Definitions

Attosecond photonics sources refer to devices or systems that generate extremely short pulses of light on the order of attoseconds (1 attosecond = 10-18 seconds). These ultrafast light pulses are in...

Attosecond-pump attosecond-probe spectroscopy (APAP) is an advanced technique in ultrafast spectroscopy that allows scientists to study the dynamics of electronic processes occurring on extremely...

A charge-coupled device (CCD) is a type of electronic image sensor used in various imaging devices, including digital cameras, camcorders, and scientific instruments. It consists of an integrated...

Chirped pulse amplification (CPA) is a technique used in laser physics to amplify ultrashort laser pulses to high energies without causing damage to the amplifying medium. The method was first...

A ring dye laser that uses prisms and a saturable absorber within the laser cavity to shape and shorten the pulses generated. Counterpropagating modes oscillating simultaneously in the ring...

An instrument that can preselect intervals, often in increments of 1, 10 or 100 ns, for the generation of electronic pulses by means of front-panel switches. Also called a time-delay generator.

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 femtosecond laser is a type of laser that emits ultrashort pulses of light with durations on the order of femtoseconds, where one femtosecond is equal to 10-15 seconds. These lasers are capable of...

A frequency comb is a precise and regular series of equally spaced spectral lines, or frequencies, that are generated with great accuracy. The term "frequency comb" is often associated with the Nobel...

Gain-switching is a technique used in lasers to generate short pulses of light by modulating the gain of the laser medium. This method is distinct from Q-switching and mode-locking, two other common...

A discontinuous burst of laser light generated by timing or "gating'' a continuous-wave laser.

Harmonic generation refers to a nonlinear optical process in which incoming photons interact with a material and produce new photons at integer multiples of the frequency of the incoming photons....

High harmonic generation (HHG) refers to a nonlinear optical process in which intense laser light interacts with a gaseous medium, typically an atom or a molecule, to produce harmonics of the...

Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is a method of achieving nuclear fusion, a process where two atomic nuclei combine to release energy. In the case of inertial confinement fusion, the fusion reaction...

A Kerr soliton refers to a specific type of soliton, a self-reinforcing wave packet, that arises in nonlinear optical systems due to the Kerr effect. The Kerr effect is the phenomenon where the...

Laser peening is a surface enhancement technique used to improve the mechanical properties of materials, particularly metals. It involves the use of high-energy laser pulses to generate shockwaves on...

Lidar, short for light detection and ranging, is a remote sensing technology that uses laser light to measure distances and generate precise, three-dimensional information about the shape and...

A microchannel plate (MCP) is a specialized electron multiplier device used in various applications such as particle detection, imaging, spectroscopy, and night vision technology. It consists of a...

Mode-locking is a technique used in lasers to produce ultrashort pulses of light with durations on the order of picoseconds, femtoseconds, or even attoseconds. This method synchronizes the phases of...

Nonlinear optical materials are substances that exhibit optical properties that are not linearly proportional to the intensity of incident light. In other words, these materials produce optical...

An optical time-domain reflectometer (OTDR) is a specialized instrument used in optical fiber communications to characterize and analyze the optical fibers' characteristics, including attenuation,...

Optoacoustic, or photoacoustic, refers to a phenomenon and related techniques that involve the generation of acoustic waves in a material induced by the absorption of light. The term "optoacoustic"...

Photoconductive antenna (PCA) is a semiconductor element that generates or detects high-frequency electromagnetic signals. Compact PCAs based on gallium arsenide (GaAs) or indium gallium arsenide...

A method of measuring complex sequential photosynthetic reactions by varying the pulse time and wavelength of light generated by a combination of argon-ion and dye lasers.

A means of achieving higher peak powers and more efficient harmonic generation by narrowing the pulse width and thus increasing the frequency bandwidth of the output of CW mode-locked lasers....

A noncontact, nondestructive method of measuring defects in thin composite materials, using a xenon flashtube to generate heat in a sample. A thermal imaging system detects differences in the rates...

A device used to rapidly change the Q of an optical resonator. It is used in the optical resonator of a laser to prevent lasing action until a high level of inversion (optical gain and energy...

Q-switched operation, or q-switching, is a technique used in lasers to produce short and intense pulses of light. The term "Q" in q-switching stands for "quality factor," which is a measure of the...

A laser that generates a succession of pulses at a high enough repetition rate to appear continuous. The pump source is switched on for short intervals, nominally equal to the lifetime of the...

A type of multiple-pass amplifier in which no optical leakage is allowed until a finite number of passes has occurred; at this time the entire cavity output is released as one pulse.

A nonlinear label-free imaging technique commonly used during surgical procedures for the visualization of collagen fibers and muscle tissue (myosin) with submillimeter resolution. During the...

A self-interference effect that generates random patterns; secondary speckle pattern (SSP) typically occurs in diffuse reflections of a laser on paper, white paint or rough surfaces. By tracking both...

Self-phase modulation (SPM) is a nonlinear optical phenomenon that occurs when an intense laser beam passes through a medium, causing a change in the phase of the light due to its interaction with...

A color center laser whose output is coupled to an external control laser cavity and then fed back to the main laser cavity to provide enhanced pulse shaping, leading to ultrashort pulse generation.

Light from a pulsed laser focused into nonsaturable absorbing fluid that generates a strongly backscattered light beam with a frequency higher than that of the incident light.

Supercontinuum refers to a broad spectrum of light that spans a wide range of wavelengths, typically from the visible to the near-infrared or even mid-infrared regions of the electromagnetic...

The technique of generating ultrashort -- down to subpicosecond -- pulses by pumping a dye laser with mode-locked laser pumps with cavity lengths the same as, or a submultiple of, that of the dye...

Abbreviated TEA CO2 laser. A gas laser that provides shorter pulses and higher peak powers than conventional CO2 lasers. The electrical excitation pulse occurs transversely to the optical axis...

An ultrafast pulsed laser is a type of laser that emits extremely short pulses of light with durations typically on the order of femtoseconds (10-15 seconds) or picoseconds (10-12 seconds). These...

A laser capable of generating light pulses that last only a few femtoseconds. This can be achieved by nonlinear filtering to increase bandwidth and compress the pulse or by passive mode-locking or...

An extremely wide emission spectrum generated by the nonlinear effects created when a high peak power from a short-pulse laser is focused into a water or carbon tetrachloride cell. The resulting...