The light flash, produced in flash photolysis, that is triggered within a second discharge tube by the third electrode. It...

A small defocused Galilean telescope mounted in a hole in a door. Viewed from inside through the positive lens, a wide-angle...

A whole-flow-field technique providing instantaneous velocity vector measurements in a cross-section of a flow that is...

Retroreflection is a phenomenon in optics where light is reflected back toward its source, typically in a direction nearly...

1. The branch of physics that deals with the use of electrical energy to create or manipulate light waves, generally by...

Motion of a fiber into and out of the ferrule. This effect is often caused by changes in temperature.

Camera Link HS (high speed) is a standard developed for high-speed digital data transmission in machine vision and...

An optical time-domain reflectometer (OTDR) is a specialized instrument used in optical fiber communications to characterize...

An image-processing device that scans in a straight line parallel to the axis of a rotating cylinder to which the material...

In image processing, the enhancement of an image by increasing or decreasing its spatial frequencies.

A narrow cone of light rays that diverge from a point source or converge to an image point.

In optical fiber, bends that are larger than microbends (see microbending), being visible. Generally they are caused by...

Machine vision lighting refers to the use of specific lighting techniques and equipment in the field of machine vision,...

Resonance can be defined in various contexts, including physics, chemistry, and music. Here are definitions for resonance in...

Observed lengthening in wavelengths of the optical absorption edge of a semiconductor with the application of an electric...

A high-quality, narrow-angle lens of high aperture designed for low magnification in the recording of cathode-ray tube...

A measure of an optical system's ability to produce an image which separates two points or parallel lines on the object. See...

The central wavelength range of a transmitter based on the worst-case scenarios of temperature, manufacturing and other...

A fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is a type of optical filter that is inscribed or "written" into the core of an optical fiber. It...

The angular change of an incident beam due to vibrational induced refractive index changes within a crystal.

A technique that uses a solid-state laser and a detector to determine an object's relative distance to the system. The laser...

Photodynamic inactivation (PDI) is a therapeutic approach that utilizes the combination of light, a photosensitizer, and...

Magnetorheological finishing (MRF) is a precision optics polishing technique used for shaping and finishing optical surfaces...

A device used in measuring attenuation in optical fiber. The loss caused by the bends in a short reference length of fiber...

A standard source of high-charge-state ions for accelerators that has an external magnetic field oriented perpendicularly to...

That invisible region of the spectrum just beyond the violet end of the visible region. Wavelengths range from 1 to 400 nm.

A photographic objective that uses the thick meniscus principle to obtain its power. It is designed to photograph small...

Spatial light interference microscopy (SLIM) is an optical microscopy technique that belongs to the category of quantitative...

In a laser, a measure of the device's ability to dissipate internally generated heat.

For a pulsed laser, the product of the energy per pulse (joule) and the pulse frequency (hertz); expressed in watts.

Approximation of a system of thermal equilibrium formed by the distribution of the kinetic energies of electrons in a gas...

In fiber optic communications systems, generally one that operates between 1000 and 1700 nm.

Description of a particle that cannot be superimposed on its mirror image.

In image processing, modifying the dot that forms the image in order to simulate a series of gray tones.

An instrument used to record rapidly varying currents or voltages. An oscillograph may consist of a cathode-ray tube...

A small convergent lens, located between the objective and eyepiece of a microscope, that focuses an image of the upper...

The capacity of a chiral substance such as a crystal or molecule to rotate the plane of polarized light that is transmitted...

1. In optics, the bending of light rays toward each other, as by a convex or positive lens. 2. Turning in the eyes to view a...

Lenses that have identical flange focal distances and can be interchanged.

A telescope that uses a reflecting objective to focus an image of a distant object at a focal point.

Selective laser melting (SLM) is an additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing technology that belongs to the powder bed...

Concave is an adjective used to describe a surface or shape that curves inward or has a hollow or recessed appearance. In...

The transform defining that, if a reference beam is a divergent spherical wavefront, then the reconstructed image will be...

Transformation of an image, such as a change in position or scale, that does not alter the linearity of the original image.

An atomic force microscope (AFM) is a high-resolution imaging and measurement instrument used in nanotechnology, materials...

A telescope that produces an erect image. Erection is achieved either by a lens (for a long instrument) or a prism (for a...

1. The term used to describe any of the many instruments used to remotely record physical dimensions, such as strain,...

With respect to waveguides, the continuous change in the direction of the axis of the wavelength, during which the axis is...

A cryogenic cooler device that is an intermittent Joule-Thomson refrigerator with a passive radiator serving as the...

Quantum efficiency (QE) is a measure of the effectiveness with which a device or system, typically in the context of...

Laser surgery by means of a low-power laser system using a synthetic sapphire scalpel that transmits the laser light while...

(TOF) The length of time needed for a signal to arrive at and be reflected from the target. The basis of an active...

A near-infrared (NIR) camera is an imaging device designed to capture images in the near-infrared region of the...

Freeform optics refers to the design and fabrication of optical surfaces that do not follow traditional symmetric shapes,...

In an optical system having astigmatism, the distance between the tangential and sagittal image planes.

Photovoltaic (PV) refers to a technology that converts sunlight directly into electricity using semiconductors. The term...

Piezoelectric motion systems are mechanical systems that utilize piezoelectric materials to generate controlled motion or...

A Peltier cooler, also known as a thermoelectric cooler (TEC) or thermoelectric module, is a solid-state device that uses...

The process whereby white light is separated into its component wavelengths. Light beams of different wavelengths are...

Die bonding is a critical process in semiconductor manufacturing and microelectronics assembly, where a semiconductor die or...

The measurement of the intensity of spectral lines by the examination of a very small area under a microscope and the...

Volumetric imaging refers to the capture, visualization, and analysis of three-dimensional (3D) information from a volume of...

In a microscope, the optical assembly that focuses light on the specimen and into the objective.

The generic term applied to all sources of visible radiation from burning matter to ionized vapors and lasers, regardless of...

An analysis used for problems of wave propagation. The principle notes that each point of an advancing wavefront is the...

Nanophotonics is a branch of science and technology that explores the behavior of light on the nanometer scale, typically at...

The occurrence of very large rotations in transparent materials at weak magnetic fields as predicted in the classical...

The property exhibited by certain birefringent crystals in which the degree with which they transmit polarized light is...

A system for automatic industrial process control or measurement, consisting of an optical module for image acquisition, a...

The size of the field of view in the object space of an optical system as differentiated from that in the image space...

A device to modulate spatially a collimated coherent beam of light with input data in optical data processing. It uses a...

The laser output refers to the generated and emitted light produced by a laser system. This output is characterized by...

Sets of paired lines carefully designed to give the most accurate pointing possible for various lengths of sight.

The photographic recording of a subject that exhibits luminescence only for an extremely short time (10-8 s) after the...

Light leakage at a total reflecting interface when another highly refractive medium is brought close to it.

A measure of the optical path length for light traveling from the sun or other celestial source through Earth's atmosphere...

The angle measured between the focal surface containing the image and a plane normal to the optical axis.

Mode-locking is a technique used in lasers to produce ultrashort pulses of light with durations on the order of picoseconds,...

The small central portion of the human retina that is responsible for providing the clearest, and most distinct aspects of...

An image processing device that displays pseudocolor images by assigning colors to the gray scales according to look-up...

In optics and photolithography, a phase mask refers to a device that modifies the phase of light waves passing through it....

The equivalent f number of a fictitious lens that has a circular opening and 100 percent transmittance, which would give the...

The Fourier series representation of a two-dimensional periodic field, assuming that the original image is periodic both...

A telemicroscope in which a negative eyepiece is used to produce erect images.

A coherent fiber bundle (CFB), also known as a coherent fiber optic bundle, is an assembly of multiple optical fibers...

The spectroscopic analysis of interference patterns using a monochannel spectrometer, spectrograph or multichannel...

Spectrometric analysis of the distinct and characteristic spectra of atoms of elements. The atoms are energized to emit...

An autocollimator is an optical instrument used for measuring small angular deviations with high precision. It operates on...

A microchannel plate (MCP) is a specialized electron multiplier device used in various applications such as particle...

An APD detector, or avalanche photodiode detector, is a type of photodetector used to detect light or optical signals by...

End-fire coupling refers to a method of coupling energy into or out of a waveguide, transmission line, or antenna, where the...

In a charge-coupled device, the disappearance of some of the accumulated charge into the silicon during readout.

Photonics contract manufacturing refers to the outsourcing of the production of photonics-related components, devices, or...

Data communications network in a clearly defined geographical location, and extending no more than a few miles in length. It...

The image formed in electrophotography.

A device that uses electromagnetic fields to separate electrically charged particles according to their masses. As a beam of...

A method used to approximate the values of the homogeneous second derivatives at each iteration in the course of lens design...

A pixel, short for "picture element," is the smallest controllable element of a digital image or display. It is a...

An assembly of optical fibers that will not transmit coherent images or information because the relationship of the fibers...

A telescope so manufactured that the image remains erect and the position of the eyepiece is unchanged as the line of sight...

The ability to see over large angles of view.

Also known as reversed telephoto lens. A lens consisting of an ordinary objective with a negative component near its front...

A container that prevents spliced fibers from becoming damaged or being misplaced.

Excimer laser coronary angioplasty (ELCA) refers to a medical procedure used in the treatment of coronary artery disease....

Optofluidics is an interdisciplinary field that combines principles from optics and fluidics to create devices and systems...

An optical filter is a device that selectively transmits or blocks specific wavelengths, or colors, of light. Optical...

A method of depositing crystalline films one molecular layer at a time, by dipping the substrate into water containing a...

A type of optical modulator with potential application in optical switching and displays, in which applied voltage causes a...

A fiber optic sensor is a device that uses optical fibers to detect and measure physical, chemical, biological, or...

In an optical rangefinder, the system of wedges that rotate in opposite directions to aid in the detection of deviation in...

A method of scanning in which a frame transfer device produces a continuous video image of a moving object by means of a...

It is often necessary to estimate the value of what a pixel would be between neighboring pixels. This is accomplished by...

A high-speed, narrow-field lens consisting of two achromats spaced about the aperture stop. Its uses include portrait...

A network interface card (NIC), also known as a network adapter or LAN adapter, is a hardware component that allows...

A series of permanent holograms in dichromated gelatin formed by opening total page-composer apertures and setting a point...

A laser in which the transition involved in stimulated emission of radiation takes place between two levels of an ionized...

The chemical method of separating compounds dissolved in one phase (usually mobile) through its equilibration with a second...

In a lens or other optical system, the image of the aperture stop as seen from object space.

The relative path difference (or phase shift) traveled between two rays that pass through different mediums from the same...

A common technique in microscopy, oblique illumination is one in which the object is illuminated by a light source that is...

The adhesion of two sufficiently clean and close-fitting surfaces without the use of cement or glue. The optically contacted...

Selection of specific brightness values or minimum threshold levels as contingencies for the display of digital data.

A telescope with a concave paraboloidal objective mirror and a small plane (diagonal) mirror that reflects rays from the...

The study of chemical changes produced by radiation.

A chemical compound that exhibits a reversible change in its absorption spectrum upon irradiation with given wavelengths of...

In physics, momentum transfer is the amount of momentum transferred from one particle to another during particle collision...

A thermal radiation detector consisting of a small cell with a blackened plastic front face that bulges slightly when heat...

A small television tube originally developed for closed-circuit television. It is about 1 inch in diameter and 5 inches...

A means of testing the strength of optical fibers to ensure reliability, by applying stress to the fiber so that any flaws...

The change in refractive index that occurs as acoustic vibrations are transmitted through an optical material.The index...

The metal tube that maintains the optical components of a lens in proper relationship. Some lenses are mounted in metal...

An instrument that contains a spectrograph with a grating in which an array of slits, in place of a photographic plate, is...

Spectroscopy is a technique used in the study of interactions between matter and electromagnetic radiation. It involves...

A prism made up of two air-spaced components. It has the ability to revert, and not invert, an image, and can be used in...

A vision defect commonly referred to as nearsightedness. The defective condition results when the image of a distant object...

In a linear stage, any deviation from the desired translation across a flat, straight line.

A small fiber optic endoscope used in laser surgery.

Embedded vision refers to the integration of computer vision technologies into various embedded systems, devices, or...

Supercontinuum refers to a broad spectrum of light that spans a wide range of wavelengths, typically from the visible to the...

The area of optics that deals with the interaction of light with a given material. The optical properties of material are...

A system incorporated into fiber optic data communications characterized by several spatially distributed terminals that are...

Often referred to as the geometric center of a given image or image plane, the centroid of an image is a fixed point located...

A lamp designed to emit a large amount of infrared radiation; used in applications requiring heat.

In the context of electronics and semiconductor manufacturing, a wafer refers to a thin, flat disk or substrate made of a...

An aerial reconnaissance system that can transmit, in near real time, image data recorded by IR and visual-spectrum sensors,...

A fiber optic gyroscope (FOG) is a type of gyroscope that uses the interference of light waves to detect changes in...

A cathode-ray tube that increases the brightness or size of an image or forms a visible image from invisible radiation. The...

Light consisting of a single wavelength or a very narrow band of wavelengths.

A casting consisting of an optical material molded into the desired geometry for grinding, polishing or, in the case of...

An atmospheric nonlinear process unique to CO2 laser wavelengths, whereby CO2 absorbs 10.6-µm radiation and the CO2...

That plane in an optical system containing its optical axis and the chief ray. Also called the tangential plane.

A fish-eye lens designed to photograph cloud formations over the entire visible sky.

In a CD-ROM disc, the reflective area between nonreflective pits representing a binary-language "off'' as opposed to...

The range of angle or solid angle values by which light may enter an optical system.

Structural color refers to coloration in materials that is not caused by pigments or dyes but is instead a result of the...

Phase distortion refers to a change in the phase relationships between different frequency components of a signal. In the...

In spectroscopy, the false images arranged symmetrically on both sides of the true line and caused by irregularities in the...

Agents used for testing light sources and natural daylight with visual and instrumental assessment using a set of white...

Frame rate refers to the frequency at which consecutive images, or frames, are displayed in a video sequence. It is...

A telescope lens is a primary optical component of a telescope system that gathers and focuses light to form an image. It is...

Also called Geiger-Müller counter. An instrument designed to detect and measure radioactivity through the use of a...

The technique of generating ultrashort -- down to subpicosecond -- pulses by pumping a dye laser with mode-locked laser...

The phase change of one of the two split beams of an interference microscope.

Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is a type of additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing technology that uses a high-power...

The pattern of physical or chemical changes that has taken place in a photographic emulsion, by its exposure to light, that...

A gelatinous fluid that can be used as a porous thin-film coating for optical components, including laser beam collimators,...

In passive optical components, loss that varies as the polarization state of the propagating wave changes. Expressed as the...

Technique that provides two stereographic views of an object that are larger than the object itself, by means of mutually...

An image that is formed when rays emerging from an optical system all converge to a point on the optical axis. A real image...

Rare-earth elements (REEs) are a group of seventeen chemical elements found in the Earth's crust, characterized by their...

A device that uses low-level visible radiation or infrared radiation to produce a visual image of a night scene. These...

A type of surface-emitting laser diode that uses dielectric mirrors to produce surface emission. The laser cavity is...

A beamsplitter is an optical device for dividing a beam into two or more separate beams. A simple beamsplitter may be a very...

A microdisplay is a miniature electronic display technology that is designed to project visual information onto a small...

A lock-in amplifier is a specialized electronic instrument used to extract and measure small signals embedded in noise or...

Optical design software refers to specialized computer programs used by optical engineers, physicists, and designers to...

Lens testing equipment refers to a range of specialized tools and instruments used to evaluate the optical performance,...

An objective measure of an object's brightness that is derived from the ratio of the luminance of its lightest section to...

A compound lens so constructed that its overall length is equal to or less than its effective focal length.

In an astigmatic grating, the image of the entrance slit located at the primary focus.

Collaborative Robot (Cobot): Unlike traditional autonomous robots, which usually work by themselves, a collaborative robot...

A reflecting prism that inverts the image. The image is reflected four times internally and emitted laterally. The prism is...

Signal used in optical transmission systems to generate currents in a detector that are decoded with reference to a...

A unit of measurement in a rangefinder corresponding to 12 s of arc in the apparent field.

Used in halftone screens to change the fundamental sampled spatial frequency of the halftoned picture, as well as varying...

The internal lens of the eye. It is semielastic to permit changes in its power when focusing on objects at near distances.

In image processing, the study of structure or form of objects in an image.

Lenses or prisms that serve to erect the image; i.e., to bring the image upright after it has been inverted by the objective.

The process whereby the number of atoms or atomic systems in a set of energy levels is changed by the absorption of light...

1. The grinding or edging of a lens so that the geometrical center and optical center do not coincide. 2. The shifting of an...

Laser drift typically refers to a phenomenon where the frequency or wavelength of a laser source gradually changes over...

Generic term for read-only optical data storage, source of the Philips-Sony term CD-ROM.

A reagent is a substance or compound that is used in a chemical reaction to bring about a specific transformation or to...

A semiconductor material in which the dopants create holes as the majority charge carrier. It is formed by doping with...

A highly flame-retardant material used to jacket fiber optic cables, especially on shipboard applications.

The term perovskite refers to a specific crystal structure commonly found in various materials. Perovskite structures have a...

One area of image enhancement, accomplished by spatial filtering schemes, that usually involves attenuation of phase changes...

A microcomb, short for microresonator frequency comb, is a novel photonic device that generates a precise series of evenly...

A scanning electron microscope (SEM) is a powerful imaging instrument used in scientific research, materials...

Thermal interface materials (TIMs) are substances or compounds used to enhance the thermal conductivity between two surfaces...

A detector sensitive only to signals close to or at a particular frequency that is the same as the frequency of a control...

In Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS), an incident photon (usually laser light) interacts with acoustic phonons in a...

A single housing that includes means of recording an image photographically and electronically.

A gauge designed to measure the degree of vacuum in an evacuated vessel. A simple U-tube containing mercury is adequate for...

The area of optics in which the wave nature of a particle is exploited to carry out very accurate interferometry and other...

One eyepiece of a set having equal distances from their mounting interface to their image plane, permitting freedom to...

A cell filled with a transparent material that, when placed in a strong electrical field, exhibits double refraction. Since...

A negatively charged elementary particle. See electron.

Plastic optical fiber (POF) is a type of optical fiber made from transparent plastic, typically polymethylmethacrylate...

The average luminous intensity of a point light source measured over all directions.

A small erect-image telescope for use as a sighting device on a rifle. The chief requirement is a long eye relief to avoid...

A technique for reducing data processing requirements by electronically defining only a small portion of the image to be...

Thermography is a technique that involves the use of an infrared imaging device, called a thermal camera or infrared camera,...

The fringes used in the Jamin interferometer and produced by light that has been internally and externally reflected by two...

The highest frequency at which a laser diode can be driven and still be modulated acceptably that further results in the...

A form of dispersing prism, often used in monochromators, that consists of a common right-angle prism with a 30°...

A phenomenon in which high optical power, encountering an imperfection in an optical fiber, destroys the fiber's core and...

One of various types of fluorescent screens used to detect x-ray radiation. Photographic film is mildly sensitive to x-rays,...

An InGaAs photodiode refers to a photodetector device that is constructed using a semiconductor material composed of a...

A birefringent crystal having two axes along which there is an absence of double refraction. Mica, sulphur and turquoise are...

A Laurent polarimeter is an instrument used in optics for measuring the rotation of plane-polarized light caused by...

A type of multiple-pass amplifier in which no optical leakage is allowed until a finite number of passes has occurred; at...

A radiation source that, unlike the point source, can be resolved by the naked eye into a geometrical image.

One of the electrodes used to focus the electron beam of a cathode-ray tube. As the electrode's voltage is changed, its...

A mass spectrometer used to detect ions formed by photo- and charge-exchange ionization of gases, such as those in the lunar...

Combining adjacent pixels into one larger pixel, resulting in increased sensitivity and lower resolution, or, in image...

Image of a uniform source through the sample of a microscope image system. Light from the sample plane is reimaged by the...

Also referred to as image visibility, the contrast of an image is the variation in the intensity of an image formed by an...

Information storage on a dielectric medium that represents the data as those spots on the medium having electrostatic...

A color filter, generally used in photography, to emphasize certain color tones and to modify others in a picture for a more...

A variation in propagation delay caused by differences in group velocity among modes of an optical fiber. Also called...

Coating carried out in a sealed chamber evacuated by a mechanical pump in series with an oil diffusion pump to a pressure...

A plane-parallel interferometer that yields extremely high contrast over a wide range of finesse values without...

The term "Rydberg atom" refers to an atom in a highly excited state where one or more of its electrons are in a Rydberg...

In a birefringent material, the index of refraction varies with the direction of vibration of a lightwave. That direction...

Change of the spatial distribution of a beam of radiation when it interacts with a surface or a heterogeneous medium, in...

In a straight line. When applied to a lens, it indicates that images of straight lines formed by the lens are not distorted.

Metasurfaces are two-dimensional arrays of subwavelength-scale artificial structures, often referred to as meta-atoms or...

Laser sintering is an additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing technology that involves using a laser to selectively fuse...

A lens similar to the Cooke triplet anastigmat, with the rear crown achromatized for improved coverage and definition. It is...

The law expressing the condition under which a crystal will reflect a beam of x-rays with the greatest amount of distinction...

Differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy, also known as Nomarski interference contrast microscopy, is an optical...

The partially reflective mirror at the end of the laser cavity that is the source of the beam. It controls the coupling...

An optogenetic technique that embeds genetically-engineered proteins to the heart to aid in terminating arrhythmias. After...

Localized redness of skin due to congestion of capillaries; a common result of overexposure to laser radiation.

High-voltage, fast-discharge circuit named after its inventor, Erwin Marx. Its capacitors are charged in parallel and...

A cosmetic defect on the surface of an optical element. A dig is nearly equal in terms of its length and width. The size is...

In the field of optics and imaging, a mesoscope refers to an optical instrument that is designed to observe and capture...

A Ti:sapphire laser is a type of solid-state laser that utilizes a titanium-doped sapphire crystal as the gain medium. The...

A compact, folded version of a Dove prism, made of high-index glass with a silvered base and used for image rotation.

Coded image obtained optically with a nonredundant pinhole array imaging aperture.

A specially designed microscope for observing the etched surface of a polished metal specimen. The specimen is often laid...

The process by which an atomic system changes from one energy level to another by either the emission or absorption of...

A support for optical parts comprising a solid bed that permits precise longitudinal movement of one component relative to...

An arc discharge tube having a grid that is used to start the discharge through an atmosphere of inert gas or vapor at low...

In image processing, the range of available gray levels. In an 8-bit system, the gray scale contains values from 0 to 255.

A document-transmitting process that uses a cylinder that rotates the document to be scanned and detected by a photoelectric...

A single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) is a specialized type of photodetector designed to detect extremely weak optical...

The distortion of an object's true image as the result of abnormal atmospheric disturbances along the path traveled by the...

An infrared lens is an optical component specifically designed and optimized for transmitting, focusing, or manipulating...

Plastic in which the polymer chains become irreversibly joined during molding. The cross-linking can be achieved by heating,...

1. In relation to cathode-ray tube displays, errors in the signal's amplitude, phase or both that result in small, rapid...

Rayleigh scattering is a phenomenon that occurs when light waves interact with particles or molecules that are much smaller...

The time domain is a concept used in signal processing and analysis to describe signals in terms of their behavior over...

Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) is an international standard for medical imaging created by both the...

A CubeSat is a type of miniaturized satellite characterized by its standardized size and modular design. CubeSats are...

The theory established by Christian J. Doppler in 1842 that states that the rate of change in distance between a perceiver...

The imaginary line passing through both the centers of curvatures of the optical surfaces of a lens or mirror; the optical...

In digital image processing, a method of convolution that reduces random noise by replacing the value of each pixel with the...

A factor, F, indicating the increase in shot noise in an avalanche photodiode as compared with the ideal multiplier, which...

A false image in television that follows the desired image so closely that it appears to be smeared.

The coherent wave used to play back a recorded hologram. It is identical to the reference wave used in the generation of the...

Q-switched operation, or q-switching, is a technique used in lasers to produce short and intense pulses of light. The term...

A single long gate electrode that transfers the line of charge packets to the transport shift register in a charge-coupled...

The determination of the degree to which a manufactured component can deviate from its ideal specifications of material and...

Sapphire refers to a crystalline form of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) that is used in various optical and photonic applications...

The point at which decreasing current supplied to a laser results in the extinguishing of the laser discharge.

Voltage that produces current flow in the direction of greater resistance to the steady-state direct current; i.e., from the...

A vacuum tube in which a magnetic field is superimposed onto the tube's electrical field. When the two fields are aligned,...

A type of glass used in near-infrared optical components, in which germanium is used as a cation instead of silicon.

A display device, such as a cathode-ray tube, that is located at some distance from the source generating the displayed...

An instrument used to record sound, pictures or both on a magnetic tape for storage and playback.

A device used in solar systems to direct mirror-reflected sunlight to a heat absorber and heat-driven engine, which turns a...

Employ a Stirling engine for cryogenic cooling.

A crystal formed by covalent bonds that are generally highly directional by nature. The electric characteristics of these...

A technique whereby the sample is illuminated by a hollow cone of light larger than the acceptance angle of the objective,...

Unlike the thermocouple or bolometer, the pyroelectric infrared detector is a current source with an output proportional to...

Any arrangement of a bundle of optical fibers that alters the shape of the image. For example, by systematic regulation of...

The number of separate images exposed by a cine camera in a second or the number illuminated by a cine projector in a...

An image that is reversed contour or inside-out.

The butt (edge to edge) splice of two pieces of film produced by a heat splicer that melts the edges together; used in...

Also known as constant angle or constant deviation fringes. The interference fringes observed with dense flat plates near...

Virtual reality (VR) is a computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional environment or experience that can be...

The angle formed between a ray of light striking a surface and the normal to that surface at the point of incidence.

In colorimetry, the phenomenon in which spectrally different radiations produce the same color sensation for a given...

Wide-field, low-magnification device that consists of two compound microscopes focused on a single object, producing an...

A mounting used for large concave gratings, whereby the slit, grating and plate holder lie in the Rowland circle, and the...

A rigid medium, generally a polycarbonate substrate coated with a reflective aluminum layer, that stores information (such...

A 2-million W, 2.7-µm-wavelength hydrogen-fluoride laser used as a directed energy weapon.

Filtering procedures aimed at estimating the original image by removing the blurring and noise suppression that occur during...

Modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) is a technique used in the fabrication of optical fibers. It is a specialized form...

A light source that does not fluctuate despite temperature changes.

A printing process of electrostatic electrophotography that uses a photoconductive insulating medium, in conjunction with...

An image that is similar to the object but rotated 180° about the axis of the system.

An alien, electrically charged atomic system in a solid; an ion substituted for the constituent atom or ion in a crystal...

A lens assembly made up of three lens elements that may or may not be cemented.

The formation of transistors, diodes, capacitors, resistors and other electronic elements directly on a flake of silicon by...

A two-mirror corrector for a parabolic primary mirror that provides anastigmatic performance for large astronomical...

Light present in the environment around a detecting or interpreting device, especially a machine vision system, and...

A cooling system used to attain and maintain desired low temperatures in infrared systems. The Stirling type is a mechanical...

Dewetting is a phenomenon in materials science and physics where a thin film or coating spontaneously undergoes a process of...

The field of view seen through some types of coincidence rangefinders. It is formed by the juxtaposition of opposite halves...

An eyepiece having a special prism arrangement linked to a micrometer screw to allow reading of the angular relations...

Trade name referring to an instrument that determines surface distances by measuring the length of time it takes for a...

Crystal growth method that resembles static freeze, but that induces growth by removing the ampoule from the furnace so that...

A device used to count objects that pass a given point by allowing each object to obstruct a beam of light falling on a...

A machine vision system is an integrated combination of hardware and software components designed to capture, process, and...

The principle that states that optical instrumentation cannot increase the radiance of a source; the radiance of an image...

A system for fabricating optical fiber, consisting of a furnace that heats the materials, a polymer coating stage, a...

A camera that uses an image converter tube in such a way that voltage waveforms applied to internal electrodes cause the...

The sine of the vertex angle of the largest cone of meridional rays that can enter or leave an optical system or element,...

An interferometric method for describing the surface shape of large coated or uncoated optical flats. The procedure uses a...

A lens is a transparent optical device that focuses or diverges light, allowing it to pass through and form an image. Lenses...

Laser optics refers to a broad category of optical components and systems designed for manipulating and controlling laser...

A cylindrical lens that may be rotated to distort a bundle of light originating at a point source, to form a line image.

A reflecting grating ruled on a concave spherical surface that not only disperses the light but focuses the spectrum. The...

A vacuum tube with an electron gun at one end and a fluorescent screen at the other. Electrons emitted from a heated...

A defect in the cleaved end face of an optical fiber, in the form of a sharp protrusion at the edge of the fiber.

A form of image intensifier designed to amplify a weak fluoroscopic image. The image is received at an input phosphor...

The observation of specimens by a microscope linked to a television camera and an image processor.

A lamp with a quartz envelope that transmits radiation generally rich in the ultraviolet.

Noise generated by the random variations in the number and velocity of the electrons from an emitter.

Nd:YAG laser refers to a solid-state laser that utilizes neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:Y3Al5O12) as the gain...

The maximum variation in thickness of a lens as measured around a diameter centered on the optical axis. The ETD divided by...

The green line, in the spectrum of the aurora borealis, that has a wavelength of 5577 Å; it is caused by a forbidden...

A short term for latent image intensification, a process much like hypersensitizing in photography, but used after exposure...

Separation of incident laser pulses by several seconds so holographic plates can be changed and sandwiched between the...

1. In optics, the bending of rays away from each other. 2. In lasers, the spreading of a laser beam with increased distance...

A polishing machine in which the rouge slurry is contained in a bowl and is constantly diverted mechanically so that it...

A system in which a supplied signal causes the deflection of the electron beam in a cathode-ray tube, thus forming a visible...

Optical character recognition (OCR) is a technology that is used to convert printed or handwritten text into...

The term for an image captured by a detector and from which a dark frame, bias frame and/or flat-field frame can be...

Pixel binning, also known as pixel merging or pixel combining, is a technique used in digital imaging and camera technology....

A camera with a very high aperture lens or mirror system for photographing x-ray fluorescent screen images, mainly to save...

A source that attempts to create the characteristics of an ideal blackbody. It consists of a cavity, generally spherical,...

A photographic enlarger with a fixed negative plane and a fixed paper plane, often using a roll of paper that is advanced...

The numerical definition of the ability of an observer to perceive fine detail. The average value may be taken as one...

A method of coding image data by storing in memory only differences in brightness of each pixel from that of its nearest...

An eyepiece similar to the Huygenian eyepiece, but having an eye lens that is a cemented doublet and that provides more...

A CIE index describing the changes in color of standard test objects when the illumination is changed from a standard to a...

The frequency domain is a concept used in signal processing and analysis to represent signals and data in terms of their...

Microfluidics is a multidisciplinary field that involves the manipulation and control of very small fluid volumes, typically...

A transparent crystalline substance in which the refractive index of the optic axis (extraordinary axis) is different from...

An instrument similar to the spectroheliograph, but having a scanning method that is performed by a pair of rapidly...

A product of the area of a light beam (normal to its direction of propagation) and the solid angle that the beam includes;...

The longest wavelengths of the ultraviolet region, nominally 300 to 400 nm.

Class of organic dyes that emit coherent radiation over a wide spectral range.

Data gathered by a facsimile system and converted into graphic, readable form; generally used in meteorology. Also known as...

Material used to integrate photoconductors into electro-optical systems. It should provide low resistance to the flow of...

A device designed to measure linear or rotary motion by detection of the movement of markings on a transparent medium past a...

An electronic device consisting of a semiconductor material, generally germanium or silicon, and used for rectification,...

In photography, the density gradient across an edge separating light from darkness, a physically measurable quantity that...

A device that responds to incident light but does not generate light.

A telescope objective with excellent spherochromatic correction, consisting of a meniscus crown and a meniscus flint, both...

With respect to display systems, a device that uses an independent light source and a control-layer medium, the active...

The angular subtense of the field of view in the image space of a telescope, as differentiated from that in the object space...

A discontinuous burst of laser light generated by timing or "gating'' a continuous-wave laser.

In image processing, generating a color image from monochrome data by assigning a color to each of the gray levels.

The degree to which a pixel in a digital image represents the analog brightness of the corresponding point in the original...

An image consisting of an array of pixels that can have more than two values (black and white). Typically, up to 16 levels...

A method used to detect internal or residual microstresses in a material by using a laser beam to locate changes in...

A characteristic of optical fiber used to calculate the fiber's ability to maintain polarization. The beat length describes...

A system consisting of two or more Geiger-Müller counters, connected in coincidence with their centers on an axis. The only...

A technique for depositing a material coating on metal, ceramic, semiconductor or polymer substrates. The interaction of...

Ratiometry is a technique used in various scientific fields, particularly in analytical chemistry and biochemistry, to...

Optical glass refers to a type of glass specifically engineered and manufactured for use in optical components and systems,...

The current that flows in a photodetector when there is no optical radiation incident on the detector and operating voltages...

An infrared source combined with reflecting projection optics to illuminate a target making it visible when observed through...

Ultrasound used in the cleaning of metal and optical parts by virtue of its vibration rates. Large acoustic forces break off...

The heat-treating method in which the index of refraction of glass is fixed near or at its maximum value by holding the...

Specially designed optics for the observation and photographing of hydrogen in a bubble chamber.

The effect discovered by Faraday in 1845 whereby nonoptically active materials or substances become capable of rotating the...

A dark-field microscope used to view extremely small objects. These objects are suspended in a gas or liquid in an enclosure...

A term used to describe a saddle-shaped -- i.e., convex along one axis, concave along the other -- polished surface,...

Observed phenomenon in laser pulses in which a large number of excited electrons are created and in which multiphoton...

A device containing two opposed quartz wedges of equal angle, one wedge being movable along its length by a micrometer...

Two or more lenses arranged to act in conjunction with one another.

1. In optics, the ability of a lens system to reproduce the points, lines and surfaces in an object as separate entities in...

A ray of an image-forming bundle that passes through the edge of the entrance pupil or aperture stop. Usually used in...

Ellipsometry is an optical technique used to characterize the properties of thin films and surfaces. It is based on the...

An instrument that uses optical filtration in order to measure the transmittance for a discrete range or specific number of...

Etaloning is an optical phenomenon that occurs in imaging systems, particularly in devices such as spectrometers,...

Swept-source optical coherence tomography is an imaging technique used in medical diagnostics, particularly in...

The Mills Cross telescope is a two dimensional radio telescope in which the two antenna arrays are positioned perpendicular...

Term used to describe an optical surface that contacts the test glass only at its edges.

In digital image processing, a subcategory of frame processing that treats each pixel in terms of its relationship to...

A device with a limited number of possible output values (sometimes able to be selected) that can translate an incoming...

Thin layers intended to prevent damage to plastic optics.

Holographic tomography is an advanced imaging technique that combines holography and tomography to provide three-dimensional...

The ghost image formed by a prism.

In semiconductor physics, the term bandgap refers to the energy range in a material where no electronic states are allowed....

An instrument, similar in design to regular binoculars, that can transmit and enlarge infrared images.

A detector array refers to a collection of individual detector elements arranged in a two-dimensional grid or matrix format....

Also referred to as the V number in fiber optics; the normalized frequency is a dimensionless quantity, denoted by the...

In a gas, an electrical discharge that has no luminance.

A type of solar eclipse that occurs when the sun is at perihelion and the moon is at apogee. Because the apparent size of...

A television display system in which the television signal is converted to an image that is projected onto either a front or...

In laser damage testing, the exposure of many sites of a sample to different intensities of laser irradiation to discover...

An arc flash is a sudden release of electrical energy due to an electric arc — a continuous, high-current discharge of...

An optical instrument consisting of a well- corrected objective lens or mirror with a light source and or object/image (i.e....

A receiver for optical communications systems consisting of a symmetric binary, pulse-code-modulated transmitter, a...

A device that prevents electrons from a saturated pixel in a CCD imaging device from spilling into an adjacent pixel. The...

1. In the eye, the opening in the iris that permits light to pass and be focused on the retina. 2. In a lens, the image of...

An inspection device in which the profile of a mechanical part is projected onto a ground-glass screen at a precisely known...

A solid-state laser is a type of laser that uses a solid gain medium (as opposed to a liquid or gas) to produce coherent...

The particular orientation of the image, such as normal, canted, inverted or reverted.

A Kerr soliton refers to a specific type of soliton, a self-reinforcing wave packet, that arises in nonlinear optical...

A technique proposed for studying the atomic structure of crystals by measuring the interference pattern generated when the...

A model that predicts laser-induced damage to thin films caused by irradiation of identical, randomly distributed film...

In the optical field, a piece of glass to which a lens or prism is cemented. The unit is ground and polished as a whole to...

A cascade amplifier that uses a common cathode resistor to couple energy from stage to stage.

Germicidal ultraviolet (GUV) refers to a specific range of UV radiation that has disinfectant properties capable of killing...

A lens aberration, resulting from different magnifications in the various lens zones, that occurs in that part of the image...

The third dimension (depth or Z-axis) in an imaging system.

The Kerr effect, named after the physicist John Kerr who first observed it in 1875, is a nonlinear optical phenomenon where...

A camera that consists of a concave spherical mirror with an aspheric plate situated at the center of curvature of the...

A quantitative measurement of the coherence of a light source; equal to the visibility (V) of the fringes of a two-beam...

A Pockels cell, also known as an electro-optic modulator, is an optical device used to control the polarization of light by...

Property of a substance whose volume elements differ in composition and optical properties.

A material that can rotate the polarization of light that passes through it. An optically active material exhibits different...

A contraction of quasi stellar. An astronomical object that appears to be a star but has a different, larger redshift.

Horizontal concentrations that comprise the dominant factor in atmospheric gradient correction. The range bias near due...

In optics and photonics, "phase" refers to a property of electromagnetic waves, such as light, that describes the position...

Inertial fusion energy (IFE) refers to a proposed method of generating electricity by harnessing the energy released from...

The use of miniature scanners to project raster-scanned video images directly onto the surface of the human retina,...

A technique for polishing silicon in which an alkaline suspension containing silicon dioxide particles creates a soft layer...

A filter that separates light into many colors via Bragg's law. Generally refers to a fiber Bragg grating used in optical...

1. A lens situated at or near the plane of an internal image to project the aperture of a previous objective or erector upon...

A reflector that exhibits specular reflectance, producing a direct image of its source. Also known as regular reflectance.

Measurement of a translation stage's deviation from absolute straightness, that is, its angular motion in both the vertical...

A large-scale, precise drawing of the contours of a perfect mechanical part, often with plus and minus tolerances drawn or...

The use of variations in the power supplied to a laser to change the shape of the output pulse. The technique is used in...

The noise produced in a photodetector when the photocathode is shielded from all external optical radiation and operating...

A technique used to create an achromatic phase shift based on the principle of geometric phase. The phase shift is...

In an optical system, the gradual reduction of image illuminance as the off-axis angle increases, resulting from limitations...

A type of interferometer in which two coils of optical fiber are arranged so that light from a single source travels...

Infrared (IR) refers to the region of the electromagnetic spectrum with wavelengths longer than those of visible light, but...

A soft, malleable, stable rare-earth element. Holmium laser systems are used in surgical procedures involving the cutting...

Adaptive optics (AO) is a technology used to improve the performance of optical systems by reducing the effects of...

In imaging technology, assigning color to black and white images to differentiate features or convey information. Also...

Any of several compounds capable of binding heavy-metal ions, thereby preventing interaction between the bound ions and the...

Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon in quantum mechanics where two or more particles become correlated to such an extent...

A device that changes the frequency of light by inducing the Raman effect on a beam passing through it.

A type of camera that incorporates a tiny mirror that oscillates in accordance with incoming signals. An illuminated slit is...

Phase matching is a crucial concept in the field of optics, particularly in nonlinear optics and the generation of coherent...

A state in which the human eye has very little or no power of accommodation. A common and normal condition in the eyes of...

A color-television viewing system with three kinescopes, three lenses and three deflection yokes used to form the red, green...

A discharge lamp filled with deuterium to produce high-intensity ultraviolet radiation for use in spectroscopic analysis.

A liquid crystal light valve (LCLV), also known as a spatial light modulator (SLM), is an optical device that modulates the...

A reticle whose image may be moved about in a field of view.

Three-photon microscopy is an advanced imaging technique that belongs to the family of multi-photon microscopy methods. It...

A dark region created by spherical aberration of an eyepiece's exit pupil. Because of the aberration, an observer's eye must...

An instrument for determining the temperature of a hot object by examining the color spectrum of the visible light it gives...

The analysis of the atomic structure of a sample by means of a source radiation that is absorbed and emitted by the sample...

1. In color development, the chemical that combines with certain by-products of the development procedure to form a dye. 2....

When light is transmitted through matter, part of the light is scattered in random directions. A small part of the scattered...

The flat or angled surface, usually fine-ground, that limits the aperture of a lens or prism surface.

The pattern of lines traced by rectilinear scanning in display systems.

A circular optical wedge (prism of small refracting angle) mounted to be rotated in the path of light rays to divert the...

A printing process of electrostatic electrophotography that uses a photoconductive insulating medium, in conjunction with...

A magnetometer is a scientific instrument used to measure the strength and/or direction of a magnetic field. It can detect...

An electron-beam lithography (EBL) system is a sophisticated nanofabrication tool used in the semiconductor industry and...

Abbreviation of "synchronization.'' In television, the timing signals used to drive the scanning process. Horizontal...

The inherent laser amplitude noise relative to the average optical power produced by the laser; the RIN decreases rapidly as...

In a thermal imaging system, the change in temperature that yields a signal-to-noise ratio of unity.

The ability of an optical system to make an object appear larger. An optical element or optical system causing an object to...

A CCD device for sensing longer wavelengths, such as NIR and IR, that has a deeper depletion region than would be necessary...

An antireflection coating (AR coating) is a thin film or coating applied to optical surfaces, such as lenses or windows, to...

A lens, usually having one or more cylindrical surfaces, used to produce distorted images and later to restore them to true...

An image intensifier tube in which the photocathode and the output of the microchannel plate are proximity-focused on the...

The photographic recording, and later enlarging, of very thin specimens, using an electron beam to form the image.

The micrometer-size depressions that store data digitally in an optical data storage medium.

A light source that emits an uneven distribution of radiant energy through the visible range.

A quantum cascade laser (QCL) is a type of semiconductor laser that operates based on the principles of quantum mechanics....

The image of the aperture stop, usually the objective lens, that is produced by the eye lens. When the exit pupil of the...

The effect produced by electrical charges or fields alone, without interaction with magnetic influence.

An instrument used to print an optical image on a specially treated paper. Light and dark portions of the original image are...

A type of recording material, usually a photodielectric polymer, offering in situ development mechanisms because of its...

A laser with output over a wide range of wavelengths spanning the far-infrared region of the spectrum (30 to 1000 µm);...

A spectrograph used to detect radiation in the range of the ultraviolet in the electromagnetic spectrum. It is made up of...

A wave that changes from one amplitude to the other in a short time compared with the wavelength.

A thermal-infrared camera, often referred to simply as a thermal camera, is a type of imaging device that detects infrared...

A wide-field multiobject spectroscopy system used in astronomy, in which a bundle of low-loss optical fibers positioned on...

An optical-quality polymer used in birefringent retarders.

An instrument that determines, or allows a bombardier to determine, the point in the plane's line of flight at which a bomb...

A bundle of optical fibers arranged randomly for the purpose of transmitting energy, not an image.

Fluorescence is a type of luminescence, which is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other...

States that in interferometers in which the separation of the maxima is equal to the half-value width, a slight drop in...

The focal length of a lens is the distance between the lens's optical center (or principal point) and the image sensor or...

In image processing, a segmentation algorithm for isolating a region in an image by following its edge.

An image intensifier, also known as an image intensification tube or image intensification device, is a specialized...

A ring dye laser that uses prisms and a saturable absorber within the laser cavity to shape and shorten the pulses...

An unbounded quantity, an indefinitely large number. Infinity is commonly expressed by the symbol ∞.

A quantitative measure of the amount of radiation given off by an instrument, expressed in roentgens per unit of free air.

A phenomenon that causes the details in an image to appear at a spatial frequency higher than that at which the contrast...

The separation of unpolarized light into two plane-polarized elements by a doubly refracting crystal. When a crystal, such...

A still or motion-picture camera designed to photograph through a microscope. Photomicrographic equipment usually contains a...

Triggering a laser at a predetermined time by pumping it to a level just below its threshold and then using an auxiliary...

In fiber optics, the use of a detector to study the range of refractive indices achieved at various wavelengths. This...

A fluorographic method whereby the sensitive photographic medium is pressed against a fluorescent screen to form a visible...

Quantum-enhanced metrology refers to the use of quantum mechanics principles and techniques to enhance the precision and...

A color whose hue is not produced by a single wavelength in the visible spectrum, but is instead produced by mixing the...

Measurement of the time elapsed during the current output change from 10 to 90 percent in a photoconductor.

Radioactivity formed by the bombardment of stable elements by either neutrons or high-energy, charged particles under...

A spectroscope having a diffraction grating for the resolution of light of various wavelengths.

In image processing and elsewhere, generally an adjective to describe an assembly-line arrangement for performing a task....

A theoretical, ideal lens capable of producing perfect images. Used as a lens design and analysis tool to image collimated...

A small optical polishing machine intended for polishing the surface of a metal specimen before etching for examination...

An image intensifier that uses electrostatics to amplify and focus the electronic image.

A method of creating real three-dimensional models by using lasers driven by CAD software. In contrast to the normal...

A laser resonator in which a mode oscillating between the mirrors will converge upon the laser's longitudinal axis.

An astronomical scanning technique for capturing images of stars without moving the sensor. To perform a drift scan, a CCD...

A device consisting of a microammeter, a photovoltaic cell and a battery. It is used for the measurement of scene brightness...

The force acting upon a charged particle as it moves in a magnetic field, proportional to the particle's charge and velocity.

In an optical waveguide, a ray for which geometric optics would predict total internal reflection at the core boundary, but...

The range of image distances that corresponds to the range of object distances covered by the depth of field.

A device that enlarges and strengthens a signal's output without significantly distorting its original waveshape. There are...

A screen composed of a sheet of diffusing plastic material that reveals excellent image detail for close viewing. It is...

A device used to scan, with a small, intensely bright spot, portions of a picture surface and to transform the original...

A computerized token-passing local area network (LAN) configuration adopted by General Motors for real time control over the...

A satellite-borne remote sensing device capable of transmitting images at 10 and 20 m resolution from an altitude of 830 km,...

In image processing, the location of edges by employing templates that respond to the first or second derivative of...

An advanced magnetic device used in x-ray lithography to beam x-rays onto the surface of silicon wafers used for...

In optics, the Pockels effect refers to the phenomenon where the refractive index of a material changes in response to an...

A metalens, short for "metasurface lens," is a type of optical lens that uses nanostructured materials to manipulate light...

Integrated photonics is a field of study and technology that involves the integration of optical components, such as lasers,...

A uniaxial, birefringent crystal having an ordinary ray with a higher velocity than the extraordinary ray.

GigE, short for gigabit Ethernet, refers to a standard for high-speed Ethernet communication, capable of transmitting data...

1. The negative electrode of a device in an electrical circuit. 2. The positive electrode of a primary cell or storage...

A modulator is a device or component that modifies a carrier signal in order to encode information for transmission over a...

A cloud chamber designed to maintain the gas within it at a high pressure as a means of reducing the range of the...

That radiation emitted by an atom or molecule that has the same frequency as that of an incident particle; e.g., a photon....

An LED (light-emitting diode) is a semiconductor device that emits light when an electric current passes through it. LEDs...

A display in which regeneration takes place serially at a fixed speed in a set pattern through the scan lines.

A photovoltaic cell, commonly known as a solar cell, is a semiconductor device that directly converts light energy into...

Photonic crystals are artificial structures or materials designed to manipulate and control the flow of light in a manner...

Fraction absorption over a specified range of wavelengths.

A molecular motor refers to a nano-sized device composed of organic molecules or other small-scale components that can...

A standard of luminous intensity evaluated as the luminous intensity of 1 cm2 of a blackbody at the melting point of...

The use of a tightly focused beam of electrons to drill minute holes in substances. The drilling is accomplished by the...

The electron beam tube of a television camera that converts an optical image into a pattern of electrostatic charges and...

The active control of various aspects (optical element position, airspace thickness, etc.) of an optical system that...

A compound lens consisting of two negative lenses of flint glass. A double-convex lens of crown glass is cemented between...

Phototherapy is a medical treatment that involves the use of light to treat various conditions, particularly those related...

The positioning of two Nicol prisms so that their axes are at right angles to each other. With this arrangement, light...

1. The faintly hued ring that is seen to surround a light source viewed through fog or light clouds. The size of scattering...

An optical material used in place of crown glass to produce lenses with extraordinary correction of chromatic aberrations....

A type of fiber optic sensor that detects changes in pressure, vibration, sound level or acceleration by monitoring the...

In optics, an image is the reconstruction of light rays from a source or object when light from that source or object is...

Also referred to as the opposition surge, the opposition effect is a photometric phenomenon in which a rough retroreflective...

A wedge-shaped piece of quartz typically found in a polarimeter to monitor and rotate the plane of polarization of plane...

A well plate, also known as a microplate or microtiter plate, is a flat plate with multiple small wells or depressions...

A short focal length (less than five inches) positive lens used to produce a magnified image of the object being viewed....

A ground-based navigation beacon that emits pulsed signals which are picked up by aircraft making an instrument (blind)...

Chip-on-board (COB) lights refer to a type of LED lighting technology where multiple LED chips are directly mounted onto a...

Generally, a rotatable table with scales marked in degrees. The fiducial marking also may be a vernier scale. The same...

Micro-LED (micro-light-emitting diode) refers to a technology that involves the use of very small light-emitting diodes to...

Plasmon ion-assisted deposition (PIAD) is a technique used in thin-film deposition processes, particularly in the production...

A man-made satellite that orbits 35,680 km from the Earth at a rate of one orbit per 24-hour period, thereby retaining its...

1. To influence to a single direction. 2. Voltage that is applied to a solid-state device.

The pattern, formed by a character generation cathode-ray tube system, in which the characters are made up of wave shapes...

The figure seen through or imaged by an optical system. It may contain structures, natural or artificial, or it may be the...

A breakout cable, also known as a fan-out cable or breakout assembly, is a type of cable that combines multiple individual...

A device used to scan images or information on photographic film for the subsequent relay of information.

Any optical device that utilizes diffraction in an image-forming capability. Familiar diffractive lenses are zone plates,...

Neuromorphic refers to the design and development of computing systems or devices that are inspired by the structure and...

A planar photocathode and a planar phosphor screen mounted in a close-spaced parallel configuration in an evacuated...

A system used for gratings that consists of a concave mirror, a grating and a plate holder mounted normal to the grating to...

An advanced technique that allows the detection of one molecule within a crystal or a cell through optical excitation....

1. The reduction in the developable density of a photographic emulsion that has been extremely overexposed. 2. In a laser...

An object that has a sinusoidal variation of luminance. Its image will have a sinusoidal variation of illuminance and the...

A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance, which is a phenomenon that occurs when an external force or...

Freeform mirrors refer to reflective optical components that deviate from traditional symmetric or rotationally symmetric...

Refers to the variety of techniques that use the interference pattern produced by laser light diffusely reflected by an...

An absorption peak refers to a sharp increase or spike in the absorption of electromagnetic radiation at a particular...

In optics, a shape often given to the leading edge of a projectile. In any side view it appears as a pointed arc, while any...

CoaXPress (CoaXPress or CXP) is a standardized digital interface and communication protocol used primarily in machine vision...

Topology is a branch of mathematics that focuses on the properties of space that are preserved under continuous...

An inorganic compound, yellow to orange in color, that fluoresces strongly enough when bombarded by a high-current-density...

A signal in the form of continuously variable voltage or current.

Chirality is a property of certain molecules and objects in which they are non-superimposable on their mirror images. In...

In image processing and machine vision, the process in which an initial measurement pattern or some subsequence of...

Specified curved optic intended for maximum collection of light, including off-axis rays, before leaving the exit aperture.

A two-mirror lens design used in astronomical telescopes, the primary being a parabola, the secondary a smaller hyperbola....

The hydrogen-derived, ultraviolet radiation running from 1216 to 512 A, discovered by Theodore Lyman in 1914.

1. The characteristic of how light propagates through a waveguide that can be designated by a radiation pattern in a plane...

The radiography of small objects having detail too fine to be seen by the unaided eye. The resulting negative, when...

A lamp that uses the transmission of an electric current through a gas or vapor to produce illumination. Neon, mercury and...

A photodetector in which an electrical charge is produced when incident photons change electrons within the detecting...

The apparent luminance of the image as seen through an optical system. This brightness of the image is determined by the...

A photodiode detector is a semiconductor device that converts light into an electrical current. It operates based on the...

A series of capacitors and inductors connected to the flashlamp in a pumped Nd:YAG laser system in order to regulate the...

A cathode-ray tube that serves as a picture tube in a television receiver. The signal representing the picture intensity is...

A subsurface imaging technique based upon the polarization of light reflected off an object. The polarization of reflected...

An electron tube that is used as a camera tube for a television system. When the picture to be transmitted is focused on a...

The process by which the values of one digital image of an object or scene are removed from a second slightly different...

A far-field pattern holographically reproduced image that is categorically considered with three-dimensional lensless...

In electronics, the coupling of power from stage to stage by the use of an input or output element in the cathode.

1. An eyepiece or magnifier with a scale at its image plane. That scale is placed in contact with an object, permitting...

A system that generally uses a photodetector to decode punched cards for information, or for input to a computer, by sensing...

An optical experiment carried out conclusively in 1887 that demonstrated that the ether, a hypothetical medium postulated by...

Laser surgery refers to a medical procedure in which a laser, or focused beam of light, is used as a precision tool to cut,...

For a Fabry-Perot interferometer or etalon, a value for the transmission bandwidth which can be calculated as the ratio of...

The spectroscopic analysis of interference patterns using an electronic imaging tube with a Fabry-Perot interferometer to...

Image distortion that occurs when the axes of the original image are not perpendicular in the resulting image, making the...

A fixed-focus camera designed to record the ink impression of fingerprints that have been impressed on a card or form for...

Glass of special composition that is melted, formed into desired shapes, and subjected to a high-temperature treatment in...

In polarization-preserving optical fibers, the element used to induce birefringence. The SAP is highly doped to provide a...

A high-frequency approach to the propagation of light in graded-index fibers in which the modal field is represented in...

An optical instrument containing a gimballed sighting telescope, used to measure angular relationships in horizontal and...

The photographic recording of an image formed by the alteration in electrical properties of the sensitive materials and...

A chamfer ground on the edge of a lens or prism. Bevels are used to prevent chipping or to achieve a mechanical fit.

A broadband continuum resonator that confines a wide range of wavelengths. From the optical confinement a single wavelength...

An electrostatic device that uses an electric potential barrier to allow the transmittance of electrons at or above a set...

Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) is a spectroscopic technique that involves using a laser to excite molecules or atoms,...

An erasable data recording and storage medium that uses a laser to heat the crystalline surface of the disc to a certain...

A convention that defines specific dimensions of an optical system, such as the image distance or radius of curvature of a...

Topological photonics is a branch of physics and optics that explores the application of topological concepts to the...

Any filter in which the range of frequencies within a chosen radius suffers no attenuation and the range of frequencies...

Light produced by visible radiation that moves from the light source to the object without reflection. With respect to...

Text or images printed on paper or another tangible medium, as opposed to those viewed electronically on a cathode-ray-tube...

With respect to television, the transmission of the signals that originate from variously colored parts of an image in a...

A series of high contrast block letters or similar objects arranged to permit the evaluation of eyesight in humans.

Describing the standard television method of raster scanning in which the image is the product of two fields, each of which...

An imaging process, similar to specific Doppler mapping radar techniques, that utilizes a laser, an optical imaging system,...

The degree to which the surface of a lens causes an incident ray of light to bend, or the amount of convergence or...

In a laser, the voltage necessary to initiate electrical discharge, somewhat higher than that needed to sustain it.

The phenomenon observed by A.H. Compton in 1923 -- that some scattered radiation possesses a longer wavelength and...

1. A device generally used in a cathode-ray or camera tube to emit a stream of electrons moving at uniform velocity in a...

Broadening of a laser's spectral linewidth when the resonance frequencies of the atoms (or molecules) of the medium are not...

A CCD image sensor that uses a proximity-focused image intensifier to provide greater sensitivity at low light levels.

Videography refers to the process of capturing moving images and recording them in a digital format. It involves the use of...

A type of fiber optic sensor that responds to a change in the intensity of received light caused by the displacement or...

An electric discharge lamp in which the conducting vapor is that of metallic sodium instead of the usual mercury. It emits a...

A five-sided prism containing two reflecting surfaces at 45° to each other, and two refracting faces perpendicular to...

Metamerism that occurs when the light source is changed.

The technology of generating and harnessing light and other forms of radiant energy whose quantum unit is the photon. The...

Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that integrates digital information, typically in the form of computer-generated...

A laser in which stimulated emission is triggered by the absorption by electrons of light from an auxiliary source such as a...

Also called DLIP, a high-speed, high-resolution processing technique that uses high-power, pulsed laser systems to directly...

An electric or electronic device that regulates the voltage going to a light source as a means of varying the intensity of...

A device used to measure the thickness of a given substance.

A transmission interference microscope that produces interference patterns of a sample by using birefringent plates that...

Alphanumerical description of color according to Munsell hue, value and chroma.

In optics, the light ray leaving a medium in contrast to the entering or incident ray.

Phototoxicity refers to the harmful effects caused by exposure to light, particularly intense or ultraviolet (UV) light, on...

Laser-powered telephone device for analog communications that employs a vibrating plastic membrane as a transmitter to...

A photorefractive material used in image processing, holography and optical switching.

Double-clad fiber (DCF) is a specialized optical fiber that features two concentric cladding layers surrounding a core. The...

Any of the numerous powders used for grinding and polishing glass, crystal or metal, the chief material being emery and...

An optical grating, in the context of optics and physics, refers to a device with a periodic structure of closely spaced,...

Wide-field fluorescence microscopy uses either naturally occurring structures or staining with fluorescent tags that are...

Tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS) is a powerful technique that combines Raman spectroscopy with the enhanced spatial...

In the context of thin film deposition processes such as evaporation or sputtering, masks are used to selectively deposit...

The range of materials that, unlike glass, may be used in the infrared. Water-soluble salts, such as cesium iodide, and...

Irradiation of a cylindrical crystal with an x-ray beam resulting in Bragg diffraction that produces a slightly enlarged...

The maximum to minimum range of temperature, pressure, humidity, vibration and biological conditions under which an optical...

A broadband filter is an electronic or electromagnetic device designed to pass a range of frequencies or signals within a...

A photodiode having a conducting grid that covers the surface of the photodiode junction and intercepts and wastes some of...

Technique for measuring the volume bulk of materials as they move along a conveyor with an accuracy of better than 1...

Multispectral imaging is a technique that involves capturing and analyzing images at multiple discrete spectral bands within...

A scale attached to a microscope eyepiece that is seen superimposed on the image and that is used to measure the dimensions...

An optical testing instrument is a device or system used to evaluate and measure the performance, quality, and...

The underexposure caused by the diffraction of light passing through small openings spaced closely together in masks used in...

The number of electrons that can share a principal quantum number by preventing identity between any two electrons' four...

Gram-negative bacteria are a group of bacteria that possess a cell envelope composed of a thin layer of peptidoglycan...

A silicon photodiode is a semiconductor device that converts light into an electrical current. It is a type of photodetector...

One or more optical elements – typically cemented together - in an optical system that are treated as a single group;...

An array of optically distinct fibers that are fused into one strand. They are used to keep the resolution efficiency of the...

An InGaAs (indium gallium arsenide) camera is a type of imaging device that utilizes InGaAs sensors to capture images in the...

A furnace, generally electrically heated, with a control system capable of following a cam by which the temperature can be...

A laser device used to establish a location or target usually for detection by an impact source e.g. missiles and guided...

The measured change in absorption at a single wavelength while altering experimental parameters such as the incident...

Brillouin scattering is a phenomenon in physics where an incident electromagnetic wave (usually light) interacts with...

Filoviruses are a family of viruses that are responsible for severe and often fatal hemorrhagic fevers in humans and...

Photoplethysmography (PPG) is a non-invasive optical technique used to detect changes in blood volume in tissues. It...

A dielectric sphere with an index of refraction that varies with distance from the sphere center. A parallel beam of rays is...

In optics, the conduction of radiant energy through a medium. Often denotes the percentage of energy passing through an...

The photographic recording of images produced by the electrons from an electron microscope. The electron beam carries the...

Indium phosphide (InP) is a compound semiconductor material composed of indium (In) and phosphorus (P). It belongs to the...

Subsurface linear arrangement of elements of rock that is not mappable; lineation is a one-dimensional characteristic.

An endoscope is a medical device used for visualizing and examining the interior of hollow organs, body cavities, or...

The photographic recording that uses ultraviolet radiation to irradiate the microscope sample being examined and to form an...

In microscopy, a calibrated scale on a slide that may be viewed to determine the exact magnification factor of the...

A hologram formed without lenses and with the object and reference points sharing the same plane. In the initial recording,...

A grating that serves to provide higher resolution and dispersion than the average grating, and still has a greater free...

A combination of a polarizer and an analyzer that is used to detect birefringence or rotation of the plane of polarization...

Holographic quantity expressed as the ratio of the reconstructed first-order image to that of the incident reconstructing...

A prism or prism assembly that serves to displace the instrument's optical axis.

An opaque projector is a device used for enlarging and projecting images from opaque objects such as printed pages,...

iris or adjustable radially symmetric opening used for allowing the passage of useful light

Carbonization is a process in which organic materials are heated in the absence of air, leading to the decomposition of the...

An automatic scanning instrument that is used to study a substance's fluorescence over a wide range of wavelengths. It...

Ray tracing is a rendering technique used in computer graphics to simulate the way light interacts with objects in a scene....

Line scan refers to a method of capturing images or data by scanning a single line at a time, as opposed to capturing the...

Optoelectronics is a branch of electronics that focuses on the study and application of devices and systems that use light...

Computer numerically controlled (CNC) grinding is a manufacturing process that utilizes computerized controls and precision...

Also cellulose acetate film. The emulsion layer applied to the substrate of a photographic surface. The emulsion layer is...

An intensity distribution (intensity as a function of radial distance from the beam center) which is given by the Gaussian...

1. In a polished surface, concentric waves that appear as zones in Newton's rings when a test glass is applied. 2. An...

The process of creating a large, panoramic image by aligning and joining a set of smaller images. Image processing is used...

Lensless microscopy, also known as computational or holographic microscopy, is an imaging technique that captures and...

A device designed to enlarge the image of a microscopic object by television process. It may be a flying spot scanner that...

Scientific complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (sCMOS) refers to a type of image sensor technology specifically designed...

A type of laser used when a great amount of power is required. Avoiding the bulk of large numbers of optical lenses, this...

A testing device that provides a contour map of the emergent wavefront for the observer in terms of the given wavelength of...

Fresnel reflection refers to the reflection of light at the interface between two different media with different refractive...

A camera designed to form a continuous record of an expansive section of the horizon. The typical panoramic camera is...

The application of reversible writing with a laser beam on particular storage materials. In one method, an amorphous film is...

Edge enhancement with a directional characteristic.

A camera tube similar in design to the iconoscope. However, the image formed in the image iconoscope is projected on a...

Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) is a mechanism describing the transfer of energy between two closely spaced...

A process used to detect minute gravitational fields and to display images from objects by means of radiated gravitational...

1. The process of aligning the optical axes of optical systems to the reference mechanical axes or surfaces of an...

Scattering (other than material scattering) that is attributable to variations of geometry and index profile of the...

A formula indicating that, for an imaging lens system, the image brightness for off-axis points will fall off at a rate...

The separation between the exit pupils of a binocular instrument. This usually is adjustable so that it can be set equal to...

Metabolic imaging refers to the visualization and quantification of metabolic processes within living organisms, tissues, or...

An erecting prism that inverts and reverses the image. It displaces the optical axis but does not deviate it.

A semiconductor diode that exhibits change in capacitance with a change in applied voltage; used as a voltage-variable...

An optical image having a brightly lit background.

An optical channel monitor (OCM) is a device used in optical communication systems to monitor and analyze the performance of...

A forerunner of the modern camera, this instrument had a focusable lens that produced a sharp image on the enclosure...

The transparent component of an optical reader that transmits the image rays of the characters to be read.

An otoscope is a medical device used by healthcare professionals, particularly ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialists,...

A range of wavelengths within which radiation transmitted through the atmosphere suffers relatively little absorption by...

The transparent front layer of the eye. Light entering the eye is refracted (converged) by the outer surface of the cornea.

Spectral flow cytometry is an advanced flow cytometry technique that expands the capabilities of traditional flow cytometry...

Two-photon polymerization (TPP) is a technique used in additive manufacturing, specifically in the field of 3D printing. It...

A slab-shaped, very low profile package for electronic components; often used when printed circuit boards must be closely...

1. In a cathode-ray tube, the glow surrounding a bright spot that appears on the fluorescent screen as the result of the...

RTSP, or real-time streaming protocol, is a network control protocol designed for controlling streaming media servers. It is...

The use of a specialized optical microscope designed to provide a more three-dimensional view of a sample. Stereomicroscopy...

The maximum aperture of a lens at which it will still give a sharp image, even though its physical aperture may be larger.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small, single-stranded RNA molecules, typically consisting of about 19 to 24 nucleotides,...

A viewfinder whose optical system forms a direct image of a subject, as opposed to those systems that use reflectance in the...

A solar cell that uses a thermoelectric converter, consisting of two sheets of metal with a semiconductor sandwiched between...

The temperature at which the solid phase of a material is in equilibrium with the liquid phase, or when the material changes...

An infrared imaging device composed of a detector array and readout electronics. It may include a cryogenic cooling system....

An impurity-doped silicon detector array sensitive to long infrared wavelengths, installed in optical collecting systems...

A holographic camera, also known as a holographic imaging system or holographic recorder, is a specialized device used to...

A brightness, superimposed on the image of the retina, that decreases its contrast and that often results in decreased...

An imaging device originally created to image whole mouse brain volumes at microscopic resolution. The main component of the...

In an optical system with a series of lenses, images formed prior to the final focal plane.

A conical or cylindrical package of light rays emanating from a common point on the object.

Positioning generally refers to the determination or identification of the location or placement of an object, person, or...

The emission of radiant energy produced by the passage of an electrical current through an appropriate electrolyte in which...

An ophthalmic instrument used to measure the magnitude and direction of the maximum and minimum powers of a spectacle lens,...

A device used for coding messages and having a fiber bundle that is aligned at both ends and scrambled in the middle, potted...

A filter used in photography to change the spectral composition of light entering a camera, or to adjust color balance...

The horizontal distance between the 90° meridian of a bifocal lens and the geometrical center of the segment.

A specific type of storage in which the material to be written on is heated above its transition temperature and switched in...

Photobleaching is a phenomenon in which the fluorescence of a fluorophore (a fluorescent molecule or dye) is permanently...

The method of determining the energy distribution of high-speed charged particles by the luminous effect formed when the...

The apparent luminosity or glow that immediately envelops the cathode in a gas-discharge tube operating at low pressures....

Raman spectroscopy is a technique used in analytical chemistry and physics to study vibrational, rotational, and other...

A 45-90-45° reflecting prism whose surfaces form the 90° angle reflecting the light beam through a total angle of 180°. The...

Fusion ignition refers to the point in a controlled nuclear fusion reaction where the energy released by the fusion...

A method of measuring distance by recording a single scene from two points of perspective. Surveying instruments can be...

An optical filter so constructed that the density increases progressively from one end to the other, or angularly around a...

A factor of an equation of the Faraday effect, which is the rotation of the plane of light polarization by transparent...

A transparent plate ruled with black lines and equal, clear spaces. It is used as a multiple knife-edge for testing a...

Flow chemistry, also known as continuous-flow chemistry, is a chemical manufacturing process where reactions take place in a...

Biometrics refers to the automated recognition of individuals based on their physiological or behavioral characteristics....

A camera designed to record at rates exceeding 50 fps. For frame rates up to about 500 fps, an ordinary pull-down mechanism...

A mercury vapor discharge lamp that has cadmium added to emit radiation in the red region as a complement to the mercury...

The dip or gap in the profile of a laser beam's line width when it is both homogeneously and inhomogeneously broadened. When...

The photographic filming of the action of x-ray images recorded on a fluorescent screen by means of large lens apertures and...

For each mode in an optical waveguide, the term used to describe the process by which an electromagnetic signal is distorted...

1. In optics, one of the exterior faces of an optical element. 2. The process of grinding or generating the face of an...

The condition of the numerical aperture or beam diameter of the laser, LED, or other optical source being larger than the...

With a repetitive object such as a series of equispaced lines, the reciprocal of the line spacing in object or image,...

The ability of a conductor to store an electrical charge; its value is given in farads as the ratio of the stored charge on...

A blur circle refers to the out-of-focus region in an image captured by an optical system. When an object in a scene is not...

The large, usually flat surface onto which an image is projected for viewing. May be reflecting or transmitting (rear...

A qubit, short for quantum bit, is the fundamental unit of information in quantum computing and quantum information...

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are ordinary cells that are genetically reprogrammed to an embryonic stem cell-like...

A handheld, light-sensitive device that is used with a display console to directly change, measure or erase the visual...

Light from a pulsed laser focused into nonsaturable absorbing fluid that generates a strongly backscattered light beam with...

The change in the refractive index of a material under the influence of an electrical field.

A liquid crystal display using the material in its supertwisted nematic phase; the birefringence of the liquid crystal...

A saturated compound of carbon and hydrogen used as a liquid coating material for optical components in high-power laser...

A group of solar cells that are electrically contacted and physically arranged so that they may be oriented in the direction...

Remote inspection refers to the process of inspecting, evaluating, or monitoring assets, equipment, infrastructure, or...

Metal used in components of the crystalline semiconductor alloys indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs), indium gallium arsenide...

The production of an image on a magnetic film that is exposed to infrared radiation and heated to a point above Curie...

A monitoring technique used to measure the oxygen saturation levels in the brains of patients, commonly in operating room...

The ratio between the object distance and the image distance measured along the principal axis of a lens or mirror. An...

Minimum object distance, often abbreviated as MOD, refers to the closest distance at which a camera lens or optical system...

An event-based image sensor, also known as a dynamic vision sensor (DVS), is a type of digital imaging device designed to...

A prism invented by William Nicol in 1828 that is made of calcite, the end faces of which are ground to an angle of 68°...

Term applied to laser technology to denote an area of above-average intensity often attributable to atmospheric...

A photomask, also known simply as a mask or reticle, is a key component in the photolithography process used in...

A type of flat panel display made up of a layer of gas between two glass plates. The glass is coated with parallel...

An eyepiece having a rotating index or cross wire linked to an external 360° scale to allow measuring of angles in an...

The number of unique ways in which a part can move in an alignment system. In static alignment, there are six: one in the...

A lab-on-a-chip (LOC) is a miniaturized device that integrates various laboratory functions and capabilities onto a single,...

A charge-injection device (CID) refers to a class of devices that manipulate and detect electrical charge within a...

That image remaining on the detector after the primary stimulus has been removed. In the visual system, the after-image...

A laser-induced scar on experimental bare glass surfaces usually attributable to threshold damage and indicative of isolated...

That voltage required across a Pockels, Kerr or other electro-optic light modulator to retard one polarization electrical...

Ink used for writing on glass, and also for blackening the edges of lenses to prevent reflection. In the latter case, the...

In infrared imaging systems used for mass screening of printed circuit boards or other quality control applications, an...

3D Laser Triangulation - A technology that allows sensors to probe the surroundings. Laser triangulation systems have an...

A device that combines electronic and optical techniques to form a monitored infrared signal between 1 and 14 µm. It...

A polishing material that has a quicker polishing action than rouge (ferric oxide) and that is cleaner to handle.

The radiation produced when a charged particle traverses a medium that has a refractive index considerably greater than...

The point spread function (PSF) is a fundamental concept in imaging that describes the response of an imaging system to a...

Medical lasers are devices that produce intense beams of light with specific characteristics and properties, which are used...

Chromatic aberration is an optical phenomenon that occurs when different wavelengths (colors) of light are refracted by a...

An aspheric lens is a type of lens whose surface profiles deviate from the traditional spherical shape. Unlike spherical...

On a test chart, the pattern designed to direct and measure geometric distortion.

A coating applied to a neutral density glass that is designed to reduce the amount of light evenly across the transmitted...

A charged elementary particle of an atom; the term is most commonly used in reference to the negatively charged particle...

Optical fiber with a large core, often a step-index fiber; "large'' is at times defined as greater than 85 µm.

A term pertaining to devices (generally optical) designed for use with both eyes viewing through a single exit pupil. The...

A high-intensity source of incoherent white light in which a capacitor is discharged through a tube of xenon gas; often used...

An array or mosaic of optical surfaces. May be a number of lenses closely packed to form multiple images or many parallel...

Also called proximity focus image intensifier. A compact image intensifier that utilizes a microchannel plate...

High-modulus elastic fibers that exhibit the following differences from conventional elastic fibers: Increasing temperature...

A self-interference effect that generates random patterns; secondary speckle pattern (SSP) typically occurs in diffuse...

A camera mounted on an optical bench with an easel to hold the material to be copied. Magnification can be varied over a...

A semiconductor diode operating in either a coherent or incoherent mode that is used as a near-infrared or visible source in...

Astronomical detector consisting of a photocathode isolated from the target by a coin value from which electrons are focused...

An instrument used to record infrared images of large areas. The recorded data are used to produce maps in false color...

A type of filter consisting of a series of birefringent crystals and polarizers invented by French astronomer Bernard Lyot...

A lens system that is capable of producing a 360° image, or one that is very close to that. In recording, the image may...

The finite amount of electrical charge generated in response to incident radiation and transferred from one storage element...

The improper exposure of a radiation-sensitive medium that results when there is too much radiation exposing the medium, or...

The addition to the information signal in communications of redundant bits that enable the originally encoded message to be...

RGB stands for red, green, blue, which are the primary colors of light used in additive color mixing. The RGB color model is...

A metal device of convex or concave curvature to which lens castings or semifinished lenses are cemented with only their...

A semiconductor laser that operates in the infrared and that is pumped with strong pulses of radiation from a second laser....

Camera designed for the imaging of the earth's surface in order to obtain high quality aerial images

A method of fabricating an optical waveguide by melting the core and clad glasses in two suitably joined concentric...

An instrument designed to place nongraphic information, usually generated by a computer, onto photographic film. The...

Array used in coded-aperture imaging experiments with two-beam CO2 lasers that provide an artifact-free process, faithful...

The field of view (FOV) refers to the extent of the observable world or the visible area that can be seen at any given...

See digitizer; frame grabber.

A concave mirror that has the form of a paraboloid of revolution. The paraboloidal mirror may have only a portion of a...

An imaging technique in which an object moving through an interference field formed in space scatters light and is spatially...

A femtosecond laser is a type of laser that emits ultrashort pulses of light with durations on the order of femtoseconds,...

Also known as transverse mode. The configurations of energy storage, relative to the structure of a laser resonator, that...

A substance that increases a material's sensitivity to electromagnetic irradiation. In photodynamic therapy, a drug used to...

The process of producing a visible two-dimensional image of a scene that is dependent on differences in thermal or infrared...

A plane mirror mounted on a polar axis that lies parallel to the plane of the mirror. When the mirror is rotated once in 48...

A paraboloidal surface on which the image is located when there is no astigmatism.

The number of electrons that each pixel of a charge-coupled device can hold without overflowing and causing blooming.

The storage of information via optical means, primarily employing a low-power laser to inscribe data on a photosensitive...

The image of a point source that appears as a circle of finite diameter because of defocusing or the aberrations inherent in...

Wavelengths between 400 and 1400 nm (VIS to NIR) are focused onto the retina by the cornea. Because the retina is sensitive...

A fluorophore is a molecule or a portion of a molecule that has the ability to emit light upon excitation by an external...

An instrument designed to give precise and rapid detection of changes in tumor growth as well as the location of small...

The array of methods used in the transmission and reception of pictures and images with a three-dimensional appearance.

A method of specifying the allowable edge-thickness difference or decentering of a lens.

The strongest light emitted by the Earth's upper atmosphere. It most often can be viewed in the Arctic as the aurora...

A specialized form of diffraction grating consisting of assembled glass plates of equal thickness that resemble a flight of...

Also known as f number, lens speed is commonly represented as the ratio of the focal length to the diameter of the lens....

A lens aberration that results in the tangential and sagittal image planes being separated axially.

An optical element having plane-inclined surfaces. Usually the faces are inclined toward one another at very small angles....

An afocal optical device made up of lenses or mirrors, usually with a magnification greater than unity, that renders distant...

Particle acceleration refers to the process by which charged particles, such as electrons or protons, gain kinetic energy...

Functional materials refer to materials that possess specific properties or functionalities that make them suitable for...

Single molecule localization microscopy (SMLM) is a group of super-resolution microscopy techniques that surpass the...

Cyan, magenta and yellow. They are called subtractive because they each subtract one color by absorbtion and reflect the two...

Continuous wave (CW) refers to a type of signal or transmission where the signal is constant and does not vary with time. In...

The study and analysis of images produced by a fluoroscope.

The graphic recording of physical changes vs. time, in electrical quantities, using an oscilloscope.

Virtual histology refers to the use of digital technology and computational methods to simulate or recreate histological...

A compound prism formed by cementing together two 30° prisms, one of right-handed and one of left-handed quartz. It has...

The luminosity that remains in a rarefied gas after an electrodeless discharge has traversed the gas.

The tendency to adjust an instrument such as a microscope so that the viewed image appears much closer than infinity.

The ratio between the focal length of a lens having a longer focal length than that of the standard lens used with a camera,...

A device used to rapidly change the Q of an optical resonator. It is used in the optical resonator of a laser to prevent...

In general, changes in one oscillation signal caused by another, such as amplitude or frequency modulation in radio which...

A mode of transmission whereby the sending and receiving stations operate continuously at a fixed relationship of phase and...

A large table with an accurately designed plane surface used to test other surfaces, or to provide a true surface for...

The line that divides the two half-images in a coincidence rangefinder. The two halves of the images formed by the two...

A line-scan camera, also known as a line-scan image sensor or linear array camera, is a type of digital camera designed to...

A common aberration in lenses covering large fields of view; it results in images of objects near the edge of the field...

A refracting telescope that yields an erect image by the use of a positive lens for its objective and a negative lens for...

A lens or lens system used to transfer a real image from one point within an optical system to another, with or without...

An electron tube having two electron guns, one on each side of the storage medium, to encode the information onto the...

An instrument consisting of a high-voltage vacuum tube used to form hard x-rays or high-speed ion beams. By partitioning the...

Quantum sensing refers to a class of sensing technologies that leverage principles from quantum mechanics to enhance the...

Intensity distribution in the image of an edge. The gradient of the edge-response curve is a measure of the image quality of...

The ratio of aperture area over receiving area for a specific lens. Also called geometric concentration.

In morphological image processing, a series of erosions followed by the same number of dilations.

The digitization process by which an image is manipulated to increase the amount of information perceivable by the human eye.

A hydrogel is a three-dimensional network of polymer chains that are hydrophilic, meaning they have a strong affinity for...

Automated optical inspection (AOI) is a technology used in manufacturing processes, particularly in electronics, to...

The optical phenomenon in which right circularly polarized light transmitted by an active medium travels at a different...

When a lens system with a circular aperture is free of aberrations, the image of a point object will appear as a disc of...

An electrophoretic display, often referred to as an electronic paper display or e-paper display, is a type of electronic...

Measurement of absorption by the gas of interest in the 2- to 6-µm range as a function of tangent height pressure. The...

A colorimeter using a spinning disc made of different colored sections for colorimetric analysis.

Two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) is a nonlinear optical method that allows imaging of biological cells and living...

Optical components exceeding 24 in. in diameter. The components are usually glass, acrylic or polystyrene and are used for...

Any of the constants that relate the tendency of the director to remain parallel to restoring torques throughout the media....

Pushbroom scanning is a technique used in remote sensing and imaging systems, particularly in satellite and aerial sensors,...

An optical system that superimposes a synthetic display providing navigational or weapon-aiming information on a pilot's or...

The material favored for study of interaction of high-acoustic intensities with free carriers. Tellurium is the...

A form of laser output noise that is caused by thermal, mechanical, or acoustical disturbances of the cavity length. Mode...

A display standard no longer in use and originally defined for IBM PCs, with 640 3 480 pixels in 16 colors and a 4:3 aspect...

An automatic camera that can record reduced images of documents at a rate of up to 30,000 documents per hour by having the...

An optical coupling device that uses light to bridge the gap between incompatible wire communications systems. It contains...

An image with variations in density due to the differential scattering ability of microscopic bubbles in a transparent layer.

A matrix-controlled display that has no information storage at the display surface.

The reversal of a developed image due to the exposure of the partially developed image to actinic light.

A prism that inverts and reverts an image while deviating the line of sight by a 45° angle.

A laser radar application in which a sequence of direct measurements of target position is fed into a tracking filter to...

In local area networking, arrangement of the satellite nodes around a central node through which all routing of network data...

A cryogenically cooled component incorporated into the Dewar of an infrared detector assembly to maintain the sensing...

A fiber optic spectrometer is a device used for measuring the spectral content of light. It utilizes optical fibers to...

An optical instrument, generally a polarizing microscope, that is used to determine the interference figures and optical...

A pulsed laser having molecular nitrogen as laser material and a wavelength output of 337 nm in the ultraviolet region. It...

The slits in a spectrograph that form images of spectral lines. Slits may be bilateral or unilateral, and generally close...

A camera with two taking lenses and synchronized shutters. Two images are recorded simultaneously on separate frames,...

The removal of a sharp edge on an optical element by grinding, to prevent accidental chipping of that edge during subsequent...

A device consisting of an airtight quartz tube that holds the material to be analyzed. When a high-frequency electrostatic...

The formation of a picture or image in which the density gradients in a volume of flow are rendered visible. The image is...

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is an analytical technique that combines the principles of Raman spectroscopy...

An intensified charge-coupled device that uses a large negative charge at the grid to switch off the flow of electrons at...

A plane in which an image is formed. A real image formed by a positive lens would be visible upon a screen located in this...

The stereo image that is recorded by the lenticular, stereo photographic process.

A coating having pigments that change color when exposed to heat. This effect has been widely used to monitor hot spots in...

A means of achieving higher peak powers and more efficient harmonic generation by narrowing the pulse width and thus...

In optics, the term denoting the lack of a fixed phase relationship between two waves. If two incoherent waves are...

A photographic method used to obtain an image of a subject by means of its reflectance of incident ultraviolet radiation. An...

In chemistry, a halide refers to a chemical compound containing one or more halogen atoms bonded to another element. The...

An artificial star used to aid in adaptive optics imaging of the sky. The guide star is provided from a telescope system on...

A compound prism consisting of an assembly of small prisms cemented together that is used in a coincidence rangefinder to...

A technique for determining the nonlinear optical properties of a sample material by moving the sample through a focused...

A lensless photographic camera that uses a small sharp-edged hole as its aperture. The light passed by this aperture onto...

The method by which Thomas Young in 1802 disproved Newton's corpuscular theory of light by the formation of interference...

A camera equipped with a lens and a long length of perforated film, the latter being moved intermittently between exposures...

The science and technology applied to the creation of low temperatures (i.e., approaching absolute zero).

1. The direct storage of data as bits in memory using optical systems and properties. The memory makes use of a laser beam...

The ability of the instrument to separate wavelengths that are close together, numerically equal to the ratio of the shorter...

Image enhancement operations that involve altering gray-scale values. For instance, brightness sliding involves adding or...

1. A contour map of a photographic deposit consisting of lines and curves that join points of equal density. 2. The...

Any irregular motion, variation in intensity or change in color that arises because of atmospheric turbulence during the...

A fiber optic component or system designed in such a way that it can be operated by people without specialized knowledge of...

Molecules composed entirely of carbon, in the form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid or tube. Also called buckyballs....

A small mass spectrometer, with a limited mass range, equipped with an analyzer to generate a cycloidal-path beam of the...

A small card (10 x 15 cm) that has been treated with a photographic emulsion to record and store the microimages of...

A lens with internally adjustable elements to produce a range of focal lengths. Unlike a true zoom lens, a multifocal lens...

A blank area (caused by insufficient inking of the paper) that falls within the range of an intended character stroke in an...

The photographic recordformed in macrophotography in which the size of the small nearby object at theimage plane is the same...

A device used to measure the masses and relative concentrations of atoms and molecules. It utilizes the Lorentz force...

The closest distance to which the eye can focus on an object, normally taken to be 250 mm. The near point varies with age.

The science of producing, recording, storing, transmitting and displaying visual images by any system (photographic, video,...

The allowable departure from the given figure or geometrical form. It may be described in terms of fringes or wavelengths.

Ultraviolet reflectance refers to the ability of a material or surface to reflect UV light. Ultraviolet light is...

1. A defect inherent in a multiple-axis positioning system whereby an adjustment of one axis causes an undesired change in...

A resampling and interpolation method that uses only the value of the nearest neighbor pixel, while not considering values...

Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is a method of achieving nuclear fusion, a process where two atomic nuclei combine to...

The optical element that receives light from the object and forms the first or primary image in telescopes and microscopes....

An image that appears when a hologram is illuminated by a suitable light source, generally a laser beam.

Primary image memory that is built into a digital camera and stores the digital images generated by the camera's image...

A gradual change in the output of a circuit or instrument over time.

The intensity regulation of a cathode-ray tube by alteration of the grid-cathode voltage.

A spectrophotometer is a scientific instrument used to measure the intensity of light at various wavelengths in the...

The area in a 2-D or 3-D microdisplay viewer within which the eye can move and still see the entire image.

In an optical data storage system, denoting the optical head's ability both to record information and to detect it for...

A type of birefringent polarizing prism that transmits the extraordinary ray and removes the ordinary ray through total...

A transparent lead-lanthanum zirconate titanate ceramic with optical qualities that can be controlled by applying voltages...

A design for bent crystal monochromators in which spacing is constant along any circular arc terminating at the two foci and...

An Er:YAG laser is a type of solid-state laser that uses a crystal made of erbium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet...

A condition during laser operation when laser output can no longer be increased by additional electric current.

A volumetric electrical charge resulting from a flow of charged particles across a gap.

A type of interferometer noted for producing narrow multiple-beam interference fringes. As a result, when compared with the...

In avalanche photodiodes, the point at which an increase in the reverse bias voltage causes the current gain to approach...

A ruticon is an opto-electronic device in which light going through it can be modulated by an electric field. The...

The average intensity of a light source measured over all directions.

The use of retroreflective projection technology (RPT) to project a background image onto a masked object, such as a vehicle...

An electron beam gun in which plasma that is generated within a low-voltage hollow-cathode discharge serves as the source of...

The use of a computer to generate a series of interrelated images so that the images give the illusion of movement in space...

A guided missile that uses an infrared sensor to detect and home in on an enemy target. The missile is guided by the high...

The progressive defocusing of a cathode-ray tube display image that occurs when the deflected electron beam impinges on the...

An electro-optic system using, in general form, an evacuated glass envelope with a semitransparent photocathode at one end...

An optical tooling instrument consisting of an objective lens, a focusing lens, an optical micrometer, a reticle and an...

Photoresist is a light-sensitive material used in photolithography processes, particularly in the fabrication of...

A thick meniscus lens arranged concentric with the center of curvature of a spherical mirror to produce an image free of...

A technique used in radiography to determine a crystal's structure by obtaining radiographs of it in powder form, normally...

A character generation CRT that functions on the principle of secondary emission. The target holds a set of aluminum...

The element in a charge-coupled device that receives the charge packets transferred from the line of sensor sites and then...

A matrix-controlled display that has information storage at the display surface, and requires that an element be addressed...

A microscope design that involves apertures inserted in conjugate plane positions inside the microscope, with one aperture...

The series of processes used to identify and evaluate crystal structure by using crystalline solids to diffract x-rays. In...

Liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) is a display technology that combines liquid crystal materials with silicon-based...

Brightfield refers to a type of microscopy and imaging technique in which the specimen is illuminated with a white light...

A blue diode laser is a type of semiconductor laser that emits light in the blue wavelength range of the electromagnetic...

A method of measuring complex sequential photosynthetic reactions by varying the pulse time and wavelength of light...

The product of the actual base or baseline of a rangefinder or heightfinder, and the power or magnification of the...

In a pulsed laser, the pulse energy in joules times the repetition rate in hertz.

An instrument capable of precise measurements of the Earth's gravity. This permits the detection of small changes in local...

A discharge tube filled with various gases and used as a source in spectroscopy.

I/O stands for input/output. In computing, it refers to the communication between a computer system or program and its...

Terahertz (THz) refers to a unit of frequency in the electromagnetic spectrum, denoting waves with frequencies between 0.1...

One of two types of solar time - the other being apparent solar time - the mean solar time is the time measured by the...

Short-distance scattering of light in holography caused by random index inhomogeneities and the developing index that...

The use of a variable transmission filter at the aperture stop of a lens to modify its diffraction pattern. Reduced...

An extremely wide emission spectrum generated by the nonlinear effects created when a high peak power from a short-pulse...

An element within a three-dimensional data set image.

In image processing, the memory that stores the values for the point processes. Input pixel values are those for the...

A method used to generate graphics within a computer system. Rather than dots or lines, fractal graphics work with...

The use of the photographic process to produce precision copies of an original image that are many times smaller in size....

A MEMS fiber optic switch is a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) device designed to selectively route optical signals...

Technology that corrects the shape of reflective optics; primarily applied in large telescope systems, in order to...

The generation of a difference in electric potential between two electrodes when radiation is incident on one of them.

An operate mode in which the sensor is programmed to perform a task such as generating output when the light level falls...

A camera system that uses a fine powder to diffract x-rays from the specimen. A beam of monochromatic x-rays passes through...

A measuring instrument used for surface profiling and quantifying the roughness of a material. The stylus is placed on the...

Technique that uses high-pass filtering to reduce the local average to zero for all regions of the picture and then applies...

1. A generic term for detector. 2. A complete optical/mechanical/electronic system that contains some form of radiation...

Also known as the Wiener spectrum or the noise power spectrum, the optical power spectrum is a fundamental quantity in...

A pair of stars (double star) that can be seen separately with a telescope, generally by setting a filar micrometer for the...

A time-to-amplitude converter (TAC) is an electronic circuit that converts a time interval between two events into an...

A linear positioning stage, also known as a linear stage or translation stage, is a precision mechanical device used to...

A filter that is transparent to longer wavelengths but opaque to shorter wavelengths.

Essentially, noise that cannot be predicted. Therefore, even if the magnitude of sound or oscillation in a system is known...

1. A compound lens consisting of two elements. If there is an air space between the elements it is called an...

The series of rings or bands formed when light beams reflected from two polished, adjacent surfaces, placed together with a...

A filter that transmits light in a series of sharp, widely spaced wavelength bands by its sandwich construction of...

The region at the PN junction in a semiconductor radiation detector where the potential energies of the two materials create...

A special laser glass made primarily of fluoride compounds that exhibits extremely low refractive index and allows greater...

A positive lens located at or close to an intermediate image plane. The collector refracts off-axis light bundles, directing...

An atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) is an analytical instrument used to determine the concentration of specific chemical...

Autofluorescence refers to the natural emission of fluorescence exhibited by certain biological structures or molecules when...

A small object that behaves as a whole unit or entity in terms of it's transport and it's properties, as opposed to an...

A lidar (light detection and ranging) technique used in pollution monitoring. Two light beams are emitted simultaneously,...

A method used in imaging to detect subtle differences between two apparently similar pictures. It can be achieved by...

In the spectral sense, an optical source that emits one or more spectrally narrow lines as opposed to a continuous spectrum....

An alexandrite laser is a solid-state laser that utilizes a synthetic crystal made from the rare earth element alexandrite...

In a charge-coupled device, the detection of charge collected by the transport register rather than by the image-sensing...

Gallium nitride-based light-emitting diodes (GaN-based LEDs) are semiconductor devices that emit light when an electric...

A device utilizing an electron beam for the observation and recording of submicroscopic samples with the aid of photographic...

A lack of resolution in a television image as a result of smear ghosts or an insufficiently high video-frequency response....

An electron tube that stores and visually displays information by means of a cathode-ray-beam-scanning and charge-storage...

A spheric lens, also known as a spherical lens, is a type of optical lens with at least one surface that is part of a...

A collimator having, at one end of a tube, an objective lens, and at the other, a reticle with a pair of spaced lines...

A high-quality focuser that uses rollers rather than gears and offers smooth, precise motion while reducing or eliminating...

Two plane mirrors that are not wholly located in the same plane. When light from a point source or slit reflects from the...

An instrument that detects high-energy charged particles by analysis of the Cerenkov radiation that they emit.

A method of erasable optical data storage in which information is stored by visible light, then read by illumination with an...

A term that describes both the color and intensity of the immediate environment of the object or image being viewed.

Photolithography is a key process in the manufacturing of semiconductor devices, integrated circuits, and...

A disc composed of a series of holographic optical elements that diffract light at various angles. When spinning, a raster...

In computer graphics, the coordinated two-dimensional or three-dimensional area of increased resolution where graphics...

A solid-state panel of the photoconductor-electroluminescent type. The photoconductive layer, sensitive to x-rays, is coated...

A field of physics that deals with light as if it truly were composed of rays diverging in various directions from the...

A form of lens assembly used in a projection system to maximize efficiency and assure uniform illumination of the object...

Optoacoustic, or photoacoustic, refers to a phenomenon and related techniques that involve the generation of acoustic waves...

Technique of projecting an illuminated target at infinity and receiving the target image after reflection from a flat mirror...

Measurement estimated from the position of the image's centroid.

Photon flow created by imaging of light into a detector array; IPD is the electrical signal used by the image processor in a...

Metrology is the science and practice of measurement. It encompasses the theoretical and practical aspects of measurement,...

An exaggerated depth appearance in stereo photographs caused by the lenses in the camera being farther apart than the eyes...

A machine vision lens is a specialized optical lens designed for use in machine vision systems, which are used for automated...

In a lens or lens system, that surface at which the projections of an entering and exiting ray intersect. Also known as the...

Distortion caused by variations in the rate of change of phase shift with frequency over the signal's necessary bandwidth.

Deep ultraviolet (DUV or deep-UV) refers to a specific range of ultraviolet light with shorter wavelengths than those in the...

A telescope in which a mask occults the solar disk, generating an artificial eclipse and allowing observation and recording...

The series of rings when monochromatic light passes through a Fabry-Perot interferometer.

A laser-pumped crystal with nonlinear optical properties inside of an optical resonator in which the output generates...

Attosecond photonics sources refer to devices or systems that generate extremely short pulses of light on the order of...

A projector used to project transparencies. A horizontal 8 x 10-in. stage for writing or laying down preformed...

Basically, a hydrogen atom with two alterations, positronium is the lightest atom in the universe and has an extremely light...

A portion of computer memory that is used for temporary storage of frequently accessed data. Substantially increases...

A photoelectric detector consisting of a glass tube internally coated with a low conductance material. Voltage applied along...

Capability requirement for optical switches for transmission lines to process arbitrarily polarized light because of the...

The angular relation between two light rays that originated at the same object point. Sometimes used to indicate the angle...

A photographic emulsion of the silver-halide type that is used to record the path of a charged traveling particle. The...

A charge-coupled device (CCD) is a type of electronic image sensor used in various imaging devices, including digital...

An electron tube that employs electromagnetic radiation to produce a visual replica of an image produced on its cathode....

A device for the internal inspection of hard-to-get-at mechanical parts, such as rifle barrels, sewer pipes, oil wells, or...

The thin edge of a refracting prism; the line of intersection of two refracting surfaces of a prism.

A method for characterizing a fiber wherein an optical pulse is transmitted through the fiber, and the resulting light...

The series of images formed when periodic objects are exposed to collimated monochromatic radiation and that result from...

Also known as OCT-A, optical coherence tomography angiography is an imaging technique that uses light waves to measure...

The soft x-rays used in the industrial radiography of materials having too small a range of densities to produce an image...

The transmission of photographic images or pictures by radio waves.

A technique for improving the structure density of thin-film coatings by bombarding the growing film with accelerated ions...

A form of roof prism used to invert an image. The prism has faces cut normal to the optical axis; therefore, the prism may...

A set of rays through a lens originating at a common point and contained in one plane.

In a crystalline substance, the spectral range of states of energy that contains the crystal's binding valence electrons.

An optical system that is designed to produce a high temperature in a specified area by the optical direction and...

When applied to LCD grids, the active matrix is a means of supplying power to pixels by use of a transistor and capacitor....

Any testing method for materials and components that does not damage or destroy the test sample. Some of the methods used...

The alteration and reduction of color with the addition of white light. The perceived color shift that occurs as the...

The determination of distance based upon the known size of an object and the size of its image at the image plane of an...

Also known as corner-cube reflector or retrodirective reflector. Three reflecting surfaces, perpendicular to each other,...

The angular difference in the direction of an object as seen from two points of observation. The angle subtended at the...

The photographic recording of gas bubbles produced when particles traverse liquid hydrogen in a bubble chamber.

A photon sieve is an optical device used in the field of optics and imaging. It's designed to focus and shape light,...

A high-brightness, short-duration source in which low-pressure gas initiates the discharge to vaporize material from the...

The detection and analysis of naturally formed extraterrestrial electromagnetic radiation within the radio frequency range...

A tube containing mercury vapor and lined with a phosphor. When current is passed through the vapor the strong ultraviolet...

1. Calculated distance between two exactly opposed points on a beam at a chosen fraction of peak power (typically 1/e2). 2....

An ion carrying a positive charge and thus attracted to the cathode during electrolysis.

The physical adaption of the eye lens, by means of ciliary muscle contraction, in order to maintain a clear, in focus image...

The broadening of a laser's line width in a way that affects every atom (or molecule), and thus the whole system, in the...

The area of optics in which the propagation of light is described by geometrical lines (or rays) governed by Fermat's...

A device that is designed to modulate a beam of light, usually from a laser source, by acting upon the beam directly. The...

The process in the manufacture of an optical system that gives it the required geometric shape.

The distance between two focal lines in an astigmatic image produced by a lens or mirror.

Instantaneous field of view (iFOV) is a term commonly used in the context of remote sensing, imaging systems, and optical...

A coil used to focus an electron beam by the generation of a magnetic field parallel to the beam.

Photoconductive antenna (PCA) is a semiconductor element that generates or detects high-frequency electromagnetic signals....

A device used to measure directional reflectance, with light collection restricted to a narrow range of angles of which the...

In communcations and video signals, the portion of a composite signal between the leading edge of the horizontal blanking...

Optical fiber is a thin, flexible, transparent strand or filament made of glass or plastic used for transmitting light...

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot onboard. UAVs are remotely...

The distribution of gray-scale values in an image.

A lens assembly containing several movable elements to permit changing of the effective focal length (EFL). Unlike a zoom...

FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) spectrometer is a powerful analytical instrument used to obtain an infrared spectrum of...

A sensor generally used for infrared imaging. It consists of two chambers separated by a thin, blackened membrane. An...

The figure of merit of a resonator, defined as (2p) x (average energy stored in the resonator)/(energy dissipated per...

1. A polariscope consisting of a Savart plate and a tourmaline plate analyzer, and used to produce parallel color fringes by...

GaN (gallium nitride) distributed feedback (DFB) lasers refer to a specific type of semiconductor laser based on Gallium...

A mode of data transmission whereby each bit of information is generated separately, with some stop/start code to indicate...

A noncontact, nondestructive method of measuring defects in thin composite materials, using a xenon flashtube to generate...

A filter that creates spherical aberration resulting in an image with a soft outline.

The application of a cine camera in recording the images on a fluorescent screen. When x-rays are used to produce the screen...

A source of light will not cast a distinct shadow of an interfering, opaque object, but will cast a shadow having two parts:...

Plastic optics refers to optical components or systems that are made from transparent plastic materials, as opposed to...

The illusory appearance of a light or dark band at a line of brightness contrast that enhances the edge between the two...

An electron-gun system is an assembly used to generate and control a focused beam of electrons. Electron guns find...

A filter exhibiting transparency, absorption or reflectance characteristics specifically for spectral control of wavelengths...

Remote sensing is a method of data collection and observation where information about objects, areas, or phenomena on...

A CMOS image sensor, short for complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor image sensor, is a type of semiconductor device used...

The interferometric analysis of a complex object by utilizing the three-dimensional hologram. By causing a laser beam to...

In a waveguide, a change in direction of the axis without deviating from the plane of polarization.

A type of cooling system in which one fluid is used to carry heat off another without direct contact between the two.

The superimposing of holographic pages in a thick, erasable storage material by changing the reference and object beams....

A fiber optic cable assembly refers to a complete unit consisting of optical fibers, connectors, protective jackets, and...

FMCW lidar stands for frequency-modulated continuous wave lidar. It is a type of lidar (light detection and ranging)...

The range of frequencies that will pass through a filter or other device. Synonymous with passband.

In coherent optical communications systems, a laser used at the receiving end to produce a steady wave that is combined with...

The logarithmic method of determining emulsion speeds developed by the German standards organization, Deutscher...

Also referred to as a band-stop or band rejection filter; a notch filter is a filter that is designed to screen out a very...

Reciprocal of the dispersive power of an optical material. See Abbe constant.

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is a laboratory technique used to detect and measure the presence of specific...

MTF analysis/measurement equipment refers to instruments and tools used to measure and analyze the modulation transfer...

A computer-generated hologram (CGH) is a holographic image produced using computational methods and algorithms, rather than...

A method of data multiplexing that can provide large, instantaneous bandwidths for busy traffic while permitting slow...

A low-power telescope placed at the eyepiece of an optical system to increase overall magnification. Most often used to...

Flow cytometry is a powerful technique used in biology and medicine for the quantitative analysis of the physical and...

A filter that is transparent to shorter wavelengths, but opaque to longer wavelengths.

The state of a liquid crystal in which the molecules are arranged in layers with their long axes in the plane of each layer....

A high-resolution spectroscopic device commonly used in the early 20th century as a component of double-beam...

A device designed to convert linear change in the light state at input to log data at output.

Fluorescent proteins are proteins that exhibit the property of fluorescence, which is the ability to absorb light at a...

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

A semiconductor laser diode that emits light perpendicular to the active region. The output radiation is taken through the...

In interlaced television scanning, an effect in which the lines of one field fail to fall exactly within the lines of the...

With respect to a crystal, one of the paths or axes that will exhibit a piezoelectric charge when subject to tension or...

The induced birefringence in isotropic gases that results when the gases are placed in strong fields.

A type of photoelectric proximity mode sensing incorporating a lens system to focus the light from the emitter in a small,...

Power modulation refers to the intentional variation of power levels in a signal, often in the context of electronic...

The photographing of a scene from positions corresponding to the locations of both eyes. A viewing device is used to present...

Laser annealing is a process that involves using a laser beam to heat and modify the microstructure of a material, typically...

A mechanical device designed to smoothly vary the effective diameter of a lens, thereby controlling the amount of light...

The general term for the application of light to a subject. It should not be used in place of the specific quantity...

A laser with a gain medium consisting of an organic dye, which is carbon-based. The dye is mixed with a solvent, allowing...

A method of resampling in which a 16-pixel neighborhood around a given pixel from the original image is used to calculate...

Injecting a gas (usually nitrogen) with a very low moisture content into the body of an optical instrument to create a...

The minimum value of luminance for vision. The value may vary with age as well as dark adaption period. (Measured range...

In optics, the term image jump refers to a displacement or shift in the apparent position of an image when a change occurs...

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

Mathematically defined as the product of etendue (or throughput) and the square of the refractive index, the optical extent...

A display that allows the observation and measurement of the altitude and range of airborne objects.

Time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) is a technique used in photon counting applications, particularly in the...

The structure that holds the photographic negative in a proper position that is both flat and parallel to the lens plane, as...

The inability to perceive visual images (visible radiant energy). In human beings, blindness is defined as a visual acuity...

A chart formed by a spectrograph; the record of the spectral range. See spectrograph.

An assembly of multiple prisms that disperses incident light into its spectral components without deviating light at the...

An aperture, usually rectangular in shape, with a large length-to-width ratio, and a fixed or adjustable shape through which...

A type of copying camera in which the object is placed on a horizontal easel and photographed by a horizontal camera above...

Bar pattern represented as a sine curve in which the light distribution varies in one direction.

1. An optical distance finder that depends on triangulation of two convergent beams on an object from disparate view points....

An electro-optical infrared tracker consisting of a beamsplitter, an illuminating source, an image dissector tube and an...

A prism made of two elements cemented together that, depending on its orientation, inverts or reverts an image. It may be...

A system of elements which rotates the optical image with respect to the optical axis by a factor of pi radians.

The process of transferring collected energy from solar radiation into a heat-absorbing medium (e.g., an insulated tank of...

Also known as convergent lens or convex lens. A lens that converges an incident bundle of rays to a focus.

A type of birefringent filter, similar in principle to the Lyot filter, consisting of many identical birefringent elements,...

Also known as Fresnel reflection. That portion of the incident radiation that is reflected from the surface of a refractive...

A Fresnel lens is a type of optical lens that consists of a series of concentric grooves or steps carved into a flat, thin...

A measure of image quality produced by an optical system. May be specified in terms of cycles per millimeter, referencing a...

Integration time, in the context of optics, imaging systems, and sensor technology, refers to the duration over which a...

Certain color centers in the alkali halides have been optically pumped to produce efficient tunable pulsed and...

In a bifocal spectacle lens, the vertical measurement of distance from the uppermost borderline of the bifocal segment to...

Any of the five elements astatine, chlorine, fluorine, bromine and iodine, grouped because their chemical properties are...

A device that utilizes avalanche multiplication of photocurrent by means of hole-electrons created by absorbed photons. When...

In a telephoto lens, the ratio of the overall length to the focal length of the lens. It is generally about 0.8 to 0.9 in...

A method of producing disks for erasable optical data storage. Information is recorded by a laser beam that generates pits...

Radiography using the emission of gamma rays to form an image of the structure penetrated by the radiation.

The method by which photographic film is scanned by an electron beam. One technique uses the uniform light of a television...

The simplest lens in which all primary aberrations may be corrected. It consists of two positive crown elements on either...

A metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodiode is a type of photodetector that consists of metal electrodes on a semiconductor...

In an interlaced scanning electro-optical system such as television, the system resolution will be less than the number of...

A lens composed of two or more separate elements of optical glass that may or may not be cemented together. The surfaces of...

In optics, the geometrical form of an optical surface.

A photodetector, also known as a photosensor or photodiode, is a device that detects and converts light into an electrical...

Optical fiber capable of operating at both a shorter and a longer wavelength.

A waveguide is a physical structure or device that is designed to confine and guide electromagnetic waves, such as radio...

Pixel pitch refers to the distance between the centers of two adjacent pixels on a display screen or imaging sensor. It is...

Sputtering equipment is machinery used in the process of physical vapor deposition (PVD), specifically sputtering....

A GaAlAs laser is a type of semiconductor laser diode that emits light in the near-infrared region of the electromagnetic...

Laser-mediated gene transfer refers to a technique in molecular biology and genetic engineering that utilizes lasers to...

A container which secures multiple splice trays and protects the trays and their contents from damage.

A device that converts alternating voltage to direct voltage, while at the same time increasing its amplitude.

1. A single unit in a device for changing radiant energy to electrical energy or for controlling current flow in a circuit....

Heatless light emissions from living organisms caused by the combination of oxygen and pigments such as luciferin.

A microscope that uses a flying spot scanner, directed through the eyepiece, as a light source to determine the features of...

In an optical waveguide, the exchange of power/energy among modes.

A laser, which stands for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation," is a device that produces coherent and...

The circle that contains the slit, grating and primary astigmatic focus of a concave diffraction grating.

Spectral repeatability refers to the consistency and reproducibility of spectral measurements across multiple trials or...

A mathematical transformation used in image and video compression that changes two-dimensional representation of data into...

A PIN photodiode is a type of photodetector or semiconductor device used to convert light signals into electrical signals....

Luminescence is the emission of light that occurs without the involved substance undergoing a significant increase in...

In morphological image processing, a series of dilations followed by the same number of erosions.

Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, is a manufacturing process that involves creating three-dimensional...

A camera system in which the image formed on the fluorescent screen of an image converter tube in the system is recorded by...

Hyperchromic shift refers to an increase in the absorption of light, leading to a higher absorbance, often observed in...

In astronomy, the method of deliberately viewing objects with peripheral vision to take advantage of the eye's greater...

The process or act of measuring the geometric properties of an object or image.

A device for measuring linear dimensions. The optical caliper generally consists of two circularly mounted mirrors whose...

The reversible change in the absorption spectrum of certain compounds upon irradiation with a given wavelength of light.

1. A flaw in a blank caused by folding the blank's surface during its formation. 2. The change in the direction of a...

An image that is not immediately recognizable but scrambled.

The moving spot of light emitted by a source, generally a cathode-ray tube, to illuminate specific points of an area...

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) equipment refers to a class of specialized apparatus used in the process of chemical vapor...

A gas, such as oxygen, that improves the speed and efficiency of a laser cutter or welder when applied to the work surface,...

A display format consisting of small light-emitting elements arranged as a two-dimensional array. Various elements are...

A photodetector composed of a semiconductor material whose responsive properties can be altered by the addition of...

A terahertz spectrometer is a scientific instrument used to measure and analyze the properties of materials in the terahertz...

Plasmonics is a field of science and technology that focuses on the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and free...

An instrument that measures several optical parameters, such as optical power and wavelength, with a single measurement...

The storage surface of an electron beam tube that is scanned by an electron beam to generate an output-signal current...

An achromat, in the context of optics, refers to a type of lens or lens system designed to reduce chromatic aberration....

A tiny lens (as small as 100 µm in diameter) used to focus light on charge-coupled devices, formed by heating a...

Process that occurs when a polymerized soft plastic rod with higher refractive index is placed in a bath of a lower...

In the context of imaging, particularly digital imaging and printing, "orange peel" refers to a texture or visual distortion...

A method of producing large volumes of plastic optical components in which powdered or sheet plastic is pressed between...

Charged frozen pellets that are rapidly bombarded with a focused high-power laser to form a dense plasma that can be heated...

A corner reflector that provides an increase in the range of angles over which it may be used.

Optical manufacturing tools and machinery encompass a wide range of equipment, instruments, and systems used in the...

A digital twin refers to a virtual representation or digital counterpart of a physical object, system, or process. This...

The first nonlinear theory in plasma physics that details the time and space evolution of plasma wave instability from a...

To control, by magnifying or reducing, the size of a televised image, either electronically or optically.

An electric arc that is formed in mercury vapor through which an electric current flows. The intensity of the illumination...

A process by which the ionizing capabilities of a laser beam are used to break initiate conduction between pairs of...

A light-tight box that receives light from an object or scene and focuses it to form an image on a light-sensitive material...

A lens system made up of two sets of similar lenses, each of which compensates for many of the aberrations produced by the...

A method of fabricating a graded-index optical waveguide by means of an ion exchange process.

The pattern of microwave field intensity that can be obtained by detecting the minute expansion of a microwave absorber slab...

A family of lenses commonly used in scan systems for reading or printing documents. The lens must be designed such that the...

A band of light that appears along the outer edge of a transparent material under microscopic investigation and that moves...

The subtractive imbibing process of transferring color prints on paper whereby the dyes from three separately prepared...

A type of piezoelectric translator that uses two thin strips of piezoelectric material, one expanding while the other...

An optical system of variable focal length, the focal plane remaining in a fixed position. This result is achieved by moving...

A smooth, highly polished surface, for reflecting light, that may be plane or curved if wanting to focus and or magnify the...

A framework or latticework having an even arrangement of rods, or any other long narrow objects with interstices between...

A signal, generated by an oscillator, that provides the means of synchronization of operations in a data communications...

A photosensitive device used to optically scan and read character data (numbers, letters etc.) and input this data into a...

A device embodying a microprocessor that converts an image to digital form and then further enhances the image to prepare it...

An optical instrument used to track and image a test vehicle (target) throughout its flight. The cinesextant frequently...

A compact high-pressure light source in which an electrical discharge between electrodes spaced no more than 12 mm apart...

Circular dichroism (CD) is a spectroscopic technique used to study the structural characteristics of chiral (asymmetric)...

The multiple beam form of Brewster's fringes formed when the two plane-parallel plates have high-reflecting surfaces.

A cathode that emits electrons, not with the influence of heat radiation, but by means of a high-voltage gradient at its...

The photographic recording of data, in binary form, for storage in memory. Exposure is achieved by a cathode-ray tube or by...

The effect that characterizes an intense laser beam that is passed through an absorbing medium, causing the absorbed energy...

The laser damage threshold refers to the maximum level of laser intensity that a material can withstand without experiencing...

Generally, the orientation of rays of light striking a surface.

Spectroscopy characterized by the Mossbauer effect - recoilless emission and absorption of nuclear gamma radiation- which...

Developing a photographic image by means of an applied electric field. The methods used include electrolysis and...

Epitaxial equipment refers to a set of specialized tools and systems used in the process of epitaxy, which is the growth of...

Distortion of the high frequencies of a signal. In television, the term generally applies to frequencies above the 15.7 kHz...

A photometer used to measure sky brightness and polarization associated with zodiacal light, background starlight, F-region...

A panel of photoconductive and electroluminescent layers used as either a positive or negative image intensifier, depending...

In a laser diode, lateral motion of the beam center at the facet when the drive current is changed.

1. The variation in intensity of a light beam as it travels through the atmosphere. 2. In radiation physics, a light flash...

A monochromator is an optical instrument used to isolate and select a narrow range of wavelengths from a broader spectrum of...

A powerful method, referred to as FCS, for determining the average diffusion coefficients of fluorescent molecules in...

Electron lens consisting of an homogeneous axial electric field.

A type of photoconductive detector in which germanium, usually doped with boron, gallium and indium, serves as a...

An electric discharge between two carbon rods that are touched together to start the arc and then separated slightly. The...

Postulated by Einstein in his theory of relativity. They are waves traveling at the speed of light and exerting force on...

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is an advanced imaging technique used in microscopy to obtain high-resolution,...

A microdensitometer that contains a scanning stage to provide simultaneous representations of position vs. density.

In an image, the orientation and magnitude of the rate of change in intensity at any point.

A scintillation crystal, also known simply as a scintillator, is a material that emits light when it interacts with ionizing...

One of the first lasers to find practical application. Generally, the pumping mechanism is an electric discharge, although...

Used to detect radiation from the infrared region. The functional process includes absorption of infrared radiation, which...

Noise generated within an optical communications system link that has both internal (dark current) and external (background...

A laser rangefinder is a device that uses laser technology to measure the distance between the device and a target. It...

A point cloud is a set of data points in a three-dimensional coordinate system, where each point represents a specific...

A general term referring to the situation in which an image is not a true-to-scale reproduction of an object. The term also...

A variation of tomography, which is a means of visualizing any one of a large set of parallel planes in the patient. A...

A corner cube, also known as a corner reflector or retroreflector prism, is a type of optical device used to reflect light...

A laser whose pulses are expanded, using gratings and optical fibers, before amplification and compressed to increase beam...

Photogrammetric compensation for incidental camera movement (which prevents attainment of true vertical photographs) whereby...

A device that samples and quantizes a signal in digital form for storage in memory.

In rangefinders and height finders, a rotatable or sliding wedge-shaped element used to divert the line of sight precisely...

The study of x-rays, their biological effects and technology. Named for W.C. Roentgen, who discovered x-rays in 1895.

Quantum confinement refers to the phenomenon in quantum mechanics where the motion of charge carriers, such as electrons or...

An optical system that uses refraction to form an image.

A group of adjacent pixels in an image representing the same value, as all black in a binary image.

A frequency comb is a precise and regular series of equally spaced spectral lines, or frequencies, that are generated with...

The product of Avogadro's constant and the electrical charge of an electron; thus, the electrical charge carried by 1 gmol...

The determination of the relative phase shift of an image as a function of frequency. A phase change of 180° with...

The process of mapping the infrared emittance of an area through the use of an infrared detector and related scanning...

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a non-invasive neuroimaging technique that measures changes in hemoglobin...

Refers to the transistors in which the working current flows through only one type of semiconductor material, either P-type...

A colorimeter is a device used to measure and quantify the color characteristics of an object or a light source. It provides...

An accelerometer is a sensor or transducer that measures the rate of change of velocity of an object, or in simpler terms,...

Also known as ocular. The lens system used between the final real image in a visual optical system and eye. It acts as an...

Any pyrheliometer that has a filter placed over its sensor to limit the range of solar radiation it will detect; used to...

The distance from the last surface of a lens system to the image. For a thin lens system, this distance is equivalent to the...

An alphanumeric display formed by a layer of liquid crystal material sandwiched between two sheets of glass; a transparent...

The process of defining a specific intensity level for determining which of two values will be assigned to each pixel in...

An electron system using the effect of a constant magnetic field on electron paths to differentiate electrons that have...

The photographing of objects within generally inaccessible areas using endoscopes with camera attachments.

1. In glass, a solid inclusion having a small diameter. 2. A particular, single crystal that, after undergoing the...

An electrowetting display (EWD) is a type of electronic display technology that utilizes the principles of electrowetting to...

Oscilloscope electronic circuit that produces an output pulse whose pulse width is determined by the time that the output...

A type of photometer calibrated in luminance units (candles per square unit, or lamberts). In photography an exposure meter...

Optical materials refer to substances or compounds specifically chosen for their optical properties and used in the...

Type of solid-state display tube in which the readout surface is coated with a material that changes color when positively...

A kind of spectrograph in which some form of detector, other than a photographic film, is used to measure the distribution...

Two microscopes that are coupled on a common stand, the two images being projected side by side in the field of view of a...

The image distortion produced by a panoramic camera with a swinging lens or a swinging mirror in front of a fixed lens. The...

A fiber-coupled photoconductive antenna (FCPA) is a type of optoelectronic device that combines a photoconductive antenna...

A type of asynchronous shutter device that is used particularly in CCD sensor applications to capture an image of a...

A type of computer in which the electronic circuits, which process data serially, are replaced by photonic circuits capable...

The term photochemical pertains to chemical processes or reactions that are initiated or influenced by the absorption of...

A photonic cavity, also known as an optical cavity, is a structure that confines electromagnetic radiation within a certain...

A refrigeration method based on the Peltier effect. When an electric current passes through a thermocouple of two dissimilar...

The Weissenberg method, named after the German physicist Karl Weissenberg, is a technique used in x-ray crystallography for...

An emulsion in which grains of the photosensitive material silver halide are deposited. Each grain, when exposed to light,...

A flanged or plain ring with a restricted aperture, located in an optical system at any of several points, that cuts off...

A fiber laser is a type of laser in which the active gain medium is an optical fiber doped with rare-earth ions such as...

A contact tip made of artificial sapphire (AlO2) that allows surgeons to use laser power to cut and coagulate tissue...

A device for forming at least two adjacent areas of polarized light. The angle between the directions of vibration of the...

An aperture located at an image plane of an optical system that determines the size and shape of the image.

An instrument that can preselect intervals, often in increments of 1, 10 or 100 ns, for the generation of electronic pulses...

The portion of a reproduced image having the greatest luminance.

A prism produced by severing a Nicol prism and reconstructing the polarization angles of the two halves so that they are...

An instrument used to measure the light from a scene to be photographed and to indicate the camera lens and shutter settings...

A spectrograph in which the flux density transmitted through the entrance aperture is regulated by an optical wedge or...

An image affixed to a transparent photographic film or plate by photographic, printing or chemical methods. It may be viewed...

A ghost image that has the reverse lightness relations of the original image. This phenomenon is a common optical illusion...

The vertical deflection of an image on a cathode-ray tube screen.

A physical variable that is proportionally similar to another variable over a specified range. An analog recording contains...

Oleophobic is a term used to describe substances or materials that repel or resist oils. The word oleophobic comes from the...

A device that uses a piezoelectric crystal to convert ultrasonic sound waves, transmitted through a subject, into a voltage...

The value of the expanse of b-particles in an absorber, evaluated by visual examination of breaks in the absorption curve.

Graphene is a two-dimensional allotrope of carbon consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal...

The organ of vision or light sensitivity.

The storage of data as bits in memory by holographic processes. The laser beam is divided into reference and object beams,...

Fiber optic cable in which the arrangement of fibers within the bundle has been made random so that output light will be...

The physical distance, measured along the optical axis, from the object to the image. Also called overall length.

Also referred to as the axial ray (or a-ray), a marginal ray originates from the axial point of the object and passes...

Calorimetry is a branch of science that involves the measurement of heat flow in physical or chemical processes. It...

1. The focal point. 2. To adjust the eyepiece or objective of a telescope so that the image is clearly seen by the observer....

A spatial light modulator consisting of a metallized polymer film stretched over an array of metal-oxide semiconductor...

A contraction for "texture element." A base unit used in computer graphics that defines the surface of three-dimensional...

A laser diode in which the beam is confined to the region of the active layer with gain high enough to accomplish such...

The interference of the two real images formed by a Billet split lens.

A frame taken to identify electronic noise in a CCD imaging device. A dark frame is recorded without exposing the CCD to any...

An electrically conductive layer for carrying off static charges that might accumulate on a surface.

The study and photographing of microscope specimens in ultraviolet light; using an optical microscope containing fluorite...

That branch of science involved in the study and utilization of the motion, emissions and behaviors of currents of...

A detector-Dewar assembly typically refers to a combination of a detector and a Dewar flask used in scientific instruments,...

In astronomy, the relative brightness of a celestial body. Originally a scale from 1 to 6, where 1 represented the brightest...

A sputtering target is a solid material used in the process of physical vapor deposition (PVD), specifically sputtering....

Chemical vapor deposition is a process of applying dopants to a glass bait by flame reactions of gaseous compounds. See also...

Optical phase distortion refers to a phenomenon where the phase of an optical wavefront is altered as it propagates through...

A camera designed with a telecentric optical system and a narrow field of view; the telecentric optical system (placement of...

A series of solar cells arranged to collect solar radiation and to generate a given amount of electrical energy.

Spatial resolution refers to the level of detail or granularity in an image or a spatial dataset. It is a measure of the...

Technique in which the polarization rotation of light, and its relationship to the magnetic field strength can be analyzed...

A term referring to various processes for forming visible images outside of a camera to be photographed on ordinary film....

A small instrument containing a picture support and a pair of magnifying lenses so arranged that the left eye sees only the...

A laser that generates a succession of pulses at a high enough repetition rate to appear continuous. The pump source is...

The nondestructive analysis and recording of industrial components based on the absorption of relatively low-energy neutrons...

1. A stereoscope that has adjustable scales to allow the determination of distances and dimensions from stereoscopic...

Image processing peripheral that converts video images from cameras into digital format and transfers these digital images...

The theorem stating that, when the sampling period in a recorded sample hologram is matched to the object spectrum, the...

Referred to as SWCNTs, these cylindrical nanostructures composed of a folded sheet of graphene can be used as near-infrared...

A form of an element that cannot demonstrate optical activity as a result of dextrogyrate and levogyrate effects that are...

A multidimensional array of values that is commonly used in programming to describe a time series of image data. Each...

Characterizes the significant solar radiation at the surface of the earth, so named because its spectral range extends only...

An image whose left side appears to be the right side, and vice versa.

A polygonal mirror, also known as a multifaceted mirror or facet mirror, is a type of optical component used in various...

A two-stage illuminating system for a microscope in which the source is imaged in the aperture of the substage condenser by...

A modified form of an image-retaining panel that can be used in subdued daylight. This is achieved by adding a layer of zinc...

A circuit that uses feedback to synchronize the phase of a voltage-controlled oscillator with the phase of an incoming or...

The fluorographic method whereby the visible image (as opposed to the x-ray image) is photographed by mounting a camera in...

A frame taken with a CCD camera over an exposure length of zero seconds with the lens cap on or the shutter closed and no...

Also known as HCS, an analytical method designed to collect statistically relevant amounts of quantitative data on many...

A microscope that can be used to observe and magnify microscope specimens while they are being centrifuged. The objective...

In image processing, a morphology operator in which a structuring element or probe of a particular shape is moved over the...

Two simple meniscus lenses arranged symmetrically on either side of the aperture stop, providing reduced coma, lateral color...

An electroradiographic process that uses ionization of air by x-rays as a basis for forming electrostatic images.

Recombination of only the light that is correctly dispersed by the first stage of a polychromator through its wide...

A measure of the dispersive properties of a glass. The relative dispersion is defined as: where C, D, and F refer to the...

A material in which the refractive index varies according to changes in the light to which it is exposed. Lithium niobate is...

Ultrasonic refers to sound waves with frequencies higher than the upper audible limit of human hearing, typically above...

An analog method of moving a cathode-ray tube beam across a display screen face, commonly used in high-performance vector...

A Mach-Zehnder interferometer is an optical device used to measure the phase difference between two collimated beams of...

The absorption of part of the photon energy by a molecule through which there is a slight energy change and the energy...

An optical device that produces a line image lying along the axis from a point source of light; therefore, it has no...

An image converter that produces a visible image based on the infrared emittance of the object. The infrared energy is...

Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter...

Interval between cutting off a photoconductor's signal and the fall of current output to 90 percent.

Image sensors in a two-dimensional configuration of rows or columns.

An optical cable that is connector terminated. Generally, an optical cable that has been terminated by a manufacturer and is...

The processing of an image or portion of an image by transform coding and analysis. Fourier, Hadamand, Kronecker and...

Low Earth orbit (LEO) refers to a region in space that is relatively close to Earth's surface, typically characterized by...

An optical combiner, in the context of optics and display technologies, refers to a device or component that combines...

A homogeneous solid solution with crystal lattice sites occupied, at random, by the molecules or ions of two or more...

A shutter consisting of a ring of interweaving blades that open outward and allow light to pass when they are pivoted at...

For an electromagnetic field mode varying sinusoidally with time at a given frequency, the logarithmic rate of change, with...

A mode of data transmission whereby each bit is generated in sequence on a single carrier.

The projection of the image beam by a cathode-ray tube through a mask, where it is deflected through the suitable character...

A computer-generated kinoform used for data processing because of its use of incoherent light and its wide field of view,...

In digital data transmission, the representation of a bit by change in amplitude of the outgoing signal. Amplitude shift...

An optical system in which the only image-forming elements are curved-surface mirrors; e.g., a Cassegrain lens system.

Also known as a white-light interferometer. Measures surface texture and shape from nanometer-scale roughness to...

Photoelastic equipment and supplies refer to instruments and materials used in photoelasticity, a technique used to analyze...

Optical coatings are thin layers of materials applied to optical components, such as lenses, mirrors, filters, and prisms,...

A method used to compare two pictures of the same subject taken at different times. See image comparison.

The formation and display of three-dimensional images by ultrasonic energy. In one technique, the energy pulses from an...

1. With respect to angular subtense, a source of light, such as a star, that is very small. In a lab, a point source may be...

Computer vision enables computers to interpret and make decisions based on visual data, such as images and videos. It...

The capacitance of a capacitor which has a potential difference of one volt between its plates when it is charged by one...

A small xenon-filled tube with metal electrodes fused into the ends. The gas flashes brilliantly when a condenser is...

A technique used in radiography to obtain an unblurred image of a moving object by the use of very short x-ray exposures,...

In image processing, any operation that strengthens information about the edges of objects displayed. Three types of spatial...

Formulas designating the relationships between image distance, object distance, focal length, refractive index, etc., of a...

The rate of diminution of average optical power and the sum of the scattering and absorption coefficients.

A solar simulator is a device used to replicate the spectrum and intensity of sunlight in a controlled environment for...

A discipline that combines optics and genetics to enable the use of light to stimulate and control cells in living tissue,...

A method of producing magnified images by x-rays. The specimen is placed close to a point source of x-rays; the...

Scalar diffraction theory is a simplified approach used to describe the propagation of electromagnetic waves, particularly...

An acousto-optic modulator (AOM) is a device that utilizes the interaction between sound waves and light waves to modulate...

Stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) is a superresolution microscopy technique that enables imaging of...

A flexible single- or multifiber cable having a bundle of glass fibers arranged to transmit an image.

A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) is a compact and integrated device that incorporates multiple photonic components and...

A method of producing high-quality plastic optics in large volumes by injecting the heated, liquified plastic at high...

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

Piezoresistance is a phenomenon in materials science and physics where the electrical resistance of a material changes in...

The real numerical aperture (NA) of a fiber when the computed NA is not valid because of change in the glass indices during...

An antigen is any substance that is capable of triggering an immune response in an organism. Antigens are typically proteins...

The naturally occurring crystalline form of silicon dioxide. It is slightly birefringent and exhibits rotary dispersion of...

Also called sine wave response and contrast transfer function. The modulation transfer function is the ratio of the...

An LED, or light emitting diode, is a semiconductor device that emits light when an electric current passes through it. LEDs...

A quadrivalent semiconductor material, with electrons as the majority charge carriers, that is formed by doping with donor...

1. With respect to radiation, a device used to attenuate particular wavelengths or frequencies while passing others with...

The reproduction of a picture or image, produced by scanning the image and converting it into electrical signals that carry...

Fluorescence microscopy is a specialized optical imaging technique used in biology, chemistry, and materials science to...

The reddish/purple color that results when equal amounts of blue and red are combined so that no one wavelength dominates.

1. Generally, an emulsion mask having a clean annular region in an otherwise opaque region. It is designed to eliminate...

An instrument for detecting and analyzing repetitive signals. Using a fixed time delay or "gate," the input signal...

A device having a plane mirror so mounted that it can be set to reflect sunlight into a piece of laboratory equipment. It is...

The optical reconstruction of image information contained in a sound field. First the diffraction pattern, formed by an...

Rolling shutter artifacts are distortions or visual anomalies that can occur in images or videos captured by cameras with...

The arrangement of two Porro prisms so that the inverted image formed by certain types of optical instruments is the same as...

A sapphire window refers to a transparent optical component made from sapphire crystal. Sapphire is a single-crystal form of...

The two points on the principal axis of a mirror or lens so positioned that light emitted from either point will be focused...

An acronym for microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. Predecessor to the laser, the maser or...

A synchrotron is a type of particle accelerator that uses magnetic fields to steer charged particles, typically electrons or...

A state in which an image is distorted by an optical system.

Refers to transistors in which the working current flows through two types of semiconductor material: N- and P-type. In...

An image-enhancement technique in which each pixel is subjected to a mathematical operation that groups it with its nearest...

The smallest angle through which light is bent by an optical element or system. In a prism, the angle of deviation is a...

1. The value on either the leading or the trailing edge of a laser pulse at which the power is one-half of its maximum...

A device used to measure the intensity of radiant energy.

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

Diamond turning, also known as diamond machining or diamond cutting, is a precision machining process used to produce...

A gyroscope is a mechanical device consisting of a spinning disk or wheel mounted on a spinning axis in such a way that its...

A wedge in a rangefinder or heightfinder used to displace the image produced by one telescope so that it coincides with that...

An ocular having two planoconvex lenses that are formed from similar glass and that are separated by a space equal to half...

Multimode straight fiber capable of transporting linearly polarized light with any incident polarization angle, and in which...

A neutral density filter that, when placed in front of the iris of a lens, increases the f-stop range.

A display device that contains an inert gas that gives off orange light when a high voltage is applied to ionize the gas.

1. Viewed with one eye. 2. Describing an image as viewed from a single angle.

An image-forming instrument in which a strong electrostatic field causes cold emission of electrons from a sharply rounded...

A means of high resolution study through the application of soft and hard x-rays onto a sample surface in order to obtain...

A high-speed cine camera used to record, on a continuously moving film, very brief events such as a flash of light. The...

A prism formed by dividing a Nicol prism in a plane parallel to the path of vibration of the transmitted light and taking...

A method of designing lasers whereby the laser rod is cut into elliptical discs and cooled by running water over the disc...

Also referred to as a funduscope, an ophthalmoscope is a specialized instrument used by ophthalmologists for observing and...

A fiber-coupled LED (light-emitting diode) refers to an LED device that is optically coupled to an optical fiber for the...

Silicon carbide (SiC) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are semiconductor devices that emit light when an electric current is...

Heat measurement method in which the sample is made part of the interferometer and the temperature increase is determined by...

A dispersion-shifted fiber (DSF) refers to a type of optical fiber designed to minimize the effects of chromatic dispersion,...

The gas of charged particles that begins approximately 50 km above the surface of the Earth and contains a sufficient...

A nonoptical surface, within lenses and lens mounts, that contributes largely to flare by reflecting light into the image...

A defect in an optical system that prevents rays from reaching their intended destination; it can be caused by an undersized...

The Casimir force is a quantum phenomenon that results in an attractive force between two closely spaced uncharged...

A term applied to the recording of video images by means of magnetic tape or disc, so that the image's record can be played...

A snapshot representation of the final image created by a computer program.

Whispering gallery mode (WGM) refers to a phenomenon in wave physics, particularly in optics, where waves, such as light or...

A photodetector composed of a photoconductive material that, when exposed to radiation, conducts without the aid of added...

Sapphire crystal refers to a transparent, single-crystal form of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) known as corundum. It is one of the...

A device used to view microfilmed documents where the image on film is projected, in magnified form, onto a rear projection...

An interferometer spectrometer designed to measure thicknesses of thin films or layers by recording the interferogram and by...

A lens with one surface convex and the other concave, the latter having the greater curvature. It also is known as a...

The angle between the most divergent rays that can pass through the lens to form an image. In a birefringent crystal light...

The tendency of charge carriers to spiral about an axis in a direction identical to that of an applied magnetic field that...

A strand of aramid yarn, steel or fiberglass in an optical cable intended to prevent bending or stretching that would damage...

Ablation applied to polymers and chemical solids. Process of material removal that minimizes edge damage but will not heat...

Thin-film deposition equipment refers to machinery and tools used in the process of depositing thin layers of material onto...

The unit generally used to express distances within the solar system, and sometimes to measure interstellar distances....

A cylindrical lens is an optical component that has different curvatures along its two orthogonal axes, resulting in a shape...

A mirror whose coating serves to reflect visible radiation while transmitting the infrared.

An acronym for communications intelligence, referring to the collection of communications signals in the VHF and UHF...

A filter purposely made to be placed before a lens to render the image rather unclear.

A Dammann grating is a type of diffractive optical element (DOE) used to create an array of equally spaced,...

Diamond turning refers to a precision machining process used to produce complex optical components, particularly lenses and...

The law given by the formula: that is, the frequency of radiation emitted or absorbed by a system when E2 and E1...

An electron lens consisting of a homogeneous axial electric field and a magnetic field used in high-quality image tubes for...

There are three types of telecentric lenses: -Image-space telecentric lenses are those in which the aperture stop is...

Contour mapping technique that involves positioning a grating close to an object and observing its shadow on the object...

A large telescope mirror fabricated from several smaller sections.

A device that converts stored electrical energy into light by means of a sudden electrical discharge.

Also termed eye distance. The distance between the vertex of the last optical surface of a visual optical system and the...

Free-space optics (FSO), also known as optical wireless communication or optical wireless networking, refers to the...

Design and engineering consulting services refer to professional services provided by specialized firms or individuals to...

The point at which short-wavelength transmission is cut off.

A broken circle used as the test object in distinguishing visual acuity. The width of the gap in the circle is equal to the...

Hardware installed on fiber cable ends to provide cable attachment to a transmitter, receiver or other cable. Usually a...

The internet of things (IoT) refers to a network of interconnected physical devices, vehicles, appliances, and other objects...

Equipment for testing an observer's color vision. Some tests require the identification or ordering of colored samples. The...

An image that is formed when rays emerging from an optical system are diverging from the optical axis. The virtual image is...

A type of radiation detector that depends on the ionization produced in a gas by the passage of a charged particle through...

Linear optics refers to the study and manipulation of light in a linear and deterministic manner, where the response of...

A photonic crystal surface-emitting laser (PCSEL) refers to a type of laser diode that emits light from its surface rather...

A regular, periodic, geometric array of points corresponding to the positions of the atoms in a perfect crystal.

A passive coupler that distributes signals from one or several inputs among a larger number of output waveguides arranged...

Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that involves the use of artificial neural networks to model and solve complex...

The decay of an electrostatic charge image resulting from long exposure to the dark.

Device which measures the index of refraction of glass as well as the dispersion over visible range.

With respect to television, a potentiometer that allows variation of the intensity of the different elements of an image and...

Fizeau fringes are interference fringes observed in an interferometer, specifically in a Fizeau interferometer. The Fizeau...

A fiber optic imaging bundle is a specialized optical device composed of multiple optical fibers bundled together. Each...

A device that changes the number of lines per frame of a video image to adapt to a lower resolution format, either by...

Oscillator device composed of a semiconducting diode in a coaxial resonating cavity. When the biasing current is applied to...

Custom lapping and polishing services involve specialized processes used to improve the surface finish and dimensional...

A mechanical fixture, generally a rigid tube, used to confine the stripped end of a fiber or a fiber bundle.

The law stating that the amount of chemical change produced is proportional to the amount of light absorbed. Actually, the...

Mie scattering, named after the German physicist Gustav Mie, refers to the scattering of electromagnetic radiation (such as...

The removal of sharp edges by grinding.

An electrical problem that occurs when voltage is not the same with respect to ground at every node of a system, causing...

The curved boundary between two optical media of different refractive indices, which causes convergence.

A controlled random search process, such as generalized simulated annealing, that has been incorporated into many optical...

A permanent, transparent, and highly transmissive adhesive capable of withstanding extreme temperatures that is applied to...

A diode with a semiconducting material, such as germanium or silicon, for one electrode, and a fine wire "whisker''...

A system that determines whether an image is in or out of focus by means of a source of illumination at the conjugate focal...

An aspheric mirror is an optical mirror surface that deviates from the shape of a perfect sphere, having a non-spherical...

Hyperspectral resolution refers to the level of detail or granularity in the spectral information captured by a...

Lens which, by altering the phase, efficiently images through a holographic process.

A nonradiative transition refers to a process in which an electron or an atom undergoes a change in its energy state without...

A change in the refractive index of an optical fiber caused by variation in the length of the fiber core in response to...

Noise generated in the flow of current in the photomultiplier, produced by the intentional or controlled application of...

A coherent fiber optic bundle made from fibers whose diameter changes gradually along its length. Used to magnify or reduce...

The three-dimensional interference pattern of fringes that is recorded on a holographic plate to facilitate the study of a...

A plane (through the focal point) at right angles to the principal axis of a lens or mirror; that surface on which the best...

Focal, nodal or principal points of a lens. If the respective distances of the object and image are measured from the...

Visible laser radiation, often optically expanded and collimated, used to induced temporary blindness from within a walking...

A device that converts an analog signal, that is, a signal in the form of a continuously variable voltage or current, to a...

Magneto-optics refers to the study and manipulation of the interaction between magnetic fields and light (electromagnetic...

Localized variations in the purity and the index of refraction of the atmosphere.

An instrument incorporating an infrared detector assembly, used to analyze carbon dioxide gases and in medical applications...

In optics, a motion controller refers to a device or system that precisely controls the movement of optical components, such...

An image that can be studied three-dimensionally through a pair of complementary color filters composed of two superimposed...

A defect of a binocular instrument causing two images to be seen separately instead of being fused. It is caused when the...

With respect to a crystal, having three unequal axes intersecting at angles, only two of which can be equal and only one of...

In image processing, machine vision and television, discrete brightness values quantized for a group of pixels. They can...

Spherical aberration is an optical aberration that occurs when light rays passing through a lens or curved optical surface...

Concerned with the transmission and reception of both sight and sound. An audiovisual system communicates pictorial images...

A diode laser is a type of laser that uses a semiconductor diode as the active medium to generate coherent light....

Image displacement by a decentered lens, rotated on a chuck whose axis of rotation passes through the geometrical center of...

A thin film of absorbing or nonabsorbing layers in which the absorption of radiation at any point is directly proportional...

The term applied to the geometrical structure of radiometry or of the propagation of any quantity that is conversed and that...

A measure of the transmittance through an optical medium. Optical density equals the log to the base 10 of the reciprocal of...

An optical system that records inhomogeneities within a medium by detecting the energy refracted by that portion of the...

The photographic recording of images on a medium sensitive to infrared radiation, using a source capable of emitting in the...

An infrared detector mounted directly on the cold finger of the Dewar cooler rather than at the interface of Dewar and...

One of the types of change in the energy levels of molecules or atoms in a laser that can result in lasing action. Because...

Polymers are large molecules composed of repeating structural units called monomers. These monomers are chemically bonded...

A type of change in the energy levels of molecules in a laser that results in lasing action. Vibronic transitions are those...

A phonon is a quantum of vibrational energy associated with the periodic motion of atoms or molecules in a crystalline...

A cathode-ray tube that generates symbols for use in other displays. The tube operates by scanning specific characters on...

The distortion of an image formed by a cathode-ray tube, caused by unbalanced deflection voltages or deflection voltages...

Left- and right-hand circularly polarized beams that are produced at different velocities by passing plane-polarized light...

1. The anode or anticathode of an x-ray tube that emits x-rays when bombarded by electrons. 2. The screen in a television...

A positioning drive that rotates a fraction of a 360° turn when the motor coils are activated, resulting in linear or...

An interference band such as Newton's ring.

Hydrophobic is a term used to describe substances or materials that repel or do not readily interact with water. The word...

The letter form used on visual performance test charts. The overall letter height is equal to five times the thickness of...

A camera used to reduce originals onto film for easy storage. There are two basic types: one in which the film is fixed...

A machine vision technique that compares a template of the desired image (the correlation kernel) with the actual camera...

A visual, single-unit spectrophotometer with a biprism and a Wollaston prism. The Wollaston prism polarizes coincident...

A disc whose surface contains recorded digital data at high-packing densities arranged in concentric rings. The data,...

A process used in pyrometry and photothermometry to create a photographic record of a surface's temperature gradients....

A naturally occurring pigment in tissue that may selectively absorb certain wavelengths and can be used to aid in targeting...

1. An optical device used for projection of enlarged images of transparencies or lantern slides on a screen. 2. A device...

An optical system with object and image points at infinity. Literally, "without a focal length."

A spectroscopic process that detects and analyzes the discharge from an extrinsic surface with less than bandgap light. This...

A helium-neon (HeNe) laser is a type of gas laser that emits visible red light at a wavelength of 632.8 nm. It operates...

An eyepiece located at the near end of the microscope tube. It often is a simple Huygens eyepiece, but compensating and...

The observation and measurement of the flatness of a mirror surface by contacting an optical flat with the mirror. The...

In image processing, the result of a sampling frequency that is too slow to preserve the spatial frequencies of the image....

A scale located on the eyepiece focusing screw and used to measure the amount of defocusing of the eyepiece in diopters. The...

The function that characterizes the quality of an optical system by denoting the modulation and spatial phase shift of the...

A semiconductor made up of two or more elements, in contrast to those composed of a single element such as germanium or...

Optical aberration such that image magnification varies with ray distance from the optical axis in a radial distortion.

A technique in which a beam of x-rays is directed against a crystal, the atoms of which, because of their lattice...

A type of internal photonic connection in an integrated circuit in which a holographic grating is used to focus light at...

Angular tracking measurement estimated from the properly normalized image second-moment tensor.

Voltage that produces current flow in the direction of lesser resistance to the steady-state direct current, i.e., from the...

A ray that lies in the meridional plane; a ray that lies in the plane that contains the optical axis. A tangential ray.

Attenuated total reflectance (ATR) spectroscopy is a technique used in analytical chemistry to obtain IR spectra of samples....

A type of transversely excited laser with a uniform arc-free discharge of large cross-sectional area that can be scaled to...

The study of the generation of electromagnetic power by radiation from high-energy beams.

An aptamer is a short, single-stranded DNA or RNA molecule that can bind to a specific target molecule with high affinity...

A single band in a group of light and dark bands that can be viewed in the periphery of Fresnel diffraction shadow.

Naturally occurring planes in crystalline substances that provide easy points for separation.

A solid with a structure that exhibits a basically symmetrical and geometrical arrangement. A crystal may already possess...

Fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) is an advanced imaging technique that provides information about the lifetime of...

A retroreflector is an optical device or structure that reflects incident light or electromagnetic waves back to their...

The interference pattern formed by light waves diffracted at the edges of an object as seen on a screen placed in their path.

Backscatter refers to the phenomenon in which radiation or waves are scattered backward, opposite to the direction of the...

A large tank filled with liquid hydrogen, with a flat window at one end and complex optical devices for observing and...

The study of the physics of x-rays, where the x-rays exhibit properties similar to those of lightwaves. Also called Roentgen...

A technique for obtaining improved resolution of images produced by large telescopes and distorted by the effects of...

The point on a cutting line that will become the geometrical center of the cut lens.

The pattern formed by a character generation cathode-ray tube system, in which the characters are composed of a sequence of...

A method that embraces the classical approach to image restoration and attempts to minimize the mean square difference...

Light diffracted by a solid (usually quartz in crystal or fused form) traversed by acoustic waves. If the ultrasonic...

The image error that results from astigmatism, coma, oblique spherical aberration, lateral color and distortion.

Calculation of the probability of an interaction between two types of particles, such as light absorption, excitation or...

A molded lens is an optical lens manufactured using a molding process, typically involving the shaping of a material, such...

The radiation emitted from a group of charged particles that does not depend on the temperature of the source in which those...

Displacement in a direction perpendicular to that of the intended displacement, as in a translation stage with simple...

A transparent block shaped accurately to reverse curvatures of the components it is used to test. By contacting an...

An optical clock is a highly precise and advanced timekeeping device that relies on the oscillations of electromagnetic...

The optical Fourier transform is a mathematical operation applied to optical signals that involves transforming a spatial...

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a non-invasive analytical technique that uses the near-infrared region of the...

The superposition of satellite or aerial images with a map in order to process and remove distortion. Uses reference points...

The photographic image of a thin specimen having a radioactive isotope that, formed through contact between the specimen and...

The circle of confusion is a defocused or aberrated image of a point. Focus is generally set where the diameter of this...

A beam instability, induced by index of refraction inhomogeneities and component damage of dirt and dust particles, that...

Cathode radiant sensitivity refers to the ability of a photocathode to convert incident radiant energy, typically in the...

A telescope that transmits, enlarges and converts infrared images.

A thermometric instrument used for the detection and measurement of radiant energy. Its essential component is a short...

A general-purpose lens, also known as the Celor lens, used widely in photography and commercial processing; it has the form...

The laser pumping that exhibits an advantage over longitudinal pumping in that the threshold pump power density can be...

In image processing, the effect caused by large jumps between gray levels, rather than a gradual change.

The entrance slit, also known simply as the slit, is an essential component in optical instruments such as spectrometers and...

The conductivity increase exhibited by some nonmetallic materials, resulting from the free carriers generated when photon...

On a display monitor, a small, mobile rectangle, cross-hair or pointer that locates a feature in an image that is the object...

A semiconductor device with a semiconductor junction in which infrared radiant flux is nonthermally produced when a current...

A length that denotes the size of the unit cell in a crystal lattice. With respect to the cubic crystal, this is the length...

The finishing of the edge of an optical element by grinding.

A piece of uniform birefringent material placed at a 45° angle to the plane of polarization in a polarizing microscope...

A form of photography in which an electronic camera converts an image to an electronic signal that is stored in digital...

In compact disc systems, the two principal frame formats for data storage. Mode 1 devotes 2048 bytes to user data, reserving...

The electrostatic field acting locally within a crystal as a result of the microscopic arrangement of atoms and ions in the...

A mirror composed of liquid, taking advantage of the parabolic shape of a spinning liquid and the fact that the mirror's...

A measure of the closeness with which an optical image is capable of resembling the original object. The factors that affect...

Hyperspectral imaging is an advanced imaging technique that captures and processes information from across the...

An optical system having two sets of components separated by an air space, while successive lenses in each set are cemented...

A standard lens interface initially made for 16mm movie cameras and now used primarily on closed-circuit television cameras....

An interferometric technique for the generation of precision gratings that allows for sequential exposure of small segments...

A piece of glass polished flat on one side, with a pair of polished faces that form an angle close to 180° on the other...

An optical wedge in which transmittance or density is a function of the location of the wedge, relative to a specific...

A Huygenian eyepiece containing a pointer at its focal plane that is used -- when viewing an object through the eyepiece --...

That property of a substance that determines that all components of volume are the same in composition and optical...

A technique used to create a series of interrelated holographic images that give an appearance of motion when projected in...

The analysis of metal structure using an optical or electron microscope, generally with a camera, to record observations.

An optical instrument designed to displace the line of sight in a vertical direction. For submarines and other military uses...

Meta-optics, also known as metasurface optics or flat optics, is a branch of optics that involves the design, fabrication,...

Laser ablation is a process that involves the removal or erosion of material from a target surface using laser energy. This...

An image-forming system that uses mirrors rather than lenses. Such objectives are frequently used for astronomical...

Convex is an adjective used to describe a surface or shape that curves outward, bulges, or has a rounded and outwardly...

An optical instrument used to determine the distance to a target being viewed. Two similar optical systems view the target...

Germanium crystal refers to a crystalline form of the element germanium (Ge), which is a metalloid and semiconductor...

1. In the geometric sense, an abbreviation for the term "sagitta,'' the height of a curve measured from the chord. ...

In the context of optical materials, the term "impurity level" refers to the presence of foreign atoms or molecules within...

A vacuum deposition method in which the coating material (target) is removed from the surface of the coating source...

1. A faint second image caused by reflection that is sometimes seen when observing through an optical instrument. 2. With...