Photonics Dictionary: M

A blank whose basic surface curves are attained by heating and forming a given weight of raw glass; a rough glass blank resembling the finished lens in size and shape. After molding, a precision lens...

A molded lens is an optical lens manufactured using a molding process, typically involving the shaping of a material, such as glass or plastic, into the desired lens shape. This process involves...

A molecular motor refers to a nano-sized device composed of organic molecules or other small-scale components that can convert light energy into mechanical motion at the molecular level. These...

Molybdenum diselenide (MoSe2) is a dichalcogenide compound composed of molybdenum (Mo) and selenium (Se). It belongs to the family of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), which have garnered...

In physics, momentum transfer is the amount of momentum transferred from one particle to another during particle collision or interaction. This phenomenon can be utilized in various areas of physics...

In a laser diode, the photocurrent produced by a photodiode that detects the emission from the rear facet of the semiconductor chip. It can be used to provide feedback control of the forward current...

Light consisting of a single wavelength or a very narrow band of wavelengths.

A monochromator is an optical instrument used to isolate and select a narrow range of wavelengths from a broader spectrum of light. The term monochromator is derived from "monochromatic," meaning...

With respect to a crystal, a monoclinic crystal consists of three unequal axes, two of which intersect each other obliquely and yet still form right angles to the third.

A type of tubing used to protect optical fiber cables, consisting of a wire spiral of aluminum, galvanized steel or stainless steel, encased in a polyvinyl chloride or silicon rubber coating. These...

An array of refractive microlenses that are round, square and hexagonal and as small as 15 µm. They are used for Hartmann testing, laser diode collimation and other applications that require...

Process that occurs when a polymerized soft plastic rod with higher refractive index is placed in a bath of a lower refractive-index monomer to obtain plastic fibers with a nearly parabolic index...

A character generation CRT that functions on the principle of secondary emission. The target holds a set of aluminum characters, select characters being scanned by the electron beam. The secondary...

A matrix-controlled display that has no information storage at the display surface.

Simulation of radiative transfer in which each photon is generated by a source and its path through the medium is statistically simulated with absorption and scattering probabilities as well as with...

A set of algorithms used to study the structural and spatial characteristics of objects in a digitized image for applications including feature extraction and image segmentation in machine vision and...

One surface of a nonconducting plate that is coated with many minute particles of photoemissive material that are insulated from one another.

In a crystal, its subdivision into polyhedral blocks of macroscopic sizes, with discontinuities contained in the lattice formation between them.

Spectroscopy characterized by the Mossbauer effect - recoilless emission and absorption of nuclear gamma radiation- which investigates miniscule changes in the energy levels of atomic nuclei in...

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...

A camera equipped with a lens and a long length of perforated film, the latter being moved intermittently between exposures by a pulldown claw or sprocket. A rotating shutter serves to cut off the...

Capacity of a vision system to capture an image of an object in motion and to resolve the direction and speed of that motion.

The visual phenomenon of the apparent difference in the rate of motion of two objects that are actually moving at the same velocity but that lie at different distances from the observer.

A metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodiode is a type of photodetector that consists of metal electrodes on a semiconductor material. Unlike the more common PIN photodiodes, which have a P-type and...

Computerized lens design algorithm that permits the lens MTF characteristic to be included and controlled during the optimization process. MTF optimizations typically allow lens design users to...

Multi-axis alignment refers to the process of aligning or adjusting components or systems in multiple spatial dimensions or axes. In various technical and engineering contexts, achieving precise...

A photon-counting instrument for use in both space-borne and ground-based photometric and spectroscopic instrumentation. This style of detector is composed of opaque photocathodes for photon to...

An instrument that contains a spectrograph with a grating in which an array of slits, in place of a photographic plate, is arranged according to the lines of the sample to create an illustration of...

A spectrometric instrument that detects radiation simultaneously in multiple channels, sorts it spectrally from the deep ultraviolet to the infrared, digitizes the information and stores it for...

A lens with internally adjustable elements to produce a range of focal lengths. Unlike a true zoom lens, a multifocal lens must be refocused each time the focal length is changed. See variable-focus...

A multihaul transceiver is an optical transceiver module designed to support multiple network architectures or transmission technologies within a single compact device. It offers versatility and...

A photovoltaic device that consists of multiple p-n junctions to produce a greater efficiency when in use than that of traditional single junction devices. A multijunction device is unique because...

A coating made up of many layers of material having alternating high and low refractive index. In this way, it is possible to produce coatings with a great variety of properties. These may be...

A fiber optic bundle split along its length with the ends of the fibers extending separately to illuminate different points with a single light source.

A multiline laser system refers to a type of laser that is capable of emitting multiple discrete wavelengths or spectral lines simultaneously. Unlike single-line lasers, which produce radiation at a...

A technique that combines two or more imaging processes in order to minimize the disadvantages within each of the contributing processes. In medical applications, combining multiple modalities...

In an optical waveguide,- typically a multimode fiber - the distortion resulting from differential mode delay, i.e. axial rays (modes), with the shortest path length, will have the shortest...

A process involving the interaction (absorption, emission or both) of two or more photons with a molecular entity.

Characteristic of optical correlators in which invariance to more than one distortion parameter per axis of the processor is obtainable.

Also known as gatling gun laser. A system that has an array of lasers sharing a common central axis on a rotating Fabry plate to achieve increased laser firing rates by sequential Q-switching.

The series of equally spaced parallel slits that make up a scanning aperture in place of a single slit, in the scanning of a repetitive pattern.

A specific form of phase shifting interferometry - commonly referred to as multiple wavelength phase shifting interferometry - this form of interferometry utilizes two short wavelengths to synthesize...

A laser having a Q-switching method that allows separate parallel volumes of the lasing material to act independently of each other and produce several separate beams. It is useful in high-speed...

A group of related lines that represent transitions between two spectroscopic terms, each of which may be complex. Also in physics, a multiplet is recognized as a group of related subatomic particles.