Photonics Dictionary

Dispersion refers to the phenomenon where different wavelengths (colors) of light travel at different speeds when passing through a medium. This variation in the speed of light for different colors...

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 type of asynchronous shutter device that is used particularly in CCD sensor applications to capture an image of a high-speed subject with no time delay. The word donpisha is taken from the Japanese...

The separation of unpolarized light into two plane-polarized elements by a doubly refracting crystal. When a crystal, such as calcite, is placed between the eye and a pinhole in a card, two bright...

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 electro-optic deflector is a device that can change the direction of light beams using an electric field. It operates based on the electro-optic effect, which involves the modulation of the...

An electro-optic modulator (EOM) is a device used to modulate the amplitude, phase, or polarization of light waves using an external electrical signal. Electro-optic modulation is a fundamental...

A high-speed shutter, similar to a Kerr cell, that uses the birefringence produced in a liquid during the passage of an electric current through it to change the liquid's optical transmission...

A stream of electrons emitted by a single source that move in the same direction and at the same speed.

An EMCCD (electron-multiplying charge-coupled device) camera is a type of scientific camera specifically designed for low-light imaging applications that require high sensitivity and fast readout...

A mechanical shutter that has had its timing escapement replaced with an electronic timing circuit. This circuit allows a wider range of exposure times, can be more accurate, and, placed in a circuit...

In target tracking, a technique for speeding up the image processing by removing bunches of pixels that are outside the area of interest.

An event-based image sensor, also known as a dynamic vision sensor (DVS), is a type of digital imaging device designed to capture visual information in a highly efficient and unique way compared to...

A measure of film speed sensitivity to light.

A ray that has a nonisotropic speed in a doubly refracting crystal. It does not necessarily obey Snell's law upon refraction at the crystal surface.

A femtosecond laser is a type of laser that emits ultrashort pulses of light with durations on the order of femtoseconds, where one femtosecond is equal to 10-15 seconds. These lasers are capable of...

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 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 measure the speed of light by adjusting the rotation of a toothed wheel so that light passing through one tooth opening is reflected through the next. This device has since been...

A polishing machine designed to permit adjustment of the polisher speed and motion for the control of flat surfaces.

An imaging device analogous to a drum scanner, but operating at greater speeds; it uses a row of sensors to traverse an image affixed to a flat surface.

FMCW lidar stands for frequency-modulated continuous wave lidar. It is a type of lidar (light detection and ranging) technology used for remote sensing, distance measurement, and 3D mapping. FMCW...

A high-speed cine camera that produces discrete frames of a continuous event as opposed to the flow photographic record of a streak camera.

The principle that electronic energy transitions occur at such speeds that the nuclei of the atoms in the molecular system remain stable during the transfers.

A type of internal photonic connection in an integrated circuit in which a holographic grating is used to focus light at points on a silicon chip, maximizing the speed of signal propagation.

Free-space optics (FSO), also known as optical wireless communication or optical wireless networking, refers to the transmission of data using modulated beams of light through free space (air or a...

Gallium nitride (GaN) is a compound made up of gallium (Ga) and nitrogen (N). It is a wide-bandgap semiconductor material that exhibits unique electrical and optical properties. Gallium nitride is...

A galvanometric scanner, also known as a galvanometer scanner or galvo scanner, is a type of optical scanning device used to rapidly and precisely direct a laser beam or other light source to...

GigE, short for gigabit Ethernet, refers to a standard for high-speed Ethernet communication, capable of transmitting data at rates of up to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps), or 1000 megabits per second...

A spectrograph having glass as its refracting component and used in cases where speed and high dispersion are not required. The glass material has a range of about 3700 to 8000 Å.

The term gradient-index profile refers to a specific type of refractive index distribution within an optical material. In optics, the refractive index of a material describes how much the speed of...

Graphene is a two-dimensional allotrope of carbon consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice pattern. It is the basic building block of other carbon-based materials...

Postulated by Einstein in his theory of relativity. They are waves traveling at the speed of light and exerting force on matter in their path. They are produced by changes in the distribution of...

A photoreceptor material used in solar cells and in drums for laser printers and high-speed copiers because of its high quantum efficiency over a wide spectral band, high data-rate capability and...

With respect to photography, the process used to increase the effective speed of an emulsion between manufacture and exposure.

Hyperspectral resolution refers to the level of detail or granularity in the spectral information captured by a hyperspectral imaging system. In hyperspectral imaging, the electromagnetic spectrum is...

In semiconductor physics and materials science, the term "III-V materials" refers to compounds composed of elements from group III and group V of the periodic table. More specifically, these...

An image intensifier, also known as an image intensification tube or image intensification device, is a specialized electronic device used to amplify low-light-level images to make them visible to...

An InGaAs (indium gallium arsenide) camera is a type of imaging device that utilizes InGaAs sensors to capture images in the near-infrared (NIR) spectrum. InGaAs is a semiconductor material that is...

Indium phosphide (InP) is a compound semiconductor material composed of indium (In) and phosphorus (P). It belongs to the III-V group of semiconductors, where elements from groups III and V of the...

Inertial fusion energy (IFE) refers to a proposed method of generating electricity by harnessing the energy released from the fusion of light atomic nuclei, typically isotopes of hydrogen, through a...

An intensified charge-coupled device (ICCD) camera is an advanced imaging device that combines the capabilities of both an image intensifier and a charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor to achieve...

A Kerr soliton refers to a specific type of soliton, a self-reinforcing wave packet, that arises in nonlinear optical systems due to the Kerr effect. The Kerr effect is the phenomenon where the...

Laser marking is a process in which a laser beam is used to mark or engrave a surface by altering its properties or appearance. This technique is widely used for labeling, identification, and...

A laser rangefinder is a device that uses laser technology to measure the distance between the device and a target. It operates on the principle of measuring the time it takes for a laser beam to...

The use of lasers in tailoring of such components as thin-film resistors. The process improves speed and accuracy.

LiFi, short for light fidelity, is a wireless communication technology that utilizes visible light or infrared light to transmit data. Developed as an alternative or complementary technology to...

Line scan refers to a method of capturing images or data by scanning a single line at a time, as opposed to capturing the entire image simultaneously. This technique is commonly used in various...

A line-scan camera, also known as a line-scan image sensor or linear array camera, is a type of digital camera designed to capture images one line or row of pixels at a time, rather than a full...