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wavefront Dictionary Terms

zero order
In an interference pattern, that point where there is no difference between the optical paths of the interfacing wavefronts.
holographic microscopy
The holographic recording of a microscopic specimen whereby magnification is achieved by alteration in a wavelength or...
diffractive optics
Optical elements that use diffraction to control wavefronts. Diffractive optical elements include diffraction gratings,...
null lens
A lens used in the optical testing of an aspheric surface. It converts a spherical wavefront into one that precisely matches...
physical optics
The branch of science that treats light as a wave phenomenon wherein light propagation is studied by wavefronts rather than...
Twyman-Green interferometer
A testing device that provides a contour map of the emergent wavefront for the observer in terms of the given wavelength of...
computer polarization holography
A technique used to store wavefront information on thin polarization information-recordable materials by controlling the...
adaptive optics
Adaptive optics (AO) is a technology used to improve the performance of optical systems by reducing the effects of...
computer-generated hologram
A computer-generated hologram (CGH) is a holographic image produced using computational methods and algorithms, rather than...
holography
Holography is a technique used to capture and reconstruct three-dimensional images using the principles of interference and...
lensless microscopy
Lensless microscopy, also known as computational or holographic microscopy, is an imaging technique that captures and...
wavefront
In considering a field of electromagnetic energy emanating from a source, the wavefront is a surface connecting all field...
nonlinear optical phase conjugation
The coupling of laser or light beams via nonlinear optical techniques such as four-wave mixing to achieve spatial variation...
lateral shearing interferometer
A lateral shearing interferometer is an optical device used in interferometry to measure phase differences between two beams...
beam waist
That point in a Gaussian beam where the wavefront has a curvature of zero and the beam diameter is a minimum.
plane wavefront
optical path difference
The relative path difference (or phase shift) traveled between two rays that pass through different mediums from the same...
transmission sphere
A precision lens designed to convert the plane wavefront output of an interferometer to a spherical wavefront for the...
multicolor hologram
A hologram formed by reconstruction of multicolor wavefronts. The system used to produce the hologram is designed to combine...
Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor
The Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor is an optical device used for measuring the wavefront aberrations of an optical system....
phase screen
A phase screen, in the context of optics and wave optics, refers to a surface or medium that introduces a phase delay to an...
optical work
The degree to which the surface of a lens causes an incident ray of light to bend, or the amount of convergence or...
angular spectrum approach
The angular spectrum approach is a mathematical and computational technique used in the field of optics to analyze and...
metasurfaces
Metasurfaces are two-dimensional arrays of subwavelength-scale artificial structures, often referred to as meta-atoms or...
optical phase distortion
Optical phase distortion refers to a phenomenon where the phase of an optical wavefront is altered as it propagates through...
shearing interferometer
An interferometer in which interference is produced between wavefronts that are sheared in the sample object by a small...
optical design software
Optical design software refers to specialized computer programs used by optical engineers, physicists, and designers to...
aberration sensor (wavefront sensor)
Designed for the function of optical wavefront analysis. Shack-Hartmann camera aberration sensors use a lens array to image...
Huygens principle
An analysis used for problems of wave propagation. The principle notes that each point of an advancing wavefront is the...
burst mode laser
A high-frequency pulse-rate laser with an output limited by the heat capacity of the laser medium. Instead of having...
aberration
A departure from ideal paraxial imaging behavior. The distortion of an optical field wavefront as it is propagated through...
spatial light interference microscopy
Spatial light interference microscopy (SLIM) is an optical microscopy technique that belongs to the category of quantitative...
diffraction-limited lens
A lens with aberrations corrected to the point that residual wavefront errors are substantially less than one-quarter the...
laser guide star
An artificial star used to aid in adaptive optics imaging of the sky. The guide star is provided from a telescope system on...
color holography
The recording of three or more separate holograms having a different color on a medium, so that illumination with a tricolor...
light ray
The path of a given point on a wavefront. One of the radii of a wave of light that indicates the direction of light travel.
ray
A geometric representation of a light path through an optical device; a line normal to the wavefront indicating the...
optical manufacturing tools and machinery
Optical manufacturing tools and machinery encompass a wide range of equipment, instruments, and systems used in the...
double refraction
The separation of unpolarized light into two plane-polarized elements by a doubly refracting crystal. When a crystal, such...
wavefront reconstruction
quasi-Fourier transform
The transform defining that, if a reference beam is a divergent spherical wavefront, then the reconstructed image will be...
optical testing instrument
An optical testing instrument is a device or system used to evaluate and measure the performance, quality, and...
scalar diffraction theory
Scalar diffraction theory is a simplified approach used to describe the propagation of electromagnetic waves, particularly...
dioptometer
A telescopic system having an eyepiece, a reticle and an objective. The instrument measures wavefront power in diopters.
phase conjugation
The use of a reflective device, which can be fashioned from a variety of materials including gases, solids, dyes, aerosols,...
diffraction
As a wavefront of light passes by an opaque edge or through an opening, secondary weaker wavefronts are generated,...
holographic nondestructive testing
The application of coherent wavefront techniques to the determination of the physical state of a system without appreciably...
sharpness index
A function of the intensity distribution in an image aberrated by a quadratic curvature wavefront distortion.
uniphase interference
In interferometry, the result of superimposing two wavefronts of identical shape, yielding a uniform intensity interference...
Rayleigh limit
The restriction of wavefront error to within a quarter of a wavelength of a true spherical surface to assure essentially...
Murty interferometer
A form of shearing interferometer that contains a simple wedged (plane-parallel) glass plate with a nonzero optical path...
Debye-Sears ultrasonic cell
A device used in ultrasonic imaging to measure the velocity and attenuation of compressional waves in a transparent liquid...
electro-optic modulator
An electro-optic modulator (EOM) is a device used to modulate the amplitude, phase, or polarization of light waves using an...
aspheric lens system
An optical system having one or more lens or mirror components that have nonspherical surfaces. These surfaces, whether...

(54 results found)

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