Photonics Dictionary: A

The energy analysis of electrons released in a secondary step following initial excitation or ionization.

An absorption peak refers to a sharp increase or spike in the absorption of electromagnetic radiation at a particular wavelength or energy level. It is a distinctive feature in the absorption...

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...

Impurity in a semiconductor or any other electroluminescent device capable of inducing hole conduction and accepting a valence band electron to produce an acceptor energy level.

Component that is externally controlled via electronic or photon signal.

An OLED display that has an integrated electronic backplane as its substrate. Active-matrix OLED displays use at least two thin-film transistors (TFTs) to control the on-current at each OLED cell or...

An OLED display that has an integrated electronic backplane as its substrate. Active-matrix OLED displays use at least two thin-film transistors (TFTs) to control the on-current at each OLED cell or...

Mechanical device intended for the translation (rotational and linear) using high precision control from electronically operated circuits. See linear actuator; rotary actuator.

Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, is a manufacturing process that involves creating three-dimensional objects by adding material layer by layer. This is in contrast to...

The use of optical or electronic recording systems to extract information from the terrain, while aloft, for reconnaissance applications.

The creation of a planned sequence of data input that is obtained while airborne for use in aerial photogrammetry and other types of map making and surveying. The data can be photographic, electronic...

A device that enlarges and strengthens a signal's output without significantly distorting its original waveshape. There are amplifiers for acoustical, optical and electronic signals.

Gamma ray radiation released when matter and antimatter, such as electron and positron, unite and eliminate each other, transforming completely into energy. The resulting gamma ray spectrum depends...

The part of an electrical circuit in which the electrons leave (a cathode-ray tube) or enter (an electrolytic cell) a unit in the circuit.

A device that prevents electrons from a saturated pixel in a CCD imaging device from spilling into an adjacent pixel. The antiblooming gate drains a pixel of any charge in excess of its full-well...

An APD detector, or avalanche photodiode detector, is a type of photodetector used to detect light or optical signals by converting incoming photons into electrical current. It operates based on the...

A loss of resolution or detail in a television signal caused by the size of the electron scanning beam.

Area scan, in the context of imaging and cameras, refers to a method of capturing an entire two-dimensional image in a single snapshot or exposure. Unlike line scan, which captures images one line at...

gas laser using ionized argon as the active medium and applying electronic excitation in order to produce the laser light

The efficiency of scattering by an atom in a particular direction, expressed as: where AA is the amplitude of the wave from the atom and AE is the amplitude of the wave from a free electron.

Attenuation refers to the gradual loss or reduction of intensity, force, or magnitude of a particular property as it propagates through a medium or travels over a distance. This concept is prevalent...

An electronic transducer, either fixed or adjustable, that reduces the amplitude of a wave without causing significant distortion. See also beam attenuator.

Attosecond photonics sources refer to devices or systems that generate extremely short pulses of light on the order of attoseconds (1 attosecond = 10-18 seconds). These ultrafast light pulses are in...

Attosecond-pump attosecond-probe spectroscopy (APAP) is an advanced technique in ultrafast spectroscopy that allows scientists to study the dynamics of electronic processes occurring on extremely...

The radiation-free transition that takes place within an ion, in which inner-shell vacancies in neutral atoms are filled by outer-shell electrons, thereby transferring energy to other electrons,...

Automated optical inspection (AOI) is a technology used in manufacturing processes, particularly in electronics, to automatically inspect and detect defects or anomalies in products. AOI systems use...

A method of producing an essentially constant output signal from an electronic circuit despite variations in the strength of the input signal.

In fiber optics, the use of a detector to study the range of refractive indices achieved at various wavelengths. This information is calculated electronically to establish the divergence between...

A device that utilizes avalanche multiplication of photocurrent by means of hole-electrons created by absorbed photons. When the device's reverse-bias voltage nears breakdown level, the hole-electron...

Azadioxatriangulenium is a type of organic compound with a unique triangular molecular structure. It is often abbreviated as ADOTA. This compound belongs to the class of polycyclic aromatic...