Photonics Dictionary

A laser that emits energy in a series of short bursts or pulses and that remains inactive between each burst or pulse. The frequency of the pulses is termed the pulse-repetition frequency.

A technique for depositing a material coating on metal, ceramic, semiconductor or polymer substrates. The interaction of laser energy with the target creates a plume of ablated material that is...

The integral of the radiance over exposure time.

Separation of incident laser pulses by several seconds so holographic plates can be changed and sandwiched between the pulses. This technique combines the short exposure time of pulsed holography...

A type of laser welding that produces short-duration vapor pockets without buildup of heat in the part, useful for parts that are too thick for conduction welding and that move too slowly for keyhole...

A laser with a gain medium consisting of an organic dye, which is carbon-based. The dye is mixed with a solvent, allowing the molecules to diffuse evenly throughout the liquid. The dye medium is...

Interferometric measurement of the interference pattern recorded when a complex object is illuminated by two laser pulses that interfere and form the pattern to be evaluated.

Holographic recording whereby the object is illuminated by two pulses, separated by a time interval, from a Q-switched laser source. Each pulse is divided into reference and object beams, and...

A pulsed laser that emits a recurring pulsed output. Frequency of the pulses emitted is known as pulsed recurrence frequency (PRF). When the PRF or duty cycle is very high, repetitively pulsed lasers...

An OLED display that has an integrated electronic backplane as its substrate. Active-matrix OLED displays use at least two thin-film transistors (TFTs) to control the on-current at each OLED cell or...

An OLED display that has an integrated electronic backplane as its substrate. Active-matrix OLED displays use at least two thin-film transistors (TFTs) to control the on-current at each OLED cell or...

A host crystal for chromium that emits pulsed or continuous-wave laser light, tunable from about 720 to 790 nm.

In a pulsed laser, the pulse energy in joules times the repetition rate in hertz.

A ground-based navigation beacon that emits pulsed signals which are picked up by aircraft making an instrument (blind) approach in landing. The signal is transmitted to the aircraft's L-scan...

A rapid change, as opposed to a long-term drift, of the emission wavelength of an optical source. Chirping is most often observed in pulsed operation of a source.

Certain color centers in the alkali halides have been optically pumped to produce efficient tunable pulsed and continuous-wave (CW) lasers emitting in the range of 0.8 to 3.3 µm.

Continuous wave (CW) refers to a type of signal or transmission where the signal is constant and does not vary with time. In various contexts, the term is used to describe continuous, uninterrupted...

A laser that emits radiation continuously rather than in short bursts, as in a pulsed laser.

Also called DLIP, a high-speed, high-resolution processing technique that uses high-power, pulsed laser systems to directly ablate micro- and nanoperiodic structures with different features on large...

An excimer laser is a type of ultraviolet laser that emits short pulses of light in the ultraviolet spectrum. The term excimer is derived from excited dimer, reflecting the nature of the gain medium...

A pulsed dye laser in which the excitation is provided by means of a flashlamp. Output is tunable from 335 to 850 nm, with peak power up to 7000 kW.

A device, also called a fluorescence lifetime instrument, that measures decay curves of fluorescing samples. It generally consists of a gated pulsed flashlamp or a cavity dumped dye laser...

Fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) is an advanced imaging technique that provides information about the lifetime of fluorescence emissions from fluorophores within a sample. Unlike traditional...

FMCW lidar stands for frequency-modulated continuous wave lidar. It is a type of lidar (light detection and ranging) technology used for remote sensing, distance measurement, and 3D mapping. FMCW...

Gain-switching is a technique used in lasers to generate short pulses of light by modulating the gain of the laser medium. This method is distinct from Q-switching and mode-locking, two other common...

A camera system used to form a high-precision hologram of the subject on a photographic plate. It contains a high-power pulsed laser as the illuminating source.

A method of measuring flow velocity by seeding the flow with neutrally buoyant particles and using a pulsed laser to holographically record particle displacement during a short time period. An...

An image intensifier, also known as an image intensification tube or image intensification device, is a specialized electronic device used to amplify low-light-level images to make them visible to...

Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is a method of achieving nuclear fusion, a process where two atomic nuclei combine to release energy. In the case of inertial confinement fusion, the fusion reaction...

The use of a small ultrastable master oscillator (a diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser) to achieve single-frequency operation of a large pulsed Nd:YAG host laser, providing improved bandwidth and temporal...

The laser damage threshold refers to the maximum level of laser intensity that a material can withstand without experiencing damage. It is a critical parameter in laser applications and is...

High power laser ablation device that by pulsed operation produces holes of controllable dimension on the scale of microns. Laser drill applications include turbine manufacturing and surface metal...

A method of analysis in which a pulsed laser beam is used to heat a particle, producing a plasma, or laser spark. As the plasma cools, optical energy characteristic of the elements in the plasma is...

A system that uses the heat from a pulsed laser to weld metals. Because of the rapidity and localization in which the welding takes place, metals of vastly dissimilar melting points can be welded...

Optoacoustic, or photoacoustic, refers to a phenomenon and related techniques that involve the generation of acoustic waves in a material induced by the absorption of light. The term "optoacoustic"...

Photoconductive antenna (PCA) is a semiconductor element that generates or detects high-frequency electromagnetic signals. Compact PCAs based on gallium arsenide (GaAs) or indium gallium arsenide...

For a pulsed laser, the product of the energy per pulse (joule) and the pulse frequency (hertz); expressed in watts.

The instrument used to analyze a pulsed electromagnetic wave to determine its time, amplitude, duration and shape, and to display this information in some appropriate form, either visually or...

Number of pulses emitted per unit of time by a pulsed laser.

A technique for observing the decay of light emissions from sources following their pulsed excitations, based on recording the arrival time of the first photoelectron after excitation. After many...

Light from a pulsed laser focused into nonsaturable absorbing fluid that generates a strongly backscattered light beam with a frequency higher than that of the incident light.

A pulsed interferometer that permits the continuous quantitative mapping of the surface deformation of an adaptive optical element (e.g., a deformable mirror) and provides the capability for...

A solid-state laser that is continuously tunable in the wavelength region from 700 to 1100 nm. It is suitable for both pulsed and continuous-wave operation. Usually written Ti:sapphire.

Abbreviated TEA CO2 laser. A gas laser that provides shorter pulses and higher peak powers than conventional CO2 lasers. The electrical excitation pulse occurs transversely to the optical axis...

A pulsed laser having molecular nitrogen as laser material and a wavelength output of 337 nm in the ultraviolet region. It is essentially a channel flashtube in which a pulse is applied to the...