Photonics Dictionary

The separation of unpolarized light into two plane-polarized elements by a doubly refracting crystal. When a crystal, such as calcite, is placed between the eye and a pinhole in a card, two bright...

The term acute bisectrix is used in mineralogy and crystallography to describe a specific optical property of minerals, particularly in relation to their crystal structure and light behavior. ...

A birefringent crystal having two axes along which there is an absence of double refraction. Mica, sulphur and turquoise are biaxial crystals.

Birefringence is an optical property of certain materials that causes them to exhibit different refractive indices for light of different polarizations. In other words, when light passes through a...

A compound prism formed by cementing together two 30° prisms, one of right-handed and one of left-handed quartz. It has good ultraviolet-transmitting qualities and no double refraction.

A cell filled with a transparent material that, when placed in a strong electrical field, exhibits double refraction. Since the two polarized elements of an incident light beam travel at different...

In optics, the double refraction that is produced when stress is applied to a transparent material. Plastics, which are especially photoelastic, can be formed into models of structures that are...

A doubly refracting crystal having a single axis along which there is an absence of double refraction.