Photonics Dictionary

An arc flash is a sudden release of electrical energy due to an electric arc — a continuous, high-current discharge of electricity between conductors or from a conductor to ground. Arc flashes...

In semiconductor physics, the term bandgap refers to the energy range in a material where no electronic states are allowed. It represents the energy difference between the valence band, which is the...

A blue diode laser is a type of semiconductor laser that emits light in the blue wavelength range of the electromagnetic spectrum, typically between 400 and 500 nanometers. Diode lasers are compact,...

A thermometric instrument used for the detection and measurement of radiant energy. Its essential component is a short narrow strip covered with a dead black absorbing coating and mounted at the...

A light-tight box that receives light from an object or scene and focuses it to form an image on a light-sensitive material or a detector. The camera generally contains a lens of variable aperture...

A device that accumulates and stores electrical energy to introduce capacitance into a circuit. Basically, it is composed of two electrical conductors, separated by an insulating medium.

Cathode radiant sensitivity refers to the ability of a photocathode to convert incident radiant energy, typically in the form of light, into an electrical signal. Photocathodes are components used in...

1. A single unit in a device for changing radiant energy to electrical energy or for controlling current flow in a circuit. 2. A single unit in a device whose resistance varies with radiant energy....

A laser that relies on chemical activity instead of electrical energy to produce the pumping action necessary to form pulses of light.

Chip-on-board (COB) lights refer to a type of LED lighting technology where multiple LED chips are directly mounted onto a substrate, typically a printed circuit board (PCB), without the need for...

The region at the PN junction in a semiconductor radiation detector where the potential energies of the two materials create an energy barrier, which results in an electrical field that depletes the...

1. A device designed to convert the energy of incident radiation into another form for the determination of the presence of the radiation. The device may function by electrical, photographic or...

A diode laser is a type of laser that uses a semiconductor diode as the active medium to generate coherent light. Semiconductor diodes are electronic devices that conduct electricity primarily in one...

An electrically excited laser having carbon monoxide as the lasing material and in which lasing occurs in a partial inversion between adjacent, vibrational fields. Vibrational energy is cycled...

Any lamp whose emission of radiant energy is dependent upon the passage of an electrical current through the emissive medium.

1. The branch of physics that deals with the use of electrical energy to create or manipulate light waves, generally by changing the refractive index of a light-propagating material; 2....

The study of the reversible conversion of chemical energy into electrical energy. Electroplating is an electrochemical process.

The nonthermal conversion of electrical energy into light in a liquid or solid substance. The photon emission resulting from electron-hole recombination in a PN junction is one example. This is the...

The utilization of the light produced when electrical energy is directly converted into light within devices used for visual readout displays or as complex logic-circuit elements. With EL lighting,...

That branch of science involved in the study and utilization of the motion, emissions and behaviors of currents of electrical energy flowing through gases, vacuums, semiconductors and conductors, not...

An excimer laser is a type of ultraviolet laser that emits short pulses of light in the ultraviolet spectrum. The term excimer is derived from excited dimer, reflecting the nature of the gain medium...

A device that converts stored electrical energy into light by means of a sudden electrical discharge.

Functional materials refer to materials that possess specific properties or functionalities that make them suitable for particular applications or purposes. These materials are designed and...

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...

The emission of radiant energy produced by the passage of an electrical current through an appropriate electrolyte in which an electrode, made of certain metals such as aluminum or tantalum, has been...

Gallium nitride-based light-emitting diodes (GaN-based LEDs) are semiconductor devices that emit light when an electric current passes through them. These LEDs are constructed using gallium nitride...

Germanium crystal refers to a crystalline form of the element germanium (Ge), which is a metalloid and semiconductor commonly used in various electronic and optical applications. Germanium crystals...

A halogen lamp, also known as a tungsten halogen, quartz-halogen, or quartz iodine lamp, is an incandescent lamp that uses a tungsten filament surrounded by a small amount of halogen gas, such as...

A helium-neon (HeNe) laser is a type of gas laser that emits visible red light at a wavelength of 632.8 nm. It operates based on the principle of stimulated emission of photons from excited helium...

Indium phosphide (InP) is a compound semiconductor material composed of indium (In) and phosphorus (P). It belongs to the III-V group of semiconductors, where elements from groups III and V of the...

Inductance is a fundamental property of an electrical circuit or component that describes its ability to store energy in a magnetic field when an electric current flows through it. It is typically...

A device used to accelerate the electrons in a free-electron laser by supplying electrical energy to the electron beam through a series of transformers.

An infrared camera, also known as a thermal imaging camera or IR camera, is a device that captures and visualizes the infrared radiation emitted by objects, revealing temperature variations across...

Interlayer attraction refers to the attractive forces between adjacent layers of atoms or molecules in a material, particularly in layered structures such as van der Waals solids, graphene, and...

A semiconductor device with the property of conducting current more easily in one direction than the other. It has two terminals containing a single crystal of semiconducting material that ranges...

Laser active elements typically refers to the substances or materials within a laser system that play a critical role in the amplification of light through the process of stimulated emission. These...

Laser annealing is a process that involves using a laser beam to heat and modify the microstructure of a material, typically a thin film or surface layer, with the objective of improving its...

Device that operates by interaction of incident radiation with semiconductor based material in order to produce an electrical signal or by other means, to interact with calorimetric devices which...

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...

With respect to display systems, a device that uses an independent light source and a control-layer medium, the active optical element, to convert an electrical charge image to an optical image....

An LED, or light emitting diode, is a semiconductor device that emits light when an electric current passes through it. LEDs are widely used in various applications due to their energy efficiency,...

Optoelectronics is a branch of electronics that focuses on the study and application of devices and systems that use light and its interactions with different materials. The term "optoelectronics" is...

A phonon is a quantum of vibrational energy associated with the periodic motion of atoms or molecules in a crystalline lattice. In simpler terms, phonons are quanta of lattice vibrations in a solid...

A photomultiplier tube (PMT) is a highly sensitive vacuum tube that detects and amplifies low levels of light. It is widely used in various applications where high sensitivity, fast response times,...

The property exhibited by a substance having electrical conductivity that decreases as the intensity of the incident visible radiant energy increases.

A document-transmitting process that uses a cylinder that rotates the document to be scanned and detected by a photoelectric cell. The cell transforms the light into electrical energy that may be...