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refraction Dictionary Terms

universal wavelength function
One of the four functions that allows the computation of a transparent medium's index of refraction, provided the index has been identified for four standard wavelengths.
Schlieren photography
The formation of a picture or image in which the density gradients in a volume of flow are rendered visible. The image is...
atmospheric refraction correlation
Formulaic compensation to correct laser ranging data for the effects of horizontal refractivity gradients; it requires the...
photon sieve
A photon sieve is an optical device used in the field of optics and imaging. It's designed to focus and shape light,...
atmospheric inhomogeneities
Localized variations in the purity and the index of refraction of the atmosphere.
axial vapor-phase deposition
A vapor-phase oxidation process for fabricating graded-index optical fibers. It differs from outside vapor phase deposition...
biaxial crystal
A birefringent crystal having two axes along which there is an absence of double refraction. Mica, sulphur and turquoise are...
Cornu double prism
A compound prism formed by cementing together two 30° prisms, one of right-handed and one of left-handed quartz. It has...
thin-film waveguide
A transparent dielectric film, bounded by material of a lower index of refraction, capable of guiding light.
optical bistability
The phenomenon that can render an optical resonator the equivalent of a semiconductor flip-flop. A bistable device will...
prism
A prism is a geometric optical element with flat, polished surfaces that refract light. It is typically a solid, transparent...
inferior mirage
A mirage that consists of an image of an object appearing below its true position as the result of abnormal refraction by...
plasmonics
Plasmonics is a field of science and technology that focuses on the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and free...
geometric optics
A field of physics that deals with light as if it truly were composed of rays diverging in various directions from the...
superior mirage
An image of an object that appears above the object's true position as the result of abnormal refraction of the image rays...
interference
1. The additive process whereby the amplitudes of two or more overlapping waves are systematically attenuated and...
refracted wave
A wave of radiation that has undergone refraction.
metasurfaces
Metasurfaces are two-dimensional arrays of subwavelength-scale artificial structures, often referred to as meta-atoms or...
Schlieren photomicrography
The photomicrographic recording of Schlieren effects, irregular refractions of light from optic surfaces or areas of thin,...
Snell's law of refraction
The incident ray, the normal to the refracting surface at the point of incidence of the ray at the surface, and the...
primary chromatic aberration
Also referred to as primary color, this is the classic chromatic aberration of a single element caused by the variation of...
looming
A form of mirage where objects near or just below the horizon appear in enlarged or distorted form because of atmospheric...
microphotonics
The technology of manipulating light on a micro scale. In optical communications, this is usually accomplished using two or...
birefringence
Birefringence is an optical property of certain materials that causes them to exhibit different refractive indices for light...
critical angle
The least angle of incidence at which total internal reflection takes place. The angle of incidence in a denser medium, at...
optical beam steering
Directing an optical beam in varying directions by varying reflection, refraction, focusing and diffraction methods.
equivalent air path
When a block of glass (prism, window, filter, etc.) is placed into a converging light bundle, it increases the physical...
optical phase distortion
Optical phase distortion refers to a phenomenon where the phase of an optical wavefront is altered as it propagates through...
nanophotonics
Nanophotonics is a branch of science and technology that explores the behavior of light on the nanometer scale, typically at...
pressurization
Injecting a gas (usually nitrogen) with a very low moisture content into the body of an optical instrument to create a...
parabolic profile
The condition in which the index of refraction in an optical fiber varies as a parabolic function of the radius.
crown glass
One of the two principal types of optical glass, the other being flint glass. Crown glass is harder than flint glass, and...
Fabry-Perot method
A means of determining a prism's index of refraction by placing the prism so that its emergent face is perpendicular to the...
Young's construction
A method of graphical ray tracing through a boundary surface dividing two media of differing indices of refraction.
flux refraction
An alteration in the direction of the magnetic induction at the interface between two media of different permeability.
spatial intensity perturbation
A beam instability, induced by index of refraction inhomogeneities and component damage of dirt and dust particles, that...
negative-refraction metamaterial
An artificial material, engineered to have a negative refractive index value, such that light or any other form of...
dispersion formula
All formulas that present the index of refraction as a function of a wavelength of electromagnetic radiation. Also called...
dioptric system
An optical system that uses refraction to form an image.
zone plate
A plate of glass, usually a photograph, on which there is a central spot surrounded by concentric annular zones, alternately...
Sellmeier's equation
An equation that uses the wavelength of light passing through a medium, along with a set of coefficients, to calculate the...
holographic optical element
A component used to modify light rays by diffraction; the HOE is produced by recording the interference pattern of two laser...
compacting
The heat-treating method in which the index of refraction of glass is fixed near or at its maximum value by holding the...
Fermat's principle
The principle that a light ray extending from one point to another will, after any number of reflections and refractions,...
dioptrics
The branch of optics that deals with the study of the refraction of light, particularly by the transmitting medium of the...
Rayleigh interferometer
A device that is used to determine the index of refraction of a gas or liquid through the interference patterns formed by...
metamaterial
Metamaterials are artificial materials engineered to have properties not found in naturally occurring substances. These...
negative crystal
A uniaxial, birefringent crystal such as calcite or ruby in which the velocity of the extraordinary ray surpasses that of...
double refraction
The separation of unpolarized light into two plane-polarized elements by a doubly refracting crystal. When a crystal, such...
dispersive power
A measure of the dispersive properties of a glass. The relative dispersion is defined as: where C, D, and F refer to the...
diacaustic
A caustic formed by refraction.
immersed detector
A radiation detector with its active medium mounted within a lens that focuses the radiation signal. The improvement in...
Jamin refractometer
An instrument designed to measure the index of refraction of a gas by the interference patterns formed by two beams, one of...
index of refraction
The ratio of the velocity of light in a vacuum to the velocity of light in a refractive material for a given wavelength.
uniaxial crystal
A doubly refracting crystal having a single axis along which there is an absence of double refraction.
catadioptric imaging system
A system that uses both reflection and refraction to achieve its focal power. While the relative powers of the lenses and...
anomalous dispersion
Dispersion that occurs when the medium's index of refraction decreases as the frequency of the propagating light increases....
bending of light
1. That action occurring when light passes through an optical interface at other than normal incidence, i.e., refraction. 2....
optical materials
Optical materials refer to substances or compounds specifically chosen for their optical properties and used in the...
standard refraction
The refraction that would take place in an idealized atmosphere where the refractive index is reduced uniformly with height...
angle of refraction
The angle formed between a refracted ray and the normal to the surface. This angle lies in a common plane with the angle of...
fast axis
In a birefringent material, the index of refraction varies with the direction of vibration of a lightwave. That direction...
Abbe refractometer
Device which measures the index of refraction of glass as well as the dispersion over visible range.
extraordinary ray
A ray that has a nonisotropic speed in a doubly refracting crystal. It does not necessarily obey Snell's law upon refraction...
mirage
The distortion of an object's true image as the result of abnormal atmospheric disturbances along the path traveled by the...
Luneburg lens
A dielectric sphere with an index of refraction that varies with distance from the sphere center. A parallel beam of rays is...
optics
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter...
normal dispersion
Dispersion characterized by an increasing index of refraction in the medium as the frequency of the propagating light...
absorption index
The absorption index represents the imaginary component of the complex index of refraction, and not the real component. The...
deeply depressed cladding fiber
An optical fiber, usually a single-mode fiber, that has an outer cladding with nearly the same index of refraction as the...
ray tracing
Ray tracing is a rendering technique used in computer graphics to simulate the way light interacts with objects in a scene....
conic refraction
The dispersion of a light ray striking the surface of a biaxial crystal, in which the resulting rays are reflected in a...
photoelastic
In optics, the double refraction that is produced when stress is applied to a transparent material. Plastics, which are...
ordinary ray
The ray that has an isotropic speed and maintains a uniform polarization in all propagation directions when traveling in a...
Kerr cell
A cell filled with a transparent material that, when placed in a strong electrical field, exhibits double refraction. Since...
marginal error
The distortion in an ophthalmic lens resulting from the refraction of light rays entering the periphery of the lens surface....
chromatic aberration
Chromatic aberration is an optical phenomenon that occurs when different wavelengths (colors) of light are refracted by a...
refraction
The bending of oblique incident rays as they pass from a medium having one refractive index into a medium with a different...
refracting sphere
A transparent sphere that has an index of refraction that is different from that of the medium surrounding it; used in...

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