Photonics Dictionary: L

A system that uses the heat from a pulsed laser to weld metals. Because of the rapidity and localization in which the welding takes place, metals of vastly dissimilar melting points can be welded...

The term light field refers to the spatial distribution of light rays traveling in all directions through a given space. It includes information about the intensity and direction of light rays at...

The measured width of the field of view at any distance.

Pockels cell or dynamic optical retarder in which the electrical field is applied in a direction parallel to that of light passing through it.

A lab-on-a-chip (LOC) is a miniaturized device that integrates various laboratory functions and capabilities onto a single, compact chip. Also known as microfluidic devices, lab-on-a-chip systems are...

A dark band that may appear in the field of crossed Nicol prisms with a powerful source such as the sun because the light is not strictly parallel and is not extinguished immediately.

A laser crystal, also known as an active medium or gain medium, is a solid-state material used in the construction of lasers. The primary function of the laser crystal is to amplify light by...

Visible laser radiation, often optically expanded and collimated, used to induced temporary blindness from within a walking distance of an impending target. Laser dazzle systems may be in a handheld...

A laser diode module is a compact device that incorporates a laser diode, optics, and often other components into a single package. These modules are designed to provide a convenient and efficient...

Optical confinement of matter with high field energies intended to induce a stable nuclear fusion interaction.

Means of correcting laser postweld shift. The correction procedure is applied to optoelectronic systems such as laser diode butterfly modules.

The laser output refers to the generated and emitted light produced by a laser system. This output is characterized by several key properties that distinguish lasers from other light sources. These...

A plasma produced by the interaction of an intense laser pulse with a material surface. Production of ionized particle with high intensity radiation. The narrow path of the intense field produces a...

Handheld optical laser device containing a semiconductor or DPSS source. The output is corrected via internal collimating optics. For typical use the output is reduced to eyesafe operation power. (5...

Laser scanning is a technology used to create precise digital representations of physical objects or environments by capturing their surface geometry and appearance. It involves directing a laser...

Laser surgery refers to a medical procedure in which a laser, or focused beam of light, is used as a precision tool to cut, vaporize, coagulate, or otherwise modify tissues for therapeutic or...

Laser viewing cards, also known as laser alignment cards or laser safety cards, are specialized cards or sheets designed to visualize laser beams or assist in aligning optical equipment while...

A laser, which stands for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation," is a device that produces coherent and focused beams of light through the process of optical amplification based...

Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) is a spectroscopic technique that involves using a laser to excite molecules or atoms, leading to their emission of fluorescence light. This technique is widely used...

A scattering photometer using scattered light in the solid angle 4.51+0 19° with respect to the forward direction, and an impactor with a rectangular jet. Scattered light intensities of entering...

A lateral shearing interferometer is an optical device used in interferometry to measure phase differences between two beams of light. Interferometry is a technique that combines and analyzes...

The perception of visual stimuli at the left and right outer boundaries of the visual field.

In photonics, a lattice refers to a periodic arrangement of optical elements or structures, often on a microscopic or nanoscopic scale. These optical lattices can be created using various techniques...

A Laurent polarimeter is an instrument used in optics for measuring the rotation of plane-polarized light caused by optically active substances. Optical rotation, also known as optical activity, is a...

In an optical waveguide, a mode whose field decays monotonically for a finite distance in the transverse direction but which becomes oscillatory everywhere beyond that finite distance.

Lensless microscopy, also known as computational or holographic microscopy, is an imaging technique that captures and reconstructs microscopic images without the use of traditional lenses. Instead of...

The term for an image captured by a detector and from which a dark frame, bias frame and/or flat-field frame can be subtracted during image processing.

A handheld, light-sensitive device that is used with a display console to directly change, measure or erase the visual information presented. Interfaced with the computer that is generating the...

A device for which the output electric field is linearly proportional to the input electric field, and no new wavelengths or modulation frequencies are generated.

A linear positioning stage, also known as a linear stage or translation stage, is a precision mechanical device used to accurately move and position objects along a linear axis. These stages are...

Linear receive optics typically refers to the optical components and systems used in the reception (detection) of linearly polarized light signals in various applications, such as optical...

A relationship between two variables so that when plotted on a graph they yield a straight line.

Linewidth, also known as spectral linewidth or line width, refers to a measure of the width of a frequency spectrum of a signal or a resonance. It indicates the range of frequencies over which the...

A small half-shade analyzer placed in the eyepiece of a polarimeter to determine the character of the polarized light emitted by the instrument. It consists of a Nicol prism situated so that it...

Liquid crystals are a state of matter that exhibits properties intermediate between those of conventional liquids and solid crystals. In a liquid crystal, the molecules are ordered like those in a...

A liquid crystal light valve (LCLV), also known as a spatial light modulator (SLM), is an optical device that modulates the intensity, phase, or polarization of light passing through it using liquid...

Liquid marble refers to a unique form of microscale liquid encapsulation, where small droplets of liquid are coated with a fine layer of hydrophobic powder, such as silica nanoparticles or Teflon....

A device used to evaluate the quality of fiber optic splices made in the field by injecting light into the cladding of the fiber and measuring the output at the other end of the splice.

A lock-in amplifier is a specialized electronic instrument used to extract and measure small signals embedded in noise or interference. It is particularly useful in fields such as spectroscopy,...

A fiber optic component or system designed in such a way that it can be operated by people without specialized knowledge of the field.

The partial differential equations for the spatial and time dependence of electric and magnetic fields inside a semiconductor. They are the analog of Maxwell's equations, which apply to the electric...

A dye laser cell configuration in which the dye flows in the direction of the axis of the laser, yielding symmetrical energy distribution but small repetition rates.

The force acting upon a charged particle as it moves in a magnetic field, proportional to the particle's charge and velocity.

The Lorentz oscillator model is a theoretical model used in physics to describe the response of a charged particle (such as an electron) to an oscillating electric field. It is particularly employed...

Luminescence is the emission of light that occurs without the involved substance undergoing a significant increase in temperature. In other words, it is the production and emission of light by a...

A photometric instrument having two prisms clamped in optical contact to produce a photometric field with an acute dividing line.