Photonics Dictionary: B

A Babinet compensator that contains the controlled motion of one prism with respect to the other. This idea was introduced by Jamin.

An amplifying device with a wide tuning range in which an electron gun sends a beam of electrons into a slow-wave structure. The electron beam and the electromagnetic wave move in opposite directions...

A light-harvesting protein found in the purple membrane of a micro-organism called Halobacterium halobium. The protein undergoes a photocycle that involves several binary photochemical reactions that...

A filter that suppresses a given range of frequencies, transmitting only those above and below that band. Also called bandstop filter.

In semiconductor physics, the term bandgap refers to the energy range in a material where no electronic states are allowed. It represents the energy difference between the valence band, which is the...

Beam profiling is a technique used to characterize and analyze the spatial intensity distribution of a laser beam. It involves measuring and visualizing how the optical power or intensity is...

Biometrics refers to the automated recognition of individuals based on their physiological or behavioral characteristics. These unique attributes are used to verify or identify individuals, often in...

Also called proximity focus image intensifier. A compact image intensifier that utilizes a microchannel plate intensification stage. This is an in-line device that does not invert the image.

A matrix-controlled display that has information storage at the display surface, and requires that an element be addressed only once to assure that it is on or off.

1. A plane that forms one side of the groove ruled on a diffraction grating. 2. To form the individual grooves of a grating with flat smooth faces, inclined to the surface by an angle known as the...

A bolometer that serves to record. The photographic record formed by the bolometer may be called bolograph or bologram.

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 Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter that forms at temperatures close to absolute zero. It is named after Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein, who independently predicted the...

An instrument for detecting and analyzing repetitive signals. Using a fixed time delay or "gate," the input signal is sampled numerous times and averaged to increase the ratio of the...

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...

Brillouin scattering is a phenomenon in physics where an incident electromagnetic wave (usually light) interacts with acoustic phonons (quantized lattice vibrations) in a material, resulting in the...

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...

The process of lapping a thin edge of metal over the bevelled edge of a lens to maintain it within its cell.

A high-frequency pulse-rate laser with an output limited by the heat capacity of the laser medium. Instead of having continuous cooling, the laser operates until the medium reaches a maximum...