Photonics Dictionary: C

The dispersion of a light ray striking the surface of a biaxial crystal, in which the resulting rays are reflected in a conical manner.

Also known as real holographic image. The indistinct, highly distorted image produced on the side of the hologram closest to the observer, in addition to the primary image. When the location of the...

That property of certain optical devices, e.g., a penta prism, that maintains the angular relationship between the entering and the emerging rays traversing the system regardless of the orientation...

The generation, usually by a cathode-ray oscilloscope, of a two-dimensional image having a three-dimensional appearance.

1. In optics, the bending of light rays toward each other, as by a convex or positive lens. 2. Turning in the eyes to view a near object. 3. In a television picture tube, the crossing of the...

Also known as convergent lens or convex lens. A lens that converges an incident bundle of rays to a focus.

Convex is an adjective used to describe a surface or shape that curves outward, bulges, or has a rounded and outwardly extending appearance. In the context of geometry or optics, a convex shape is...

A system consisting of two or more Geiger-Müller counters, connected in coincidence with their centers on an axis. The only particles recorded are those traversing all counters, near the axis,...

Relative to the Cotton-Mouton effect, the magnetic birefringence constant that, when multiplied by pathlength and the square of the magnetic field strength, yields the phase difference between the...

A high-quality focuser that uses rollers rather than gears and offers smooth, precise motion while reducing or eliminating image shift and backlash.

Recombination of only the light that is correctly dispersed by the first stage of a polychromator through its wide intermediate slit (common during Thomson scattering experimentation), which is...

A regular, periodic, geometric array of points corresponding to the positions of the atoms in a perfect crystal.

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...

The photographic record of the diffraction pattern formed when x-rays pass through a crystal.

The analysis of the atomic structures within crystals by means of x-ray diffraction.

A cylindrical lens is an optical component that has different curvatures along its two orthogonal axes, resulting in a shape resembling a cylinder. Unlike spherical lenses, which have the same...