Photonics Dictionary: C

The surface of an element of a compound lens that will produce the cemented interface. The curves of this interface are called inside curves. To facilitate cementing, the two inside curves should...

Any of several compounds capable of binding heavy-metal ions, thereby preventing interaction between the bound ions and the rest of the medium.

A light-sensitive detector having a chemical compound that reacts when exposed to light. It is used in photochemistry and relies on the chemical reaction to determine the amount of incident radiation.

A method of applying antireflection coatings to optics that avoids the elevated temperatures normally used. A cold coating will not be as durable as a normal coating.

A type of compound microscope that uses three visible wavelengths to translate details produced by invisible radiation.

The heat-treating method in which the index of refraction of glass is fixed near or at its maximum value by holding the glass for different periods at suitable degrees of heat below the range of...

A microscope eyepiece designed for use with apochromatic objectives. Since apochromatic objectives are undercorrected for lateral color, these eyepieces are overcorrected for that aberration.

A filter used in photography to change the spectral composition of light entering a camera, or to adjust color balance during printing.

Also known as clear glass or clear filter. The clear glass plate is used to simulate a filter, in converging or diverging light, to maintain focus.

A reflecting grating ruled on a concave spherical surface that not only disperses the light but focuses the spectrum. The great advantage of this grating lies in the fact that no separate collimating...

The generation of a grating on a concave spherical blank by the holographic process. In this way, ghost images and intense stray light are avoided.

The radiation spectrum of matter found in condensed states, liquid or solid, that is continuous and not a line spectrum. The details of this spectrum are almost independent of the matter emitting the...

Continuous wave (CW) refers to a type of signal or transmission where the signal is constant and does not vary with time. In various contexts, the term is used to describe continuous, uninterrupted...

A laser that emits radiation continuously rather than in short bursts, as in a pulsed laser.

In microscopy, the chamber that is contained on a microscope slide to hold a certain amount of fluid. It is calibrated accurately to determine the number of cells and other elements while the...

A crystal that may serve as a diffraction grating if mounted effectively.

The process of forming a lens to a given pattern, or of cutting a piece of glass along the line of scratch.

The point on a cutting line that will become the geometrical center of the cut lens.

A photoconductive cell having cadmium sulfide as its photoconducting material for the production of a very high dark-light resistance ratio.

A doubly refracting mineral used to produce polarizing prisms. It is uniaxial negative and in the trigonal division of the hexagonal system of crystals. Its indices are e = 1.486, w = 1.658; its...

A microscope that allows examination of a small crystal and conveniently provides linearly polarized object and reference beams so that, by suitable orientation of an anisotropic crystal, the optical...

White, tetragonal crystals used in the production of luminous coatings.

Camera Link HS (high speed) is a standard developed for high-speed digital data transmission in machine vision and industrial imaging applications. It is an evolution of the original Camera Link...

A portable instrument that uses a four-sided reflecting prism or set of mirrors to create a duplicate image of an object on a horizontal sheet, on which outlines of the subject may be traced by hand.

SI unit of luminous intensity. It is defined as one sixtieth the normal intensity of one square centimeter of a blackbody at the solidification temperature of platinum. A point source of one candela...

A projecting beam or other structure supported only at one end.

A device that accumulates and stores electrical energy to introduce capacitance into a circuit. Basically, it is composed of two electrical conductors, separated by an insulating medium.

An instrument incorporating an infrared detector assembly, used to analyze carbon dioxide gases and in medical applications to monitor air exchange in the lungs of patients on ventilators or under...

A gas laser in which the energy-state transitions between vibrational and rotational states of CO2 molecules give emission at long IR, about 10 µm, wavelengths. The laser can maintain...

Consisting of, containing, pertaining to or yielding carbon.

Carbonization is a process in which organic materials are heated in the absence of air, leading to the decomposition of the material and the production of carbon-rich residue. During carbonization,...

The ratio of the power of the carrier wave to that of unwanted signal distortions, or noise, before any nonlinear signal processing such as detection or amplitude limiting.

A shower of cosmic rays whereby a high-energy electron produces one or more photons that convert into electron pairs, the secondary electrons producing the same effects as the primary. As the process...

An instrument consisting of a high-voltage vacuum tube used to form hard x-rays or high-speed ion beams. By partitioning the tube into separate sections, the total voltage is divided.

A surface heat-treating process that produces a highly stressed surface. In case-hardening of glass, a plate of glass is heated almost to the softening point and then cooled quickly in a blast of...

The Casimir force is a quantum phenomenon that results in an attractive force between two closely spaced uncharged conductive surfaces. This force arises from the quantum vacuum fluctuations of the...

The apparent luminosity or glow that immediately envelops the cathode in a gas-discharge tube operating at low pressures. The glow increases as the pressure decreases.

The amplitude modulation through the application of modulating voltage to the cathode circuit.

Cathode radiant sensitivity refers to the ability of a photocathode to convert incident radiant energy, typically in the form of light, into an electrical signal. Photocathodes are components used in...

The method of disintegrating the substance of the cathode by bombarding it with ions and depositing it on another electrode or electron tube envelope.

A fiber optic end plate constructed by drawing a bundle of parallel fibers embedded in glass and cutting it into thin slices. These slices are assembled in a plane and heated to produce a...

A CCD camera, or charge-coupled device camera, is a type of digital camera that utilizes a CCD image sensor to capture and record images. CCD cameras are widely used in various applications,...

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,...