Photonics Dictionary

Optical elements, often created by micromachining, lithography or vacuum deposition, that rely on diffraction of the collected energy as opposed to the more common refracting or reflecting optics....

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...

A light-harvesting protein found in the purple membrane of a micro-organism called Halobacterium halobium. The protein undergoes a photocycle that involves several binary photochemical reactions that...

Signal used in optical transmission systems to generate currents in a detector that are decoded with reference to a specified threshold.

A reticle carrying patterns of various forms that can be rotated in an optical beam to cause variations in the intensity of the beam. It also is used in infrared detectors to scan the object field...

A Dammann grating is a type of diffractive optical element (DOE) used to create an array of equally spaced, uniform-intensity spots or beams. It is named after its inventor, Dr. Herbert Dammann. The...

Any optical device that utilizes diffraction in an image-forming capability. Familiar diffractive lenses are zone plates, holographic lenses, kinoform lenses and binary optics.

Optical elements that use diffraction to control wavefronts. Diffractive optical elements include diffraction gratings, surface-relief diffractive lenses, holographic optical elements and...

An optical correlator incorporating a binary phase-only spatial light modulator made from an iron garnet magneto-optic solid crystal and used in target recognition systems.

Gallium nitride (GaN) is a compound made up of gallium (Ga) and nitrogen (N). It is a wide-bandgap semiconductor material that exhibits unique electrical and optical properties. Gallium nitride is...

A technique that uses a solid-state laser and a detector to determine an object's relative distance to the system. The laser beam is projected onto the target and then reflected onto a detector...

Derivative of the half-tone screen process involving the fabrication of a binary pulse-width modulated copy of the continuous-level input using a halftone screen and spatial-filtering single...