Photonics Dictionary

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...

In biaxial crystals, the principal angle that bisects the smaller angle between the optic axes.

An aspheric mirror is an optical mirror surface that deviates from the shape of a perfect sphere, having a non-spherical surface profile. Unlike traditional spherical mirrors, which have a curved...

An astronomical telescope is a type of optical instrument designed to gather and magnify light from distant celestial objects for observation and analysis. It typically consists of two main optical...

An autocollimator is an optical instrument used for measuring small angular deviations with high precision. It operates on the principle of autocollimation, where a light source is directed onto a...

A beam shaper is an optical device or system designed to modify the spatial profile or intensity distribution of a laser or light beam. The goal is to transform the incoming beam into a desired shape...

An optical system that rapidly alternates two similar pictures or scenes to permit the detection of small dissimilarities between them.

A blur circle refers to the out-of-focus region in an image captured by an optical system. When an object in a scene is not in perfect focus, its image is spread out into a circular shape on 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 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...

A microscope that allows examination of a small crystal and conveniently provides linearly polarized object and reference beams so that, by suitable orientation of an anisotropic crystal, the optical...

A small fiber optic endoscope used in laser surgery.

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...

The radiography of small objects having detail too fine to be seen by the unaided eye. The resulting negative, when optically enlarged, can be examined.

An optical wedge of very small angles that admits light while sealing out moisture and dirt and that may be rotated to compensate for the errors in the entire system. Correction windows are sometimes...

A tool made by imbedding small particles of diamond in the working edge. In the optical field, the most commonly used diamond tools are glass saws, cup-shaped tools for curve generators, and diamond...

Diamond turning, also known as diamond machining or diamond cutting, is a precision machining process used to produce high-quality optical surfaces and components with extremely tight tolerances. It...

Diamond turning refers to a precision machining process used to produce complex optical components, particularly lenses and mirrors, from materials such as metals, plastics, and crystalline materials...

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...

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 single number, defined by the computer program or the user that expresses the performance of an optical system. Also known as merit function and defect function, the error function comprises...

A small incandescent lamp whose intense beam is focused on the optical soundtrack of a motion picture film. The soundtrack modulates the beam, which in turn is detected by a photocell that produces...

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) refers to a specific range of electromagnetic radiation in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum. EUV radiation has wavelengths between 10 and 124 nanometers, which...

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 gyroscope (FOG) is a type of gyroscope that uses the interference of light waves to detect changes in orientation or rotation. It operates based on the principle of the Sagnac effect,...

A fiber optic sensor is a device that uses optical fibers to detect and measure physical, chemical, biological, or environmental parameters. Unlike traditional electrical sensors, fiber optic sensors...

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 device used to scan, with a small, intensely bright spot, portions of a picture surface and to transform the original picture into a series of electrical signals. In optical character recognition,...

A GaAlAs laser is a type of semiconductor laser diode that emits light in the near-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is composed of layers of gallium, aluminum, and arsenic, hence...

The area of optics that deals with the propagation of Gaussian laser beams in free space, or any general medium - i.e. lenses- under the paraxial (small divergence angle) approximations. Gaussian...

1. That branch of optics that illustrates the theory in which q is substituted for sin q in Snell's law. Effective results are achieved if the aperture and field angle are made very small. The...

A furnace used to heat glass materials. It may be a small laboratory-type furnace for small-scale experiments or large enough to hold gas-fired tanks for the commercial mass production of glass....

A GRIN (gradient index) lens is a type of optical lens that utilizes a gradient in refractive index across its volume rather than having a uniform refractive index like conventional lenses. This...

A hyperspectral imaging camera is a sophisticated imaging device capable of capturing and processing data across a wide range of wavelengths within the electromagnetic spectrum, typically from...

In the context of optical materials, the term "impurity level" refers to the presence of foreign atoms or molecules within the material that deviate from its regular or intrinsic composition. These...

Instantaneous field of view (iFOV) is a term commonly used in the context of remote sensing, imaging systems, and optical instruments. It refers to the specific portion of a scene that an optical...

A small defocused Galilean telescope mounted in a hole in a door. Viewed from inside through the positive lens, a wide-angle view of the outside is seen; viewed from outside through the negative...

A lab-on-a-chip (LOC) is a miniaturized device that integrates various laboratory functions and capabilities onto a single, compact chip. Also known as microfluidic devices, lab-on-a-chip systems are...

Laser annealing is a process that involves using a laser beam to heat and modify the microstructure of a material, typically a thin film or surface layer, with the objective of improving its...

A laser device used to establish a location or target usually for detection by an impact source e.g. missiles and guided munitions. Laser designation sources utilize a system configuration which is...

A technique for confining atoms, molecules or small particles within one or more laser beams. This can be accomplished through the use of a single focused beam or multiple intersecting beams. With a...

A technique based on the principles of laser trapping and used to manipulate the position of small particles by gradually changing the position of the laser beam or beams once the particles are...

A liquid crystal light valve (LCLV), also known as a spatial light modulator (SLM), is an optical device that modulates the intensity, phase, or polarization of light passing through it using liquid...

A Mach-Zehnder interferometer is an optical device used to measure the phase difference between two collimated beams of light. It is named after the physicists Ludwig Mach and Ludwig Zehnder, who...