Photonics Dictionary

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...

An opaque inclusion in glass that contains undissolved or crystalline material. Also known as a seed.

In optics, the mechanical tension, compression or shear in optical glass due to internal stress caused by improper cooling or annealing during manufacture of the glass or the subsequent working of...

A viewer that uses the transmittance of polarized light through glass or a similar medium to examine strained regions. See polariscope.

A strand of aramid yarn, steel or fiberglass in an optical cable intended to prevent bending or stretching that would damage the transport medium.

An imperfection in optical glass consisting of a distinct streak of transparent material having a slightly different refractive index from the body of glass. It is caused by improper mixing of...

Wavy transparent line in a sheet of glass appearing as though a thread of glass had been incorporated into the sheet.

Correction of an optical system at four separate wavelengths. This correction, longitudinal and lateral, is possible with the help of three selected special glasses.

The standards of MIL-O-13830 set by the US government relative to tolerable surface scratches and other such defects in an optical system. A series of standard glass plates that have been...

Also known as Fresnel reflection. That portion of the incident radiation that is reflected from the surface of a refractive material. It is a function of the refractive index of the material. At...

The material removed during diamond machining of glass components.

The series of interference bands that appear in the spectrum when a specified glass plate is inserted into a spectroscope, from the side of the blue portion of the spectrum, so that the plate...

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...

A glass that is heated, then chilled (usually by an air blast) to set up internal stresses so that the surfaces are under compression. This strengthens the glass, since glass breaks only in tension,...

A transparent block shaped accurately to reverse curvatures of the components it is used to test. By contacting an accurately finished negative lens shape with a newly made positive, the conformity...

Total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy is an advanced fluorescence microscopy technique that leverages the principle of total internal reflection to selectively illuminate and image...

A metal box with an opal glass front enclosing a lamp, used for viewing color transparencies or x-ray films.

A compound lens consisting of two negative lenses of flint glass. A double-convex lens of crown glass is cemented between the two negative lenses. With this system, it is possible to decrease...

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...

A type of lamp that emits a high quantity of ultraviolet radiation. This may be an arc lamp encased in a bulb of a glass that is transparent to ultraviolet rays.

A lens intended for use with wavelengths shorter than about 380 nm. It must be made of quartz, calcium fluoride, lithium fluoride or some other material transparent to ultraviolet radiation, as glass...

A type of glass contrived by Schott that is highly transparent to ultraviolet radiation.

Virtual histology refers to the use of digital technology and computational methods to simulate or recreate histological images and structures without the need for traditional physical slides and...

An instrument that uses an erbium:glass laser to determine cloud height from the ground.

Having the characteristics of glass.

Volume Bragg gratings (VBGs) are specialized optical elements that consist of periodic variations in refractive index throughout the volume of a transparent material, typically a photosensitive glass...

A solution containing colloidal silica particles.

Whole slide imaging (WSI), also known as virtual slide microscopy or digital pathology, is a technology that involves the digitalization of entire glass slides containing histological or cytological...

1. A piece of glass with plane parallel surfaces used to admit light into an optical system and to exclude dirt and moisture. 2. A particular region of the electromagnetic spectrum that has been...

A window made of glass containing a high percentage of lead or other dense material known to absorb x-rays readily.

Zerodur is a type of glass ceramic material known for its exceptional thermal and mechanical properties, particularly its low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) close to zero. It was developed by...

An infrared transmitting material used in the production of fluoride glasses for optical fibers.

A plate of glass, usually a photograph, on which there is a central spot surrounded by concentric annular zones, alternately opaque and transparent, the radii of the boundaries between the zones...

1. In a polished surface, concentric waves that appear as zones in Newton's rings when a test glass is applied. 2. An arrangement of crystal faces that come together in a series of edges, all of...