Definitions: C

An optical material used in place of crown glass to produce lenses with extraordinary correction of chromatic aberrations. Its high coefficient of thermal expansion and its tendency to absorb...

A CCD image sensor, or charge-coupled device image sensor, is a type of electronic device used to convert optical images into electronic signals. It is a key component in digital cameras, camcorders,...

A coherent fiber bundle (CFB), also known as a coherent fiber optic bundle, is an assembly of multiple optical fibers arranged in a specific geometric pattern to maintain the spatial coherence of...

An optical instrument used to determine the distance to a target being viewed. Two similar optical systems view the target via 45° mirrors at the ends of a fixed baseline. One system creates the...

Certain color centers in the alkali halides have been optically pumped to produce efficient tunable pulsed and continuous-wave (CW) lasers emitting in the range of 0.8 to 3.3 µm.

A color center, in the context of materials science and condensed matter physics, refers to a specific type of crystallographic defect in a crystalline structure that introduces color to the...

A camera mounted on an optical bench with an easel to hold the material to be copied. Magnification can be varied over a wide range by sliding the camera and easel.

A corner cube, also known as a corner reflector or retroreflector prism, is a type of optical device used to reflect light or electromagnetic waves back towards their source with minimal deviation in...

In rangefinders and height finders, a rotatable or sliding wedge-shaped element used to divert the line of sight precisely to correct errors in the optical system.

An optical wedge of very small angles that admits light while sealing out moisture and dirt and that may be rotated to compensate for the errors in the entire system. Correction windows are sometimes...

A solid with a structure that exhibits a basically symmetrical and geometrical arrangement. A crystal may already possess this structure, or it may acquire it through mechanical means. More than 50...