Photonics Dictionary

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lead selenide cell

A thin-film photoconductive cell that is sensitive to the infrared region. The photosensitive material of the cell is composed of lead selenide, and the cell is used in the detection of infrared...

lenticular color photography

A type of additive color photography using a lenticular structure impressed on a film base and a camera lens with a filter having three sectors of red, blue and green. Exposure of the film through...

lenticular stereo photography

A type of stereoscopic photography in which a pair of lenses focuses a pair of images, relative to the positions of the two eyes, onto film through a lenticular screen, which records the images as an...

liquid coating

A self-healing, index-matching, nonporous coating for optical components that can eliminate production difficulties and deficiencies associated with solid-film contamination and postdeposition...

liquid-phase epitaxy -> epitaxy

A well controlled thin films technique for growing films with good crystal structure in ultra high vacuum environments at very low deposition rates. Epitaxy methods are well known for the growing of...

lithium niobate

A crystalline ferroelectric material used primarily as a substrate and an active medium for thin-film optical modulators and switches. It possesses very high electro-optic and piezoelectric...

Littrow prism

A 30-60-90° spectrograph prism that is coated on the surface opposite the 60° angle with a reflecting film.

magnetic disc

A plastic disc coated with ferric oxide or other films on which data can be stored by selectively magnetizing areas of the surface.

magnetic enhancement

Plasma-enriched deposition or planar magnetic sputtering that offers increased deposition rates in optical thin-film production. This technology surpasses conventional and RF sputtering.

masks for evaporation/deposition

In the context of thin film deposition processes such as evaporation or sputtering, masks are used to selectively deposit material onto substrates, creating patterns or structures with precise...

Matrix optics

The linear relationship between input and output optical fields for a given optical system or application that allows the use of a matrix and matrix algebra to define an optical system, or series of...

MBE

molecular beam epitaxy — A well-controlled thin film technique for growing films with good crystal structure in ultra high vacuum environments at very low deposition rates. MBE is also commonly used in the manufacture of semiconductor devices and solar cells.

MDM

metal-dielectric multilayer (MDM) — Periodic nanofilm structures for optical mode confinement and tunneling of resonant surface plasmons.

metallic coating

A thin layer of metal deposited on the surface of a substrate. The film may serve as a reflector, beamsplitter, neutral density filter or electromagnetic interference filter.

metallic mesh filter

An interference filter in which a very thin metal foil with a periodic array of square holes (inductive mesh) or a thin plastic substrate with an array of metal squares (capacitative mesh) is used as...

metric photography

The photographic recording of objects or events in a manner that allows quantitative information to be derived from the photograph. An example is the film made by a cinetheodolite in photographing a...

micro-optic gyroscope

A thin-film device that integrates optics and electronics on a single chip to provide a passive-ring resonator gyroscope capable of withstanding high g forces.

microdensitometer

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...