Photonics Dictionary

3D Laser Triangulation - A technology that allows sensors to probe the surroundings. Laser triangulation systems have an ideal operating point, or the standoff distance, where its reflected spot is...

An acousto-optic modulator (AOM) is a device that utilizes the interaction between sound waves and light waves to modulate or control the intensity, frequency, phase, or direction of laser beams. It...

Photographing of terrain on the ground and objects in the air by cameras mounted in aircraft; utilized in satellites, multispectral scanning and intricate data handling systems.

A category of systems designed to communicate a photo taken from the air (e.g., aircraft, balloon, satellite) to a ground station. It can be done by direct television transmission of the photo, or by...

A loss of resolution or detail in a television signal caused by the size of the electron scanning beam.

Area scan, in the context of imaging and cameras, refers to a method of capturing an entire two-dimensional image in a single snapshot or exposure. Unlike line scan, which captures images one line at...

An atomic force microscope (AFM) is a high-resolution imaging and measurement instrument used in nanotechnology, materials science, and biology. It is a type of scanning probe microscope that...

An optical scanning device designed to read information printed in the form of bars of different size by detection and processing of the varying reflectivity of light in the barcode.

Beam profiling is a technique used to characterize and analyze the spatial intensity distribution of a laser beam. It involves measuring and visualizing how the optical power or intensity is...

Calorimetry is a branch of science that involves the measurement of heat flow in physical or chemical processes. It encompasses various techniques and instruments used to quantify heat transfer,...

A cathode-ray tube that generates symbols for use in other displays. The tube operates by scanning specific characters on the target and generating them as video signals to other cathode-ray systems.

Scanning characterized by the generation of a plane or right circular cone with a vertex angle of about 180° by the direction of maximum radiation.

A computer-generated hologram (CGH) is a holographic image produced using computational methods and algorithms, rather than traditional optical techniques. CGHs are generated entirely in digital form...

A microscope design that involves apertures inserted in conjugate plane positions inside the microscope, with one aperture in front of the illumination source and the other at the focal position in...

The number of unique ways in which a part can move in an alignment system. In static alignment, there are six: one in the direction of and one in rotation about each of the X, Y and Z axes. In...

A dichroic mirror, also known as a dichroic beamsplitter or interference filter beamsplitter, is an optical device that selectively reflects or transmits light based on its wavelength. Dichroic...

The scanning of photographs or transparencies of images, either by a vidicon camera or flying spot scanner, for the conversion of the images to digital form for storage on magnetic tape.

A scanning technique in which the object is illuminated the entire time, and in which picture elements of the object are viewed singly by the television camera.

A scanning technique in optical character recognition in which an array of photocells is used to scan each character to determine its horizontal and vertical characteristics.

A measurement of the spatial resolution of a line or area array in an optical character recognition scanning device.

An astronomical scanning technique for capturing images of stars without moving the sensor. To perform a drift scan, a CCD sensor's readout rate must be synchronized with the motion of celestial...

The superimposition of a pilot object on each hologram. The fixed relative position of the scanning and pilot beam during the recording process ensures that sensing and fixing the pilot beam position...

A type of mosaic detector array that combines features of scanning and staring sensors by using a small rapid scanning motion (see saccadic motion) over a few pixels at a time.

An electro-optic deflector is a device that can change the direction of light beams using an electric field. It operates based on the electro-optic effect, which involves the modulation of the...

The deflection of a beam of electrons, at regular intervals, across a cathode-ray tube screen, according to a definite pattern.

The method by which photographic film is scanned by an electron beam. One technique uses the uniform light of a television screen, focused by a lens onto the processed film, as a means of creating a...

An electron-beam lithography (EBL) system is a sophisticated nanofabrication tool used in the semiconductor industry and research laboratories to pattern extremely fine features with sub-micrometer...

A method that uses electronic means to move the scanning spot along the scanning line.

An f-theta lens, also known as an f-theta scan lens or simply an f-theta lens system, is a specialized optical component used in laser scanning systems, particularly in laser marking, engraving, and...

The maintenance of the same scanning relationship between the transmitting scanning spot and receiving scanning spot for each scanning line transmitted in a facsimile system.

The reproduction of a picture or image, produced by scanning the image and converting it into electrical signals that carry the image to be reproduced. Also known as fax.

The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) obtained with a Fourier transform spectrometer when detector noise prevails, which exceeds the SNR of a scanning spectrometer in the same time by a factor proportional...

The process by which the light from the images of photographic film is encoded into electrical signals for video transmission.

A powerful method, referred to as FCS, for determining the average diffusion coefficients of fluorescent molecules in solution or membranes. FCS measurements rely on recording the transition of...

A device used to scan, with a small, intensely bright spot, portions of a picture surface and to transform the original picture into a series of electrical signals. In optical character recognition,...

A device that permits the adjustment of facsimile transmitters and recorders so that their scanning lines stop and start at the same place in relation to the subject copy.

A galvanometric scanner, also known as a galvanometer scanner or galvo scanner, is a type of optical scanning device used to rapidly and precisely direct a laser beam or other light source to...

A camera used in scintillation recording to make a visible record of the distribution and relative concentration of radioactive tracer elements in a sample that is undergoing scanning.

A method used in facsimile scanning that sweeps the elemental area across the copy in a spiral motion as the result of the movement of a single turn helix against a stationary bar.

A multifaceted holographic disc that is rotated by a motor to deflect incident light to a scanning system's lens.

In television, the number of individual pixels that can be distinguished in a horizontal scanning line; also called horizontal definition.

Hyperspectral imaging is an advanced imaging technique that captures and processes information from across the electromagnetic spectrum. Unlike traditional imaging systems that record only a few...

A camera tube widely used in television broadcasting. It consists of three sections within a single vacuum envelope. 1. A photosensitive film sometimes called the photocathode. The scene to be...

The process of mapping the infrared emittance of an area through the use of an infrared detector and related scanning instrumentation to produce thermal images that are then recorded on photographic...

An optical system used to collect infrared energy from a scene using scanning optics with a point or line detector, as compared with a fixed optical system with a full two-dimensional detector array.