Photonics Dictionary: A

The altering of lightwaves by acoustic waves in a solid medium.

A device that varies the amplitude and phase of a light beam; e.g., from a laser or by sound waves. Also known as a Bragg cell.

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...

A glow discharge lamp consisting of a cold cathode and a mixture of inert gases. The intensity of illumination varies with the applied signal voltage. This lamp was commonly used as a source of...

A type of fiber optic sensor that detects alteration in position, distance, pressure, liquid level or temperature by transmitting light across a gap to a reflector; a change in the light returned to...

The angle between the most divergent rays that can pass through the lens to form an image. In a birefringent crystal light modulator or Pockels cell, the maximum angle in the incident light rays that...

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...

A system for automatic industrial process control or measurement, consisting of an optical module for image acquisition, a segmentation processor to isolate the image from its background, and an...

A receiver for optical communications systems consisting of a symmetric binary, pulse-code-modulated transmitter, a log-normal channel and an array of independent photocounting detectors that yield...