Photonics Dictionary

An optical waveguide in which only the lowest order bound mode, which may consist of a pair of orthogonally polarized fields, can propagate at the wavelength of interest.

A type of glass optical fiber that provides low pulse dispersion over a broad portion of the light spectrum and as a result can operate at 1300-nm and 1550-nm wavelengths simultaneously.

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...

1. In detector technology, the long wavelength at which detector response falls to a set percentage (usually 20 or 50 percent). 2. In fiber optics, the shortest wavelength at which a fiber transmits...

An optical fiber, usually a single-mode fiber, that has an outer cladding with nearly the same index of refraction as the core and an inner cladding with a very low index of refraction.

A dispersion-shifted fiber (DSF) refers to a type of optical fiber designed to minimize the effects of chromatic dispersion, which is the phenomenon where different wavelengths of light travel at...

A distributed feedback laser (DFB laser) is a type of semiconductor laser diode designed to emit coherent, narrow-bandwidth light with precise control over the wavelength. It achieves this through a...

Double-clad fiber (DCF) is a specialized optical fiber that features two concentric cladding layers surrounding a core. The design of double-clad fibers allows them to be used in various...

A mode of laser printing in which each pixel is printed four times, providing sharper lines and a continuous tone from one-quarter the amount of image data, compared with single-raster output.

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 fiber optic cable assembly refers to a complete unit consisting of optical fibers, connectors, protective jackets, and other components that are assembled together to facilitate the transmission of...

A fiber optic preform is a cylindrical glass rod or tube used as the starting material for manufacturing optical fibers. It serves as the precursor from which optical fibers are drawn. The process of...

A fiber optic spectrometer is a device used for measuring the spectral content of light. It utilizes optical fibers to transmit light from a source to a spectrometer unit, where the light is...

A fiber optic transceiver, often simply referred to as an "optical transceiver," is a device used in fiber optic communications to transmit and receive data over optical fibers. It integrates both a...

A microscope in which laser light is delivered through single-mode fibers that replace the pinhole usually used in confocal microscopy. When the Gaussian mode is imaged from the fiber output onto the...

Freeform mirrors refer to reflective optical components that deviate from traditional symmetric or rotationally symmetric shapes, such as spheres or paraboloids. Unlike conventional mirrors, which...

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...

GaN (gallium nitride) distributed feedback (DFB) lasers refer to a specific type of semiconductor laser based on Gallium Nitride materials and designed with a distributed feedback structure. These...

That distortion resulting from dispersion of the group velocity of a propagating mode. It is the only distortion occurring in single-mode waveguides.

A laser in which the transition involved in stimulated emission of radiation takes place between two levels of an ionized gas. The gases are electrically excited in a container called a plasma tube,...

A narrow linewidth optically transmissive or reflective component intended for use with a highly monochromatic or single mode source.

Lidar, short for light detection and ranging, is a remote sensing technology that uses laser light to measure distances and generate precise, three-dimensional information about the shape and...

A shaft, spindle or any object generally passed through a workpiece to hold, support or shape a particular piece during its machining process or its practical use. In fiber optics, optical fibers are...

A micro-ring resonator is a compact optical device that utilizes the resonant behavior of light within a small ring-shaped waveguide structure to selectively enhance or filter certain wavelengths of...

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

Mode hopping in the context of lasers refers to a phenomenon where a laser system abruptly switches from one longitudinal mode to another. In a laser, different longitudinal modes represent distinct...

A form of laser output noise that is caused by thermal, mechanical, or acoustical disturbances of the cavity length. Mode sweeping occurs when the length of the laser cavity changes as a result of...

Also referred to as the V number in fiber optics; the normalized frequency is a dimensionless quantity, denoted by the symbol V, given by: where a is waveguide core radius, l is wavelength in vacuum,...

A mode of data transmission whereby bits of information are carried simultaneously at different frequencies over a single channel.

A device that converts data transmitted in the parallel mode to a sequence of bits at a single frequency for output in the serial mode.

A quantum of electromagnetic energy of a single mode; i.e., a single wavelength, direction and polarization. As a unit of energy, each photon equals hn, h being Planck's constant and n, the frequency...

A photonic crystal surface-emitting laser (PCSEL) refers to a type of laser diode that emits light from its surface rather than from the edges. Photonic crystals are periodic nanostructures that...

Pixel binning, also known as pixel merging or pixel combining, is a technique used in digital imaging and camera technology. It involves the combining or grouping of adjacent pixels on an image...

Single-mode fiber that preserves the plane of polarization of the light launched into it as the beam propagates through its length. Also called polarization-maintaining fiber. The polarization is...

A means of achieving higher peak powers and more efficient harmonic generation by narrowing the pulse width and thus increasing the frequency bandwidth of the output of CW mode-locked lasers....

Single wavelength source with a larger linewidth often containing multiple longitudinal modes.

Raman spectroscopy is a technique used in analytical chemistry and physics to study vibrational, rotational, and other low-frequency modes in a system. Named after the Indian physicist Sir C.V. Raman...

A mode of data transmission whereby each bit is generated in sequence on a single carrier.

A model that predicts laser-induced damage to thin films caused by irradiation of identical, randomly distributed film defects.

A single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) is a specialized type of photodetector designed to detect extremely weak optical signals, down to the level of single photons. SPADs are widely used in...

A standard for fiber optic telecommunications interfaces, with a 1300-nm data link operating over single-mode fiber at data rates of 52, 155 and 622 Mb/s.

In the context of optics and lasers, a transverse mode refers to a specific spatial pattern of the electric field within the cross-section of a laser beam. These modes represent the different...