Photonics Dictionary: D

Directed energy refers to a type of energy that is emitted and transferred in a controlled direction. The term is often associated with military and technological applications where energy, typically...

Continuous conversion of oscillatory energy into heat, relative to time or distance.

Deep multiphoton microscopy is an advanced imaging technique used in biological and biomedical research to visualize structures and processes deep within tissues with high resolution. It combines the...

Deep ultraviolet (DUV or deep-UV) refers to a specific range of ultraviolet light with shorter wavelengths than those in the UV-A and UV-B regions. The exact wavelength range considered as DUV can...

The condition in which two or more energy states are identical.

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...

A diagram in which the variable frequencies of a spectral band system are plotted corresponding to ascending values of the quantum numbers of the upper and lower energy levels.

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...

Dewetting is a phenomenon in materials science and physics where a thin film or coating spontaneously undergoes a process of breaking up and forming isolated droplets on a substrate. This occurs due...

A mirror coated to reflect cold (white) light while transmitting hot (infrared) energy.

A dichroic coating, also known as a dichroic filter or dichroic mirror, is an optical coating designed to selectively transmit or reflect certain wavelengths of light while simultaneously absorbing...

The formation of a fan of light or energy rays in a beam as the beam passes through an extremely narrow aperture.

A lens with aberrations corrected to the point that residual wavefront errors are substantially less than one-quarter the wavelength of the energy being acted upon.

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...

A diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL) is a type of laser system that uses semiconductor diode lasers to pump energy into a solid gain medium, resulting in the generation of coherent light. This...

An energy transition concerned with photons alone.

A device that provides simple and reliable laser power and energy measurement. Essentially a heat flux sensor producing an output proportional to the power, rather than the energy input.

A prism or series of prisms used to disperse a beam of radiant energy of mixed wavelengths into its spectral components.

A spectrophotometer that measures the amount of ozone in the atmosphere through a comparison of solar energy at two wavelengths in the ozone's absorption band. This comparison is achieved by...

Double-clad fiber (DCF) is a specialized optical fiber that features two concentric cladding layers surrounding a core. The design of double-clad fibers allows them to be used in various...

A device used to create a light output that exceeds light input, the energy being provided by an electric field. It consists of a photoconductive layer with an electroluminescent layer between plates...