Photonics Dictionary: N

An artificial material, engineered to have a negative refractive index value, such that light or any other form of electromagnetic radiation bends in the opposite direction than it would in ordinary...

A symbol used to represent the refractive index. It is commonly used with a subscript to represent the wavelength of light.

Nanophotonics is a branch of science and technology that explores the behavior of light on the nanometer scale, typically at dimensions smaller than the wavelength of light. It involves the study and...

Nanoplasmonics is a branch of nanophotonics that focuses on the study and manipulation of optical phenomena at the nanoscale using plasmonic materials and structures. Plasmonics deals with the...

A scanning probe microscope that analyzes the surface of a specimen by recording the intensity of light as it is focused through a pipette and raster scanned across the specimen at a distance less...

A uniaxial, birefringent crystal such as calcite or ruby in which the velocity of the extraordinary ray surpasses that of the ordinary ray. This can also be defined as the index of refraction of the...

A Nernst glower, also known simply as a Nernst lamp or Nernst filament, is a type of incandescent lamp or radiant heater based on the Nernst effect. It was invented by the German physicist and...

Nonlinear polarization refers to the phenomenon where the polarization of a material responds nonlinearly to an applied electric field. In linear systems, the polarization of a material is directly...

Sometimes referred to as the surface normal or 'surface norm'; the normal is an axis that forms right angles with a surface that light is incident upon or with other lines. The normal is used to...

Dispersion characterized by an increasing index of refraction in the medium as the frequency of the propagating light increases towards the resonant frequency of the medium. Normal dispersion occurs...

Also referred to as the V number in fiber optics; the normalized frequency is a dimensionless quantity, denoted by the symbol V, given by: where a is waveguide core radius, l is wavelength in vacuum,...

The sine of the vertex angle of the largest cone of meridional rays that can enter or leave an optical system or element, multiplied by the refractive index of the medium in which the vertex of the...