Photonics Dictionary

Oleophobic is a term used to describe substances or materials that repel or resist oils. The word oleophobic comes from the Greek words "oleo," meaning oil, and "phobos," meaning fear. Oleophobic...

Transparent glassy and or crystalline structured materials engineered from inorganic, non-metallic materials via various methods that include heat or specific chemical reactions. Optical ceramics...

An optical filter is a device that selectively transmits or blocks specific wavelengths, or colors, of light. Optical filters are used to control the spectral content of light in various...

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....

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...

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...

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 thin film or coating that forms on various finished surfaces. On optical surfaces it usually denotes aging.

The term photochemical pertains to chemical processes or reactions that are initiated or influenced by the absorption of light. Photochemical reactions involve the interaction of light, often in the...

Photoelastic equipment and supplies refer to instruments and materials used in photoelasticity, a technique used to analyze stress distribution and behavior in materials. photoelastic equipment...

Photolithography is a key process in the manufacturing of semiconductor devices, integrated circuits, and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). It is a photomechanical process used to transfer...

Photoresist is a light-sensitive material used in photolithography processes, particularly in the fabrication of semiconductor devices, integrated circuits, and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)....

A device used in the sputtering of thin films, in which a magnet system on the back of the cathode deflects the electrons, lengthening the ionization path. The accelerated ions transfer their...

Plasmon ion-assisted deposition (PIAD) is a technique used in thin-film deposition processes, particularly in the production of optical coatings. This method combines two key processes: plasmon...

A device attached to the end of an alignment telescope that detects and calculates a plane mirror's rotation axis that is perpendicular to the line of sight. The device is adaptable for evaluation of...

A technique for depositing a material coating on metal, ceramic, semiconductor or polymer substrates. The interaction of laser energy with the target creates a plume of ablated material that is...

A process that employs heat to remove polyimide plastic coatings from silica optical fibers and capillary tubing.

Reactive evaporation refers to a process in thin-film deposition where a material is deposited onto a substrate through evaporation, and chemical reactions take place during or after the evaporation...

A lamp used in projection that is made with a reflector built into the bulb, normally by coating a portion of its interior with a reflective material to ensure the reflector's optimum position in...

A measurement in optical thin-film coating processes whereby the gases remaining in the vacuum chamber after coating are characterized by mass spectroscopy.

Retroreflectivity refers to the property of a surface or material to reflect light back to its source, regardless of the angle of incidence. Unlike most surfaces that scatter light in various...

A Rugate filter is a type of optical filter that is designed to have a continuously varying refractive index profile throughout its thickness, rather than the discrete layers found in traditional...

A gelatinous fluid that can be used as a porous thin-film coating for optical components, including laser beam collimators, or as a protective coating for glass and crystalline materials.

Of evaporative coatings, a condition resulting when small chunks of material fly from the hot crucible onto the substrate surface and adhere there.

A vacuum deposition method in which the coating material (target) is removed from the surface of the coating source (cathode) by ion bombardment and deposited upon the substrates.

Sputtering equipment is machinery used in the process of physical vapor deposition (PVD), specifically sputtering. Sputtering is a method of depositing thin films of material onto a substrate surface...

A sputtering target is a solid material used in the process of physical vapor deposition (PVD), specifically sputtering. Sputtering targets are typically made of metals, metal alloys, or compounds...

Structural color refers to coloration in materials that is not caused by pigments or dyes but is instead a result of the physical structure of the material. In structural color, the interaction of...

A substrate refers to a material or surface upon which another material or process is applied or deposited. In various fields, such as electronics, biology, chemistry, and manufacturing, the term...

A telescope lens is a primary optical component of a telescope system that gathers and focuses light to form an image. It is typically a curved, transparent piece of glass or other optical material...

Imaging materials that generally consist of a polyester base, a transparent electrically conductive layer and an organic photoconductive top coating. When charged and exposed to light, an...

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...

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...

Ultraviolet reflectance refers to the ability of a material or surface to reflect UV light. Ultraviolet light is electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths shorter than those of visible light,...

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...

Equipment dependent on the effects of a vacuum. The principal applications in optics are in the coating of lenses and substrates and the fabrication of multilayer interference filters.