Photonics Dictionary

A 2D profile sensor is a type of sensor used in various industrial and technological applications to measure and capture detailed information about the shape, contour, or profile of an object in two...

3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing (AM), is a manufacturing process that builds three-dimensional objects layer by layer from a digital model. This technology allows the creation of...

Component that is externally controlled via electronic or photon signal.

An OLED display that has an integrated electronic backplane as its substrate. Active-matrix OLED displays use at least two thin-film transistors (TFTs) to control the on-current at each OLED cell or...

Adaptive optics (AO) is a technology used to improve the performance of optical systems by reducing the effects of atmospheric distortions. The Earth's atmosphere can cause light passing through it...

Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, is a manufacturing process that involves creating three-dimensional objects by adding material layer by layer. This is in contrast to...

The ratio of aperture area over receiving area for a specific lens. Also called geometric concentration.

Area scan, in the context of imaging and cameras, refers to a method of capturing an entire two-dimensional image in a single snapshot or exposure. Unlike line scan, which captures images one line at...

The area of optics in which the wave nature of a particle is exploited to carry out very accurate interferometry and other optical techniques with atoms instead of photons. In this process, particles...

An atomic clock is a highly precise timekeeping device that uses the vibrations or oscillations of atoms as a reference for measuring time. The most common type of atomic clock uses the vibrations of...

An atomic force microscope (AFM) is a high-resolution imaging and measurement instrument used in nanotechnology, materials science, and biology. It is a type of scanning probe microscope that...

Attosecond photonics sources refer to devices or systems that generate extremely short pulses of light on the order of attoseconds (1 attosecond = 10-18 seconds). These ultrafast light pulses are in...

Attosecond-pump attosecond-probe spectroscopy (APAP) is an advanced technique in ultrafast spectroscopy that allows scientists to study the dynamics of electronic processes occurring on extremely...

A signal-averaging device that improves signal-to-noise ratio by comparing a sampled signal with a time-delayed form of itself.

Automated optical inspection (AOI) is a technology used in manufacturing processes, particularly in electronics, to automatically inspect and detect defects or anomalies in products. AOI systems use...

Azadioxatriangulenium is a type of organic compound with a unique triangular molecular structure. It is often abbreviated as ADOTA. This compound belongs to the class of polycyclic aromatic...

An amplifying device with a wide tuning range in which an electron gun sends a beam of electrons into a slow-wave structure. The electron beam and the electromagnetic wave move in opposite directions...

In semiconductor physics, the term bandgap refers to the energy range in a material where no electronic states are allowed. It represents the energy difference between the valence band, which is the...

Beam profiling is a technique used to characterize and analyze the spatial intensity distribution of a laser beam. It involves measuring and visualizing how the optical power or intensity is...

Biometrics refers to the automated recognition of individuals based on their physiological or behavioral characteristics. These unique attributes are used to verify or identify individuals, often in...

Also called proximity focus image intensifier. A compact image intensifier that utilizes a microchannel plate intensification stage. This is an in-line device that does not invert the image.

1. A plane that forms one side of the groove ruled on a diffraction grating. 2. To form the individual grooves of a grating with flat smooth faces, inclined to the surface by an angle known as the...

A device for the internal inspection of hard-to-get-at mechanical parts, such as rifle barrels, sewer pipes, oil wells, or gas mains. The long narrow tube used contains a telescope system with as...

A Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter that forms at temperatures close to absolute zero. It is named after Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein, who independently predicted the...

An instrument for detecting and analyzing repetitive signals. Using a fixed time delay or "gate," the input signal is sampled numerous times and averaged to increase the ratio of the...

A breakout cable, also known as a fan-out cable or breakout assembly, is a type of cable that combines multiple individual cables into a single, larger cable. The breakout cable is designed to...

Brillouin scattering is a phenomenon in physics where an incident electromagnetic wave (usually light) interacts with acoustic phonons (quantized lattice vibrations) in a material, resulting in the...

A large tank filled with liquid hydrogen, with a flat window at one end and complex optical devices for observing and photographing the rows of fine bubbles formed when a high-energy particle...

A high-frequency pulse-rate laser with an output limited by the heat capacity of the laser medium. Instead of having continuous cooling, the laser operates until the medium reaches a maximum...

Carrier injection refers to the process of introducing charge carriers (either electrons or holes) into a semiconductor material. Semiconductors are materials with electrical conductivity between...

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...

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,...

A photoelectrically controlled, alphanumeric reading device that converts characters to audible or sorting signals which can be fed to a computer, electric typewriter, tapepunch or other machine.

In a charge-coupled device, the disappearance of some of the accumulated charge into the silicon during readout.

A charge-coupled device (CCD) is a type of electronic image sensor used in various imaging devices, including digital cameras, camcorders, and scientific instruments. It consists of an integrated...

A charge-injection device (CID) refers to a class of devices that manipulate and detect electrical charge within a semiconductor material. Charge-coupled devices are a specific implementation of this...

See charge-coupled device; charge-injection device.

In a charge-coupled device, the percentage of each charge packet that is carried over to the next stage of the transport shift register.

Chip-on-board (COB) lights refer to a type of LED lighting technology where multiple LED chips are directly mounted onto a substrate, typically a printed circuit board (PCB), without the need for...