Photonics Dictionary

Integrated photonics is a field of study and technology that involves the integration of optical components, such as lasers, modulators, detectors, and waveguides, on a single chip or substrate. The...

Integration time, in the context of optics, imaging systems, and sensor technology, refers to the duration over which a sensor collects and accumulates incoming light or signal. It is a crucial...

Heat measurement method in which the sample is made part of the interferometer and the temperature increase is determined by measuring the change in optical pathlength through the material. By moving...

A material that is present or added to a sample undergoing spectroscopic analysis, to serve as an intensity reference for spectral measurements.

A unit of measurement of luminous intensity based on a physical standard, a set of calibrated carbon filament lamps. The old candle unit was superseded by the new candle or candela.

An enclosure for a calorimeter that allows measurement of unusually low quantities of power and energy.

A measurement of the hardness of a material as determined by the penetration depth of a diamond stylus under a specified amount of pressure.

Label-free refers to a technique or method that does not require the use of additional labels, tags, or markers to detect or identify specific components or entities. In various scientific and...

An experimental research technique by which absorbed or unabsorbed radiation is analyzed in order to characterize and determine material properties, concentration as well as behavior under the...

A device used for measuring the height of clouds from a position on the ground. Measurement technique uses a vertically directed beam stably positioned such that scattered radiation may be detected...

Laser cooling is a technique used to reduce the temperature of a material or a collection of atoms or molecules by using laser light. It is based on the principle of selective absorption and emission...

The laser damage threshold refers to the maximum level of laser intensity that a material can withstand without experiencing damage. It is a critical parameter in laser applications and is...

Device which determines particle velocity through the measurement of scattered interference of a beam pair from a single source. The measured light is Doppler shifted which provides information...

Mod Method of obtaining precise temporal mode characteristics.

A laser rangefinder is a device that uses laser technology to measure the distance between the device and a target. It operates on the principle of measuring the time it takes for a laser beam to...

Laser scanning is a technology used to create precise digital representations of physical objects or environments by capturing their surface geometry and appearance. It involves directing a laser...

Sparkling granular pattern that is observed when an object diffusely reflects coincident laser light. Speckle appears as an irregularity in many holographs but has been exploited as a measurement...

An instrument usually consisting of a very long interferometer, 3 to 800 m, and a laser light source for the study and measurement of strain, such as those formed by earth tides and gravitational...

A lateral shearing interferometer is an optical device used in interferometry to measure phase differences between two beams of light. Interferometry is a technique that combines and analyzes...

A Laurent polarimeter is an instrument used in optics for measuring the rotation of plane-polarized light caused by optically active substances. Optical rotation, also known as optical activity, is a...

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...

Lidar, short for light detection and ranging, is a remote sensing technology that uses laser light to measure distances and generate precise, three-dimensional information about the shape and...

A lock-in amplifier is a specialized electronic instrument used to extract and measure small signals embedded in noise or interference. It is particularly useful in fields such as spectroscopy,...

Instrumentation designed to permit the perception, recording or measurement of scenes under conditions of low incident illumination.

A lumen is a unit of measurement used to quantify the amount of luminous flux, which is the perceived power of light. In other words, the lumen measures the total amount of visible light emitted by a...

A Mach-Zehnder interferometer is an optical device used to measure the phase difference between two collimated beams of light. It is named after the physicists Ludwig Mach and Ludwig Zehnder, who...

A machine vision lens is a specialized optical lens designed for use in machine vision systems, which are used for automated inspection, measurement, and quality control in industrial applications....

A machine vision system is an integrated combination of hardware and software components designed to capture, process, and analyze images to perform automated inspection, measurement, and quality...

An electron system using the effect of a constant magnetic field on electron paths to differentiate electrons that have varying velocities for the accurate measurement of the energies and intensities...

Nondestructive measurement of the delta and alpha of clad optical fibers that involves interferometry with the fiber immersed in an index-matching oil and illuminated perpendicular to the fiber axis.

A gauge designed to measure high degrees of vacuum. It consists of a glass bulb attached to the vacuum vessel, the measurement being made by filling the bulb with mercury and observing the volume of...

A wedge in a rangefinder or heightfinder used to displace the image produced by one telescope so that it coincides with that produced by the other telescope, thus affording a measurement of the...

A MEMS fiber optic switch is a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) device designed to selectively route optical signals between multiple fiber optic channels. These switches utilize miniature...

Metabolic imaging refers to the visualization and quantification of metabolic processes within living organisms, tissues, or cells using various imaging techniques. It provides insights into the...

The fundamental tool of microdensitometry, the microdensitometer is an instrument used for the precise measurement of microscopic optical densities (i.e. optical absorption) by detection of faint...

The science that deals with the measurement of optical absorbance (i.e. optical densities) over microscopic areas of a given specimen or optical material.

1. The SI unit of length equal to 10-6 m. Also called micron. 2. A screw thread device used to make accurate physical linear measurements.

The measurement of the intensity of spectral lines by the examination of a very small area under a microscope and the measurement of the density at any point of the image.

A unit of metric measurement, equal to 0.001 m. 25.4 mm equal 1 inch.

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...

Modal bandwidth is a crucial parameter in optical fiber communication systems, particularly in multimode fiber (MMF) systems. It quantifies the ability of a fiber optic link to transmit data at high...

In optics, "mode beating" refers to an interference phenomenon that can occur in laser systems with multiple longitudinal modes. Longitudinal modes are specific electromagnetic field patterns that...

For a single-mode fiber, the measurement of the irradiance distribution at the fiber's end face.

MTF analysis/measurement equipment refers to instruments and tools used to measure and analyze the modulation transfer function (MTF) of optical systems. The MTF is a quantitative measure of the...

Also called sine wave response and contrast transfer function. The modulation transfer function is the ratio of the modulation in the image to the modulation in the object as a function of frequency...

In optics, a motion controller refers to a device or system that precisely controls the movement of optical components, such as mirrors, lenses, stages, or other elements within an optical setup. The...