Photonics Dictionary

A form of liquid crystal with an appearance of moving, threadlike structures, particularly visible when observed in thick specimens with polarized light. During this phase, the molecules of the...

A mount for an optic element or optics assembly, designed so that all six degrees of freedom are singly constrained. This assures that movement will be prevented, while stress will not be introduced...

That portion of physics concerned with motion in the abstract, such as of points or space figures, and separated from its dynamic properties.

A form of liquid crystal in which the 90° twist of the twisted nematic phase has been increased to 180° or more, resulting in higher contrast and a wider viewer angle in the display.

A form of liquid crystal widely used in displays, achieved by sandwiching a liquid crystal material between two substrates whose inside surfaces have been prepared with a special coating that aligns...

In a liquid crystal system, the director refers to the local symmetry axis around which the long range order of the liquid crystal is aligned. In the case of the nematic phase, the molecular long...

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

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

Liquid crystals are a state of matter that exhibits properties intermediate between those of conventional liquids and solid crystals. In a liquid crystal, the molecules are ordered like those in a...

See gimbal mount; kinematic mount; lens mount.

A device that uses nematic liquid crystals sandwiched between fused silica substrates to change the phase of polarized light. The cell is tunable from half-wave to zero retardation because variation...

A liquid crystal display using the material in its supertwisted nematic phase; the birefringence of the liquid crystal results in a characteristic yellow or blue color, unless corrected.