Photonics Dictionary

Envelopes for cathode-ray tubes are made by blowing glass in the same manner as light bulbs. They have a fairly flat end face to carry the phosphor material applied internally.

A fiber laser is a type of laser in which the active gain medium is an optical fiber doped with rare-earth ions such as erbium, ytterbium, or neodymium. Fiber lasers generate coherent light through...

A device used to prepare optical fiber end faces; a scribe line made by the cleaver's blade propagates across the fiber, resulting in a clean break.

A method for measuring the index profile of an optical fiber by measuring the reflectance as a function of position on the end face.

A laser system consisting of a planar PN junction within a single crystal of gallium arsenide. The pair of parallel, semireflective end faces produces a Fabry-Perot resonant cavity, whereas the other...

A defect in the cleaved end face of an optical fiber, defined as multiple surface irregularities across the fiber surface. A less serious imperfection of the same nature is known as mist.

A material, often a liquid or cement, whose refractive index is nearly equal to the fiber's core index, used to reduce Fresnel reflection from a fiber end face.

A defect in the cleaved end face of an optical fiber, in the form of a sharp protrusion at the edge of the fiber.

For a single-mode fiber, the measurement of the irradiance distribution at the fiber's end face.

A prism invented by William Nicol in 1828 that is made of calcite, the end faces of which are ground to an angle of 68° between one vertical side and the end surface. The prism is cut diagonally...

A narrow channel created by cleaving a crystal made of alternating layers of gallium arsenide and aluminum gallium arsenide, and adding additional layers on the cleaved end face, at right angles to...

A defect in the cleaved end face of an optical fiber in which a portion of the edge has broken away; the complement of lip.

A defect in the cleaved end face of an optical fiber in which the surface changes abruptly.