Photonics Dictionary

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...

Laser lithotripsy is a medical procedure that uses laser energy to break down or fragment stones in various parts of the body, particularly in the urinary and biliary systems. The term "lithotripsy"...

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...

Laser parameters are the characteristics that define the behavior and performance of a laser. These parameters can be categorized into several groups: spatial, temporal, spectral, and operational. ...

Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is a type of additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing technology that uses a high-power laser to selectively fuse or melt layers of powdered material to build up a...

Laser shock peening (LSP) is a surface treatment process used to enhance the mechanical properties and durability of materials, particularly metals. It involves the use of high-energy laser pulses to...

Laser sintering is an additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing technology that involves using a laser to selectively fuse powdered materials, typically polymers or metals, layer by layer, to create...

A liquid crystal light valve (LCLV), also known as a spatial light modulator (SLM), is an optical device that modulates the intensity, phase, or polarization of light passing through it using liquid...

Mode locking is a technique used in optics and laser physics to generate short pulses of light with extremely high peak powers. In mode locking, the phases of different longitudinal modes (specific...

Nd:YAG laser refers to a solid-state laser that utilizes neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:Y3Al5O12) as the gain medium. This type of laser emits light at a wavelength of 1064 nm in the...

Nonlinear optical materials are substances that exhibit optical properties that are not linearly proportional to the intensity of incident light. In other words, these materials produce optical...

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...

The phenomenon that makes nonlinear the mathematical expression for the electrical polarization of a medium through which lightwaves are passing. Characterizes high-power lasers principally;...

The partially reflective mirror at the end of the laser cavity that is the source of the beam. It controls the coupling percentage for high output power and maintains correct mode structure in the...

A saturated compound of carbon and hydrogen used as a liquid coating material for optical components in high-power laser applications. See liquid coating.

A photonic crystal surface-emitting laser (PCSEL) refers to a type of laser diode that emits light from its surface rather than from the edges. Photonic crystals are periodic nanostructures that...

A photonic engine refers to a device or system that utilizes photonics, or the science and technology of generating, controlling, and detecting photons (particles of light), to perform various...

A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) is a compact and integrated device that incorporates multiple photonic components and functions on a single chip, similar to the way electronic integrated circuits...

A means of achieving higher peak powers and more efficient harmonic generation by narrowing the pulse width and thus increasing the frequency bandwidth of the output of CW mode-locked lasers....

The use of variations in the power supplied to a laser to change the shape of the output pulse. The technique is used in laser welding, for example, to condition a surface by preheating it at a low...

Q-switched operation, or q-switching, is a technique used in lasers to produce short and intense pulses of light. The term "Q" in q-switching stands for "quality factor," which is a measure of the...

Q-switching, short for "quenching-switching," is a technique used in lasers to generate short, high-energy pulses of light. The term "Q" refers to the quality factor of the laser cavity, which...

A quantum cascade laser (QCL) is a type of semiconductor laser that operates based on the principles of quantum mechanics. It is a versatile and powerful device used for emitting coherent light in...

A laser that generates a succession of pulses at a high enough repetition rate to appear continuous. The pump source is switched on for short intervals, nominally equal to the lifetime of the...

Rare earth dopants refer to elements from the lanthanide series, also known as rare earth elements, that are intentionally introduced into the crystal lattice of a material to modify its properties....

A retroreflector is an optical device or structure that reflects incident light or electromagnetic waves back to their source, regardless of the direction from which the light approaches. Unlike...

Sapphire optical fiber is a type of optical fiber made from single-crystal sapphire, which is a form of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) that is highly transparent in the infrared region of the electromagnetic...

Selective laser melting (SLM) is an additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing technology that belongs to the powder bed fusion category. SLM is primarily used for metal additive manufacturing, where...

Single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer (smFRET) is a specialized technique in biophysics and molecular biology used to study the distances and dynamic interactions between two...

A type of laser used when a great amount of power is required. Avoiding the bulk of large numbers of optical lenses, this instrument offers high-output intensity and a small emitting region at...

Swept-source optical coherence tomography is an imaging technique used in medical diagnostics, particularly in ophthalmology, to visualize and analyze the internal structures of biological tissues,...

Tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS) is a powerful technique that combines Raman spectroscopy with the enhanced spatial resolution provided by a sharp metallic or dielectric tip. TERS allows...

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...

An ultrafast pulsed laser is a type of laser that emits extremely short pulses of light with durations typically on the order of femtoseconds (10-15 seconds) or picoseconds (10-12 seconds). These...

A multilayer antireflective thin-film coating, so called because its reflectance rises steeply at wavelengths above and below a narrow band at zero. The v-coat is particularly useful in high-power...

A laser that has a surface-emitting semiconductor gain element coupled to an external mirror designed to complete the laser resonator. VECSELs can be electrically or optically pumped. The extended...

Volume Bragg gratings (VBGs) are specialized optical elements that consist of periodic variations in refractive index throughout the volume of a transparent material, typically a photosensitive glass...

An extremely wide emission spectrum generated by the nonlinear effects created when a high peak power from a short-pulse laser is focused into a water or carbon tetrachloride cell. The resulting...