optics polishing technique used for shaping and finishing optical surfaces...

A technique for confining atoms, molecules or small particles within one or more laser beams. This can be accomplished...

An array or mosaic of optical surfaces. May be a number of lenses closely packed to form multiple images or many parallel...

An accelerometer is a sensor or transducer that measures the rate of change of velocity of an object, or in simpler terms,...

A spectrometric instrument that detects radiation simultaneously in multiple channels, sorts it spectrally from the deep...

A well controlled thin films technique for growing films with good crystal structure in ultra high vacuum environments at...

A method of manufacturing polycrystalline infrared-transmitting optical fiber by heating a single halide crystal billet and...

Chirality is a property of certain molecules and objects in which they are non-superimposable on their mirror images. In...

An astronomical telescope is a type of optical instrument designed to gather and magnify light from distant celestial...

The interference of the two real images formed by a Billet split lens.

A high-resolution spectroscopic device commonly used in the early 20th century as a component of double-beam...

A pair of waveguides with axes normal to the plane and that guide uniform cylindrical waves.

A hole filled with dirt such as a polishing abrasive and located in an optical surface. See dig; scratch.

A method of image dissection whereby a lens transfers images onto a lenticular plate that in turn illustrates the images as...

A positioning drive that rotates a fraction of a 360° turn when the motor coils are activated, resulting in linear or...

A molecular motor refers to a nano-sized device composed of organic molecules or other small-scale components that can...

A grating that serves to provide higher resolution and dispersion than the average grating, and still has a greater free...

Laser lithotripsy is a medical procedure that uses laser energy to break down or fragment stones in various parts of the...

1. A compound lens consisting of two elements. If there is an air space between the elements it is called an...

A Nernst glower, also known simply as a Nernst lamp or Nernst filament, is a type of incandescent lamp or radiant heater...

A dielectric sphere with an index of refraction that varies with distance from the sphere center. A parallel beam of rays is...

A plane-parallel interferometer that yields extremely high contrast over a wide range of finesse values without...

The least space between two parallel lines that can be discriminated as a gap to the human eye. It is measured in terms of...

A crystal often used for windows and refracting components in the ultraviolet, visible and infrared. Characteristically,...

A form of liquid crystal widely used in displays, achieved by sandwiching a liquid crystal material between two substrates...

A convex or positive lens that serves to collect energy and direct it into subsequent system optics.

GigE, short for gigabit Ethernet, refers to a standard for high-speed Ethernet communication, capable of transmitting data...

Remote sensing is a method of data collection and observation where information about objects, areas, or phenomena on...

Also called scanning laser acoustic microscope. A device that uses high-frequency ultrasound waves to penetrate surfaces. A...

Hardware installed on fiber cable ends to provide cable attachment to a transmitter, receiver or other cable. Usually a...

A prism made up of two air-spaced components. It has the ability to revert, and not invert, an image, and can be used in...

In general, changes in one oscillation signal caused by another, such as amplitude or frequency modulation in radio which...

A microdisplay is a miniature electronic display technology that is designed to project visual information onto a small...

The point on the optical axis of a lens that is the image of the nodal points. For any bundle of rays passing through the...

A crystalline-quartz plate designed according to specifications but having its two major faces parallel.

When, for example, a beam of monochromatic light passes through a diffraction grating, the emergent rays that have remained...

The point spread function (PSF) is a fundamental concept in imaging that describes the response of an imaging system to a...

Also known as zonal axis. The axis positioned through the center of a crystal that is parallel to a zone edge.

A laser having a Q-switching method that allows separate parallel volumes of the lasing material to act independently of...

The slits in a spectrograph that form images of spectral lines. Slits may be bilateral or unilateral, and generally close...

An image-processing device that scans in a straight line parallel to the axis of a rotating cylinder to which the material...

In optics, an image is the reconstruction of light rays from a source or object when light from that source or object is...

A hydrogel is a three-dimensional network of polymer chains that are hydrophilic, meaning they have a strong affinity for...

The condition of the numerical aperture or beam diameter of the laser, LED, or other optical source being larger than the...

An acronym for communications intelligence, referring to the collection of communications signals in the VHF and UHF...

The recording achieved when a surface, illuminated by a signal-controlled light beam, emits electrons or reacts in some...

A manufacturing process used to construct substrates for large optical components. Used with IR materials, planform bonding...

A fiber laser is a type of laser in which the active gain medium is an optical fiber doped with rare-earth ions such as...

Extremely small organic and inorganic systems of molecules within a substance. In general, systems are colloidal size in...

In a laser diode, the photocurrent produced by a photodiode that detects the emission from the rear facet of the...

The multiple beam form of Brewster's fringes formed when the two plane-parallel plates have high-reflecting surfaces.

A pattern on an oscilloscope display that consists of a string of shapes that resemble eyes. Because the pattern becomes...

Glass consisting of almost pure silicon dioxide (SiO2). Also called vitreous silica. Frequently used in optical fibers and...

Cold atoms refer to atoms that have been cooled to extremely low temperatures, typically in the microkelvin (µK) to...

Best point of focus for an image in a beam of light at the smallest cross section of the beam.

A photovoltaic cell, commonly known as a solar cell, is a semiconductor device that directly converts light energy into...

An electric discharge between two carbon rods that are touched together to start the arc and then separated slightly. The...

A form of dispersing prism, often used in monochromators, that consists of a common right-angle prism with a 30°...

Photoimmunotherapy (PIT) is a medical treatment approach that combines elements of phototherapy and immunotherapy to target...

A large tank filled with liquid hydrogen, with a flat window at one end and complex optical devices for observing and...

State typically studied in liquid crystals in which the dielectric coefficient parallel to the director is less than the...

Micro-robotics refers to the field of robotics that involves the design, development, and application of miniature robotic...

An optical barcode reader, commonly known as a barcode scanner, is a device that uses optical technology to capture and...

The collection and detection of x-rays by virtue of their ionizing properties. The ionization may be perceived directly by a...

A Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter that forms at temperatures close to absolute zero. It is named after...

A compact optical projection system, mounted on or built into a helmet, and used to project data or a scene directly into...

An apparatus, designed for use with a camera, that is used to rapidly open the path from lens to film, to maintain the...

Microfluidics is a multidisciplinary field that involves the manipulation and control of very small fluid volumes, typically...

Fluorescence is a type of luminescence, which is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other...

A form of shearing interferometer that contains a simple wedged (plane-parallel) glass plate with a nonzero optical path...

A form of high-power microscope objective where the space between the object and the first element is filled with an oil...

A terahertz spectrometer is a scientific instrument used to measure and analyze the properties of materials in the terahertz...

Also called color blocking. The formation of a block by making optical contact between a number of optical elements and a...

All formulas that present the index of refraction as a function of a wavelength of electromagnetic radiation. Also called...

1. The branch of physics that deals with the use of electrical energy to create or manipulate light waves, generally by...

A sapphire window refers to a transparent optical component made from sapphire crystal. Sapphire is a single-crystal form of...

Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, is a manufacturing process that involves creating three-dimensional...

A flexible display refers to a type of electronic visual display that is designed to be bendable, foldable, or rollable,...

A standard source of high-charge-state ions for accelerators that has an external magnetic field oriented perpendicularly to...

Epitaxial refers to the growth of a crystalline layer on a crystalline substrate in such a way that the orientation of the...

A method of measuring flow velocity by seeding the flow with neutrally buoyant particles and using a pulsed laser to...

Phase matching is a crucial concept in the field of optics, particularly in nonlinear optics and the generation of coherent...

An electron-gun system is an assembly used to generate and control a focused beam of electrons. Electron guns find...

A screen composed of a sheet of diffusing plastic material that reveals excellent image detail for close viewing. It is...

A small xenon-filled tube with metal electrodes fused into the ends. The gas flashes brilliantly when a condenser is...

A concave mirror that has the form of a paraboloid of revolution. The paraboloidal mirror may have only a portion of a...

Nd:YAG laser refers to a solid-state laser that utilizes neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:Y3Al5O12) as the gain...

A five-sided prism containing two reflecting surfaces at 45° to each other, and two refracting faces perpendicular to...

A compound lens combination whose astigmatic difference is zero for one or more off-axis zones in the image plane. In such a...

A double-plate device used to transmit polarized light and form interference fringes of the light, thus indicating its...

Translucent collector developed to compensate for the partial blocking of a flat surface's collection angle that normally...

Plasmon ion-assisted deposition (PIAD) is a technique used in thin-film deposition processes, particularly in the production...

The smallest linear diameter to which a laser or other beam of radiant energy is capable of being focused, depending on the...

A telescope objective with excellent spherochromatic correction, consisting of a meniscus crown and a meniscus flint, both...

A temperature-controlled container used to stabilize the temperature and resonant frequency of a crystal found in a...

A screen with a reflected or transmitted light beam that is confined to a much smaller bundle than was received by the...

A reflection grating is an optical component that consists of a series of closely spaced, parallel reflecting surfaces or...

In optics, a motion controller refers to a device or system that precisely controls the movement of optical components, such...

Seidel aberrations refer to a set of monochromatic aberrations in optical systems, named after the German mathematician and...

An aplanatic surface is an optical surface that is specifically designed or shaped to minimize spherical aberration and...

The use of a reflective device, which can be fashioned from a variety of materials including gases, solids, dyes, aerosols,...

A hyperspectral imaging camera is a sophisticated imaging device capable of capturing and processing data across a wide...

1. The SI unit of length equal to 10-6 m. Also called micron. 2. A screw thread device used to make accurate physical linear...

A matrix-controlled display that has information storage at the display surface, and requires that an element be addressed...

A qubit, short for quantum bit, is the fundamental unit of information in quantum computing and quantum information...

Liquid marble refers to a unique form of microscale liquid encapsulation, where small droplets of liquid are coated with a...

Neuromorphic refers to the design and development of computing systems or devices that are inspired by the structure and...

A digital camera is a device that captures and records still images or video in digital format. Unlike traditional film...

A beam shaper is an optical device or system designed to modify the spatial profile or intensity distribution of a laser or...

Remote inspection refers to the process of inspecting, evaluating, or monitoring assets, equipment, infrastructure, or...

The dielectric coefficient parallel to the director in a liquid crystal display (LCD), rather than perpendicular to the...

In optics, "mode beating" refers to an interference phenomenon that can occur in laser systems with multiple longitudinal...

The radiation-free transition that takes place within an ion, in which inner-shell vacancies in neutral atoms are filled by...

Total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy is an advanced fluorescence microscopy technique that leverages the...

1. A polariscope consisting of a Savart plate and a tourmaline plate analyzer, and used to produce parallel color fringes by...

A transistor that uses an electro-luminescent source, a transparent base and a photoelectric collector.

A grating beamsplitter is an optical device that utilizes the principles of diffraction to split a beam of light into...

A large telescope mirror fabricated from several smaller sections.

Piezoelectric transducers are devices that utilize the piezoelectric effect to convert electrical energy into mechanical...

An antigen is any substance that is capable of triggering an immune response in an organism. Antigens are typically proteins...

Radiation in which every ray from any given object point can be considered to be parallel to every other. This is never...

A multilayer antireflective thin-film coating, so called because its reflectance rises steeply at wavelengths above and...

Technique that provides two stereographic views of an object that are larger than the object itself, by means of mutually...

In fiber optics, a device used to polish a biconic plug to a specified length and surface finish. Also called a polishing...

A PIN photodiode is a type of photodetector or semiconductor device used to convert light signals into electrical signals....

An arc lamp that has its cavity filled with krypton to produce a light source with unique characteristics.

A spheric lens, also known as a spherical lens, is a type of optical lens with at least one surface that is part of a...

An accurate metal prism or plane parallel plate that is cemented to an optical element and remains with it during a series...

Thermal interface materials (TIMs) are substances or compounds used to enhance the thermal conductivity between two surfaces...

A photon jet is a narrow, highly collimated beam of light that is formed when light interacts with small dielectric...

The Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor is an optical device used for measuring the wavefront aberrations of an optical system....

A multiple-beam interferometer, usually consisting of two flat plates, with high reflective ability. The plates are set...

A bolometer that serves to record. The photographic record formed by the bolometer may be called bolograph or bologram.

An electron-beam lithography (EBL) system is a sophisticated nanofabrication tool used in the semiconductor industry and...

A phonon is a quantum of vibrational energy associated with the periodic motion of atoms or molecules in a crystalline...

A microbubble resonator is a device used in photonics and optical physics for the precise manipulation of light waves. It...

The focal length of a lens is the distance between the lens's optical center (or principal point) and the image sensor or...

A pixel, short for "picture element," is the smallest controllable element of a digital image or display. It is a...

A galvanometric scanner, also known as a galvanometer scanner or galvo scanner, is a type of optical scanning device used to...

An assembly of fibers in which the coordinates of each fiber are the same at the two ends of the bundle. Also called...

Machine vision, also known as computer vision or computer sight, refers to the technology that enables machines, typically...

An OLED display that has an integrated electronic backplane as its substrate. Active-matrix OLED displays use at least two...

A waveguide is a physical structure or device that is designed to confine and guide electromagnetic waves, such as radio...

The series of equally spaced parallel slits that make up a scanning aperture in place of a single slit, in the scanning of a...

A variation of tomography, which is a means of visualizing any one of a large set of parallel planes in the patient. A...

An optical system that is designed to produce a high temperature in a specified area by the optical direction and...

Pockels cell or dynamic optical retarder in which the electrical field is applied in a direction parallel to that of light...

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) refers to a specific range of electromagnetic radiation in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum....

Fluorescent proteins are proteins that exhibit the property of fluorescence, which is the ability to absorb light at a...

A laser dye whose absorption coefficient drops at high levels of incident radiation. The phenomenon is often called...

Parallel scanning refers to a method of acquiring data or images simultaneously from multiple sources or in parallel, rather...

The transform defining that, if a reference beam is a divergent spherical wavefront, then the reconstructed image will be...

Also called Geiger-Müller counter. An instrument designed to detect and measure radioactivity through the use of a...

The simultaneous collection of two or more signals at a single location. In a digital computer, it refers to the number of...

A laser skin-resurfacing method that creates microscopic thermal wounds referred to as microscopic treatment zones (MTZs),...

3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing (AM), is a manufacturing process that builds three-dimensional objects...

A specialized form of diffraction grating consisting of assembled glass plates of equal thickness that resemble a flight of...

Light diffracted by a solid (usually quartz in crystal or fused form) traversed by acoustic waves. If the ultrasonic...

The compression and intensification of a laser pulse of a specific width into a smaller pulse width. A spherical cavity, in...

The collection and analysis of data relevant to monitoring the rate and quality of industrial production, either...

A unit of length in the metric system equal to 10-9 meters. It formerly was called a millimicron.

Directed energy refers to a type of energy that is emitted and transferred in a controlled direction. The term is often...

In an optical waveguide, a mode whose field decays monotonically in the transverse direction everywhere external to the core...

The use of the photographic process to produce precision copies of an original image that are many times smaller in size....

A Babinet compensator that contains the controlled motion of one prism with respect to the other. This idea was introduced...

Retroreflection is a phenomenon in optics where light is reflected back toward its source, typically in a direction nearly...

STED microscopy, or stimulated emission depletion microscopy, is a superresolution imaging technique in fluorescence...

The laser output refers to the generated and emitted light produced by a laser system. This output is characterized by...

Plasmonics is a field of science and technology that focuses on the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and free...

Epitaxial equipment refers to a set of specialized tools and systems used in the process of epitaxy, which is the growth of...

A type of flat panel display made up of a layer of gas between two glass plates. The glass is coated with parallel...

An instrument used to measure the light from a scene to be photographed and to indicate the camera lens and shutter settings...

An experimental lens used to produce interference fringes. A positive lens is cut into halves along its center, and the...

Virtual histology refers to the use of digital technology and computational methods to simulate or recreate histological...

A variation in propagation delay caused by differences in group velocity among modes of an optical fiber. Also called...

A laser in which the transition involved in stimulated emission of radiation takes place between two levels of an ionized...

A matrix-controlled display that has no information storage at the display surface.

The analysis of retinal zones in which different hues can be detected. Also called campimetry.

RTSP, or real-time streaming protocol, is a network control protocol designed for controlling streaming media servers. It is...

Array used in coded-aperture imaging experiments with two-beam CO2 lasers that provide an artifact-free process, faithful...

Gram-positive bacteria are a group of bacteria that have a thick cell wall composed primarily of a substance called...

An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) is a type of light-emitting diode (LED) technology that utilizes organic compounds to...

An aspheric mirror is an optical mirror surface that deviates from the shape of a perfect sphere, having a non-spherical...

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot onboard. UAVs are remotely...

A light-harvesting protein found in the purple membrane of a micro-organism called Halobacterium halobium. The protein...

A lock-in amplifier is a specialized electronic instrument used to extract and measure small signals embedded in noise or...

An equation that uses the wavelength of light passing through a medium, along with a set of coefficients, to calculate the...

In a charge-coupled device, the detection of charge collected by the transport register rather than by the image-sensing...

Simulation of atmospheric turbulence for laboratory experimentation purposes, achieved by creating an unstable vertical...

A device that converts data transmitted in the parallel mode to a sequence of bits at a single frequency for output in the...

The ratio of the power of a plane-polarized beam that is transmitted through a polarizer placed in its path with its...

The improper exposure of a radiation-sensitive medium that results when there is too much radiation exposing the medium, or...

A thermal-infrared camera, often referred to simply as a thermal camera, is a type of imaging device that detects infrared...

A device for converting sunlight into electrical energy, consisting of a sandwich of P-type and N-type semiconducting...

Optical cements and adhesives are specialized materials used in the assembly and bonding of optical components in optical...

A direct-vision prism made in one piece that can be used only in parallel light.

Flow chemistry, also known as continuous-flow chemistry, is a chemical manufacturing process where reactions take place in a...

An absorbing coating medium between fibers, used in some fused fiber optic plates to absorb unwanted light. Such coatings...

Quantum confinement refers to the phenomenon in quantum mechanics where the motion of charge carriers, such as electrons or...

An eyepiece consisting of a planoconvex field lens and a cemented doublet as the eye lens.

Area in which laser operation occurs and therefore safety requirements are met and regulations are implemented. Lasers...

Sapphire refers to a crystalline form of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) that is used in various optical and photonic applications...

Referred to as SWCNTs, these cylindrical nanostructures composed of a folded sheet of graphene can be used as near-infrared...

Inertial fusion energy (IFE) refers to a proposed method of generating electricity by harnessing the energy released from...

In spectroscopy, the parallel bands that vary in lightness and darkness or color, and that are formed when light is...

A hologram having an image scale that is orders of magnitude smaller than microfiche images.

A type of mirage that creates a distorted vertical image of relatively flat objects so that they appear as mountains,...

Solid-state laser geometry in which the standard rod is replaced by a slab of laser material. Often called...

The process of lapping a thin edge of metal over the bevelled edge of a lens to maintain it within its cell.

A method of measuring microbending losses in optical fiber by sandwiching a length of fiber between two parallel plates,...

Spectral flow cytometry is an advanced flow cytometry technique that expands the capabilities of traditional flow cytometry...

A laser cavity, also known as an optical cavity or resonator, is a fundamental component of a laser system. It is a confined...

The ratio of aperture area over receiving area for a specific lens. Also called geometric concentration.

Component that is externally controlled via electronic or photon signal.

The process of transferring collected energy from solar radiation into a heat-absorbing medium (e.g., an insulated tank of...

A telescope that corrects dispersion and spherical aberration through the use of one or more lenses, usually smaller than...

A GRIN (gradient index) lens is a type of optical lens that utilizes a gradient in refractive index across its volume rather...

A plane in a crystal that lies parallel to the principal plane of symmetry.

In data communications, the simultaneous operation of a circuit in both directions is known as full duplex; if only one...

Turbidity is a measure of the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by the presence of suspended particles. These...

Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a method of secure communication that utilizes principles from quantum mechanics to...

An optical grating, in the context of optics and physics, refers to a device with a periodic structure of closely spaced,...

1. In a plane Cartesian coordinate system, the vertical axis orthogonal to the X-axis. 2. In a quartz crystal structure, the...

An optical instrument, generally a polarizing microscope, that is used to determine the interference figures and optical...

A linear image sensor is a type of solid-state electronic device used to capture and convert light into electrical signals....

A charged elementary particle of an atom; the term is most commonly used in reference to the negatively charged particle...

Functional materials refer to materials that possess specific properties or functionalities that make them suitable for...

A liquid crystal light valve (LCLV), also known as a spatial light modulator (SLM), is an optical device that modulates the...

The parallel resistance and capacitance appearing between the active guard ring junctions in a silicon photodiode.

Spectroscopy characterized by the Mossbauer effect - recoilless emission and absorption of nuclear gamma radiation- which...

Concave is an adjective used to describe a surface or shape that curves inward or has a hollow or recessed appearance. In...

Nanophotonics is a branch of science and technology that explores the behavior of light on the nanometer scale, typically at...

A quantum cascade laser (QCL) is a type of semiconductor laser that operates based on the principles of quantum mechanics....

A charge-coupled device (CCD) is a type of electronic image sensor used in various imaging devices, including digital...

An interferometer that functions by first detecting the light striking each aperture and then combining the two detector...

Displacement in a direction perpendicular to that of the intended displacement, as in a translation stage with simple...

Ultraviolet (UV) fiber optics refers to optical fibers that are designed and optimized for the transmission of ultraviolet...

With respect to microscopy, also called dispersive staining, optical staining the projection of colors through areas of a...

A microcomb, short for microresonator frequency comb, is a novel photonic device that generates a precise series of evenly...

The coupling of laser or light beams via nonlinear optical techniques such as four-wave mixing to achieve spatial variation...

In the context of optical materials, the term "impurity level" refers to the presence of foreign atoms or molecules within...

A lens is a transparent optical device that focuses or diverges light, allowing it to pass through and form an image. Lenses...

Rate at which optical radiation or a signal is varied through the use of a mechanical or electronic chopper. Also called...

An evacuated, double-walled container for storing liquids at low temperatures. Often made of glass, the vessel resembles a...

Differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy, also known as Nomarski interference contrast microscopy, is an optical...

A form of liquid crystal with an appearance of moving, threadlike structures, particularly visible when observed in thick...

A nanotube, also known as a nanotubule or simply a tube-like structure, is a nanoscale cylindrical structure composed of...

Diamond turning, also known as diamond machining or diamond cutting, is a precision machining process used to produce...

The resulting interference pattern generated from moiré deflectometry, the moiré pattern is a pattern...

The spatial distribution of incident and collected flux contained in the analysis of reflectance, transmittance or densities.

Unused fiber; fiber that has been installed but reserved for future use. Carrying no light.

A cell filled with a transparent material that, when placed in a strong electrical field, exhibits double refraction. Since...

Optical glass refers to a type of glass specifically engineered and manufactured for use in optical components and systems,...

In visual perception, the smallest difference in illumination perceived on the average.

The instrument used to collect thermal radiation information on an object by scanning. It consists basically of a detector,...

In television system specifications, the number of parallel horizontal black and white lines of equal thickness, that can be...

A pair of long, slender parallel apertures used in experiments on diffraction and interference.

Two flat parallel electrodes that are vertically mounted alongside each other in a cathode-ray tube and produce horizontal...

A collection of color samples arranged in charts according to equal visually spaced steps in Munsell hue, value and chroma.

Polymers are large molecules composed of repeating structural units called monomers. These monomers are chemically bonded...

Descriptive of an optical fiber having a core refractive index that decreases almost parabolically and radially outward...

The internet of things (IoT) refers to a network of interconnected physical devices, vehicles, appliances, and other objects...

An impurity-doped silicon detector array sensitive to long infrared wavelengths, installed in optical collecting systems...

A scattering photometer using scattered light in the solid angle 4.51+0 19° with respect to the forward direction, and...

In a heterodyne optical receiver, the frequency that is the difference between that of an incoming laser signal and that of...

The method by which Thomas Young in 1802 disproved Newton's corpuscular theory of light by the formation of interference...

1. A thin parallel plate of material that transmits in the infrared region. See infrared optical material. 2. A spectral...

Noise generated in the flow of current in the photomultiplier, produced by the intentional or controlled application of...

In the context of materials science and semiconductor physics, doping refers to the intentional introduction of impurities...

An LED, or light emitting diode, is a semiconductor device that emits light when an electric current passes through it. LEDs...

A spectroradiometer is a device used to measure the intensity of light at different wavelengths across the electromagnetic...

A detector-Dewar assembly typically refers to a combination of a detector and a Dewar flask used in scientific instruments,...

A laser diode module is a compact device that incorporates a laser diode, optics, and often other components into a single...

An OLED display formed by creating an array of OLED pixels connected by intersecting anode and cathode conductors arranged...

An optical system used to collect infrared energy from a scene using scanning optics with a point or line detector, as...

A nonlinear crystal used to modulate a polarized beam of light by means of the Pockels effect. A Pockels cell is used as a...

A positioning slide mechanism with two rows of alternately crisscrossed cylindrical rollers.

Lens testing equipment refers to a range of specialized tools and instruments used to evaluate the optical performance,...

In imaging, the processing of pixel data in such a way that a group of pixels is analyzed at one time rather than one pixel...

A series of solar cells arranged to collect solar radiation and to generate a given amount of electrical energy.

Optical elements, often created by micromachining, lithography or vacuum deposition, that rely on diffraction of the...

A network interface card (NIC), also known as a network adapter or LAN adapter, is a hardware component that allows...

Computerized lens design algorithm that permits the lens MTF characteristic to be included and controlled during the...

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a widely used molecular biology technique used to amplify a specific segment of DNA...

An astronomical mirror, also known as a telescope mirror or primary mirror, is a key component of a reflecting telescope. It...

The coefficient termed by Callier as the ratio between the density of photographic negatives measured by parallel light and...

Fusion ignition refers to the point in a controlled nuclear fusion reaction where the energy released by the fusion...

Nanoparticle photonic resonator absorption microscopy is a microscopy technique that combines the principles of photonic...

A blur circle refers to the out-of-focus region in an image captured by an optical system. When an object in a scene is not...

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

Superresolution refers to the enhancement or improvement of the spatial resolution beyond the conventional limits imposed by...

In fiber optic cable, containment of the fiber or fibers within an outer protective tube in which they can move to some...

1. The process of aligning the optical axes of optical systems to the reference mechanical axes or surfaces of an...

A measure of an optical system's ability to produce an image which separates two points or parallel lines on the object. See...

A process used in the design, repair and customization of integrated circuits. A low-power laser etches a silicon wafer...

A spectrophotometer is a scientific instrument used to measure the intensity of light at various wavelengths in the...

A camera equipped with angular scales in altitude and azimuth. The scale readings are imprinted on the film when an exposure...

A Dammann grating is a type of diffractive optical element (DOE) used to create an array of equally spaced,...

The state of a liquid crystal in which the molecules are arranged in layers with their long axes in the plane of each layer....

The use of an electric field or signal to couple a lightwave from one dielectric waveguide into another dielectric waveguide.

A method of synthesis for crystals such as KTP. The process involves the use of a high-temperature solution called flux to...

In imaging technology, assigning color to black and white images to differentiate features or convey information. Also...

A diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL) is a type of laser system that uses semiconductor diode lasers to pump energy into...

In solar energy technology, the percent of usable land covered by collectors. The horizontal collector is the only design...

Meta-optics, also known as metasurface optics or flat optics, is a branch of optics that involves the design, fabrication,...

A device that enables visual tracing of a fiber optic cable to check for breaks and defects by coupling visible light into...

A set of algorithms used to study the structural and spatial characteristics of objects in a digitized image for...

Single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer (smFRET) is a specialized technique in biophysics and molecular...

Graphene is a two-dimensional allotrope of carbon consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal...

Molecules composed entirely of carbon, in the form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid or tube. Also called buckyballs....

The term "metaverse" refers to a collective virtual shared space, created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical...

1. A piece of glass with plane parallel surfaces used to admit light into an optical system and to exclude dirt and...

1. In optics, the bending of rays away from each other. 2. In lasers, the spreading of a laser beam with increased distance...

A photoelectrically controlled, alphanumeric reading device that converts characters to audible or sorting signals which can...

A computer architecture used in parallel processing whereby the processing elements are directed by a single, central...

A fiber optic preform is a cylindrical glass rod or tube used as the starting material for manufacturing optical fibers. It...

Concave and convex spherical mirrors are types of curved mirrors that have surfaces shaped like segments of spheres. These...

A wave that is polarized elliptically or circularly polarized and in which the electric field vector — observed while...

A polariton is a quasiparticle resulting from the strong coupling between photons (light particles) and certain types of...

1. That branch of optics that illustrates the theory in which q is substituted for sin q in Snell's law. Effective results...

In computerized industrial process control, the element that determines the choice and sequence of operations dependent on...

A mode of data transmission whereby bits of information are carried simultaneously at different frequencies over a single...

An exciton is a quasiparticle that represents the bound state of an electron and a hole in a solid-state material, typically...

Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon in quantum mechanics where two or more particles become correlated to such an extent...

That plane in an optical system containing its optical axis and the chief ray. Also called the tangential plane.

The Golgi staining technique (also called the black reaction) makes it possible to look at the nervous system by rendering...

Self-phase modulation (SPM) is a nonlinear optical phenomenon that occurs when an intense laser beam passes through a...

A near-infrared (NIR) spectrometer is an analytical instrument used to measure the absorption, transmission, or reflection...

Flow cytometry is a powerful technique used in biology and medicine for the quantitative analysis of the physical and...

A wide-angle lens is a type of camera lens that has a shorter focal length than a standard or normal lens, allowing it to...

A powerful method, referred to as FCS, for determining the average diffusion coefficients of fluorescent molecules in...

A ray that behaves according to paraxial equations; one that lies close to and almost parallel to the optical axis.

A polyethylene grating that transmits the long wavelengths and diffracts shorter wavelengths in controlled directions.

A plane mirror mounted on a polar axis that lies parallel to the plane of the mirror. When the mirror is rotated once in 48...

Operates with light collectively emitted by the recombination of free electrons and ions in the plasma state.

A technical specification for a consumer product drawn up by Sony and Philips. CD/I combines audio, video and text recorded...

Also known as HCS, an analytical method designed to collect statistically relevant amounts of quantitative data on many...

A defect of a binocular instrument causing two images to be seen separately instead of being fused. It is caused when the...

Characteristic of optical analyses that are limited to infinitesimally small apertures. Also called first-order or Gaussian...

High-voltage, fast-discharge circuit named after its inventor, Erwin Marx. Its capacitors are charged in parallel and...

A sensitometer having a continuously controlled monochromator to measure spectral sensitivity and contrast of photographic...

Sapphire crystal refers to a transparent, single-crystal form of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) known as corundum. It is one of the...

A filter that suppresses a given range of frequencies, transmitting only those above and below that band. Also called...

Virtual reality (VR) is a computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional environment or experience that can be...

Metamaterials are artificial materials engineered to have properties not found in naturally occurring substances. These...

In vivo is a Latin term that translates to "within the living." In scientific contexts, particularly in biology and...

A planar photocathode and a planar phosphor screen mounted in a close-spaced parallel configuration in an evacuated...

Able to rotate the plane of polarization of a transmitted, plane-polarized light beam clockwise as seen by a viewer looking...

Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) is an international standard for medical imaging created by both the...

The Weissenberg method, named after the German physicist Karl Weissenberg, is a technique used in x-ray crystallography for...

Camera Link HS (high speed) is a standard developed for high-speed digital data transmission in machine vision and...

Laser texturing is a manufacturing process that involves using a laser beam to selectively modify the surface of a material,...

Metasurfaces are two-dimensional arrays of subwavelength-scale artificial structures, often referred to as meta-atoms or...

A laser-pumped crystal with nonlinear optical properties inside of an optical resonator in which the output generates...

An imaging process in which the single opening of a simple pinhole camera is replaced with many openings called,...

Rayleigh scattering is a phenomenon that occurs when light waves interact with particles or molecules that are much smaller...

In a cylindrical lens, the meridian parallel to the generating lines of the cylindrical surface. In a toric lens, the...

Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is a nanolithography technique used for fabricating nanoscale patterns on a substrate. It is a...

Laser annealing is a process that involves using a laser beam to heat and modify the microstructure of a material, typically...

Controlled beam technology that introduces beams of sunlight through holes in a roof that are relayed throughout the...

A controlled motion system that may use a telescope, camera or antenna to follow accurately a satellite, missile, vehicle or...

A type of recording material, usually a photodielectric polymer, offering in situ development mechanisms because of its...

Optical noise refers to undesirable fluctuations or disturbances in an optical signal that can affect the quality or...

An infrared lens is an optical component specifically designed and optimized for transmitting, focusing, or manipulating...

A parallel plate of glass in such a position that the refracted and reflected rays of incident parallel light are mutually...

A coil used to focus an electron beam by the generation of a magnetic field parallel to the beam.

The fringes used in the Jamin interferometer and produced by light that has been internally and externally reflected by two...

Micro-LED (micro-light-emitting diode) refers to a technology that involves the use of very small light-emitting diodes to...

A computer-generated kinoform used for data processing because of its use of incoherent light and its wide field of view,...

An optical instrument for forming the spectrum of a light source and recording it on a film. The dispersing medium may be a...

A crystalline substance in which all planes are parallel, or approximately parallel.

A polished plano-parallel plate that is contacted to an unpolished glass surface to permit see-through analysis of the...

Computer numerically controlled (CNC) grinding is a manufacturing process that utilizes computerized controls and precision...

An optical assembly refers to a collection of optical components that are carefully arranged and aligned to perform a...

Sputtering equipment is machinery used in the process of physical vapor deposition (PVD), specifically sputtering....

Mie scattering, named after the German physicist Gustav Mie, refers to the scattering of electromagnetic radiation (such as...

A positive lens located at or close to an intermediate image plane. The collector refracts off-axis light bundles, directing...

An interferometer formed by two similar concave spherical mirrors arranged with the center of one sphere on the other...

The ray that passes through the center of the aperture stop in an optical system. It often is called the principal ray of an...

The structure that holds the photographic negative in a proper position that is both flat and parallel to the lens plane, as...

1. That portion of the aperture that functions to collect energy and deliver it to the final system detector. 2. For an...

Whispering gallery mode (WGM) refers to a phenomenon in wave physics, particularly in optics, where waves, such as light or...

A photomultiplier tube (PMT) is a highly sensitive vacuum tube that detects and amplifies low levels of light. It is widely...

A wedge in a rangefinder or heightfinder used to displace the image produced by one telescope so that it coincides with that...

Any structure having the ability to guide the flow of radiant energy along a path parallel to its axis and to contain the...

An instrument that can preselect intervals, often in increments of 1, 10 or 100 ns, for the generation of electronic pulses...

Etaloning is an optical phenomenon that occurs in imaging systems, particularly in devices such as spectrometers,...

Optoacoustic, or photoacoustic, refers to a phenomenon and related techniques that involve the generation of acoustic waves...

A transparent crystalline substance in which the refractive index of the optic axis (extraordinary axis) is different from...

Photolithography is a key process in the manufacturing of semiconductor devices, integrated circuits, and...

The Casimir force is a quantum phenomenon that results in an attractive force between two closely spaced uncharged...

Holography is a technique used to capture and reconstruct three-dimensional images using the principles of interference and...

Freeform mirrors refer to reflective optical components that deviate from traditional symmetric or rotationally symmetric...

A microscope in which laser light is delivered through single-mode fibers that replace the pinhole usually used in confocal...

A spatial light modulator consisting of a metallized polymer film stretched over an array of metal-oxide semiconductor...

Brillouin scattering is a phenomenon in physics where an incident electromagnetic wave (usually light) interacts with...

An optical resonator in which feedback is accomplished by two parallel planes. In diode lasers, the planes are obtained by...

The process whereby a quantum mechanical system alters from one energy level to another. During this process, energy is...

A fish-eye lens designed to photograph cloud formations over the entire visible sky.

A weapon launched from a ground-based platform and controlled by a two-way fiber optic data link. The fiber is payed out...

In optics, a pattern, such as the Buchmann-Meyer pattern, that may be viewed when the record surface is illuminated by a...

Scalar diffraction theory is a simplified approach used to describe the propagation of electromagnetic waves, particularly...

A single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) is a specialized type of photodetector designed to detect extremely weak optical...

The term "excimer," strictly used, refers to excited species made by combination of two identical moieties, atoms...

A telescope stand equipped with a polar axis that can be set parallel to the Earth's axis of rotation and a declination axis...

In microscopy, the measured distance between theoretical parallel lines that are drawn tangent to the particle profile and...

An optical recording technique that uses light source(s), a beamsplitting cube, light detector(s) and an optical fiber...

A reflecting prism that is rhomboidal in shape. It has two parallel transmitting faces, and two parallel reflecting faces;...

Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) is a nondestructive analytical technique used to investigate the optical properties...

An instrument designed to collect naturally formed extraterrestrial electromagnetic radiation within the radio frequency...

The shape of the edge of a concave surface when the depth of the bevel plane to the vertex of the surface is controlled to a...

A negative lens used to increase the effective focal length of a telescope objective.

1. With respect to angular subtense, a source of light, such as a star, that is very small. In a lab, a point source may be...

An instrument used to measure the luminance (brightness) of a distant object. The object is viewed through a small...

A fiber optic end plate constructed by drawing a bundle of parallel fibers embedded in glass and cutting it into thin...

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) equipment refers to a class of specialized apparatus used in the process of chemical vapor...

Off-axis paraboloid and ellipsoid mirrors are specialized optical components used in various optical systems, particularly...

Data or encoded information capable of being eradicated, leaving the media free for rewriting. Also called reversible.

A device in which slab geometry internally compensates for thermal-optic distortion; the solid host material -- glass or...

Blaze height typically refers to a parameter in the context of diffraction gratings, which are optical devices consisting of...

A two-mirror lens design used in astronomical telescopes, the primary being a parabola, the secondary a smaller hyperbola....

In vitro is a Latin term that translates to "in glass." In scientific contexts, particularly in biology and medicine, it...

An excimer laser is a type of ultraviolet laser that emits short pulses of light in the ultraviolet spectrum. The term...

The propagation constant evaluated along the axis of a waveguide, that is, in the direction of transmission. Also called...

A small television tube originally developed for closed-circuit television. It is about 1 inch in diameter and 5 inches...

Free-space optics (FSO), also known as optical wireless communication or optical wireless networking, refers to the...

Also called sine wave response and contrast transfer function. The modulation transfer function is the ratio of the...

A microchannel plate (MCP) is a specialized electron multiplier device used in various applications such as particle...

A form of laser output noise that is caused by thermal, mechanical, or acoustical disturbances of the cavity length. Mode...

In gradient index optics, a gradient profile in which the index varies in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis....

Single-mode fiber that preserves the plane of polarization of the light launched into it as the beam propagates through its...

The distance between the surface of a ferrule and the surface of a fiber end, provided that the ferrule extends above the...

The adjustment of a binocular instrument so that the lines of sight of both telescopes are parallel.

There are three types of telecentric lenses: -Image-space telecentric lenses are those in which the aperture stop is...

A technique used in photogrammetry to ensure parallelism during projection printing. Failure to do this will change a...

A fiber-coupled LED (light-emitting diode) refers to an LED device that is optically coupled to an optical fiber for the...

The smallest amount of photon energy to pass a detector window and be counted.

The liquid used in microscopy to fill the space between the high-power objective lens and the microscope slide in order to...

A type of computer in which the electronic circuits, which process data serially, are replaced by photonic circuits capable...

The photomicrographic recording of Schlieren effects, irregular refractions of light from optic surfaces or areas of thin,...

The smallest object that may be seen, measured in terms of the angle subtended by the object measured at the eye. Also...

A CubeSat is a type of miniaturized satellite characterized by its standardized size and modular design. CubeSats are...

The smallest angle through which light is bent by an optical element or system. In a prism, the angle of deviation is a...

An optical medical instrument that uses an intense, precisely focused beam of light to stop weakened blood vessels from...

An infrared camera, also known as a thermal imaging camera or IR camera, is a device that captures and visualizes the...

Freeform optics refers to the design and fabrication of optical surfaces that do not follow traditional symmetric shapes,...

An OLED display that has an integrated electronic backplane as its substrate. Active-matrix OLED displays use at least two...

The parallel orientation of the molecular axes of the nematic molecules in a nematic crystal, relative to the electrode...

An aspheric lens is a type of lens whose surface profiles deviate from the traditional spherical shape. Unlike spherical...

Radiant flux incident per unit area of a surface. Also called radiant flux density.

A circuit that uses feedback to synchronize the phase of a voltage-controlled oscillator with the phase of an incoming or...

A diagram that uses special symbols called logic symbols to represent the detailed functioning of electronic logic circuits....

Synonym for multimode distortion. Also called mode dispersion.

A Fresnel lens is a type of optical lens that consists of a series of concentric grooves or steps carved into a flat, thin...

A Risley prism, also known as a Risley prism pair or Risley rotating prism, is an optical device used for controlling the...

The halo phenomenon of a brightly colored arc having the colors of the rainbow and lying parallel to the horizon.

A unit of length in the metric system equal to one millionth of a meter (10-6 m). Also called micrometer. Abbreviated...

The number of fields scanned per second in a television system. The US standard is 60. Also called field frequency.

A process used to control thickness and parallelism precisely during the production of plane-parallel plates. Elements are...

Photonic crystals are artificial structures or materials designed to manipulate and control the flow of light in a manner...

Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that involves the use of artificial neural networks to model and solve complex...

In a fiber optic cable, the longitudinal length required for the transmission media, wrapped around a central member, to...

A device used in solar systems to direct mirror-reflected sunlight to a heat absorber and heat-driven engine, which turns a...

Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) refers to a technology used in the fabrication of integrated circuits,...

An array of optically distinct fibers that are fused into one strand. They are used to keep the resolution efficiency of the...

A shutter having one or more roller blinds of material with a variable slit that moves across the back of the camera when...

Biometrics refers to the automated recognition of individuals based on their physiological or behavioral characteristics....

A PN-PN device with incident light taking the place of gate current; three of the four semiconductor regions are available...

The scanning of a region in a given sequence of slender, straight parallel strips.

A reagent is a substance or compound that is used in a chemical reaction to bring about a specific transformation or to...

The entrance slit, also known simply as the slit, is an essential component in optical instruments such as spectrometers and...

A discharge lamp filled with deuterium to produce high-intensity ultraviolet radiation for use in spectroscopic analysis.

Fused quartz and silica are closely related materials, both composed primarily of silicon dioxide (SiO2), but they are...

The study of the physics of x-rays, where the x-rays exhibit properties similar to those of lightwaves. Also called Roentgen...

The physical distance, measured along the optical axis, from the object to the image. Also called overall length.

A chart on paper or glass containing a series of sets of lines at progressively smaller spacing and used to ascertain the...

A device used to measure directional reflectance, with light collection restricted to a narrow range of angles of which the...

The amount by which an optical surface deviates from its ideal design value, expressed in wavelengths of light. Optical...

A phenomenon, exploited for medical imaging, in which the nuclei of material placed in a strong magnetic field will absorb...

A single positive lens or group of lenses used in a projection system to collect light from a source and cause it to...

Similar to LASCR, except that all four regions are available.

When uncontrolled laser energy leaks from a laser cavity prematurely, it causes serious damage to optical components and...

The angle subtended by two points or lines that are just far enough apart to be distinguished as separate. The ability of an...

A machine vision system is an integrated combination of hardware and software components designed to capture, process, and...

Carrier injection refers to the process of introducing charge carriers (either electrons or holes) into a semiconductor...

A mass-relieving method whereby material is removed through the sides of a reflector in a direction parallel to the surface....

Two-photon polymerization (TPP) is a technique used in additive manufacturing, specifically in the field of 3D printing. It...

A transparent lead-lanthanum zirconate titanate ceramic with optical qualities that can be controlled by applying voltages...

An optical clock is a highly precise and advanced timekeeping device that relies on the oscillations of electromagnetic...

A MEMS fiber optic switch is a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) device designed to selectively route optical signals...

An Abbe condenser in which the upper lens element is fixed. The lower lens may focus the illumination between the elements...

A micro-ring resonator is a compact optical device that utilizes the resonant behavior of light within a small ring-shaped...

Process of synthesizing long molecular chain materials (polymers) by reaction of many small molecules (usually thousands)...

Photovoltaic (PV) refers to a technology that converts sunlight directly into electricity using semiconductors. The term...

A plate made up of thousands of glass fibers arranged parallel to one another, i.e., in a coherent bundle, and fused...

A device, also called a fluorescence lifetime instrument, that measures decay curves of fluorescing samples. It generally...

A camera tube widely used in television broadcasting. It consists of three sections within a single vacuum envelope. 1. A...

The apparent luminance of the image as seen through an optical system. This brightness of the image is determined by the...

Terahertz (THz) refers to a unit of frequency in the electromagnetic spectrum, denoting waves with frequencies between 0.1...

A type of radiation detector that depends on the ionization produced in a gas by the passage of a charged particle through...

Abbreviated SoC. A single chip containing all the electronic circuits required for a complete, working product. SoCs are...

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a powerful analytical technique that enhances the Raman scattering signal of...

Thin-film deposition equipment refers to machinery and tools used in the process of depositing thin layers of material onto...

A thermoplastic, self-extinguishing polymer with excellent high-temperature, low-creep and arc resistance properties.

A repeater that is designed for digital transmission. Also called a regenerator.

A diverging lens is a type of lens that causes parallel rays of light to spread out or diverge. It is thinner in the center...

In image processing, mathematical operations that change spatial geometry, as for instance scaling, translating, rotating or...

The smallest area of uniform brightness that can be seen by the eye. It is measured in terms of the solid angle subtended by...

A fiber optic spectrometer is a device used for measuring the spectral content of light. It utilizes optical fibers to...

An event-based image sensor, also known as a dynamic vision sensor (DVS), is a type of digital imaging device designed to...

A Peltier cooler, also known as a thermoelectric cooler (TEC) or thermoelectric module, is a solid-state device that uses...

Prediction based on observations of nuclear masses in the valley of stability that indicates the maximum number of electrons...

A semiconductor device that functions as an electrically controlled switch for AC loads.

A detector array refers to a collection of individual detector elements arranged in a two-dimensional grid or matrix format....

A beam of light whose electrical field amplitude distribution is Gaussian. When such a beam is circular in cross section,...

A high-quality focuser that uses rollers rather than gears and offers smooth, precise motion while reducing or eliminating...

Optical materials refer to substances or compounds specifically chosen for their optical properties and used in the...

A system consisting of two or more Geiger-Müller counters, connected in coincidence with their centers on an axis. The only...

A fast, wide-angle lens used in television and photographic cameras, with excellent overall correction, but subject to...

Also called DLIP, a high-speed, high-resolution processing technique that uses high-power, pulsed laser systems to directly...

Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is a method of achieving nuclear fusion, a process where two atomic nuclei combine to...

The process of creating a large, panoramic image by aligning and joining a set of smaller images. Image processing is used...

An instrument devised by Nichols and Hull for use in the measurement of radiation pressure. The device has two small...

A prism formed by dividing a Nicol prism in a plane parallel to the path of vibration of the transmitted light and taking...

Raman spectroscopy is a technique used in analytical chemistry and physics to study vibrational, rotational, and other...

Integration time, in the context of optics, imaging systems, and sensor technology, refers to the duration over which a...

A fiber-coupled photoconductive antenna (FCPA) is a type of optoelectronic device that combines a photoconductive antenna...

Photoplethysmography (PPG) is a non-invasive optical technique used to detect changes in blood volume in tissues. It...

Wide-field fluorescence microscopy uses either naturally occurring structures or staining with fluorescent tags that are...

An optical system having two sets of components separated by an air space, while successive lenses in each set are cemented...

The use of atoms, molecules and molecular-scale structures to enhance existing technology and develop new materials and...

A wave whose surfaces of constant phase are infinite parallel planes normal to the direction of propagation.

Also called coating jig allowance. That margin on an optical component that is outside the clear aperture for use in holding...

Nanopositioning refers to the precise and controlled movement or manipulation of objects or components at the nanometer...

A lens made from transparent plastic material. Lenses over 31/2 in. in diameter are usually machined, ground and polished....

An electromagnon is a quasiparticle excitation that combines aspects of both magnetism and electric polarization in a...

A device for inducing mode coupling in an optical fiber. Also, a device composed of one or more optical fibers in which...

Also called proximity focus image intensifier. A compact image intensifier that utilizes a microchannel plate...

A display that is formed in an X-Y manner; i.e., two inputs allow control of X2 elements.

Selective laser melting (SLM) is an additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing technology that belongs to the powder bed...

A coherent fiber bundle (CFB), also known as a coherent fiber optic bundle, is an assembly of multiple optical fibers...

A simple electrostatic lens with a focus controlled by a single potential difference.

Phase contrast microscopy is an optical microscopy technique that enhances the contrast of transparent and colorless...

A computer architecture used in parallel processing whereby all the processing elements are operating under their own local...

A computer whose architecture contains several CPU chips arranged in parallel. Often used in image processing systems.

In a liquid crystal system, the director refers to the local symmetry axis around which the long range order of the liquid...

A collector for photovoltaic power generation that consists of a thin plate that strongly absorbs sunlight striking its...

Spectroscopy used to study the concentration, diffusion and Brownian motion of small particles suspended in a fluid by...

The chromatic resolving power of a prism is invariably stated for the case in which parallel rays of light are incident on...

1. The direct storage of data as bits in memory using optical systems and properties. The memory makes use of a laser beam...

A glass that is heated, then chilled (usually by an air blast) to set up internal stresses so that the surfaces are under...

1. An eyepiece or magnifier with a scale at its image plane. That scale is placed in contact with an object, permitting...

A YAG crystal refers to a solid-state crystal made of yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG), which is a synthetic crystalline...

A hologram formed by the recording of a plane object situated in the focal plane of a lens so that each object gives rise to...

Also known as corner-cube reflector or retrodirective reflector. Three reflecting surfaces, perpendicular to each other,...

An optical fiber with a hollow core filled with a liquid material that has a higher refractive index than the solid...

A form of prism invented by H.W. Dove. It resembles half of a common right-angle prism in which a ray entering parallel to...

Pushbroom scanning is a technique used in remote sensing and imaging systems, particularly in satellite and aerial sensors,...

A reticle pattern in a surveying instrument consisting of parallel lines that can be superimposed on a calibrated rod,...

A technique based on the principles of laser trapping and used to manipulate the position of small particles by gradually...

A photomask, also known simply as a mask or reticle, is a key component in the photolithography process used in...

Describes incident radiation propagating parallel to an externally applied magnetic field in magneto-optical experimentation.

The term quantum refers to the fundamental unit or discrete amount of a physical quantity involved in interactions at the...

When light is transmitted through matter, part of the light is scattered in random directions. A small part of the scattered...

The ray of an oblique pencil beam that passes through the center of the pupils. It is the effective axis of the oblique...

Autofluorescence refers to the natural emission of fluorescence exhibited by certain biological structures or molecules when...

A laser having a rod that is a stacked array of discs immersed in a transparent flowing coolant fluid. In this way, the...

Optical tweezers refer to a scientific instrument that uses the pressure of laser light to trap and manipulate microscopic...

The term perovskite refers to a specific crystal structure commonly found in various materials. Perovskite structures have a...

A family of semiconductor switching devices of which the silicon-controlled rectifier and the triac are most commonly used....

An etalon is an optical device that consists of two parallel reflecting surfaces separated by a precise and known distance....

A silicon photodiode is a semiconductor device that converts light into an electrical current. It is a type of photodetector...

An atomic clock is a highly precise timekeeping device that uses the vibrations or oscillations of atoms as a reference for...

An eyepiece having a special prism arrangement linked to a micrometer screw to allow reading of the angular relations...

In television, the number of individual pixels that can be distinguished in a horizontal scanning line; also called...

Hydrophobic is a term used to describe substances or materials that repel or do not readily interact with water. The word...

Ion-beam sputtering (IBS) is a physical vapor deposition (PVD) technique used for depositing thin films onto substrates. It...

In image processing, a morphology operator in which a structuring element or probe of a particular shape is moved over the...

Also called shining. Grinding and polishing one surface of a blank to permit a more thorough examination for quality.

A CCD camera, or charge-coupled device camera, is a type of digital camera that utilizes a CCD image sensor to capture and...

In a thermal imaging system, the smallest change in blackbody equivalent temperature that can be detected clearly by the...

An acoustic wave that propagates along the surface of a solid and decays exponentially with substrate depth. Also called a...

The graphed curve illustrating the directional reflectance of a sample for different angles of collection.

A helium-neon (HeNe) laser is a type of gas laser that emits visible red light at a wavelength of 632.8 nm. It operates...

The solid angle of a detector or system pupil as seen by the source.

A CCD image sensor, or charge-coupled device image sensor, is a type of electronic device used to convert optical images...

Pixel pitch refers to the distance between the centers of two adjacent pixels on a display screen or imaging sensor. It is...

A laser with output over a wide range of wavelengths spanning the far-infrared region of the spectrum (30 to 1000 µm);...

A magnon is a quasiparticle representing a quantized spin wave in a magnetic material. In other words, it is a collective...

Also called calcite. A natural hexagonal crystal of calcium carbonate. It cleaves readily into rhomboids useful in the study...

Attosecond-pump attosecond-probe spectroscopy (APAP) is an advanced technique in ultrafast spectroscopy that allows...

Holographic tomography is an advanced imaging technique that combines holography and tomography to provide three-dimensional...

An optical instrument containing a gimballed sighting telescope, used to measure angular relationships in horizontal and...

Instantaneous field of view (iFOV) is a term commonly used in the context of remote sensing, imaging systems, and optical...

A measure of the dispersive properties of a glass. The relative dispersion is defined as: where C, D, and F refer to the...

Also known as ground level. The lowest energy level of an atom or atomic system. A material in the ground state is not...

1. A bundle of light rays that may be parallel, converging or diverging. 2. A concentrated, unidirectional stream of...

A breakout cable, also known as a fan-out cable or breakout assembly, is a type of cable that combines multiple individual...

Sapphire optical fiber is a type of optical fiber made from single-crystal sapphire, which is a form of aluminum oxide...