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PI Physik Instrumente - Semiconductor Applications 5/24 ROS LB
SPHERE Dictionary Terms

uhlbricht sphere
 aurora
The strongest light emitted by the Earth's upper atmosphere. It most often can be viewed in the Arctic as the aurora...
torr
A unit of pressure of 1 mm Hg, equivalent to 133 P. One atmosphere = 760 torr. (t).
balloon-borne astronomical system
Any instrument or system carried by a balloon to the upper atmosphere to measure and record atmospheric information, such as...
concave and convex spherical mirror
Concave and convex spherical mirrors are types of curved mirrors that have surfaces shaped like segments of spheres. These...
infrared detector
An infrared detector is a device that is used to detect and measure infrared radiation, which lies beyond the visible...
aspheric mirror
An aspheric mirror is an optical mirror surface that deviates from the shape of a perfect sphere, having a non-spherical...
spheric lens
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...
gas-transport laser
A gas laser wherein the gas mixture is not exhausted into the atmosphere but is continually recycled. It is excited in the...
suprathermal ion detector
A mass spectrometer used to detect ions formed by photo- and charge-exchange ionization of gases, such as those in the lunar...
radiant emittance
Radiant power emitted into a full sphere (4p steradians) by a unit area of a source; expressed in watts per square meter.
cosine collector
Translucent collector developed to compensate for the partial blocking of a flat surface's collection angle that normally...
superior mirage
An image of an object that appears above the object's true position as the result of abnormal refraction of the image rays...
long-wave infrared
Long-wave infrared (LWIR) refers to a specific range of the infrared spectrum. Infrared radiation is divided into three main...
adaptive optics
Adaptive optics (AO) is a technology used to improve the performance of optical systems by reducing the effects of...
freeform optics
Freeform optics refers to the design and fabrication of optical surfaces that do not follow traditional symmetric shapes,...
standard refraction
The refraction that would take place in an idealized atmosphere where the refractive index is reduced uniformly with height...
fused quartz and silica
Fused quartz and silica are closely related materials, both composed primarily of silicon dioxide (SiO2), but they are...
transversely excited atmosphere laser
Also known as TEA laser. A coherent optical source with a wide wavelength range in the infrared, visible and ultraviolet...
Monte Carlo simulation
Simulation of radiative transfer in which each photon is generated by a source and its path through the medium is...
Rayleigh scattering
Rayleigh scattering is a phenomenon that occurs when light waves interact with particles or molecules that are much smaller...
Fried length
The length of the small space within which the atmosphere exhibits coherence, particularly in relation to an observer on...
free-space optics
Free-space optics (FSO), also known as optical wireless communication or optical wireless networking, refers to the...
photometric sphere
thyratron
An arc discharge tube having a grid that is used to start the discharge through an atmosphere of inert gas or vapor at low...
transversely excited atmosphere carbon dioxide laser
Abbreviated TEA CO2 laser. A gas laser that provides shorter pulses and higher peak powers than conventional CO2 lasers. The...
fullerenes
Molecules composed entirely of carbon, in the form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid or tube. Also called buckyballs....
chromosphere
A layer between the corona and the photosphere of the sun; its emission is overwhelmed by light emitted by the underlying,...
Fried's seeing parameter
A calculated function that can be achieved experimentally with interferometric analysis of complex atmospheric altitude;...
refracting sphere
A transparent sphere that has an index of refraction that is different from that of the medium surrounding it; used in...
Mie scattering
Mie scattering, named after the German physicist Gustav Mie, refers to the scattering of electromagnetic radiation (such as...
mutual coherent function
A function that quantifies the performance degradation of coherent communications systems, imaging systems and all systems...
scintillation
1. The variation in intensity of a light beam as it travels through the atmosphere. 2. In radiation physics, a light flash...
mid-infrared camera
A mid-infrared camera is a type of imaging device designed to capture images in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectral range,...
Poincaré sphere
A reference sphere used to represent all possible states of polarization. All linear polarizations will lie on the equator...
cylinder axis
In a cylindrical lens, the meridian parallel to the generating lines of the cylindrical surface. In a toric lens, the...
Angstrom coefficient
The coefficient Å in Angstrom's formula for the dispersing coefficient for dust present in the atmosphere. The formula...
diurnal phase shift
Phase shift in electromagnetic signals caused by daily variations in the ionosphere, often during sunrise or sunset.
inferior mirage
A mirage that consists of an image of an object appearing below its true position as the result of abnormal refraction by...
photosphere
The apparent surface of the sun or a star from which light appears to radiate.
atmospheric inhomogeneities
Localized variations in the purity and the index of refraction of the atmosphere.
platonic solid
Geometrical partition possible with a sphere that can be four, six, eight, 12 or 20 solid-angle wedges. Each platonic mass...
McClatchey model
Calculation of gas and aerosol transmission and emission characteristics for several model atmospheres, including two model...
ducting
Propagation of electromagnetic waves through the Earth's atmosphere in a path that conforms to the curvature of the Earth...
stylus indicator alignment
A method used in surface quality testing for accurate positioning and rotation of metal spheres about an axis or fixed point...
mirage
The distortion of an object's true image as the result of abnormal atmospheric disturbances along the path traveled by the...
spicule
A feature in the chromosphere of the sun formed by a jet of gas that reaches from the chromosphere into the corona and has...
laser guide star
An artificial star used to aid in adaptive optics imaging of the sky. The guide star is provided from a telescope system on...
millibar (mbar)
A unit of pressure, one-thousandth of a bar, equivalent to 100 Pascal and 0.75 torr. One atmosphere equals 1013 mbar.
transmission sphere
A precision lens designed to convert the plane wavefront output of an interferometer to a spherical wavefront for the...
freeform mirrors
Freeform mirrors refer to reflective optical components that deviate from traditional symmetric or rotationally symmetric...
photochemical
The term photochemical pertains to chemical processes or reactions that are initiated or influenced by the absorption of...
Hindle sphere
A null optic in the form of a concave spherical mirror; used for the test and evaluation of a hyperboloidal aspheric surface.
atmospheric optics
The analysis of the properties of radiation, such as light, when acted upon by variations in the atmosphere. Blue and red...
Descartes ray
The ray refracted by a sphere of transparent material that travels back as closely as possible to the original path formed...
airglow
Diffuse light emitted by the atmosphere due to the excitation of particles of atmospheric gas. These excited particles...
Stokes parameters
The parameters, relative to polarized light and the Poincaré sphere, that are usually represented as: I, the intensity of...
mesosphere
low Earth orbit
Low Earth orbit (LEO) refers to a region in space that is relatively close to Earth's surface, typically characterized by...
Luneburg lens
A dielectric sphere with an index of refraction that varies with distance from the sphere center. A parallel beam of rays is...
remote sensing
Remote sensing is a method of data collection and observation where information about objects, areas, or phenomena on...
integrating sphere
A hollow sphere coated internally with a white diffusing material and provided with openings for incident beam, specimen and...
antisolar point
The point to which the extension of the straight line, reaching from the sun to the observer's eye after penetrating the...
optical air mass
A measure of the optical path length for light traveling from the sun or other celestial source through Earth's atmosphere...
chemosphere
Also known as mesosphere. A level of the atmosphere, extending from the stratosphere to the ionosphere, that is noted for...
atmospheric window
A range of wavelengths within which radiation transmitted through the atmosphere suffers relatively little absorption by...
Dobson spectrophotometer
A spectrophotometer that measures the amount of ozone in the atmosphere through a comparison of solar energy at two...
mask spectrometer
Instrument that uses absorption spectroscopy to detect gases in planetary atmospheres. Dispersed incoming radiation is...
extreme ultraviolet
Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) refers to a specific range of electromagnetic radiation in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum....
Planck's (radiation) law
The formula describing the spectral radiant emittance of a perfect blackbody as a function of its temperature and the...
conical lens
A lens with a surface that is a cone instead of the usual sphere.
color aging test
A test used to measure the degree of fading of different colored materials, especially those involving organic dyes, which...
spherocylinder
A lens or lens surface that is a combination of a sphere and cylinder.
Fraunhofer lines
The dark absorption lines observed in the spectrum of the photosphere of the sun. There are thousands of these lines, the...
phase screen
A phase screen, in the context of optics and wave optics, refers to a surface or medium that introduces a phase delay to an...
deliquescent
Description of a material, such as a water-soluble salt, that will continue absorbing moisture from the surrounding...
ionosphere
The gas of charged particles that begins approximately 50 km above the surface of the Earth and contains a sufficient...
dust extinction
In atmospheric optics, the almost total blocking of light transmission in the atmosphere due to the scattering and...
extraterrestrial radiation
Radiation that is emitted by a source outside the Earth and its atmosphere.
atmospheric attenuation
The reduction in luminance of a light beam due to absorption and scattering as it passes through the atmosphere.
infrared window
1. A thin parallel plate of material that transmits in the infrared region. See infrared optical material. 2. A spectral...
optical phase distortion
Optical phase distortion refers to a phenomenon where the phase of an optical wavefront is altered as it propagates through...
photon jet
A photon jet is a narrow, highly collimated beam of light that is formed when light interacts with small dielectric...
confocal spherical interferometer
An interferometer formed by two similar concave spherical mirrors arranged with the center of one sphere on the other...
solar wind
The constant outward flow of weakly magnetized plasma from the sun that is deflected by the magnetic field of the earth and,...
stressed mirror polishing
A method of polishing an aspheric surface by mechanically distorting the optic while polishing the surface to a perfect...
center of curvature
The center of the sphere of which the surface of a lens or mirror forms a portion. Each curved surface of a lens has a...
elaterite
The organic inclusion in quartz crystal that forms delicate films and microspheres and that shows a maximum absorption at...
steradian
The unit solid angle subtended at the center of a sphere by an area on its surface equivalent to the square of the radius;...
atmospheric turbulence
Irregularities and disturbances in the atmosphere that are of particular interest because they induce random temporal and...

(90 results found)

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