Photonics Dictionary

A technical specification for a consumer product drawn up by Sony and Philips. CD/I combines audio, video and text recorded as interleaved channels on a disc similar to an audio compact disc. The...

In an interferogram, an intense portion of the recording that corresponds in size to the amount of infrared radiation incident on the detector.

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...

The continuous record containing the series of pictures formed by chronophotographic methods.

The photographic recording of an action by taking a series of still pictures at regular intervals throughout the action.

The application of a cine camera in recording the images on a fluorescent screen. When x-rays are used to produce the screen images, this process is referred to as cine-radiography.

The photographic filming of the action of x-ray images recorded on a fluorescent screen by means of large lens apertures and highly sensitive filters.

Circular dichroism (CD) is a spectroscopic technique used to study the structural characteristics of chiral (asymmetric) molecules, particularly biomolecules like proteins, nucleic acids, and certain...

A CMOS camera refers to an imaging device that employs a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor to capture digital images. CMOS cameras have become ubiquitous due to their low...

An imaging process in which the single opening of a simple pinhole camera is replaced with many openings called, collectively, the aperture. The recorded picture, which consists of many overlapping...

A unit that converts images to the standard NTSC format for use with video recorders, projectors and discs.

The recording of three or more separate holograms having a different color on a medium, so that illumination with a tricolor beam yields three separate wavefronts, each representing one of the...

An instrument that uses a beam of light to scan a color transparency, and three differently filtered photosensors to record the transmitted beam, as a means of producing three exposed separation...

An emulsion that can record colored light.

A technique used to store wavefront information on thin polarization information-recordable materials by controlling the polarization angle of a small illuminating spotlight in each sampling cell on...

The use of computer analysis in the calculation of diffraction patterns for information on the design of optical systems. In this method, the electric field amplitude and phase in the aperture are...

A telescope in which a mask occults the solar disk, generating an artificial eclipse and allowing observation and recording of the sun's corona.

A system consisting of two or more Geiger-Müller counters, connected in coincidence with their centers on an axis. The only particles recorded are those traversing all counters, near the axis,...

The photographic record of the diffraction pattern formed when x-rays pass through a crystal.

A frame taken to identify electronic noise in a CCD imaging device. A dark frame is recorded without exposing the CCD to any external light by, for example, leaving the shutter of a CCD camera...

A photomicrographic recording technique that utilizes dark-field illumination to render an image of an object having a refractive index much like that of the medium holding it. The object may be...

A digital camera is a device that captures and records still images or video in digital format. Unlike traditional film cameras, which use photographic film to capture and store images, digital...

Digital holographic microscopy (DHM) is an advanced imaging technique that combines holography and digital image processing to capture and reconstruct three-dimensional images of objects. This method...

A write-once optical disc storage system in which the optical head reads continuously while writing to check the accuracy of the stored data. Data recorded erroneously are then rewritten at another...

In a camera, the focusing of an image on the screen located at the camera's film plane. Once the image is in complete focus, the recording medium is inserted in place of the screen.

A circuit incorporated into counter systems that records only pulses that have amplitudes between two preselected limits.

The formation of an interferogram by means of two holograms on the same recording medium, often used for determining small changes in an object. One hologram produces a primary image that constitutes...

A hologram having an object wave that has been transmitted through the transparent object media to a mirror, reflected again and recorded on a medium.

Interferometric measurement of the interference pattern recorded when a complex object is illuminated by two laser pulses that interfere and form the pattern to be evaluated.

Holographic recording whereby the object is illuminated by two pulses, separated by a time interval, from a Q-switched laser source. Each pulse is divided into reference and object beams, and...

A technique used in astronomy that requires a radio telescope to be directed at a point in the sky west of the object under observation. The Earth's rotation causes the object to drift through the...

A type of streak camera that uses film wrapped around a drum, which moves at a constant speed to record the changing shape of a short-lived event, such as a lightning flash.

An image-processing device that scans in a straight line parallel to the axis of a rotating cylinder to which the material to be recorded is affixed.

A type of erasable data storage device that uses a medium deposited on the disc in two layers, each dyed to absorb a different wavelength of laser light. To record data, the lower layer is heated by...

The superimposition of a pilot object on each hologram. The fixed relative position of the scanning and pilot beam during the recording process ensures that sensing and fixing the pilot beam position...

The spectroscopic analysis of interference patterns using an electronic imaging tube with a Fabry-Perot interferometer to record the fringes.

A special evacuated camera equipped with means for holding a specimen and bombarding it with a sharply focused beam of electrons. A cylindrical film is placed around the specimen to record the...

The photographic recording of images produced by the electrons from an electron microscope. The electron beam carries the images through an array of three lenses, and an enlarged electron image is...

The photographic recording, and later enlarging, of very thin specimens, using an electron beam to form the image.

A device utilizing an electron beam for the observation and recording of submicroscopic samples with the aid of photographic emulsions or other short-wavelength sensors. With the electron microscope,...

The photographic recording of an image formed by the alteration in electrical properties of the sensitive materials and induced by the action of light.

Information storage on a dielectric medium that represents the data as those spots on the medium having electrostatic charges, forming an observable record of the data.

A camera that records its images electrostatically on plastic tape; used in situations where radiation would have an adverse effect on regular photographic film.

The recording of patterns by the production and use of latent electrostatic charge patterns. See electrostatic process.

An endoscope is a medical device used for visualizing and examining the interior of hollow organs, body cavities, or confined spaces within the body. It consists of a flexible or rigid tube equipped...

Etaloning is an optical phenomenon that occurs in imaging systems, particularly in devices such as spectrometers, interferometers, and cameras. It is characterized by the appearance of interference...