Photonics Dictionary: S

A lens or lens surface that is a combination of a sphere and cylinder.

An instrument for measuring the radius of curvature of a spherical lens or mirror surface. It may consist of a ring resting on the surface, with a micrometer plunger in the middle of the ring to...

A feature in the chromosphere of the sun formed by a jet of gas that reaches from the chromosphere into the corona and has the appearance of a brightly luminous spike.

Acronym for self-aligned polysilicon interconnect N-channel. A metal-gate process that uses aluminum for the metal-oxide semiconductor (MOS) gate electrode as well as for signal and power supply...

Reciprocal magnetic interaction between nuclei in a molecular system facilitated by the binding electrons of the molecule.

A loose term for a single polishing machine. In a lens factory it is the minimum unit of production.

A defect in the cleaved end face of an optical fiber in which the surface changes abruptly.

A container that prevents spliced fibers from becoming damaged or being misplaced.

Potential alternative to the conventional pulse approximation method of digital image processing because of its highly desirable interpolating and approximating characteristics.

An instrument that divides a single laser beam in two and uses one half as a sensing beam and the other as a reference beam, then recombines the two and measures any phase shift between them. The...

Radiation emitted when a quantum mechanical system drops spontaneously from an excited level to a lower level. This radiation is emitted according to the laws of probability without regard to the...

A method of evaluating image quality whereby a large number of rays are traced through a lens from a single object point, and their intersections with the focal plane are plotted and analyzed.

A neutral density filter that, when placed in front of the iris of a lens, increases the f-stop range.

A phenomenon that causes the details in an image to appear at a spatial frequency higher than that at which the contrast first drops to zero. A phase reversal will accompany this phenomenon, often...

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...

In microscopy, a calibrated scale on a slide that may be viewed to determine the exact magnification factor of the microscope.

In infrared imaging systems used for mass screening of printed circuit boards or other quality control applications, an image of an ideal component that is stored in the system's memory and then...

The combination of two waves having the same frequency and amplitude and traveling in opposite directions. Standing waves are indicated by a stationary set of nodes spaced one-half wavelength apart...

In local area networking, arrangement of the satellite nodes around a central node through which all routing of network data takes place.

That characteristic which makes a weapon system less visible to radar, optical, acousto-optic, infrared and other military sensors.

STED microscopy, or stimulated emission depletion microscopy, is a superresolution imaging technique in fluorescence microscopy that surpasses the diffraction limit, enabling the visualization of...

The formula that indicates the total radiation at all wavelengths from a perfect blackbody. W Total = 5.67 x 10-12 T 4(W/cm2)

The projection of the image beam by a cathode-ray tube through a mask, where it is deflected through the suitable character position in the mask and then deflected by another system to its suitable...

An optical fiber in which the core is of uniform refractive index.

A profile of an optical component, usually a fiber, in which the core is of uniform refractive index and the cladding or surrounding optical surface of a different, usually lower, index.

A type of camera that has scales or other arrangements by which successive exposures can be lined up and equally spaced on a sheet of film. It is used in the preparation of microfiche copies of...

A projection printer that is capable of reproducing a multiplicity of images from a master transparency on a single support coated with a photosensitive layer by indexing the receiving material from...

A positioning drive that rotates a fraction of a 360° turn when the motor coils are activated, resulting in linear or rotary motion. They are generally one of two types, either variable...

The unit solid angle subtended at the center of a sphere by an area on its surface equivalent to the square of the radius; the unit of solid angular measurement, often used in problems of...

Extraction of three-dimensional measurements from a stereo pair of photographs.

A projector designed to give each of the observer's eyes its own disparate image.

A method of creating real three-dimensional models by using lasers driven by CAD software. In contrast to the normal practice of removing material, this process polymerizes a liquid to quickly...

A small instrument containing a picture support and a pair of magnifying lenses so arranged that the left eye sees only the picture taken with the left lens of the stereo camera, and the right eye...

The photographing of a scene from positions corresponding to the locations of both eyes. A viewing device is used to present one picture to each eye for fusion of the retinal images, giving a...

A rangefinder similar to a pair of binoculars with a long base, a dot or other wander mark provided in each eyepiece field, together forming an apparent point in space. When one dot is moved...

Vision in depth of three dimensions as a result of the spacing of the eyes. This spacing allows the eyes to see objects from slightly different points of view.

The purest gas source of antimony, which is used in the manufacture of compound semiconductors for IR sensors and solid-state lasers.

The fine scratches formed when, in hand centering, the forked stick used to move the lens on the chuck marks the rotating lens surface.

In positioning, the friction that prevents immediate motion when force is first applied to a body or surface at rest.

In Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS), an incident photon (usually laser light) interacts with acoustic phonons in a medium. The energy and momentum of the incident photon are transferred to the...

Light from a pulsed laser focused into nonsaturable absorbing fluid that generates a strongly backscattered light beam with a frequency higher than that of the incident light.

Stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) is a superresolution microscopy technique that enables imaging of biological specimens at resolutions beyond the diffraction limit of conventional...