Photonics Dictionary: T

The determination of the degree to which a manufactured component can deviate from its ideal specifications of material and geometry without impairing its performance.

Topology is a branch of mathematics that focuses on the properties of space that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, crumpling, and bending, but not tearing or gluing....

Image displacement by a decentered lens, rotated on a chuck whose axis of rotation passes through the geometrical center of the rim of the lens, when the light source is at an infinite distance. It...

Total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy is an advanced fluorescence microscopy technique that leverages the principle of total internal reflection to selectively illuminate and image...

A process used to control thickness and parallelism precisely during the production of plane-parallel plates. Elements are cemented to a blocking tool and their upper surfaces are polished. A second...

A transmission electron microscope (TEM) is a powerful microscopy technique that uses a beam of electrons to create high-resolution images of extremely thin samples. In a TEM, electrons are...

In optics, the conduction of radiant energy through a medium. Often denotes the percentage of energy passing through an element or system relative to the amount that entered. See transmission...

The element in a charge-coupled device that receives the charge packets transferred from the line of sensor sites and then delivers the image data to the device's output circuitry.

In the context of optics and lasers, a transverse mode refers to a specific spatial pattern of the electric field within the cross-section of a laser beam. These modes represent the different...

The laser pumping that exhibits an advantage over longitudinal pumping in that the threshold pump power density can be lowered approximately in proportion to the laser length.

Also known as TEA laser. A coherent optical source with a wide wavelength range in the infrared, visible and ultraviolet that uses an electrical discharge transverse to (across) the optical axis to...

In a color cathode-ray tube, a grouping of three color dots (red, blue and green) that represent one pixel in the final image.

The basis of color vision in the human eye. Three types of cones have been identified, each having a unique spectral response (red, green and blue).

A color-television viewing system with three kinescopes, three lenses and three deflection yokes used to form the red, green and blue images required for a tricolor television projection.

Tungsten diselenide (WSe2) is a member of the transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) family, composed of tungsten (W) and selenium (Se). Similar to other TMDs, tungsten diselenide possesses a...

An observed effect of the ability of certain atomic particles to pass through a barrier that they cannot pass over because of the required energy level, based on a law of quantum mechanics that...

Turbidity is a measure of the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by the presence of suspended particles. These particles can include sediment, silt, clay, plankton, and other microscopic...

Twisted intramolecular charge transfer (TICT) is a phenomenon observed in certain organic molecules containing electron-donor and electron-acceptor groups that are linked together within the same...

A form of liquid crystal widely used in displays, achieved by sandwiching a liquid crystal material between two substrates whose inside surfaces have been prepared with a special coating that aligns...

Two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) is a nonlinear optical method that allows imaging of biological cells and living tissue. The advantage of TPEF in comparison to conventional fluorescence...

Two-photon polymerization (TPP) is a technique used in additive manufacturing, specifically in the field of 3D printing. It involves using a focused laser to polymerize a photosensitive material in a...

Twyman-Green interferometry is a technique used in optics to measure the flatness or surface profile of optical components with high precision. It is based on the principles of interference of light...

The form taken by scattered light, as a result of the Tyndall effect.

The effect by which sufficiently small particles will scatter blue light at right angles to the incident beam. This scattered light is completely linearly polarized.