Photonics Dictionary: L

A term applied to an electric charge image in a camera tube that remains for a period of a few frames after its initial formation.

Laser active elements typically refers to the substances or materials within a laser system that play a critical role in the amplification of light through the process of stimulated emission. These...

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 surgical device used to deliver laser light. Specifically,contact tips are made with artificially grown sapphire which is precisely cut to an orientation which permits efficient light transmission....

Device that operates by interaction of incident radiation with semiconductor based material in order to produce an electrical signal or by other means, to interact with calorimetric devices which...

A laser diode module is a compact device that incorporates a laser diode, optics, and often other components into a single package. These modules are designed to provide a convenient and efficient...

The laser output refers to the generated and emitted light produced by a laser system. This output is characterized by several key properties that distinguish lasers from other light sources. These...

A laser, which stands for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation," is a device that produces coherent and focused beams of light through the process of optical amplification based...

A ferroelectric polycrystalline ceramic material used in optical memories for computers and as a piezoelectric transducer.

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...

Any device that is used to sense and measure light. See exposure meter; photoelectric exposure meter; photoelectric photometer; reflected light meter.

The electrical power used to stimulate any light source. Power supplies may be step-up or step-down transformers; rectifiers to convert AC to DC; ammeters and voltmeters to observe the input to the...

With respect to display systems, a device that uses an independent light source and a control-layer medium, the active optical element, to convert an electrical charge image to an optical image....

An LED, or light emitting diode, is a semiconductor device that emits light when an electric current passes through it. LEDs are widely used in various applications due to their energy efficiency,...

A device for which the output electric field is linearly proportional to the input electric field, and no new wavelengths or modulation frequencies are generated.

A linear image sensor is a type of solid-state electronic device used to capture and convert light into electrical signals. Unlike area image sensors (such as CCD or CMOS sensors), which capture an...

A linear positioning stage, also known as a linear stage or translation stage, is a precision mechanical device used to accurately move and position objects along a linear axis. These stages are...

Liquid crystals are a state of matter that exhibits properties intermediate between those of conventional liquids and solid crystals. In a liquid crystal, the molecules are ordered like those in a...

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...

Liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) is a display technology that combines liquid crystal materials with silicon-based semiconductor technology to create high-resolution, high-quality images. LCoS...

A crystalline ferroelectric material used primarily as a substrate and an active medium for thin-film optical modulators and switches. It possesses very high electro-optic and piezoelectric...

The partial differential equations for the spatial and time dependence of electric and magnetic fields inside a semiconductor. They are the analog of Maxwell's equations, which apply to the electric...

Pockels cell or dynamic optical retarder in which the electrical field is applied in a direction parallel to that of light passing through it.

The Lorentz oscillator model is a theoretical model used in physics to describe the response of a charged particle (such as an electron) to an oscillating electric field. It is particularly employed...

A dielectric sphere with an index of refraction that varies with distance from the sphere center. A parallel beam of rays is focused on the lens surface at a point diametrically opposite the...