Photonics Dictionary

See crystal quartz; fused quartz.

A lamp with a quartz envelope that transmits radiation generally rich in the ultraviolet.

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

A spectrograph used to detect radiation in the range of the ultraviolet in the electromagnetic spectrum. It is made up of quartz because that material, unlike regular glass, is not opaque to the...

A double block formed by placing two adjoining, equally thick sections of quartz, one being dextrorotary, the other levorotary, over the analyzer of a polariscope. In this way, polarization tints may...

The naturally occurring crystalline form of silicon dioxide. It is slightly birefringent and exhibits rotary dispersion of light rays transmitted along the crystal axis, both right-hand and left-hand...

Fused quartz and silica are closely related materials, both composed primarily of silicon dioxide (SiO2), but they are produced through different manufacturing processes and have distinct properties...

Light diffracted by a solid (usually quartz in crystal or fused form) traversed by acoustic waves. If the ultrasonic wavelength is larger than the diameter of the light beam, the diffraction orders...

A device containing two opposed quartz wedges of equal angle, one wedge being movable along its length by a micrometer screw. The wedges are cut so that their fast directions are along, and...

A piece of glass, quartz or other transparent material formed roughly by molding or cutting into the approximate shape and size of the finished part.

The monochromatic transparency effect produced by the immersion of a finely powdered substance (e.g., glass or quartz) into a liquid with a similar refractive index.

A compound prism formed by cementing together two 30° prisms, one of right-handed and one of left-handed quartz. It has good ultraviolet-transmitting qualities and no double refraction.

Fine lines, wires or threads used in the focal plane of many optical instruments to point out and locate particular objects in the field of view. They were formerly made from a single strand of...

A solid with a structure that exhibits a basically symmetrical and geometrical arrangement. A crystal may already possess this structure, or it may acquire it through mechanical means. More than 50...

The organic inclusion in quartz crystal that forms delicate films and microspheres and that shows a maximum absorption at 450 nm.

A device consisting of an airtight quartz tube that holds the material to be analyzed. When a high-frequency electrostatic field, generated by microwaves, is applied to the tube, it emits energy of a...

FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) spectrometer is a powerful analytical instrument used to obtain an infrared spectrum of absorption or emission of a solid, liquid, or gas sample. It operates based...

A semicircular, half-wave quartz plate between the polarizer and analyzer. It often is used in forming precision settings with a polariscope.

A halogen lamp, also known as a tungsten halogen, quartz-halogen, or quartz iodine lamp, is an incandescent lamp that uses a tungsten filament surrounded by a small amount of halogen gas, such as...

Label-free refers to a technique or method that does not require the use of additional labels, tags, or markers to detect or identify specific components or entities. In various scientific and...

A wedge-shaped piece of quartz typically found in a polarimeter to monitor and rotate the plane of polarization of plane polarized light. A Martens wedge can also be used in combination with other...

In the context of thin film deposition processes such as evaporation or sputtering, masks are used to selectively deposit material onto substrates, creating patterns or structures with precise...

A zone plate produced by a computer and having a binary structure that can be etched into a chromium or quartz layer. It often is used in laser machining, in which the machining of small holes with...

Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is a nanolithography technique used for fabricating nanoscale patterns on a substrate. It is a high-resolution, high-throughput process that involves the mechanical...

An instrument devised by Nichols and Hull for use in the measurement of radiation pressure. The device has two small silvered, glass mirrors that are suspended, in the way of a torsion balance, by a...

A piece of glass, pyrex or quartz having one or both surfaces carefully ground and polished plano, generally flat to less than a tenth of a wavelength. Optical flats are used in surface testing to...

Optical materials refer to substances or compounds specifically chosen for their optical properties and used in the fabrication of optical components and systems. These materials are characterized by...

A photomask, also known simply as a mask or reticle, is a key component in the photolithography process used in semiconductor manufacturing and other areas of microfabrication. It is a high-precision...

Low-insertion-loss fiber coupler fabricated from a sheet of light-sensitive material laminated onto a fused quartz substrate and exposed through a suitable mask. After development of the plastic...

An optical element located at an image plane, containing a pattern that assists in pointing an instrument or measuring target characteristics. It may be as simple as a pair of crossed lines or a...

An abundant material found in the form of quartz and agate and as one of the major constituents of sand. The silicates of sodium, calcium, and other metals can be readily fused, and on cooling do not...

A material used as a protective layer on an aluminized or silvered mirror. It is evaporated on the mirror as a thin layer, and after exposure to the air the monoxide tends to become silicon dioxide...

A defect of natural quartz crystals in which both the right and left quartz are in the same crystal.

Ultraviolet (UV) fiber optics refers to optical fibers that are designed and optimized for the transmission of ultraviolet light, which is electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths shorter than...

A lens intended for use with wavelengths shorter than about 380 nm. It must be made of quartz, calcium fluoride, lithium fluoride or some other material transparent to ultraviolet radiation, as glass...

The study and photographing of microscope specimens in ultraviolet light; using an optical microscope containing fluorite and quartz components to efficiently image wavelengths much shorter than the...

1. In a plane Cartesian coordinate system, the horizontal axis, or axis in the left to right direction. 2. In a quartz crystal structure, the refrence axis.

1. In a plane Cartesian coordinate system, the vertical axis orthogonal to the X-axis. 2. In a quartz crystal structure, the line perpendicular to two opposite parallel faces of the crystal.

A quarter- or half-wave retarder made from two plates of quartz, mica or polymer with their fast axes crossed; the difference in thickness between the two plates determines the retardance. Zero-order...