Zurich Instruments AG - Explore Nanoscale 6/24 LB

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Photonics Dictionary: O

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optical transform image modulation

A technique for detecting and measuring atmospheric pollution, in which an oscillating mirror directs half the incoming light to a transducer that controls amplitude and frequency, and the resulting...

object

The figure seen through or imaged by an optical system. It may contain structures, natural or artificial, or it may be the real or virtual image of an object formed by another optical system. In...

objective

The optical element that receives light from the object and forms the first or primary image in telescopes and microscopes. In cameras, the image produced by the objective is the final image. In...

objective grating

A coarse diffraction grating that is used to form a scale of intensities to determine the relative magnitudes of stars. The grating is placed over the objective of a telescope to form a diffraction...

oblique error

The image error that results from astigmatism, coma, oblique spherical aberration, lateral color and distortion.

oblique illumination

A common technique in microscopy, oblique illumination is one in which the object is illuminated by a light source that is at an oblique angle (on the side) to the optical axis. This technique is...

ocular -> eyepiece

Also known as ocular. The lens system used between the final real image in a visual optical system and eye. It acts as an image magnifier. Many types of eyepieces are known; e.g., the Huygens used in...

ocular accommodation

The physical adaption of the eye lens, by means of ciliary muscle contraction, in order to maintain a clear, in focus image of light and other objects and surroundings at a given distance onto the...

oculometer

An electro-optical infrared tracker consisting of a beamsplitter, an illuminating source, an image dissector tube and an electronics unit, that automatically acquires and tracks particular eye...

off-axis paraboloid and ellipsoid mirror

Off-axis paraboloid and ellipsoid mirrors are specialized optical components used in various optical systems, particularly in applications requiring precise focusing, collimation, or imaging of...

off-axis paraboloidal mirror -> paraboloidal mirror

A concave mirror that has the form of a paraboloid of revolution. The paraboloidal mirror may have only a portion of a paraboloidal surface through which the axis does not pass, and is known as an...

offset prism

A prism or prism assembly that serves to displace the instrument's optical axis.

oil-immersion objective

A form of high-power microscope objective where the space between the object and the first element is filled with an oil having the same index as that element. This form reduces losses, increases the...

opaque projector

An opaque projector is a device used for enlarging and projecting images from opaque objects such as printed pages, photographs, or three-dimensional objects onto a screen or surface. Unlike a...

opening

In morphological image processing, a series of erosions followed by the same number of dilations.

ophthalmoscope

Also referred to as a funduscope, an ophthalmoscope is a specialized instrument used by ophthalmologists for observing and photographing the fundus (interior) of the eye which includes the retina,...

optical activity

The capacity of a chiral substance such as a crystal or molecule to rotate the plane of polarized light that is transmitted through it. Any substance that cannot be superimposed onto it's mirror...

optical analysis

The mathematical evaluation of an optical system to determine and quantify its basic optical properties and image quality characteristics.

optical artifacts

Optical artifacts refer to undesired or unintended effects that can occur in optical systems, such as microscopes, cameras, telescopes, and other optical instruments. These artifacts can distort or...

optical axis

The imaginary line passing through both the centers of curvatures of the optical surfaces of a lens or mirror; the optical centerline for all the centers of an optical element(s) of an optical...

optical camouflage

The use of retroreflective projection technology (RPT) to project a background image onto a masked object, such as a vehicle or overcoat, thereby making the masked object appear invisible....

optical cavity -> resonator

A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance, which is a phenomenon that occurs when an external force or stimulus is applied at a specific frequency, causing the system to oscillate...

optical center

The point on the optical axis of a lens that is the image of the nodal points. For any bundle of rays passing through the optical center of a lens, the incident and emergent rays through this point...

optical character recognition

Optical character recognition (OCR) is a technology that is used to convert printed or handwritten text into machine-readable text. OCR software and systems are designed to recognize and extract...

optical coatings

Optical coatings are thin layers of materials applied to optical components, such as lenses, mirrors, filters, and prisms, to modify their reflective and transmissive properties. These coatings are...

optical coherence tomography imaging system

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an imaging technique used in medical diagnostics and biomedical research to obtain high-resolution, cross-sectional images of biological tissues. An OCT imaging...

optical coherence tomography

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive imaging technique used in medical and scientific fields to capture high-resolution, cross-sectional images of biological tissues. It provides...

optical collimator -> collimator

An optical instrument consisting of a well- corrected objective lens or mirror with a light source and or object/image (i.e. illuminated slit or retical) at its focal plane. Collimators are used to...

optical combiner

An optical combiner, in the context of optics and display technologies, refers to a device or component that combines multiple optical signals or images into a single output. The purpose of an...

optical delay camera

A type of high-speed cine camera that uses different image paths and a Kerr cell to produce a series of successive images at about 60,000,000 fps.

optical density

A measure of the transmittance through an optical medium. Optical density equals the log to the base 10 of the reciprocal of the transmittance. where τλ is transmittance. In spectroscopy,...

optical design software

Optical design software refers to specialized computer programs used by optical engineers, physicists, and designers to simulate, model, analyze, and optimize the performance of optical systems and...

optical fiber

Optical fiber is a thin, flexible, transparent strand or filament made of glass or plastic used for transmitting light signals over long distances with minimal loss of signal quality. It serves as a...

optical filter

An optical filter is a device that selectively transmits or blocks specific wavelengths, or colors, of light. Optical filters are used to control the spectral content of light in various...

optical fluorography

The fluorographic method whereby the visible image (as opposed to the x-ray image) is photographed by mounting a camera in front of the fluorescent screen.

optical Fourier transform

The optical Fourier transform is a mathematical operation applied to optical signals that involves transforming a spatial domain representation of an image into its corresponding frequency domain...

optical multimeter

An instrument that measures several optical parameters, such as optical power and wavelength, with a single measurement input.

optical parametric oscillator

A laser-pumped crystal with nonlinear optical properties inside of an optical resonator in which the output generates coherent light whose output can be tuned continuously over a variety of infrared...

optical path difference

The relative path difference (or phase shift) traveled between two rays that pass through different mediums from the same object point. For a perfect optical system, the optical path, or distance,...

optical power spectrum

Also known as the Wiener spectrum or the noise power spectrum, the optical power spectrum is a fundamental quantity in film-screen image quality evaluation. It is a means of describing image content...

optical profiler

Also known as a white-light interferometer. Measures surface texture and shape from nanometer-scale roughness to millimeter-scale step heights. A standard arrangement includes an illumination source,...

optical pyrometer

An instrument for determining the temperature of a hot object by examining the color spectrum of the visible light it gives off and comparing it to the known temperature and wavelength spectrum of...

optical relay -> relay lens

A lens or lens system used to transfer a real image from one point within an optical system to another, with or without magnifying it.

optical resolution

A measure of image quality produced by an optical system. May be specified in terms of cycles per millimeter, referencing a repeating bar pattern; or angular resolution, referencing the angle...

optical resonator -> resonator

A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance, which is a phenomenon that occurs when an external force or stimulus is applied at a specific frequency, causing the system to oscillate...

optical testing instrument

An optical testing instrument is a device or system used to evaluate and measure the performance, quality, and characteristics of optical components, systems, and devices. These instruments play a...

optical time-domain reflectometry

A method for characterizing a fiber wherein an optical pulse is transmitted through the fiber, and the resulting light scattered and reflected to the input is measured (by an optical time-domain...

optical tooling target

Sets of paired lines carefully designed to give the most accurate pointing possible for various lengths of sight.

optical transfer function

The function that characterizes the quality of an optical system by denoting the modulation and spatial phase shift of the image of a sinusoidal object with frequency as the independent variable.

optoacoustic

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"...

Photonics DictionaryO