Photonics Dictionary

Eye blink or head movement in response to bright light. Aversion responses such as blinking are sufficient protection from less hazardous lasers, including Class 2 lasers. An eye blink can occur, at...

A microscope in which laser light is delivered through single-mode fibers that replace the pinhole usually used in confocal microscopy. When the Gaussian mode is imaged from the fiber output onto the...

Contains elements which produce lasing., e.g. gain medium, oscillator mirrors as well as housing.

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...

In compact disc and CD-ROM technology, the portion of the drive that projects the laser light onto the surface of the media and picks up the resulting reflections read as data. The head includes the...

An instrument used for video or computer data storage in which a laser optical head is used to write digital information onto a tape. Depending on the size of the reel, the tape may be capable of...

Retroreflection is a phenomenon in optics where light is reflected back toward its source, typically in a direction nearly parallel to the direction from which it originated. This occurs due to the...

A connection, typically made up of one or more cables, between a laser head and a separate power supply. Flexible pipes or hoses are sometimes used to protect and stabilize multiple cables.