Photonics Dictionary

A large tank filled with liquid hydrogen, with a flat window at one end and complex optical devices for observing and photographing the rows of fine bubbles formed when a high-energy particle...

A tank with a boiling solvent at the bottom and a ring of cold piping higher up that condenses the liquid and returns it to the bottom. Objects such as lenses or small metal parts to be cleaned are...

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 guided missile that uses an infrared sensor to detect and home in on an enemy target. The missile is guided by the high infrared emissions produced by a target, such as the heat from an aircraft or...

Term synonymous with refractive index liquid, but related more to tank or chamber immersion of crystals, fibers, lenses, photoelastic models, etc.

A detector cooling device in which a gas under high pressure escapes through an expansion valve in the tank; as the escaped gas liquefies, it cools the site of the sensor.

The process of transferring collected energy from solar radiation into a heat-absorbing medium (e.g., an insulated tank of water) for use at a later time.

Simulation of atmospheric turbulence for laboratory experimentation purposes, achieved by creating an unstable vertical gradient temperature in a tank filled with water.