Photonics Dictionary

FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) spectrometer is a powerful analytical instrument used to obtain an infrared spectrum of absorption or emission of a solid, liquid, or gas sample. It operates based...

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...

A 3D profile sensor, also known as a 3D profiling sensor or 3D depth sensor, is a technology that is used to capture and measure the three-dimensional shape or profile of an object or a scene. These...

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...

Image of a uniform source through the sample of a microscope image system. Light from the sample plane is reimaged by the objective into the image plane.

A form of roof prism used to invert an image. The prism has faces cut normal to the optical axis; therefore, the prism may be placed within the optical path of a system and invert the image without...

Designed for the function of optical wavefront analysis. Shack-Hartmann camera aberration sensors use a lens array to image the wavefront to the CCD image plane. Live feedback may be applied through...

Method of preserving the measured color value and color information as it is translated from differing devices. For example the output of a television display may be measured to have an identical...

A hologram formed when the light of the illuminating beam is absorbed in correspondence with the recording exposure. In application, absorption holograms are intended for use in satellite...

An absorption peak refers to a sharp increase or spike in the absorption of electromagnetic radiation at a particular wavelength or energy level. It is a distinctive feature in the absorption...

An accelerometer is a sensor or transducer that measures the rate of change of velocity of an object, or in simpler terms, it measures acceleration. Accelerometers are widely used in various...

The recorded interference pattern formed by the interference of two sound beams.

The optical reconstruction of image information contained in a sound field. First the diffraction pattern, formed by an object irradiated by ultrasonic rays, interferes with a mutually coherent...

Light diffracted by a solid (usually quartz in crystal or fused form) traversed by acoustic waves. If the ultrasonic wavelength is larger than the diameter of the light beam, the diffraction orders...

A device that measures the intensity of photochemically active radiation, particularly from the sun. One form of this instrument determines the fluorescence initiated by the radiation.

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...

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...

A process of color photography in which colors are added one to another in the form of light, rather than as colorants, to obtain color synthesis.

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...

A television format with enhanced vertical resolution (400 lines as compared with the standard 330) that, unlike high-definition television, can operate on existing bandwidths and with existing...

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) refers to a set of safety features and technologies designed to assist drivers in the driving process and enhance overall vehicle safety. These systems use...

The use of optical or electronic recording systems to extract information from the terrain, while aloft, for reconnaissance applications.

The creation of a planned sequence of data input that is obtained while airborne for use in aerial photogrammetry and other types of map making and surveying. The data can be photographic, electronic...

A category of systems designed to communicate a photo taken from the air (e.g., aircraft, balloon, satellite) to a ground station. It can be done by direct television transmission of the photo, or by...

The central peak (including everything interior to the first zero or dark ring) of the focal diffraction pattern of a uniformly irradiated, aberration-free circular optical element or system.

A precisely defined series of steps that describes how a computer performs a task.

A photocell having an alloy junction formed by combining an indium disc with a thin wafer of N-type germanium.

A form of high-power microscope objective.

Charged frozen pellets that are rapidly bombarded with a focused high-power laser to form a dense plasma that can be heated and sustained with neutral beams.

Information presented as a continuously variable relationship between a signal and a standard.

A signal in the form of continuously variable voltage or current.

An analog method of moving a cathode-ray tube beam across a display screen face, commonly used in high-performance vector and character generators.

A device that converts an analog signal, that is, a signal in the form of a continuously variable voltage or current, to a digital signal in the form of bits.

A lens, usually having one or more cylindrical surfaces, used to produce distorted images and later to restore them to true form.

A cylindrical convex viewing mirror used for viewing distorted pictures formed by photographing the reflections of the objects in a similar type of mirror.

An angle formed by the lines of sight of both eyes when focusing on an object. Also, the rate at which a ray approaches the optical axis.

The angle formed between a ray of light striking a surface and the normal to that surface at the point of incidence.

The angle formed between the normal to a surface and the reflected ray. This angle lies in a common plane with the angle of incidence and is equal to it.

The angle formed between a refracted ray and the normal to the surface. This angle lies in a common plane with the angle of incidence. See also Snell's law of refraction.

The coefficient Å in Angstrom's formula for the dispersing coefficient for dust present in the atmosphere. The formula is expressed as S × Ål-B where l represents wavelength and B...

The angle between the most divergent rays that can pass through the lens to form an image. In a birefringent crystal light modulator or Pockels cell, the maximum angle in the incident light rays that...

The angular spectrum approach is a mathematical and computational technique used in the field of optics to analyze and simulate the propagation of optical waves, particularly in the context of wave...

A visual defect that produces a disparity in the sizes of the images formed by the two eyes.

Anisotropic is a term used to describe a material or substance that exhibits different properties or behaviors in different directions. In other words, the physical or mechanical characteristics of...

Anisotropy refers to the property of exhibiting different values or characteristics when measured in different directions. In various fields, including physics, materials science, and geology,...