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Videology Industrial-Grade Cameras - Custom Embedded Cameras LB 2024
SRC Dictionary Terms

Young's two-slit interference
The method by which Thomas Young in 1802 disproved Newton's corpuscular theory of light by the formation of interference...
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...
lens mount
The metal tube that maintains the optical components of a lens in proper relationship. Some lenses are mounted in metal...
Raman effect
When light is transmitted through matter, part of the light is scattered in random directions. A small part of the scattered...
polarization-preserving fiber
Single-mode fiber that preserves the plane of polarization of the light launched into it as the beam propagates through its...
autocollimator
An autocollimator is an optical instrument used for measuring small angular deviations with high precision. It operates on...
caustic
A surface that envelops a bundle of rays or bundle of normals to the wave surface. It may be observed as a hollow, luminous...
prism power
The power, expressed in prism diopters, that is the linear displacement, in centimeters, produced by the prism one meter...
Munsell notation
Alphanumerical description of color according to Munsell hue, value and chroma.
critical angle
The least angle of incidence at which total internal reflection takes place. The angle of incidence in a denser medium, at...
Twyman-Green interferometer
A testing device that provides a contour map of the emergent wavefront for the observer in terms of the given wavelength of...
Dove prism
A form of prism invented by H.W. Dove. It resembles half of a common right-angle prism in which a ray entering parallel to...
monochromatic light
Light consisting of a single wavelength or a very narrow band of wavelengths.
Petzval lens
A high-speed, narrow-field lens consisting of two achromats spaced about the aperture stop. Its uses include portrait...
curvature of field
A lens aberration that causes a flat object surface to be imaged onto a curved surface rather than a plane.
fluorescence photography
The photographic recording of a subject that exhibits luminescence only for an extremely short time (10-8 s) after the...
additive color process
A process of color photography in which colors are added one to another in the form of light, rather than as colorants, to...
binocular microscope
A microscope designed with two eyepieces (oculars), permitting the use of both eyes when viewing through the instrument.
relay condenser
A form of lens assembly used in a projection system to maximize efficiency and assure uniform illumination of the object...
radiation pyrometer
Also known as radiation thermometer. A pyrometer in which the radiant intensity from the source to be measured is used to...
Galilean telescope
A refracting telescope that yields an erect image by the use of a positive lens for its objective and a negative lens for...
free-space optical interconnect
A type of internal photonic connection in an integrated circuit in which a holographic grating is used to focus light at...
integrating sphere
A hollow sphere coated internally with a white diffusing material and provided with openings for incident beam, specimen and...
birefringence
Birefringence is an optical property of certain materials that causes them to exhibit different refractive indices for light...
Newtonian telescope
A telescope with a concave paraboloidal objective mirror and a small plane (diagonal) mirror that reflects rays from the...
azimuthal polarization
Azimuthal polarization refers to a specific polarization state of light where the electric field vector of the...
head-up display
An optical system that superimposes a synthetic display providing navigational or weapon-aiming information on a pilot's or...
standing wave
The combination of two waves having the same frequency and amplitude and traveling in opposite directions. Standing waves...
eye
The organ of vision or light sensitivity.
meniscus lens
A lens that has one convex surface and the other concave.
collimator
An optical instrument consisting of a well- corrected objective lens or mirror with a light source and or object/image (i.e....
spectrometer
A kind of spectrograph in which some form of detector, other than a photographic film, is used to measure the distribution...
barrel distortion
The negative distortion that causes a square grid pattern to be imaged as barrel-shaped.
x-ray diffraction
The bending of x-rays by the regular layers of molecules in a crystal acting like a very small diffraction grating. The...
automatic optical inspection
A system for automatic industrial process control or measurement, consisting of an optical module for image acquisition, a...
apochromat
An apochromat, often referred to as an apochromatic lens or apochromatic objective, is a type of optical system designed to...
scanning electron microscope
A scanning electron microscope (SEM) is a powerful imaging instrument used in scientific research, materials...
minimum angle of deviation
The smallest angle through which light is bent by an optical element or system. In a prism, the angle of deviation is a...
periscope
An optical instrument designed to displace the line of sight in a vertical direction. For submarines and other military uses...
cosine law of illumination
Law relating the illuminance (or irradiance) of a surface to the cosine of the angle, q, between the normal to the surface...
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;...
optical fiber
Optical fiber is a thin, flexible, transparent strand or filament made of glass or plastic used for transmitting light...
Fresnel lens
A Fresnel lens is a type of optical lens that consists of a series of concentric grooves or steps carved into a flat, thin...
flying spot microscope
A microscope that uses a flying spot scanner, directed through the eyepiece, as a light source to determine the features of...
multileg lightguide
A fiber optic bundle split along its length with the ends of the fibers extending separately to illuminate different points...
double-Gauss lens
A fast, wide-angle lens used in television and photographic cameras, with excellent overall correction, but subject to...
principal plane
In a lens or lens system, that surface at which the projections of an entering and exiting ray intersect. Also known as the...
Rayleigh range
In the region of a Gaussian beam focus by a diffraction-limited lens, it is the axial distance from the point of minimum...
powder camera
A camera system that uses a fine powder to diffract x-rays from the specimen. A beam of monochromatic x-rays passes through...
confocal resonator
A confocal resonator, also known as a confocal cavity or confocal laser resonator, is a type of optical resonator...
nodal points
Of all the rays passing through a lens from an off-axis object point to its corresponding image point, there is always one...
depth of focus
The range of image distances that corresponds to the range of object distances covered by the depth of field.
eye relief
Also termed eye distance. The distance between the vertex of the last optical surface of a visual optical system and the...
chief ray
The ray that passes through the center of the aperture stop in an optical system. It often is called the principal ray of an...
refractive index contrast
A measure of the relative difference in refractive index between two optical materials. Most commonly used in fiber optics...
degrees of freedom
The number of unique ways in which a part can move in an alignment system. In static alignment, there are six: one in the...
holographic camera
A holographic camera, also known as a holographic imaging system or holographic recorder, is a specialized device used to...
Abbe prism
A form of roof prism used to invert an image. The prism has faces cut normal to the optical axis; therefore, the prism may...
iris diaphragm
A mechanical device designed to smoothly vary the effective diameter of a lens, thereby controlling the amount of light...
Fresnel rhomb
A type of quarter-wave retarder in the form of a glass rhomb; light entering the retarder undergoes two total internal...
cold shield
That part of an infrared detector-Dewar assembly that limits the solid angle viewed by the sensor; it is maintained at a...
Foucault knife-edge test
The Foucault test is performed by moving a knife edge laterally into the image of a small point source. The eye, or a...
prism binoculars
A pair of telescopes with prismatically erected images, mounted side by side with the eyepieces at the interocular distance...
optical tooling target
Sets of paired lines carefully designed to give the most accurate pointing possible for various lengths of sight.
serpentine bend mode filter
A device used in measuring attenuation in optical fiber. The loss caused by the bends in a short reference length of fiber...
direct-vision prism
An assembly of multiple prisms that disperses incident light into its spectral components without deviating light at the...
beamsplitter
A beamsplitter is an optical device for dividing a beam into two or more separate beams. A simple beamsplitter may be a very...
duplet lens system
An optical system having two sets of components separated by an air space, while successive lenses in each set are cemented...
Billet's split lens
An experimental lens used to produce interference fringes. A positive lens is cut into halves along its center, and the...
reticle
A reticle, also known as a reticule or graticule, is a pattern or set of markings placed in the focal plane of an optical...
connector
Hardware installed on fiber cable ends to provide cable attachment to a transmitter, receiver or other cable. Usually a...
equatorial mount
A telescope stand equipped with a polar axis that can be set parallel to the Earth's axis of rotation and a declination axis...
Maksutov corrector
A thick meniscus lens arranged concentric with the center of curvature of a spherical mirror to produce an image free of...
fullerenes
Molecules composed entirely of carbon, in the form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid or tube. Also called buckyballs....
light diffusion
Light diffusion refers to the process by which light is scattered or spread out in various directions as it interacts with a...
Fabry-Perot interferometer
A multiple-beam interferometer, usually consisting of two flat plates, with high reflective ability. The plates are set...
paraboloidal mirror
A concave mirror that has the form of a paraboloid of revolution. The paraboloidal mirror may have only a portion of a...
aerial survey
The creation of a planned sequence of data input that is obtained while airborne for use in aerial photogrammetry and other...
vignetting
In an optical system, the gradual reduction of image illuminance as the off-axis angle increases, resulting from limitations...
acoustical holography
The optical reconstruction of image information contained in a sound field. First the diffraction pattern, formed by an...
third-order theory
Calculations of lens aberrations whereby the first two terms of the series expansion are the only ones employed....
optical density
A measure of the transmittance through an optical medium. Optical density equals the log to the base 10 of the reciprocal of...
Airy disc
The central peak (including everything interior to the first zero or dark ring) of the focal diffraction pattern of a...
panoramic camera
A camera designed to form a continuous record of an expansive section of the horizon. The typical panoramic camera is...
Nicol prism
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°...
Petzval surface
A paraboloidal surface on which the image is located when there is no astigmatism.
achromatic prism
Cemented prisms of differing refractive indices which refract incident light and, due to differing refractive indices, will...
reflection
Return of radiation by a surface, without change in wavelength. The reflection may be specular, from a smooth surface;...
Gauss lens
A telescope objective with excellent spherochromatic correction, consisting of a meniscus crown and a meniscus flint, both...
Lissajous pattern
The pattern, formed by a character generation cathode-ray tube system, in which the characters are made up of wave shapes...
Gaussian profile
An intensity distribution (intensity as a function of radial distance from the beam center) which is given by the Gaussian...
loose-tube buffering
In fiber optic cable, containment of the fiber or fibers within an outer protective tube in which they can move to some...
dispersive power
A measure of the dispersive properties of a glass. The relative dispersion is defined as: where C, D, and F refer to the...
spectrograph
An optical instrument for forming the spectrum of a light source and recording it on a film. The dispersing medium may be a...
spherical aberration
Spherical aberration is an optical aberration that occurs when light rays passing through a lens or curved optical surface...
slab laser
Solid-state laser geometry in which the standard rod is replaced by a slab of laser material. Often called...
trichromacy
The basis of color vision in the human eye. Three types of cones have been identified, each having a unique spectral...
keystone distortion
A type of geometrical distortion that brings about a trapezoidal display of a nominally rectangular picture. Usually...
cold mirror
A mirror whose coating serves to reflect visible radiation while transmitting the infrared.
diverging lens
A diverging lens is a type of lens that causes parallel rays of light to spread out or diverge. It is thinner in the center...
charge-coupled device
A charge-coupled device (CCD) is a type of electronic image sensor used in various imaging devices, including digital...
microscope eyepiece
An eyepiece located at the near end of the microscope tube. It often is a simple Huygens eyepiece, but compensating and...
Ritchey-Common test
An interferometric method for describing the surface shape of large coated or uncoated optical flats. The procedure uses a...
penta prism
A five-sided prism containing two reflecting surfaces at 45° to each other, and two refracting faces perpendicular to...
short-arc lamp
A compact high-pressure light source in which an electrical discharge between electrodes spaced no more than 12 mm apart...
Michelson-Morley experiment
An optical experiment carried out conclusively in 1887 that demonstrated that the ether, a hypothetical medium postulated by...
Snellen letter
The letter form used on visual performance test charts. The overall letter height is equal to five times the thickness of...
biocular
A term pertaining to devices (generally optical) designed for use with both eyes viewing through a single exit pupil. The...
diode laser
A diode laser is a type of laser that uses a semiconductor diode as the active medium to generate coherent light....
Fresnel mirrors
Two plane mirrors that are not wholly located in the same plane. When light from a point source or slit reflects from the...
pyroelectric infrared detector
Unlike the thermocouple or bolometer, the pyroelectric infrared detector is a current source with an output proportional to...
ring-laser gyroscope
A ring laser gyroscope (RLG) is a type of gyroscope that uses laser light to detect and measure changes in orientation. It...
slide projector
An optical projection device designed to project positive color transparencies onto a screen for viewing.
aerocartography
The creation of topographical maps and charts from a stereographic record produced through the overlapping of consecutive...
back focal length
The distance from the final optic within a system to the rear image point of the system. See focal length.
evaporagraph
A sensor generally used for infrared imaging. It consists of two chambers separated by a thin, blackened membrane. An...
stereolithography
A method of creating real three-dimensional models by using lasers driven by CAD software. In contrast to the normal...
t number
The equivalent f number of a fictitious lens that has a circular opening and 100 percent transmittance, which would give the...
stereoscope
A small instrument containing a picture support and a pair of magnifying lenses so arranged that the left eye sees only the...
electric-discharge lamp
A lamp that uses the transmission of an electric current through a gas or vapor to produce illumination. Neon, mercury and...
detector-Dewar assembly
A detector-Dewar assembly typically refers to a combination of a detector and a Dewar flask used in scientific instruments,...
diffraction grating
A diffraction grating is an optical component consisting of a surface with a periodic structure of equally spaced, parallel...
radiometer
A device used to measure the intensity of radiant energy.
jig transit
An optical instrument containing a gimballed sighting telescope, used to measure angular relationships in horizontal and...
intrinsic detector
A photodetector composed of a photoconductive material that, when exposed to radiation, conducts without the aid of added...
vertical external cavity surface-emitting laser
A laser that has a surface-emitting semiconductor gain element coupled to an external mirror designed to complete the laser...
Kerr cell
A cell filled with a transparent material that, when placed in a strong electrical field, exhibits double refraction. Since...
Cooke triplet lens
The simplest lens in which all primary aberrations may be corrected. It consists of two positive crown elements on either...
astigmatism
A lens aberration that results in the tangential and sagittal image planes being separated axially.
Gregorian telescope
A telescope with an ellipsoidal secondary concave mirror that reflects rays from a parabolic primary mirror through an...
camera
A light-tight box that receives light from an object or scene and focuses it to form an image on a light-sensitive material...
oscilloscope
A system in which a supplied signal causes the deflection of the electron beam in a cathode-ray tube, thus forming a visible...
Wadsworth mounting
A system used for gratings that consists of a concave mirror, a grating and a plate holder mounted normal to the grating to...
critical illumination
Illumination in which the light source is imaged at the object.
raster
The pattern of lines traced by rectilinear scanning in display systems.
Raman spectroscopy
Raman spectroscopy is a technique used in analytical chemistry and physics to study vibrational, rotational, and other...
telephoto lens
A compound lens so constructed that its overall length is equal to or less than its effective focal length.
Winston cone
Specified curved optic intended for maximum collection of light, including off-axis rays, before leaving the exit aperture.
Snell's law of refraction
The incident ray, the normal to the refracting surface at the point of incidence of the ray at the surface, and the...
optical axis
The imaginary line passing through both the centers of curvatures of the optical surfaces of a lens or mirror; the optical...
overhead projector
A projector used to project transparencies. A horizontal 8 x 10-in. stage for writing or laying down preformed...
curvilinear distortion
A lens aberration in which the focal length varies radially outward from the center of the field. It has the effect of...
near-field holography
A lithography method that allows the transfer of fine-pitch gratings from a phase mask into photoresist. The exposure takes...
clear eye distance
In a visual optical system, the axial distance from the last mechanical surface of the eyepiece to the exit pupil.
Pockels cell
A Pockels cell, also known as an electro-optic modulator, is an optical device used to control the polarization of light by...
disc colorimeter
A colorimeter using a spinning disc made of different colored sections for colorimetric analysis.
telecentric lens
There are three types of telecentric lenses: -Image-space telecentric lenses are those in which the aperture stop is...
Amici prism
Also known as roof prism. A type of prism designed by G.B. Amici. It consists of a roof edge produced upon the long...
colorimeter
A colorimeter is a device used to measure and quantify the color characteristics of an object or a light source. It provides...
Planck's (radiation) law
The formula describing the spectral radiant emittance of a perfect blackbody as a function of its temperature and the...
retrofocus lens
Also known as reversed telephoto lens. A lens consisting of an ordinary objective with a negative component near its front...
wide-angle lens
A wide-angle lens is a type of camera lens that has a shorter focal length than a standard or normal lens, allowing it to...
Mach-Zehnder interferometer
A Mach-Zehnder interferometer is an optical device used to measure the phase difference between two collimated beams of...
Rowland circle
The circle that contains the slit, grating and primary astigmatic focus of a concave diffraction grating.
Brewster's angle
For light incident on a plane boundary between two regions having different refractive indices, the angle of incidence at...
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...
achromatic lens
A lens consisting of two or more elements, usually of crown and flint glass, that has been corrected for chromatic...
three-level laser
A laser having a material, such as ruby, that has an energy state structure of three levels: the ground state (1) wherein...
surface-emitting laser diode
A semiconductor laser diode that emits light perpendicular to the active region. The output radiation is taken through the...
camera tube
The electron beam tube of a television camera that converts an optical image into a pattern of electrostatic charges and...
Sagnac interferometer
A type of interferometer in which two coils of optical fiber are arranged so that light from a single source travels...
stereoscopic rangefinder
A rangefinder similar to a pair of binoculars with a long base, a dot or other wander mark provided in each eyepiece field,...
light dispersion
The process whereby white light is separated into its component wavelengths. Light beams of different wavelengths are...
smectic phase
A form of liquid crystal in which flow does not take place in the usual manner. When examined with polarized light, the...
Dogmar/Aviar lens
A general-purpose lens, also known as the Celor lens, used widely in photography and commercial processing; it has the form...
Huygenian eyepiece
An ocular having two planoconvex lenses that are formed from similar glass and that are separated by a space equal to half...
Lloyd's mirror
A mirror employed with a very high incidence angle to form a pair of coherent light sources by reflection, and therefore...
chemical vapor deposition
Chemical vapor deposition is a process of applying dopants to a glass bait by flame reactions of gaseous compounds. See also...
transverse mode
In the context of optics and lasers, a transverse mode refers to a specific spatial pattern of the electric field within the...
photoelectric exposure meter
A device consisting of a microammeter, a photovoltaic cell and a battery. It is used for the measurement of scene brightness...
triclinic
With respect to a crystal, having three unequal axes intersecting at angles, only two of which can be equal and only one of...
phase-contrast microscope
A microscope that has an annular stop in the lower focal plane of the condenser, and a quarter-wave retarding and absorbing...
landolt ring
A broken circle used as the test object in distinguishing visual acuity. The width of the gap in the circle is equal to the...
variable-focus condenser
An Abbe condenser in which the upper lens element is fixed. The lower lens may focus the illumination between the elements...
Cornu double prism
A compound prism formed by cementing together two 30° prisms, one of right-handed and one of left-handed quartz. It has...
Abbe refractometer
Device which measures the index of refraction of glass as well as the dispersion over visible range.
optical time-domain reflectometry
A method for characterizing a fiber wherein an optical pulse is transmitted through the fiber, and the resulting light...
Bragg's law
The law expressing the condition under which a crystal will reflect a beam of x-rays with the greatest amount of distinction...
aperture stop
A physical constraint, often a lens retainer, that limits the diameter of the axial light bundle allowed to pass through a...
optical profiler
Also known as a white-light interferometer. Measures surface texture and shape from nanometer-scale roughness to...
offset prism
A prism or prism assembly that serves to displace the instrument's optical axis.
polygonal mirror
A polygonal mirror, also known as a multifaceted mirror or facet mirror, is a type of optical component used in various...
blackbody simulator
A source that attempts to create the characteristics of an ideal blackbody. It consists of a cavity, generally spherical,...
vertical-cavity laser diode
A type of surface-emitting laser diode that uses dielectric mirrors to produce surface emission. The laser cavity is...
electrocapillarity modulator
A type of optical modulator with potential application in optical switching and displays, in which applied voltage causes a...
Barlow lens
A negative lens used to increase the effective focal length of a telescope objective.
nematic phase
A form of liquid crystal with an appearance of moving, threadlike structures, particularly visible when observed in thick...
sonde
A ruggedized scintillation counter used in oil well logging. The cylindrical housing contains a gamma ray source, a...
motion picture camera
A camera equipped with a lens and a long length of perforated film, the latter being moved intermittently between exposures...
photovoltaic cell
A photovoltaic cell, commonly known as a solar cell, is a semiconductor device that directly converts light energy into...
Callier coefficient
The coefficient termed by Callier as the ratio between the density of photographic negatives measured by parallel light and...
field stop
An aperture located at an image plane of an optical system that determines the size and shape of the image.
resonator
A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance, which is a phenomenon that occurs when an external force or...
Bohr's frequency relation
The law given by the formula: that is, the frequency of radiation emitted or absorbed by a system when E2 and E1...
hologram
An interference pattern that is recorded on a high-resolution plate, the two interfering beams formed by a coherent beam...
thermograph
The instrument used to collect thermal radiation information on an object by scanning. It consists basically of a detector,...
Cassegrain lens system
A two-mirror lens design used in astronomical telescopes, the primary being a parabola, the secondary a smaller hyperbola....
halation
1. In a cathode-ray tube, the glow surrounding a bright spot that appears on the fluorescent screen as the result of the...
x-ray image spectrography
Irradiation of a cylindrical crystal with an x-ray beam resulting in Bragg diffraction that produces a slightly enlarged...
optical pyrometer
An instrument for determining the temperature of a hot object by examining the color spectrum of the visible light it gives...
Luneburg lens
A dielectric sphere with an index of refraction that varies with distance from the sphere center. A parallel beam of rays is...
bimorph
A type of piezoelectric translator that uses two thin strips of piezoelectric material, one expanding while the other...
high-speed movie camera
A camera designed to record at rates exceeding 50 fps. For frame rates up to about 500 fps, an ordinary pull-down mechanism...
surface reflection
Also known as Fresnel reflection. That portion of the incident radiation that is reflected from the surface of a refractive...
resolution target
A chart on paper or glass containing a series of sets of lines at progressively smaller spacing and used to ascertain the...
optical multimeter
An instrument that measures several optical parameters, such as optical power and wavelength, with a single measurement...
hill cloud lens
A fish-eye lens designed to photograph cloud formations over the entire visible sky.
Schmidt camera
A camera that consists of a concave spherical mirror with an aspheric plate situated at the center of curvature of the...
ion laser
A laser in which the transition involved in stimulated emission of radiation takes place between two levels of an ionized...
penumbra
A source of light will not cast a distinct shadow of an interfering, opaque object, but will cast a shadow having two parts:...
degree of coherence
A quantitative measurement of the coherence of a light source; equal to the visibility (V) of the fringes of a two-beam...
Verdet constant
A factor of an equation of the Faraday effect, which is the rotation of the plane of light polarization by transparent...
scanner
1. A device used to trace out an object and build up an image. One of the most common of these types is video scanning. The...
Senarmont prism
A polarizing beamsplitting prism similar in design to the Rochon prism. However, the Senarmont transmits the extraordinary...
maser
An acronym for microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. Predecessor to the laser, the maser or...
flying spot scanner
A device used to scan, with a small, intensely bright spot, portions of a picture surface and to transform the original...
sag
1. In the geometric sense, an abbreviation for the term "sagitta,'' the height of a curve measured from the chord. ...
Pechan prism
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...
angle of incidence
The angle formed between a ray of light striking a surface and the normal to that surface at the point of incidence.
elbow telescope
A refracting telescope that uses a prism to bend the line of sight 90°.
data bus
A system incorporated into fiber optic data communications characterized by several spatially distributed terminals that are...
infrared spectrophotometer
A spectrophotometer having a prism or, more frequently, a grating for the study and recording of infrared spectra. It...
diffraction
As a wavefront of light passes by an opaque edge or through an opening, secondary weaker wavefronts are generated,...
field emission display
An X-Y electrically addressable series of arrays with individual electron emitters bombarding a phosphor-coated transparent...
electron microscope
A device utilizing an electron beam for the observation and recording of submicroscopic samples with the aid of photographic...
zoom lens
An optical system of variable focal length, the focal plane remaining in a fixed position. This result is achieved by moving...
rhomboid prism
A reflecting prism that is rhomboidal in shape. It has two parallel transmitting faces, and two parallel reflecting faces;...
focal length
The focal length of a lens is the distance between the lens's optical center (or principal point) and the image sensor or...
inverse square law
The law stating that the illuminance (or irradiance) from a point source varies as the inverse square of the distance...
Fizeau interferometer
A type of interferometer noted for producing narrow multiple-beam interference fringes. As a result, when compared with the...
Rayleigh criterion of resolving power
When a lens system with a circular aperture is free of aberrations, the image of a point object will appear as a disc of...
optical camouflage
The use of retroreflective projection technology (RPT) to project a background image onto a masked object, such as a vehicle...
contrast
The apparent difference in brightness between light and dark areas of an image. For a light target against a dark...
Haidinger fringes
Also known as constant angle or constant deviation fringes. The interference fringes observed with dense flat plates near...
optical parametric oscillator
A laser-pumped crystal with nonlinear optical properties inside of an optical resonator in which the output generates...
vidicon
A small television tube originally developed for closed-circuit television. It is about 1 inch in diameter and 5 inches...
double-crucible method
A method of fabricating an optical waveguide by melting the core and clad glasses in two suitably joined concentric...
double refraction
The separation of unpolarized light into two plane-polarized elements by a doubly refracting crystal. When a crystal, such...
fan
A set of rays through a lens originating at a common point and contained in one plane.
modulation transfer function
Also called sine wave response and contrast transfer function. The modulation transfer function is the ratio of the...
spectroheliograph
An instrument in which an image of the sun is scanned by the entrance slit of a monochromator, the exit slit simultaneously...
Paschen series
An array of lines in the infrared region of the emission spectrum of atomic hydrogen. Their wave numbers are expressed by...
biplanar image tube
Also called proximity focus image intensifier. A compact image intensifier that utilizes a microchannel plate...
Malus's law
A law that uses the square of the cosine between the plane of polarization of a beam of plane-polarized light and the plane...
atomic scattering factor
The efficiency of scattering by an atom in a particular direction, expressed as: where AA is the amplitude of the wave from...
acceptance angle
The range of angle or solid angle values by which light may enter an optical system.
solar furnace
An optical system that is designed to produce a high temperature in a specified area by the optical direction and...
Mangin mirror
A double-surfaced catadioptric spherical mirror whose spherical first surface consists of a negative meniscus (concave) lens...
cathode-ray tube
A vacuum tube with an electron gun at one end and a fluorescent screen at the other. Electrons emitted from a heated...
triplet
A lens assembly made up of three lens elements that may or may not be cemented.
atomic absorption spectrometer
An atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) is an analytical instrument used to determine the concentration of specific chemical...
Fourier transform spectrometer
An instrument using a Michelson interferometer, a beamsplitter, two plane mirrors and a detector to give Fourier analysis of...
secondary color
An aberration that remains after primary color is corrected. Primary color causes the back focus of a lens to vary with...
grating spectroscope
A spectroscope having a diffraction grating for the resolution of light of various wavelengths.
normalized frequency
Also referred to as the V number in fiber optics; the normalized frequency is a dimensionless quantity, denoted by the...
coma
A lens aberration, resulting from different magnifications in the various lens zones, that occurs in that part of the image...
endoscope
An endoscope is a medical device used for visualizing and examining the interior of hollow organs, body cavities, or...
Wollaston prism
A polarizing prism consisting of two calcite prisms cemented such that they deviate the two emerging beams (which are...
Littrow prism
A 30-60-90° spectrograph prism that is coated on the surface opposite the 60° angle with a reflecting film.
wedge
An optical element having plane-inclined surfaces. Usually the faces are inclined toward one another at very small angles....
near-field scanning optical microscope
A scanning probe microscope that analyzes the surface of a specimen by recording the intensity of light as it is focused...
Kellner eyepiece
An eyepiece consisting of a planoconvex field lens and a cemented doublet as the eye lens.

(262 results found)

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