Photonics Dictionary

The substrate upon which a diffraction grating will be ruled. It must be dimensionally stable, and the surface must be polished to an accurate flat or spherical form as required by the grating. The...

Machinery used to grind and finish a component, such as a lens or prism, to a desired precision. Usually such machines carry a cup-shaped or flat tool (lap) into close contact with the part. An...

Also known as constant angle or constant deviation fringes. The interference fringes observed with dense flat plates near normal incidence. The fringes of the Fabry-Perot interferometer are Haidinger...

In plano work, that property of a surface determining that it is convex and contacts a flat test glass at its center.

A satellite-borne remote sensing device capable of transmitting images at 10 and 20 m resolution from an altitude of 830 km, each sensor covering a ground area of 60 km, by means of a folded...

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...

A direct method of measuring refractive index that works best with flat-surfaced samples (i.e., those that are not dependent on special prism shapes) and produces data that are uniquely sensitive to...

A continuous-wave dye laser that uses a circulation pump and nozzle to provide an optically flat stream of dye across the laser's optical axis.

Laser optics refers to a broad category of optical components and systems designed for manipulating and controlling laser light. Laser optics play a crucial role in shaping the characteristics of...

A lens blank is a piece of optical material in a raw, unfinished state, typically in the form of a disk or block, from which lenses are eventually fabricated. Lens blanks are made from various...

Lens testing equipment refers to a range of specialized tools and instruments used to evaluate the optical performance, quality, and characteristics of lenses. These instruments are essential for...

The term for an image captured by a detector and from which a dark frame, bias frame and/or flat-field frame can be subtracted during image processing.

An anastigmatic lens with a thick meniscus construction that flattens the field and corrects chromatic and spherical aberration.

Metasurfaces are two-dimensional arrays of subwavelength-scale artificial structures, often referred to as meta-atoms or meta-elements, arranged in a specific pattern to manipulate the propagation of...

A microchannel plate (MCP) is a specialized electron multiplier device used in various applications such as particle detection, imaging, spectroscopy, and night vision technology. It consists of a...

A camera used to reduce originals onto film for easy storage. There are two basic types: one in which the film is fixed during exposure, and one in which the film is exposed while moving past an...

An eyepiece located at the near end of the microscope tube. It often is a simple Huygens eyepiece, but compensating and flat-field projection eyepieces are quite efficient. Negative eyepieces are...

The lens located at the object end of a microscope tube. A wide range of objectives is available, including simple achromats, the color-corrected apochromats and the flat-field objectives. Objectives...

A mirror blank refers to the initial piece of material from which a mirror is made. It is typically a flat or slightly curved piece of glass or other substrate that serves as the starting point for...

The observation and measurement of the flatness of a mirror surface by contacting an optical flat with the mirror. The process generally is done before coating so as not to damage the delicate coated...

The structure that holds the photographic negative in a proper position that is both flat and parallel to the lens plane, as well as being placed in a fixed position that is the right distance from...

A coating applied to a neutral density glass that is designed to reduce the amount of light evenly across the transmitted light spectrum with no color distortion. These coatings are designed to...

A support for optical parts comprising a solid bed that permits precise longitudinal movement of one component relative to the others, and a number of sliders equipped with holders for lenses, lamps,...

The amount by which an optical surface deviates from its ideal design value, expressed in wavelengths of light. Optical manufacturers use this value to determine two common characteristics of an...

A dome-shaped structure used for some optical instruments in place of a flat window. The transparent material should be of good quality and the hemispherical surfaces should be concentric.

Optical manufacturing tools and machinery encompass a wide range of equipment, instruments, and systems used in the fabrication, shaping, finishing, and testing of optical components and systems....

An optical testing instrument is a device or system used to evaluate and measure the performance, quality, and characteristics of optical components, systems, and devices. These instruments play a...

An otoscope is a medical device used by healthcare professionals, particularly ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialists, primary care physicians, and pediatricians, to examine the ear canal and...

A well-corrected flat-field eyepiece with good eye relief. Similar to a Huygenian.

A surface that has no curvature; a surface that is perfectly flat.

A transmission or reflecting grating with a flat or plane surface requiring a lens or concave mirror to focus the spectrum.

The generation of a grating on a flat surface by means of a series of interference fringes formed by a holographic process. See holographic grating.

A camera system used for microphotography in which the document to be recorded is on a flat bed, perpendicular to the lens axis. The camera head is located above the copyboard on a column and may be...

A lens or mirror surface that is perfectly flat.

A type of flat panel display made up of a layer of gas between two glass plates. The glass is coated with parallel conductors that form cells which, when energized, produce a gas discharge that makes...

A flat cylindrical device generally used to polish terminated ends in fiber optic connections.

A polygonal mirror, also known as a multifaceted mirror or facet mirror, is a type of optical component used in various laser systems, optical scanners, and imaging devices. It consists of a flat or...

A prism is a geometric optical element with flat, polished surfaces that refract light. It is typically a solid, transparent object with at least two flat surfaces that are inclined relative to each...

The compression and intensification of a laser pulse of a specific width into a smaller pulse width. A spherical cavity, in conjunction with a beam compressor, is efficient for pulse amplification....

In gradient index optics, a gradient profile in which the index varies in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis. Radial gradient lenses can focus light even when the lens surfaces are flat,...

Raster scanning is a technique used in imaging and scanning systems to systematically capture and process information from a two-dimensional area or surface. It involves moving a sensor or scanning...

A nonhomogeneity of index in flat glass that is in the form of an approximately plane layer.

A reflection grating is an optical component that consists of a series of closely spaced, parallel reflecting surfaces or grooves. These grooves are typically ruled or etched onto a flat substrate or...

A flat, round micrometer that is placed in the focal plane of a telescope to measure difference in right ascension and declination.

An interferometric method for describing the surface shape of large coated or uncoated optical flats. The procedure uses a commercially available small-aperture phase-shifting interferometer for...

In a linear stage, any deviation from the desired translation across a flat, straight line.