1. That branch of optics that illustrates the theory in which q is substituted for sin q in Snell's law. Effective results...

A system that uses a continuous-wave laser to measure the velocity of an object by focusing the laser beam on the object,...

A mixture of ionized gas and metal vapor generated by impingement of the laser beam onto a material being welded or a weld...

A visual, single-unit spectrophotometer with a biprism and a Wollaston prism. The Wollaston prism polarizes coincident...

That length over which energy in two separate waves remains constant. With respect to a laser, the greatest distance between...

The ability to perceive binocularly the apparent depth and relative distance of objects.

1. A generic term for detector. 2. A complete optical/mechanical/electronic system that contains some form of radiation...

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

A ray of light that falls upon or strikes a surface of an object such as a lens. It is said to be incident to the surface.

The array of methods used in the transmission and reception of pictures and images with a three-dimensional appearance.

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

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

A term that describes any state of glass before its manufacture as an element.

The technique by which an analog image is converted by any of several means into a finite array of points, each represented...

Optical noise refers to undesirable fluctuations or disturbances in an optical signal that can affect the quality or...

The specification of allowable flaws in a surface by comparison to reference standards of quality. Two graded sets of...

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

A system of optical components designed to increase the diameter of a radiation beam. Usually an afocal system.

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

The effect produced on a wave frequency because of the relative motion of a source or an observer. The radiation emitted...

An electron system using the effect of a constant magnetic field on electron paths to differentiate electrons that have...

An electric discharge between two carbon rods that are touched together to start the arc and then separated slightly. The...

A system designed to control the output quantity of a device by returning a portion of its output signal to its input. This...

A sheet of plastic material containing microscopic crystals of herapathite or some other similar substance that transmits...

With respect to microscopy, light that is directed through the specimen by a substage condenser.

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

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

A method of producing high-quality plastic optics in large volumes by injecting the heated, liquified plastic at high...

A diode laser is a type of laser that uses a semiconductor diode as the active medium to generate coherent light....

Unused fiber; fiber that has been installed but reserved for future use. Carrying no light.

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

Also known as single plane illumination microscopy (SPIM), this process was designed for imaging of sensitive samples and...

A set of mirrors mounted on solenoids to move them into and out of the path of a laser beam, making it possible for multiple...

The lowest excitation power level at which a laser's output is mainly the result of stimulated emission rather than...

Calculated quantity of the entire longitudinal wave of a solid substance's electron gas.

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

A photosensitive device used to optically scan and read character data (numbers, letters etc.) and input this data into a...

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...

A device similar to distributed feedback lasers in construction and operation, but in which the period grating that produces...

The discernment of depth or apparent difference in distance that causes the object to stand out from its background because...

A diagram in which the variable frequencies of a spectral band system are plotted corresponding to ascending values of the...

A method of measuring microbending losses in optical fiber by sandwiching a length of fiber between two parallel plates,...

1. A group of optical fibers that are fused and then treated to produce a vacuum-tight optical fiber cone or plate. 2. An...

A photomultiplier tube (PMT) is a highly sensitive vacuum tube that detects and amplifies low levels of light. It is widely...

A transparent crystalline substance that displays the same optical properties (i.e. refractive index) in all directions such...

A semiconductor is a type of material that has electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. In...

The center of a local area network in the star topology.

A unit of frequency equivalent to 1012 cps. Named for Augustin Jean Fresnel, a French physicist known for his work in light...

An astronomical mirror, also known as a telescope mirror or primary mirror, is a key component of a reflecting telescope. It...

An accurate cathode-ray tube display used to provide visual representation stored in a computer for the interpretation and...

Recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) is a molecular biology technique used to rapidly amplify specific DNA or RNA...

Means of correcting laser postweld shift. The correction procedure is applied to optoelectronic systems such as laser diode...

The indistinct, less luminous portion lying immediately outside an electric arc whose spectrum often differs from that of...

A specific gas-filled tube designed to illustrate the luminous effects of discharges through rarefied gases.

1.) Generally, the electromagnetic spectrum within the wavelength region extending from the vacuum ultraviolet at 40 nm to...

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

The study of and classification of rocks.

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

In optical character recognition systems, the identification of a character facilitated by means of known factors governing...

An edge-emitting light-emitting diode is a type of LED structure where light emission occurs primarily along the edge of the...

An electro-optic modulator (EOM) is a device used to modulate the amplitude, phase, or polarization of light waves using an...

An optical system with object and image points at infinity. Literally, "without a focal length."

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

The simulation of solar radiation in the infrared and ultraviolet spectrum for the analysis of extraterrestrial sunlight and...

A measuring device that uses a light-sensitive cell or detector to determine the amount of light transmitted by a substance.

A device that is designed to automatically turn electric lamps on and off in a rapidly repeating sequence. The device may...

Custom lapping and polishing services involve specialized processes used to improve the surface finish and dimensional...

An instrument that produces an intense, tightly focused beam of ions to stimulate emissions from a minute section of a...

An optical scanning system found in most computer scanners that can read documents, often in many type styles, and convert...

The process by which laser emission is used in measuring fluid velocity and, more specifically, the detection of air and...

A method for remote measurement of the temperature of moving surfaces in harsh environments by using a laser to stimulate...

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

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

Holmium lasers are a type of medical laser that utilizes holmium-doped crystals as the gain medium. The term holmium laser...

A type of copying camera in which the object is placed on a horizontal easel and photographed by a horizontal camera above...

A system designed with a laser as a light source and a means for producing sound waves extending beyond 100 MHz to deflect...

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

The splitting of an element's spectral line as the result of the interactions between the electron spin and the spins of...

An interference filter in which a very thin metal foil with a periodic array of square holes (inductive mesh) or a thin...

A scale on an optical instrument that indicates the condition of focus. May indicate the distance to the object or diopter...

A laser or laser system positioned within an enclosure to prevent dangerous optical radiation from leaving the enclosure.

A quantum well is a structure in quantum mechanics that confines particles, such as electrons or holes, in one spatial...

The process by which the raster beam in a video tube is cut off during the retracing and sync periods.

A compound crystal having two or more crystals or crystal sections that, when regularly positioned, are in reverse position...

In digital image processing, a subcategory of frame processing that transforms pixel brightness and contrast through use of...

Also known as mesosphere. A level of the atmosphere, extending from the stratosphere to the ionosphere, that is noted for...

A small mass spectrometer used to find leaks in a vacuum system by detecting the presence of helium. Using a magnetic...

A Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter that forms at temperatures close to absolute zero. It is named after...

The universal constant h that has a value of 6.6260693 x 10-34 Js. A quantum of energy is equal to the product of the...

An instrument consisting of a high-voltage vacuum tube used to form hard x-rays or high-speed ion beams. By partitioning the...

Process of analysis in which the analyte substance is distributed in a matrix before laser desorption. This method avoids...

Seidel aberrations refer to a set of monochromatic aberrations in optical systems, named after the German mathematician and...

One of the four functions that allows the computation of a transparent medium's index of refraction, provided the index has...

The plane diagram produced by plotting one of the three chromaticity coordinates (X,Y,Z) against another. The most common...

Micro-robotics refers to the field of robotics that involves the design, development, and application of miniature robotic...

A transparent block shaped accurately to reverse curvatures of the components it is used to test. By contacting an...

Flow cytometry is a powerful technique used in biology and medicine for the quantitative analysis of the physical and...

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

The conductivity increase exhibited by some nonmetallic materials, resulting from the free carriers generated when photon...

Raster scanning process like that of television: each line is scanned successively.

Also known as analog thermogram. The resultant photograph, illustrating, in tones ranging from black to white, the spatial...

A device having a pair of decentered lenses, one for each eye, that focuses on a single object as a magnifier. It is often...

Of or pertaining to the methods of the French philosopher Rene Descartes. Refers to the standard orthogonal X-Y-Z coordinate...

The effect that characterizes an intense laser beam that is passed through an absorbing medium, causing the absorbed energy...

In optics, a collapsible structure situated between the lens and film of a camera to allow variation of the distance between...

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

An experimental lens used to produce interference fringes. A positive lens is cut into halves along its center, and the...

A waveguide having a characteristic that is altered continuously with the distance traveled, relative to the axis of its...

In integrated circuits, a pathway, hole, or other passage through the substrate.

The study of x-rays, their biological effects and technology. Named for W.C. Roentgen, who discovered x-rays in 1895.

A plot showing how the response (ability to detect a signal) varies with wavelength. D(l).

An infrared camera, also known as a thermal imaging camera or IR camera, is a device that captures and visualizes the...

An instrument that photographs the spectra of an extraterrestrial object.

System of information coding in which the signal is sampled 8000 times per second and the samples quantized by referring...

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

A phototube having a cesium-coated cathode that has its greatest sensitivity in the infrared region.

A sputtering target is a solid material used in the process of physical vapor deposition (PVD), specifically sputtering....

Chirped pulse amplification (CPA) is a technique used in laser physics to amplify ultrashort laser pulses to high energies...

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

Sapphire crystal refers to a transparent, single-crystal form of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) known as corundum. It is one of the...

The condition in which two or more energy states are identical.

The narrowest line of the cadmium spectrum; the red line has the purest radiation.

Category inclusive of all radiation that is incited electronically, except laser radiation, as a function of the application...

1. The process by which an atom acquires energy sufficient to raise it to a quantum state higher than its ground state. 2....

In laser welding or heat treating, the instantaneous laser beam power per unit area. This parameter is key in determining...

Scattering caused by the interaction between ingoing and outgoing particles of the same type, with no loss of kinetic energy.

X-rays emitted by a substance that formerly has been exposed to x-rays. The properties of the substance determine the...

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

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

An optical system that is corrected for distortion and spherical aberration and therefore forms the image of a straight line...

A distributed feedback laser (DFB laser) is a type of semiconductor laser diode designed to emit coherent, narrow-bandwidth...

Pixel pitch refers to the distance between the centers of two adjacent pixels on a display screen or imaging sensor. It is...

A standard for fiber optic data transmission systems being developed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and...

An assembly of prototype instruments, equipment and/or software designed to perform all the functions of a concept or idea...

A rangefinder similar to a pair of binoculars with a long base, a dot or other wander mark provided in each eyepiece field,...

A variable focal length lens system that retains the object in focus as one or more lenses move as a unit along its optical...

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

The instrument used to analyze a pulsed electromagnetic wave to determine its time, amplitude, duration and shape, and to...

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

The diffraction pattern of a source such as a light-emitting diode, injection laser diode or the output end of an optical...

A statistical method of dealing with a series of values where each value is squared, the mean of these squares is...

SI unit of luminous intensity. It is defined as one sixtieth the normal intensity of one square centimeter of a blackbody at...

The ratio of the radiant power transmitted to the second surface of a medium to the corresponding radiant power that has...

A line-scan camera, also known as a line-scan image sensor or linear array camera, is a type of digital camera designed to...

The electron emission from a substance or instrument whose surface has been bombarded by a suitable amount of radiation.

The figure of merit of a resonator, defined as (2p) x (average energy stored in the resonator)/(energy dissipated per...

A laser diode in which the beam is confined to the region of the active layer with gain high enough to accomplish such...

A unit of energy or work in the MKS system of units. One joule is equal to 107 ergs.

The amount of energy required for a particular kind of atom to remove an electron to infinite distance. The ionization...

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

A negative lens used to increase the effective focal length of a telescope objective.

An ocular having two planoconvex lenses that are formed from similar glass and that are separated by a space equal to half...

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

The perpendicular orientation of the molecular axes of the nematic molecules in a nematic crystal, relative to the electrode...

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a widely used molecular biology technique used to amplify a specific segment of DNA...

A resampling and interpolation method that uses only the value of the nearest neighbor pixel, while not considering values...

There are three types of telecentric lenses: -Image-space telecentric lenses are those in which the aperture stop is...

In a general sense, any one of a class of instruments used to disperse radiation, visible or invisible, into its component...

The production of a block by attaching the optical elements to a plate by means of individual buttons of pitch or other...

An instrument for measuring the brightness (luminance) of a scene. It may be a spot meter, covering an area of a degree or...

A device that consists of two types of mode converters, one of which must be magnetic. It is nonreciprocal because the...

A method of producing disks for erasable optical data storage. Information is recorded by a laser beam that generates pits...

An optical element having two principal axes, slow and fast, that resolve an incident polarized beam into two mutually...

An instrument that measures the angle at which a prism can couple laser light into an optical waveguide; used to determine...

An optical instrument used to determine the distance to a target being viewed. Two similar optical systems view the target...

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

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

A polariton is a quasiparticle resulting from the strong coupling between photons (light particles) and certain types of...

A type of stereoscopic photography in which a pair of lenses focuses a pair of images, relative to the positions of the two...

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

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

Polymers are large molecules composed of repeating structural units called monomers. These monomers are chemically bonded...

A material that is present or added to a sample undergoing spectroscopic analysis, to serve as an intensity reference for...

An adhesive used to affix optical elements to an approximately shaped body -- usually of cast iron.

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

An adhesive used to hold optical elements to blocking tools. It is usually a thermoplastic substance such as resin, beeswax,...

Luminescence is the emission of light that occurs without the involved substance undergoing a significant increase in...

Linear receive optics typically refers to the optical components and systems used in the reception (detection) of linearly...

A reproduction made of an original grating -- usually by casting thermosetting plastics onto the original -- to avoid the...

Pertaining to electromagnetic radiation, with the contributions at all wavelengths of interest weighted equally.

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

The ability of a machine to perform certain complex functions normally associated with human intelligence, such as judgment,...

A device that is designed to modulate a beam of light, usually from a laser source, by acting upon the beam directly. The...

An aspheric lens is a type of lens whose surface profiles deviate from the traditional spherical shape. Unlike spherical...

A mechanical device designed to smoothly vary the effective diameter of a lens, thereby controlling the amount of light...

A finite version of Shannon's sampling theorem that states that a class of functions can be reconstructed exactly by a...

A glass block that produces stationary fringes in the region crossed by incident light beams.

The storage of information via optical means, primarily employing a low-power laser to inscribe data on a photosensitive...

The condition in which there are more atomic systems in the upper of two energy levels than in the lower, so stimulated...

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

A measurement device used to study the structure of matter using the diffraction of electromagnetic radiation.

This results from the simultaneous absorption of two photons, each having half the energy needed for excitation and...

Hydrophobic is a term used to describe substances or materials that repel or do not readily interact with water. The word...

That point in a Gaussian beam where the wavefront has a curvature of zero and the beam diameter is a minimum.

A type of video signal in which the luminance and chrominance portions of the signal, or the luma and chroma, have been...

A magnon is a quasiparticle representing a quantized spin wave in a magnetic material. In other words, it is a collective...

A telescope that corrects dispersion and spherical aberration through the use of one or more lenses, usually smaller than...

A dichroic mirror, also known as a dichroic beamsplitter or interference filter beamsplitter, is an optical device that...

Used in computer design for optical systems with common parts and different applications.

A departure from ideal paraxial imaging behavior. The distortion of an optical field wavefront as it is propagated through...

A dispersion-shifted fiber (DSF) refers to a type of optical fiber designed to minimize the effects of chromatic dispersion,...

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

Any of the five elements astatine, chlorine, fluorine, bromine and iodine, grouped because their chemical properties are...

The analysis, by x-rays, of the crystalline structure and other properties of metals and alloys.

Birefringence of materials that is induced or altered by stress fields.

The deflection of an electron beam by the action of an electrostatic field that has a component perpendicular to the...

One of the constants h, k, f or I, used to demonstrate any set of parallel planes in a crystal of the hexagonal system.

An Abbe condenser in which the upper lens element is fixed. The lower lens may focus the illumination between the elements...

The propagation constant evaluated along the axis of a waveguide, that is, in the direction of transmission. Also called...

The removal of the zero-order component of the Fourier spectrum distribution of an object with a small, opaque absorber or...

Fluorescent proteins are proteins that exhibit the property of fluorescence, which is the ability to absorb light at a...

A crystalline semiconductor material that transmits in the infrared.

Gain-switching is a technique used in lasers to generate short pulses of light by modulating the gain of the laser medium....

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 high-reflectance coating consisting of alternating layers of quarter-wave film of a higher refractive index and lower...

A hologram that is formed on a recording medium by changing the phase of the illuminating wave in correspondence with the...

A semiconductor formed by applying a particular single-crystal layer to the specific insulator.

Distance between the front vertex of a lens and the object.

A fiber optic component or system designed in such a way that it can be operated by people without specialized knowledge of...

A constant equal to the universal gas constant divided by the Avogadro number. It is approximately equal to 1.38 x 10-23 J/K...

A device used to evaluate the quality of fiber optic splices made in the field by injecting light into the cladding of the...

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

The analysis of structural and molecular dynamics caused by low temperature.

The decay of an electrostatic charge image resulting from long exposure to the dark.

With respect to a television system, a pulse transmitted at the end of each field to break off the cathode-ray beam as it...

An optical source that has a luminous distribution that is uniform for all directions.

A technique used for noncontact inspection of semiconductor wafers. The material is illuminated by an excitation source that...

An optical system that superimposes a synthetic display providing navigational or weapon-aiming information on a pilot's or...

A mirror whose coating serves to reflect visible radiation while transmitting the infrared.

The length of the small space within which the atmosphere exhibits coherence, particularly in relation to an observer on...

A laser system consisting of a planar PN junction within a single crystal of gallium arsenide. The pair of parallel,...

Also known as a gray body; a nonselective radiator is a thermal radiator that has a constant spectral emissivity with...

Thin layers intended to prevent damage to plastic optics.

A sealed, hard, magnetic disc drive used for the storage of data in a computer system.

A plastic disc coated with ferric oxide or other films on which data can be stored by selectively magnetizing areas of the...

A thermistor that uses a semiconductor that is sensitive to infrared radiation to measure the radiation's intensity.

The transparent fluid that fills the portion of the eye between the eye lens and the retina (the posterior chamber).

An instrument that uses a photoelectric system to determine the size and volume of dust particles in a given unit of air.

A laser skin-resurfacing method that creates microscopic thermal wounds referred to as microscopic treatment zones (MTZs),...

A device used in ultrasonic imaging to measure the velocity and attenuation of compressional waves in a transparent liquid...

Photochromic refers to a property exhibited by certain materials, typically organic compounds or dyes, which undergo...

Graphene is a two-dimensional allotrope of carbon consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal...

1. In astronomy, the angle measured clockwise (eastward) in a horizontal plane, usually from north (true north, Y-north,...

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

The apparent color, as seen by the human eye, as distinguished from color as a measurable property of light.

Diffraction efficiency is a measure of how effectively a diffractive optical element (DOE) or diffraction grating directs...

A waveguide made up of a dielectric material, such as plastic or mica, in a cylindrical form, through which the waves travel.

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

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

In a local area network, a unique signal that travels from one node or station to another, providing them serially with...

The utilization of photometric measurement to determine the relative magnitudes of the heavenly bodies.

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

An instrument used to measure the duration of fluorescence emanating from a biological sample to monitor and evaluate its...

The slope of the curve when output is plotted against input for quantum efficiency in a device.

An electron tube that stores and visually displays information by means of a cathode-ray-beam-scanning and charge-storage...

A test chart whose luminance changes uniformly in one direction according to a sinusoidal rule. These charts carry groups of...

In the SI system, prefix meaning 1015.

An electric field produced to influence an electron stream much in the same manner that a lens affects a light beam.

A polishing machine with a lens mounted on a wooden stick, allowing a very wide sweep. It is used to polish hemispherical or...

A photoconductive cell having cadmium sulfide as its photoconducting material for the production of a very high dark-light...

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

An acoustic wave that propagates along the surface of a solid and decays exponentially with substrate depth. Also called a...

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

A form of liquid crystal in which flow does not take place in the usual manner. When examined with polarized light, the...

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

In printing, a translucent screen used with lenses to provide an even distribution of diffused light.

The acoustical holographic process in which the hologram consists of slight elevations in a liquid surface, in the areas of...

A laser having a rare-earth chelate within a plastic host as the lasing material. The chelate laser is easily pumped and has...

A quarter- or half-wave retarder made from two plates of quartz, mica or polymer with their fast axes crossed; the...

An optically pumped solid-state laser in which the active medium is a neodymium ion in a glass rod host. Abbreviated...

A scientific CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) camera is a type of digital camera specifically designed for...

A rangefinder used to determine the height or altitude of aerial targets by means of optical triangulation. The device...

A unit of luminance that is equal to one candela/cm2. (sb).

A piezoelectric translator that moves up and down a spindle like a caterpillar. It clamps itself at one end, expands, clamps...

In surface height measurement of optics with steep slopes, the use of two short visible wavelengths to synthesize a longer,...

The apparent difference in brightness between light and dark areas of an image. For a light target against a dark...

Technique using a fiber optic assembly to illuminate an opaque object and transmit an image back from it without a lens...

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

1. Lines of the same color. 2. A term used in photoelastic stress analysis to refer to the interference fringes produced in...

That contrast level that exists between two areas whose difference in brightness is just perceivable.

In a crystal, its subdivision into polyhedral blocks of macroscopic sizes, with discontinuities contained in the lattice...

A grating beamsplitter is an optical device that utilizes the principles of diffraction to split a beam of light into...

The sensitivity of a photographic emulsion when exposed to light, provided that the film is developed through a standard...

1. The anode or anticathode of an x-ray tube that emits x-rays when bombarded by electrons. 2. The screen in a television...

Radiography using the emission of x-rays to form an image of the structure penetrated by the radiation.

The angle at which a given mode propagates down an optical fiber.

Any ray through an optical system that is not a meridional ray. The plane created by a refracted skew ray does not contain...

A lens that has one convex surface and the other concave.

The computer module whose circuitry interprets instructions and guides the actions of the peripherals. Also known as the...

A device that uses nematic liquid crystals sandwiched between fused silica substrates to change the phase of polarized...

Phototheranostics, a portmanteau of "photo" (light), "therapy," and "diagnostics," refers to an emerging field that combines...

Computation of tristimulus values by integrating or summing, over the visible wavelength region, the product of the relative...

The phenomenon that can render an optical resonator the equivalent of a semiconductor flip-flop. A bistable device will...

White, tetragonal crystals used in the production of luminous coatings.

The process of mapping the infrared emittance of an area through the use of an infrared detector and related scanning...

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

An early form of photographic media consisting of glass plates coated with an emulsion.

A rapid change, as opposed to a long-term drift, of the emission wavelength of an optical source. Chirping is most often...

1. A prism used in some instruments to bend light 90° before it enters the objective. 2. A dispersing prism located in...

The formation of a block by attaching optical elements to a plate with a ring of pitch or other thermoplastic material.

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

Elastic scattering that occurs when inelastic processes eliminate particles from the beam.

Broadband dielectric mirrors, also known as broadband mirrors, are optical coatings designed to efficiently reflect or...

A handheld navigational instrument used to measure the elevation angle of celestial bodies such as the sun. An image of the...

A fiber optic transmission system in which data can go in only a single direction.

A solid-state semiconducting structure (basically one of the bolometers) that changes electrical resistance with...

The method by which Thomas Young in 1802 disproved Newton's corpuscular theory of light by the formation of interference...

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

The process of aligning the crystallites in a piezoelectric material by placing a large DC field across the element at an...

The material favored for study of interaction of high-acoustic intensities with free carriers. Tellurium is the...

Directed energy refers to a type of energy that is emitted and transferred in a controlled direction. The term is often...

A cylindrical convex viewing mirror used for viewing distorted pictures formed by photographing the reflections of the...

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

Machine learning (ML) is a subset of artificial intelligence (AI) that focuses on the development of algorithms and...

A piezoelectric transducer made of a thin strip of piezoelectric material bonded to a strip of metal.

Instruments used for measuring angles and occasionally lengths on the ground. The principal surveying instruments are the...

In the SI system, prefix meaning 10-12.

A medical imaging device that uses a ring of crystal/photomultiplier tube assemblies encircling the patient to detect gamma...

Astronomical detector consisting of a photocathode isolated from the target by a coin value from which electrons are focused...

An intensified charge-coupled device that uses a large negative charge at the grid to switch off the flow of electrons at...

The degree to which a laser beam is aligned parallel to the housing axis.

An instrument for measuring the intensity of solar radiation.

A telescopic eyepiece that produces a field of view between 40° and 50°. The eyepiece consists of a single element...

An oven or furnace that possesses the design requirements and heat control necessary to anneal glass for the optical...

In the context of imaging, particularly digital imaging and printing, "orange peel" refers to a texture or visual distortion...

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

Infrared radiation absorbed by crystals as a result of the excitation of lattice vibrations in which ions having opposite...

Laser peening is a surface enhancement technique used to improve the mechanical properties of materials, particularly...

An optical instrument for forming the spectrum of a light source and recording it on a film. The dispersing medium may be a...

The instrument used to collect thermal radiation information on an object by scanning. It consists basically of a detector,...

The illusory appearance of a light or dark band at a line of brightness contrast that enhances the edge between the two...

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...

A thermogram in which temperature values are displayed in discrete thermal bands, each band possessing a distinct color.

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

The imaging of two photographs of a stereo pair, in complementary colors, for the preparation of contour maps.

An imaging system designed to highlight small deviations in a planar reflective object such as a mirror. The system can be...

Multi-axis alignment refers to the process of aligning or adjusting components or systems in multiple spatial dimensions or...

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

Transmittance of a stable solution is an exponential function of the concentration of the absorbing solute.

A method of image dissection whereby a lens transfers images onto a lenticular plate that in turn illustrates the images as...

I/O stands for input/output. In computing, it refers to the communication between a computer system or program and its...

Output noise in a laser beam resulting from acoustic disturbances of mirror separation or orientation. Such disturbances may...

Also known as ocular. The lens system used between the final real image in a visual optical system and eye. It acts as an...

The broadening of a laser's line width in a way that affects every atom (or molecule), and thus the whole system, in the...

A technique whereby two laser beams, one at an excitation wavelength and the second at a wavelength that produces Stokes...

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

Conventional coordinates for optical system analysis, the X-axis being the horizontal, the Y-axis the vertical and the...

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

Simulation of atmospheric turbulence for laboratory experimentation purposes, achieved by creating an unstable vertical...

A broken circle used as the test object in distinguishing visual acuity. The width of the gap in the circle is equal to the...

Nanoparticle photonic resonator absorption microscopy is a microscopy technique that combines the principles of photonic...

Backscatter refers to the phenomenon in which radiation or waves are scattered backward, opposite to the direction of the...

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

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

An image that appears when a hologram is illuminated by a suitable light source, generally a laser beam.

The scientific observation of celestial radiation that has reached the vicinity of Earth, and the interpretation of these...

Any crystalline material whose length is much less than its measured diameter.

A pulse having extremely short duration, about 10-13 to 10-10 s, that is produced by mode locking of wide-bandwidth lasers,...

The generation of a grating on a concave spherical blank by the holographic process. In this way, ghost images and intense...

When, for example, a beam of monochromatic light passes through a diffraction grating, the emergent rays that have remained...

A microscope that allows examination of a small crystal and conveniently provides linearly polarized object and reference...

The transmission of a color photograph by separating the colors into varying intensities of red, blue and green, and then...

Light diffracted by a solid (usually quartz in crystal or fused form) traversed by acoustic waves. If the ultrasonic...

Intense scattering in the region of the liquid-gas critical point. At this point the gas will strongly scatter all light to...

A still camera with a shutter capable of opening for a time as short as a fraction of a microsecond. An electronically...

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

In the context of optical materials, the term "impurity level" refers to the presence of foreign atoms or molecules within...

The analysis of fluorescence emitted by discrete atoms, in flames, that have absorbed radiation from an external source. It...

A swept-source laser, also known as a wavelength-swept laser, is a type of laser that rapidly and continuously changes its...

A photon sieve is an optical device used in the field of optics and imaging. It's designed to focus and shape light,...

A homogeneous solid solution with crystal lattice sites occupied, at random, by the molecules or ions of two or more...

Concave and convex spherical mirrors are types of curved mirrors that have surfaces shaped like segments of spheres. These...

An array of refractive microlenses that are round, square and hexagonal and as small as 15 µm. They are used for...

In a single element, any lack of coincidence between the optical and the mechanical axes. In a lens system, any lack of...

The greatest luminosity possible for a specified chromaticity.

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

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

A shift in the apparent position of an object when an optical element is added or removed.

A corner cube, also known as a corner reflector or retroreflector prism, is a type of optical device used to reflect light...

Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is a nanolithography technique used for fabricating nanoscale patterns on a substrate. It is a...

An imaginary line between the object, through the nodal point of the eye, and the fovea, or point of finest retinal acuity.

Laboratory experiments that focus on demonstrating new capabilities of a certain technology or device, usually without...

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

Any lens with at least two lens elements, each of which can be used singly or in combined configurations.

A shutter in which the opening and closing times for a large aperture setting occupy a substantial fraction of the total...

A thermionic tube that has a velocity-modulated electron stream and that may be used as a microwave amplifier or oscillator.

A device that samples and quantizes a signal in digital form for storage in memory.

A small region within a single crystal where the molecules form a perfect lattice.

Refers to the transistors in which the working current flows through only one type of semiconductor material, either P-type...

The region of distorted atom configuration formed between the displaced and normal areas in a crystal when part of the...

A group of energy levels to which ions in the ground state are initially excited when pumping radiation is applied to a...

A camera equipped with angular scales in altitude and azimuth. The scale readings are imprinted on the film when an exposure...

Essentially, a hologram of a hologram, in which the first-generation hologram is masked with a narrow slit. During image...

A device that measures the spatial distribution of energy perpendicular to the propagation path of a radiant beam. An energy...

The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) obtained with a Fourier transform spectrometer when detector noise prevails, which exceeds...

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

A neutral-colored gelatin wedge, cast between glass plates, that is used as an intensity scale in certain types of...

A formulaic description of the linear change of the reciprocal optical dielectric tensor with either stress or strain.

An infrared light-emitting diode (IR LED) is a semiconductor device that emits infrared light when an electric current...

The scattering of x-rays by the regularly spaced atoms in a crystal. The angle at which the reflection occurs is known as...

In a crystalline substance, the spectral range of states of energy that contains the crystal's binding valence electrons.

A highly accurate cathode-ray tube used to display information with the utmost efficient stability and resolution. The...

The unusual and anisotropic diamagnetic quality observed in particular crystals such as those composed of bismuth.

A diode with a semiconducting material, such as germanium or silicon, for one electrode, and a fine wire "whisker''...

Capacity of a vision system to capture an image of an object in motion and to resolve the direction and speed of that motion.

A fiber-coupled LED (light-emitting diode) refers to an LED device that is optically coupled to an optical fiber for the...

A measurement technique used to determine the spatial distribution profile of an electrical or optical quantity of interest...

A biomarker, short for biological marker, refers to a measurable and quantifiable indicator of a biological condition,...

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

Least value of color value combinations which gives white light; minimum purity as determined to be white.

Image displacement by a decentered lens, rotated on a chuck whose axis of rotation passes through the geometrical center of...

For a particular mode in a waveguide, the ratio of the angular frequency to constant phase.

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

A general-purpose lens, also known as the Celor lens, used widely in photography and commercial processing; it has the form...

The entrance slit, also known simply as the slit, is an essential component in optical instruments such as spectrometers and...

A glow discharge lamp consisting of a cold cathode and a mixture of inert gases. The intensity of illumination varies with...

A dome-shaped structure used for some optical instruments in place of a flat window. The transparent material should be of...

Chemical vapor deposition is a process of applying dopants to a glass bait by flame reactions of gaseous compounds. See also...

A phosphor that has the ability to convert into light emission a portion of energy lost by ionization when a charged...

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

In astronomy, the relative brightness of a celestial body. Originally a scale from 1 to 6, where 1 represented the brightest...

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

Instrumentation designed to permit the perception, recording or measurement of scenes under conditions of low incident...

The study of the reflection or transmission properties of specimens as a function of wavelength after they have been excited...

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

The restricting aperture located at the front of the lens. It is usually defined as the maximum diameter of the entrance...

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

Optical switching refers to the process of controlling the routing or transmission of optical signals within a network using...

The induced birefringence in isotropic gases that results when the gases are placed in strong fields.

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

A spectroradiometer is a device used to measure the intensity of light at different wavelengths across the electromagnetic...

The product of the actual base or baseline of a rangefinder or heightfinder, and the power or magnification of the...

The organic inclusion in quartz crystal that forms delicate films and microspheres and that shows a maximum absorption at...

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

The near-point distance of the normal eye. The value of 10 in. or 25 cm is normal. This value is used in evaluating the...

A restricting wavelength above or below which a specified form of radiation is totally almost absorbed by a specified medium.

The steady state of temperature exhibited by a material that has absorbed and emitted radiation equally.

1. A framelike structure that serves to restrict the viewing area of the screen when placed before a television picture...

Immunohistochemistry (IHC) is a method for detecting antigens or haptens in cells of a tissue section by using labeled...

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...

The greatest wavelength of radiation for a specified surface for the emission of electrons.

The liquid used in microscopy to fill the space between the high-power objective lens and the microscope slide in order to...

An instrument that uses electromagnetic fields to sort out the relative masses of atoms and molecules.The same way an...

Glass that has been specially treated so that it will not shatter when exposed to high temperatures followed by immediate...

Optical tweezers refer to a scientific instrument that uses the pressure of laser light to trap and manipulate microscopic...

The study of the diffraction of beams of a wave by matter to ascertain the structure of the matter.

A type of stereoscopic photography in which the distance between the two view points is greater than the average...

An isotope of cesium that emits negative beta particles and has a half-life of 2.19 years; its applications include...

A thick meniscus lens arranged concentric with the center of curvature of a spherical mirror to produce an image free of...

Virtual histology refers to the use of digital technology and computational methods to simulate or recreate histological...

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

A standard direct-readout vidicon tube linked by fiber optics to an intensifier for increased sensitivity.

The elimination of gases from the surfaces of a vacuum system by heating the surfaces when the pumping phase is occurring.

The photographic record of the diffracted beams formed when heterogeneous x-rays emerging from a pinhole or slit impinge...

Phenomenon caused by an ultrashort and ultra-intense light pulse propagating in a Kerr medium, such as air or water. When...

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

The formula that indicates the total radiation at all wavelengths from a perfect blackbody. W Total = 5.67 x 10-12 T 4(W/cm2)

A grating in which the wires or rods are set radially within a circular structure.

Quantum dot light-emitting diode (QLED) is a display technology that utilizes quantum dots, which are semiconductor...

A parallel plate of glass in such a position that the refracted and reflected rays of incident parallel light are mutually...

A crystal capable of being polarized in the reverse direction when an electric field is applied.

Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that involves the use of artificial neural networks to model and solve complex...

The combination of two waves having the same frequency and amplitude and traveling in opposite directions. Standing waves...

LiFi, short for light fidelity, is a wireless communication technology that utilizes visible light or infrared light to...

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

Any instrument or system carried by a balloon to the upper atmosphere to measure and record atmospheric information, such as...

A spectrum having some lines that are darker than others or that contrast against a light, continuous-spectrum background.

A device for forming at least two adjacent areas of polarized light. The angle between the directions of vibration of the...

Visible laser radiation, often optically expanded and collimated, used to induced temporary blindness from within a walking...

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

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

The ratio between the focal length of a lens having a longer focal length than that of the standard lens used with a camera,...

Ratio between map or photo linear distance and the actual ground dimensions represented.

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

Term for service offered by a vendor who leases a particular wavelength to a customer through DWDM technology. Lambda...

The laser damage threshold refers to the maximum level of laser intensity that a material can withstand without experiencing...

A microscope that uses a flying spot scanner, directed through the eyepiece, as a light source to determine the features of...

A high-speed network or subnetwork that provides a connection between servers and data storage devices.

A magnetic-deflection mass spectrometer that has an electrostatic field placed perpendicularly to its magnetic field,...

A group of lenses, or any combination of lenses, mirrors and prisms, so constructed as to refract or reflect light to...

A camera that records its images electrostatically on plastic tape; used in situations where radiation would have an adverse...

The glossy appearance of an object viewed, because of the binocular combination of two very unlike colors.

Fluence is a term used in various scientific and technical disciplines to describe the amount of something per unit area....

Silicon carbide (SiC) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are semiconductor devices that emit light when an electric current is...

The distortion of an image formed by a cathode-ray tube, caused by unbalanced deflection voltages or deflection voltages...

A temperature-controlled container used to stabilize the temperature and resonant frequency of a crystal found in a...

A mirage that consists of an image of an object appearing below its true position as the result of abnormal refraction by...

A band of light that appears along the outer edge of a transparent material under microscopic investigation and that moves...

That process by which radiation spontaneously emitted by a volume of optical materials is resonantly reabsorbed within the...

Also known as cathode rays. Formerly, this term described a stream of electrons emitted from the cathode of a gas-discharge...

A tube containing mercury vapor and lined with a phosphor. When current is passed through the vapor the strong ultraviolet...

A simple form of astronomical telescope that uses a fixed objective and a focusable eyepiece. The objective forms an...

Plasma's ability to stop the transmission of laser light.

Designating any instrument in which both eyes can be used to view the image to achieve a stereoscopic effect, or merely to...

An image intensifier that consists of an evacuated tube with a large input phosphor screen at one end. The phosphor screen...

A microdensitometer that contains a scanning stage to provide simultaneous representations of position vs. density.

Characteristic of deflected light power defined as the quadratic invariant function of the video signal amplitude.

Any organic substance, that when dissolved in appropriate liquid based solvents will absorb and emit electromagnetic...

The eye's involuntary reaction in the process of accommodation. This reflex is most dramatic in response to looking at a...

That property of certain optical devices, e.g., a penta prism, that maintains the angular relationship between the entering...

A type of camera that has scales or other arrangements by which successive exposures can be lined up and equally spaced on a...

A device in which slab geometry internally compensates for thermal-optic distortion; the solid host material -- glass or...

In the SI system, prefix meaning one hundredth, 10-2.

An emission spectrum is a graphical representation or a characteristic pattern of the wavelengths or frequencies of light...

In a lens or lens system, that surface at which the projections of an entering and exiting ray intersect. Also known as the...

Light striking a surface at an angle almost perpendicular to the normal.

A television system that uses a slow rate of horizontal scanning to increase its reproduction and transmittance accuracy of...

A laser having a rod that is a stacked array of discs immersed in a transparent flowing coolant fluid. In this way, the...

An OLED display that has an integrated electronic backplane as its substrate. Active-matrix OLED displays use at least two...

An imaging technique in which an object moving through an interference field formed in space scatters light and is spatially...

Calorimetry is a branch of science that involves the measurement of heat flow in physical or chemical processes. It...

The creation of a diode laser structure by liquid-phase epitaxy over a grooved substrate.

The point spread function (PSF) is a fundamental concept in imaging that describes the response of an imaging system to a...

The visual examination by a trained observer of the image of a point source. Any coloring or departure from the Airy disc...

The control of free electron movement through the use of electrical or magnetic fields, and use of this electron movement in...

A camera that uses a rotating mirror to project sequential images onto lenses that are arranged in an arc. The reflected...

Optical fiber optic switches are devices used in optical fiber communication systems to selectively route optical signals...

Optical aberration such that image magnification varies with ray distance from the optical axis in a radial distortion.

One of the types of change in the energy levels of molecules or atoms in a laser that can result in lasing action. Because...

A display format consisting of small light-emitting elements arranged as a two-dimensional array. Various elements are...

A blue diode laser is a type of semiconductor laser that emits light in the blue wavelength range of the electromagnetic...

An instrument that uses a crystal to diffract x-rays for the measurement of the intensities of the diffracted rays.

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

A bench with instrumentation including a collimator, a microscope, positioners and a nodal slide used to rotate a lens about...

Optical coatings are thin layers of materials applied to optical components, such as lenses, mirrors, filters, and prisms,...

A lens having one or more toric surfaces. A toric surface is one having a maximum power in one meridian and a minimum power...

A technique for creating optimal performance in a system by producing a specific beam irradiance distribution, usually...

A compact high-pressure light source in which an electrical discharge between electrodes spaced no more than 12 mm apart...

A chemical substance that exhibits fluorescence when excited by ultraviolet radiation, x-rays or an electron beam. The...

1. An instrument used to measure the opacity or density of dyes, pigments or dispersed particles that form an image in or on...

A dielectric ceramic material used in laser capillary tubes because of its high electrical resistivity and high thermal...

In the discharge of a vacuum tube, the narrow, nonluminous region that sometimes may be found between the cathode and its...

In optics, "mode beating" refers to an interference phenomenon that can occur in laser systems with multiple longitudinal...

A phenomenon that occurs in WDM and DWDM systems when three closely spaced signal wavelengths near the zero-dispersion...

An instrument used to determine the absolute or relative scatter levels of optical surfaces.

A crystal diode whose rectifying activity is determined by the touching of the crystal to a finely pointed wire surrounded...

Quantum confinement refers to the phenomenon in quantum mechanics where the motion of charge carriers, such as electrons or...

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

The values of the three standard or matching stimuli necessary to provide a match with the light under trial, in a specified...

A piece of glass, pyrex or quartz having one or both surfaces carefully ground and polished plano, generally flat to less...

A liquid, usually of a specific refractive index and dispersion, serving as an interface between two solids to form a...

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

The soft x-rays used in the industrial radiography of materials having too small a range of densities to produce an image...

Compilation of the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories that contains values of the line parameters of the 1-0 bands of...

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

With respect to microscopy, also called dispersive staining, optical staining the projection of colors through areas of a...

Contour mapping technique that involves positioning a grating close to an object and observing its shadow on the object...

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

Simulation of radiative transfer in which each photon is generated by a source and its path through the medium is...

Optical fiber that transmits a greater percentage of input light than does high-loss step-index fiber. Low-loss fiber...

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

A chart, either printed on paper or prepared photographically on glass plates or film, that consists of 3-bar resolution...

A system of beacons used in navigation.

A scanning probe microscope that analyzes the surface of a specimen by recording the intensity of light as it is focused...

An alphanumeric display formed by a layer of liquid crystal material sandwiched between two sheets of glass; a transparent...

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

An instrument designed for laser technology that is used to extract single pulses from the laser and transmit a portion of...

An array of spectral lines formed when a beam of electrons, striking a crystalline solid, is scattered. It is used in the...

The manifestation of light from scatterers outside the plane of the object in coherent light systems. The output of these...

A precision lens designed to convert the plane wavefront output of an interferometer to a spherical wavefront for the...

A thermoplastic or optically transmitting hard plastic produced by applying polymerization initiator and heat to a monomer.

An instrument designed to collect naturally formed extraterrestrial electromagnetic radiation within the radio frequency...

A device for automatic exposure control in which a motor-driven diaphragm adjusts the aperture in response to a signal from...

A lack of resolution in a television image as a result of smear ghosts or an insufficiently high video-frequency response....

An electroluminescent semiconductor that emits low intensity radiation in the green or red regions. Used as an indicator...

A strong, heat-resistant glass that contains a minimum of 5 percent boric oxide.

A manufacturing process used to construct substrates for large optical components. Used with IR materials, planform bonding...

The inhibition or elimination of one process by another process. The stimulated emission of a laser oscillator can be...

A measure of the dispersive properties of a glass. The relative dispersion is defined as: where C, D, and F refer to the...

Also called sine wave response and contrast transfer function. The modulation transfer function is the ratio of the...

The smallest object that may be seen, measured in terms of the angle subtended by the object measured at the eye. Also...

The principle that electronic energy transitions occur at such speeds that the nuclei of the atoms in the molecular system...

The deviation from the ideal case where a circular variable filter is located at a given wavelength along a radial line (or...

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

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

The lens located at the object end of a microscope tube. A wide range of objectives is available, including simple...

A multilayer antireflective thin-film coating, so called because its reflectance rises steeply at wavelengths above and...

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

A subtractive colorimeter that expresses a liquid's or object's color as a combination of three colors. These colors are...

Lens aberration resulting in image size variation as a function of wavelength. See also chromatic aberration.

Nanopositioning refers to the precise and controlled movement or manipulation of objects or components at the nanometer...

A memory device consisting of thin disks of a magnetic substance deposited on a nonmagnetic substrate for use in a computer.

A nanotube, also known as a nanotubule or simply a tube-like structure, is a nanoscale cylindrical structure composed of...

An instrument used to record the emittance or reflectance of an object by scanning with discrete spectral resolution over a...

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

A plane in a crystal that lies parallel to the principal plane of symmetry.

The theorem stating that, when the sampling period in a recorded sample hologram is matched to the object spectrum, the...

A type of fiber optic connector consisting of two cone-shaped ferrules aligned by a mating sleeve.

The modification of the spherical surfaces in an optical system to correct for spherical aberration.

The perception of depth due to binocular vision.

The effect of a powerful gravitational field on light traveling through the field. This effect is detectable in astronomical...

The Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor is an optical device used for measuring the wavefront aberrations of an optical system....

A photonic crystal that comprises magneto-optical material such that the optical response of the device depends on the...

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

E.I. duPont's trade name for an aramid yarn used as a strength member in the jacket of fiber optic cable.

1. A piece of glass with plane parallel surfaces used to admit light into an optical system and to exclude dirt and...

Laser annealing is a process that involves using a laser beam to heat and modify the microstructure of a material, typically...

Optic surface cleaning liquid that may be applied to glass, crystal, dielectric and metal surfaces; however, may not be...

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 use of photoelectric sensors to detect and measure the intensity of a light source. This application, as compared to...

The graphed curve illustrating the directional reflectance of a sample for different angles of collection.

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

The region of a ferroelectric crystal where spontaneous polarization is uniformly directed.

In an optical fiber or waveguide communications system, an optoelectronic device or module that receives an optical signal,...

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

The displacement of spectrum lines, as determined by the increasing distance between, and the relative velocity of, the...

The spectrographic analysis of matter that is in a cooled state. Generally, a mechanical refrigerator is used to lower the...

A Michelson-type interference microscope used to produce interference patterns of reflective specimens through the...

A device used to produce numerical integrations for colorimetry.

A glass structure from which an optical fiber waveguide may be drawn.

A superthin, highly reflective mirror.

A development aimed at extending the life of a tungsten filament. The iodine vapor in the lamp envelope combines with the...

A femtosecond laser is a type of laser that emits ultrashort pulses of light with durations on the order of femtoseconds,...

A type of geometrical distortion that brings about a trapezoidal display of a nominally rectangular picture. Usually...

1. The process of following an object's movement; accomplished by focusing a radar beam on the reticle of an optical system...

Any system of time measurement that is based on atomic resonances. The transition times between the hyperfine levels of...

An expression of the tolerance of decentration of a laser diode from the optical axis: the region around the axis in the...

The mechanical structure that holds a number of individual lens elements.

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

Synonym (regarded by some as erroneous) for multimode distortion, which see.

The distance from the last surface of a lens system to the image. For a thin lens system, this distance is equivalent to the...

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

A class of optical phenomena that can be viewed only with nearly monochromatic, directional beams of light, such as those...

A high-speed cine camera that produces discrete frames of a continuous event as opposed to the flow photographic record of a...

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

A type of comparator with a telescope equipped with a cross wire mounted on a vertical sliding column. It is used to measure...

The action of a biological system responding to a single or multiple coherent particles of light produced from a laser...

Photoresist is a light-sensitive material used in photolithography processes, particularly in the fabrication of...

A double meniscus system in which two achromatized meniscus lenses are arranged symmetrically on either side of the aperture...

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

Optical elements that use diffraction to control wavefronts. Diffractive optical elements include diffraction gratings,...

Acronym for profile resolution obtained by excitation. In its simplest form, probe involves the overlap of two...

In a communications network, a point at which data are received or from which they are sent. Though the term often is used...

A molded lens is an optical lens manufactured using a molding process, typically involving the shaping of a material, such...

Periodic interruptions of a light beam incident on an absorbing medium that produce heat, expansion and acoustic wave...

A small half-shade analyzer placed in the eyepiece of a polarimeter to determine the character of the polarized light...

A GRIN (gradient index) lens is a type of optical lens that utilizes a gradient in refractive index across its volume rather...

The ability of the instrument to separate wavelengths that are close together, numerically equal to the ratio of the shorter...

The study of the celestial bodies, relative to x-ray emission. Satellites launched to study x-ray sources have revealed many...

A fiber optic end plate constructed by drawing a bundle of parallel fibers embedded in glass and cutting it into thin...

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

The calculated normal distance from a photon source at which harmful interaction with the incident light will occur....

Circular dichroism (CD) is a spectroscopic technique used to study the structural characteristics of chiral (asymmetric)...

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

A set of rays through a lens originating at a common point and contained in one plane.

Micro-optical coherence tomography (micro-OCT) is an imaging technique that is an adaptation of optical coherence tomography...

A synchrotron is a type of particle accelerator that uses magnetic fields to steer charged particles, typically electrons or...

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

Relative to a light source, the frequency at which the source appears to fluctuate in light intensity half the time and...

An emission spectrum consisting of bright bands against a dark background.

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

A prefix that is used to represent 109 or 1,000,000,000 in the SI system.

The point of a chromaticity diagram that represents the chromaticity of a reference stimulus.

A small card (10 x 15 cm) that has been treated with a photographic emulsion to record and store the microimages of...

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

The dispersion of a light ray striking the surface of a biaxial crystal, in which the resulting rays are reflected in a...

The wavelength at which a lamp radiates its highest intensity.

Flux per unit solid angle and per unit area measured normal to the direction of propagation of the flux.

A nonoptical surface, within lenses and lens mounts, that contributes largely to flare by reflecting light into the image...

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

A material used in the jacket of fiber optic cables.

The coefficient termed by Callier as the ratio between the density of photographic negatives measured by parallel light and...

A condenser that forms a hollow cone-shaped beam of light with its focal point in the plane of the specimen. If it is used...

A form of liquid crystal in which the 90° twist of the twisted nematic phase has been increased to 180° or more,...

A linear computation or algorithm performed on a selected series in the form of an input signal that produces a new series...

The chromatography method in which the stationary phase is supported in or on an inert packing in a column, through which...

A measure of the transmittance through an optical medium. Optical density equals the log to the base 10 of the reciprocal of...

An eyepiece located at the near end of the microscope tube. It often is a simple Huygens eyepiece, but compensating and...

The least angle of incidence at which total internal reflection takes place. The angle of incidence in a denser medium, at...

Light striking a surface at an angle perpendicular to the surface.

A plate made of a double-refracting crystal having such a density that a phase difference of one-quarter cycle is formed...

Optical fiber with a large core, often a step-index fiber; "large'' is at times defined as greater than 85 µm.

A unit of luminance equal to 1/p candela per square meter.

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

The separate spectral lines formed by a diffraction grating that are characterized by one wavelength difference in path...

An instrument for eye surgery that directs intense xenon arc light through the transparent cornea lens to the retina where...

A mode of laser printing in which each pixel is printed four times, providing sharper lines and a continuous tone from...

An interferometer similar in construction to a Fabry-Perot interferometer but having a rear mirror with high reflectivity,...

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

Rolling shutter artifacts are distortions or visual anomalies that can occur in images or videos captured by cameras with...

A means of illumination from which the infrared component has been removed by absorption or reflection filters within the...

A spectroscopic technique that combines the high chemical specificity of Raman scattering and signal sensitivity provided by...

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

First stated by Abbe, condition states that the ratio of input and output angles, from object point to image point, for two...

A colorless, crystalline compound whose low refractive index (n = 1.38) makes it effective as a lens antireflection coating...

A microscope that can be used to observe and magnify microscope specimens while they are being centrifuged. The objective...

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

1. A compound lens consisting of two elements. If there is an air space between the elements it is called an...

The mean square difference in refractive index for two separate points in space.

A pair of stars (double star) that can be seen separately with a telescope, generally by setting a filar micrometer for the...

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

A self-interference effect that generates random patterns; secondary speckle pattern (SSP) typically occurs in diffuse...

The area in a 2-D or 3-D microdisplay viewer within which the eye can move and still see the entire image.

A process in which a mixture of one or more monomers, plus a catalyst, polymerize under exposure to light radiation....

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

A plasma accelerator is a type of particle accelerator that uses electric fields and magnetic fields to accelerate charged...

Spectra can be conveniently recorded on photographic film or plates. The portions that are occupied by regions of the...

An X-Y electrically addressable series of arrays with individual electron emitters bombarding a phosphor-coated transparent...

The study of crystal growth from the molten stage utilizing a holographic system wherein interferometric techniques record...

A crystalline semiconductor alloy used as the light confinement layer in both single- and double-heterostructure diode...

An instrument used to measure the change of heat content of a system by measuring microwave power in terms of generated heat.

A matrix-controlled display that has no information storage at the display surface.

An instrument consisting essentially of a photoelectric cell filtered to respond to a specified wavelength region, an...

The function that characterizes the quality of an optical system by denoting the modulation and spatial phase shift of the...

Two essential pieces of equipment used in connection with the microfilming process: a camera capable of producing, on film,...

A strand of aramid yarn, steel or fiberglass in an optical cable intended to prevent bending or stretching that would damage...

The Casimir force is a quantum phenomenon that results in an attractive force between two closely spaced uncharged...

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

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

The recorded interference pattern formed by the interference of two sound beams.

An instrument designed to measure the refractive power and range of accommodation of the eye. See ophthalmic instruments.

The restricting opening at the rear of a lens or prism that is commonly defined as the maximum diameter of the emergent cone...

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

A combination of components arranged so as to perform at least one function.

A positive after-image that is maintained for a minute or more.

A crystalline substance in which all planes are parallel, or approximately parallel.

A neuromorphic vision sensor is a type of imaging device designed to mimic the structure and functioning of the human visual...

A holographic grating is a type of diffraction grating that is produced using holographic recording techniques. It consists...

An electron lens consisting of a homogeneous axial electric field and a magnetic field used in high-quality image tubes for...

Process that occurs when a polymerized soft plastic rod with higher refractive index is placed in a bath of a lower...

A computer whose architecture contains several CPU chips arranged in parallel. Often used in image processing systems.

The testing by hypothesizing a likely crystal structure, computing a test x-ray diffraction pattern and comparing this to...

A laser capable of generating light pulses that last only a few femtoseconds. This can be achieved by nonlinear filtering to...

Laser light show effects equipment including optics and mechanical devices that reflect, position or distort the laser beam,...

A closed-loop system that is constantly adjusted in response to input signals generated within the system.

The photographic image of a thin specimen having a radioactive isotope that, formed through contact between the specimen and...

The intermolecular attraction between two surfaces, as between a substrate and a coating; it is an important factor in the...

The condition in a multimode optical waveguide in which the relative power distribution among the propagating modes is...

A device that permits the adjustment of facsimile transmitters and recorders so that their scanning lines stop and start at...

A system of elements which rotates the optical image with respect to the optical axis by a factor of pi radians.

In a laser, the voltage necessary to sustain a constant operating current, somewhat less than that needed for start-up.

Characteristic of an object so small in size or so fine in structure that it cannot be seen by the unaided eye. A...

A container designed to hold recording material (film, video- and audiotape) so that when it is loaded into a recording...

1. The use of an electronic microdensitometer to measure points of equal density on a photographic deposit. 2. A technique...

In a dual-ring local area network, a node that is connected only to the primary, active ring and not to the secondary ring...

An optical interference technique widely utilized as a method of nondestructive testing when determining the ray deflection...

A cathode-ray tube in which secondary emission electrons form a display of high intensity.

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 mixed-signal oscilloscope (MSO) is a type of electronic test instrument that combines the capabilities of both a...

A substance that increases a material's sensitivity to electromagnetic irradiation. In photodynamic therapy, a drug used to...

A laser using a dye solution as its active medium. Its output is a short pulse of broad spectral content and its achievable...

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

The emission of a photon by the return of an excited carrier from the conduction band to the valence band of a semiconductor...

Quantitative phase imaging (QPI) is an advanced imaging technique used in microscopy to measure and analyze the optical...

The Weissenberg method, named after the German physicist Karl Weissenberg, is a technique used in x-ray crystallography for...

Microscopy technique to convert the phase structure of the wave transmitted or reflected by the specimen into a...

Also called calcite. A natural hexagonal crystal of calcium carbonate. It cleaves readily into rhomboids useful in the study...

Distortion of the high frequencies of a signal. In television, the term generally applies to frequencies above the 15.7 kHz...

The process by which a vitreous or amorphous substance forms a crystal structure at a specified temperature.

Fizeau fringes are interference fringes observed in an interferometer, specifically in a Fizeau interferometer. The Fizeau...

Hypothetical observer having standard color vision as described by standard color-matching properties.

An instrument used to measure the light from a scene to be photographed and to indicate the camera lens and shutter settings...

That object distance at which a camera must be focused so that the far depth of field just extends to infinity. The near...

A naturally occurring crystalline mineral that has the property of polarizing transmitted light. It is little used now that...

The process of transferring collected energy from solar radiation into a heat-absorbing medium (e.g., an insulated tank of...

The use of photographs -- motion picture or still -- to establish if a particular event exists.

The constant equal to the unit stress divided by unit deformation, relative to all values and a substance's proportional...

A lamp that has mercury in a tube or bulb that has first been evacuated. The electricity travels through the vapor between...

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

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

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

In chemistry, a device in which a chemical reaction takes place. In electronics, a device that introduces reactance into a...

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

A type of streak camera that uses film wrapped around a drum, which moves at a constant speed to record the changing shape...

Medical diagnostic (x-ray) imaging using laser printers to produce high-resolution digital hard copy instead of film exposed...

An optical wedge of very small angles that admits light while sealing out moisture and dirt and that may be rotated to...

The study of highly ionized gases. Many phenomena not exhibited by uncharged gases are associated with plasma physics.

A general term referring to the situation in which an image is not a true-to-scale reproduction of an object. The term also...

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

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

A communications system that can transmit in only a single direction at a time. See duplex.

1. The combination of the effects of two or more stimuli in any given sense to form a single sensation. With respect to...

An optical matrix that does not require perfection in both states of the crosspoint, so that all the optical switches can be...

A close-up lens, semicircular in shape, that is mounted in front of a conventional lens focused at infinity. The result is...

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

The Lorentz oscillator model is a theoretical model used in physics to describe the response of a charged particle (such as...

The vertical angular disparity between the lines of sight of the left and right systems in a binocular instrument....

A form of mirage where objects near or just below the horizon appear in enlarged or distorted form because of atmospheric...

Diamond turning refers to a precision machining process used to produce complex optical components, particularly lenses and...

An aberration of a lens system caused by an increase in lens focal length as the field angle increases. The amount of...

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

An absorbing coating medium between fibers, used in some fused fiber optic plates to absorb unwanted light. Such coatings...

A lamp that emits light when an electric current passes through a resistant metallic wire situated in a vacuum tube.

A microscope equipped with a polarizer, an analyzer and a Bertrand lens to focus on the upper focal plane of the objective....

In general, changes in one oscillation signal caused by another, such as amplitude or frequency modulation in radio which...

Computer hardware or firmware that accesses character patterns stored in read-only memory and displays them at specific...

A photometric instrument having two prisms clamped in optical contact to produce a photometric field with an acute dividing...

Radiographic recording and enhancement of the micoscopic details within the structure of thin specimens at a high...

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

A gauge designed to measure high degrees of vacuum. It consists of a glass bulb attached to the vacuum vessel, the...

The procedure by which the similarity of an optical signal or waveform to a reference-stored signal or waveform is...

A modified form of an image-retaining panel that can be used in subdued daylight. This is achieved by adding a layer of zinc...

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

A special-purpose polarimeter having a scale calibrated directly in the concentration of sugar in the test solution.

A term variously applied to remote sensing techniques that essentially refers to all parametric conditions that influence...

The superposition of satellite or aerial images with a map in order to process and remove distortion. Uses reference points...

1. In visual perception, the minimum value of stimulus that can be perceived on the average. 2. In optical detection...

A method of data multiplexing that can provide large, instantaneous bandwidths for busy traffic while permitting slow...

An instrument capable of measuring the transmitted or reflected luminance from a very small area seen under a microscope....

In biaxial crystals, the principal angle that bisects the smaller angle between the optic axes.

Operation in which the dispersion of a pulse limits the distance between repeaters in optical systems. Waveguide and...

A type of fatigue found in optical fibers, caused by water or another corroding agent.

Reciprocal magnetic interaction between nuclei in a molecular system facilitated by the binding electrons of the molecule.

In the optical field, a tube to which a lens is fastened for centering.

Production of a repeated image of a transmitted beam through a diffractive optical element such as a holographic card or...

A method of producing magnified images by x-rays. The specimen is placed close to a point source of x-rays; the...

The use of atoms, molecules and molecular-scale structures to enhance existing technology and develop new materials and...

A mode in an optical waveguide whose fields are transversely oscillatory everywhere external to the waveguide. It exists...

The field of view (FOV) refers to the extent of the observable world or the visible area that can be seen at any given...

Two plane mirrors that are not wholly located in the same plane. When light from a point source or slit reflects from the...

A phonon is a quantum of vibrational energy associated with the periodic motion of atoms or molecules in a crystalline...

Also known as the Wiener spectrum or the noise power spectrum, the optical power spectrum is a fundamental quantity in...

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

The grinding and polishing of rock samples, to a thickness of less than 0.05 mm, for study with petrographic microscopes....

Fiber optic cable bearing many fibers independently sheathed and capable of carrying unrelated signals. They often surround...

A crimped metal cylinder that holds the connector to the cable through the cable's strength member.

That portion of physics concerned with motion in the abstract, such as of points or space figures, and separated from its...

1. Voltage at which a PN junction begins to pass a current. 2. In a solid-state lamp, the voltage at which light is first...

Characteristic of a surface or object that has luminous flux incident upon it.

An instrument that spectrally analyzes the flux reflected from a material. The reflected flux may be total, diffuse or...

CID, or charge injection device, camera refers to a type of imaging device that utilizes a specific kind of solid-state...

Infrared optics refer to optical components and systems designed to manipulate and control infrared (IR) light, which lies...

The normal condition of vision where an object at infinity is in sharp focus with the eye lens in a neutral or relaxed state.

A Risley prism, also known as a Risley prism pair or Risley rotating prism, is an optical device used for controlling the...

A method of manufacturing polycrystalline infrared-transmitting optical fiber by heating a single halide crystal billet and...

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

Total number of characters available to each position of a digital numeric system.

A laser that has a surface-emitting semiconductor gain element coupled to an external mirror designed to complete the laser...

A lens or lens system used to transfer a real image from one point within an optical system to another, with or without...

A microbubble resonator is a device used in photonics and optical physics for the precise manipulation of light waves. It...

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

Azimuthal polarization refers to a specific polarization state of light where the electric field vector of the...

Cold atoms refer to atoms that have been cooled to extremely low temperatures, typically in the microkelvin (µK) to...

A gas lamp used in the early 1900s as a physical standard for measurement of luminous intensity. The Hefner unit was...

Any problem that requires retrieval of the distribution of some internal properties, such as temperature concentration,...

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

Spherical aberration is an optical aberration that occurs when light rays passing through a lens or curved optical surface...

Also known as OCT-A, optical coherence tomography angiography is an imaging technique that uses light waves to measure...

A technique for measuring the concentration of any gases. Identical infrared beams are alternately chopped, one passing...

That distortion resulting from dispersion of the group velocity of a propagating mode. It is the only distortion occurring...

Photon flow created by imaging of light into a detector array; IPD is the electrical signal used by the image processor in a...

A small telescope mounted on a tripod and free to rotate about a vertical axis. A spirit level is mounted over the telescope...

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

Generally, any radiation that can form ions, either directly or indirectly, while traveling through a substance.

A process, either naturally occurring or mechanically induced, whereby water is changed from its liquid state into a vapor.

A facility selected by mutual agreement of the user and the prospective vendor to test a prototype before it is offered for...

A semiconductor platelet laser that emits a coherent image by means of plane optical pumping over the platelet surface, and...

A means of adjusting the sharpness of an image automatically, with a sensor for estimating distance or contrast and a drive...

The greatest luminous transmittance possible for a specified chromaticity.

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

Linear optics refers to the study and manipulation of light in a linear and deterministic manner, where the response of...

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

MWIR stands for mid-wave infrared, referring to a specific range of wavelengths within the infrared spectrum. Infrared...

In considering a field of electromagnetic energy emanating from a source, the wavefront is a surface connecting all field...

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

A single-particle scattering technique in which an incident laser beam is tightly focused by means of lenses to yield a...

Factor that relates the pulse spread occurring in a graded-index fiber to that of an equivalent step-index fiber having an...

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

An instrument used for video or computer data storage in which a laser optical head is used to write digital information...

Glass containing small quantities of neodymium oxide that is used as a filter plate in color television or as a lasing...

A photoelectrically controlled, alphanumeric reading device that converts characters to audible or sorting signals which can...

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

Average wavelength usually determined for light-transmitting devices by taking a weighted average for each wavelength of the...

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

The growth of particular grain fragments in a metal or alloy, at the expense of others, that occurs when the metal or alloy...

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

The value equal to the raster height divided by the half-period of a periodic test pattern.

The angle at which photoelectric sensors are aligned to prevent light from being reflected back to the sensor from the...

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

A system of modular mechanical components for building precision optical systems. The basic equipment includes a variety of...

Structured illumination microscopy (SIM) is an advanced optical imaging technique used in microscopy to enhance the...

A fiber optic spectrometer is a device used for measuring the spectral content of light. It utilizes optical fibers to...

A photodetector composed of a photoconductive material that, when exposed to radiation, conducts without the aid of added...

Radiation emitted from vibrating charged particles. A combination of oscillating electrical and magnetic fields that...

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

A salt of formic acid that can be used to enhance the photosensitivity of silver halide crystals.

Type of solid-state display tube in which the readout surface is coated with a material that changes color when positively...

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

Fine lines, wires or threads used in the focal plane of many optical instruments to point out and locate particular objects...

An instrument devised by Nichols and Hull for use in the measurement of radiation pressure. The device has two small...

Abbreviated PAI. An imaging modality with a hybrid technique based on the acoustic detection of optical absorption from...

The use of photographs taken from the air to construct graphic maps and charts of ground surfaces.

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

In digital data transmission, the separation of the two binary states into output at two frequencies.

The system of color classification and description produced by Wilhelm Ostwald.

Solid-state laser geometry in which the standard rod is replaced by a slab of laser material. Often called...

A type of internal focusing in which only the lens elements closest to the rear of the lens barrel are moved.

In image processing, a morphology operator in which a structuring element or probe of a particular shape is moved over the...

A rear or front projection screen composed of minute optical surfaces that introduce a spread to the light beam that...

The end of an optical fiber farthest from the source of illumination.

Optical materials refer to substances or compounds specifically chosen for their optical properties and used in the...

A pulsed interferometer that permits the continuous quantitative mapping of the surface deformation of an adaptive optical...

Any of the photoelectric and thermal detectors, spectrographs and monochromators, thermographs, scanners, amplifier tubes,...

Ferroelectric materials are a type of dielectric materials that exhibit spontaneous electric polarization, meaning they...

A 30-60-90° spectrograph prism that is coated on the surface opposite the 60° angle with a reflecting film.

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

An optical storage product that can be used for playback only.

A film or plate that is usually coated on both sides with a very fast emulsion that is sensitive to x-rays, and used to...

Spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS) is a technique that extends traditional Raman spectroscopy by incorporating...

A material's ability to undergo plastic deformation, specifically elongation, without fracturing.

A device that calibrates the size, position or distance of objects imaged on a video screen.

A device used to maintain near-absolute temperatures for experimental procedures.

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

A straight line, real or imaginary, passing through a body and indicating its center; a line so positioned that various...

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

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

The multiple beam form of Brewster's fringes formed when the two plane-parallel plates have high-reflecting surfaces.

A computer-generated routine for achieving true-temperature readings in thermal infrared imaging systems.

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

Description of an optical system in which all the elements are aligned on the same axis.

A lens intended for use with wavelengths shorter than about 380 nm. It must be made of quartz, calcium fluoride, lithium...

A type of fiber optic sensor that detects alteration in position, distance, pressure, liquid level or temperature by...

A method of analysis in which a pulsed laser beam is used to heat a particle, producing a plasma, or laser spark. As the...

Mie scattering, named after the German physicist Gustav Mie, refers to the scattering of electromagnetic radiation (such as...

A resonator often used for mode control in Fresnel number laser cavities that is highly vulnerable to extremely weak...

An optical mounting device that permits adjustment around two perpendicular and intersecting axes of rotation.

The organ of vision or light sensitivity.

The physical distance, measured along the optical axis, from the object to the image. Also called overall length.

An imaging technique used in radiology that is based on the principles of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to produce...

A fluorophore is a molecule or a portion of a molecule that has the ability to emit light upon excitation by an external...

Conductor element for use in integrated electro-optic systems that measures current flowing through it.

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

The probability that an atom in one state will move spontaneously to a lower state within a given unit of time.

A sensitometer having a continuously controlled monochromator to measure spectral sensitivity and contrast of photographic...

The physical length of the light path in a substance divided by the refractive index of that substance. See also equivalent...

A blackbody source, often simply referred to as a blackbody, is a theoretical or practical physical object that absorbs all...

A family of specialized instruments used by ophthalmologists and optometrists to study a patient's eyes and prescribe...

The minimum of change in stimulation needed to effect an awareness of change in sensation that is statistically determined.

The three-dimensional interference pattern of fringes that is recorded on a holographic plate to facilitate the study of a...

A doped or absorbing transparent medium cut or molded into a wedge in order to measure the real and imaginary components of...

The methods used to determine the extinction characteristics of a medium.

Collisional absorption of energy that occurs in inertial confinement fusion systems when hydrodynamic expansion of the...

A double-plate device used to transmit polarized light and form interference fringes of the light, thus indicating its...

A vibrational transition refers to a change in the vibrational energy of a molecule. Molecules consist of atoms that are...

The ongoing expansion of the universe based on observations of the recession of distant galaxies from each other as...

1. Calculated distance between two exactly opposed points on a beam at a chosen fraction of peak power (typically 1/e2). 2....

Light diffusion refers to the process by which light is scattered or spread out in various directions as it interacts with a...

A photofluorescent compound that, when used with a scintillating substance, absorbs photons and emits related photons having...

A solid with a structure that exhibits a basically symmetrical and geometrical arrangement. A crystal may already possess...

An aptamer is a short, single-stranded DNA or RNA molecule that can bind to a specific target molecule with high affinity...

Qualitatively, the inverse of the amount of velocity produced by the application of a sinusoidal force to a system;...

Optical design and engineering services involve the development, customization, and optimization of optical systems and...

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

Terahertz (THz) refers to a unit of frequency in the electromagnetic spectrum, denoting waves with frequencies between 0.1...

The study and the interpretation of the infrared emittances of celestial bodies and phenomena.

Made up of three components; for instance yttrium, aluminum and garnet (YAG).

A bulk crystalline optic which permits the propagation of light through a volume of index altered material. The variation in...

A crystal defect that is a combination of a vacancy and an interstitial created by the removal of an ion from a lattice and...

The recording of patterns by the production and use of latent electrostatic charge patterns. See electrostatic process.

Radiography using the emission of gamma rays to form an image of the structure penetrated by the radiation.

The perception of visual stimuli at the left and right outer boundaries of the visual field.

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

A microcircuit whose passive components consist of a ceramic-metal combination deposited on a given substrate by screening...

An optical barcode reader, commonly known as a barcode scanner, is a device that uses optical technology to capture and...

An atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) is an analytical instrument used to determine the concentration of specific chemical...

Substances that exhibit the characteristics of both acids and bases and are capable of both P- and N-type conductivity.

A lens that is symmetrical and designed to work between 1:1 and about 4:1. It covers a field of about ±20° at f/8...

An instrument with a fluid that modulates a light beam traversing it because of the effect of ultrasonic waves passing...

1. An undulation or vibration; a form of movement by which all radiant energy of the electromagnetic spectrum is estimated...

The fluorescent emission spectrum emitted by certain substances following the irradiation of one of these substances with...

The line that divides the two half-images in a coincidence rangefinder. The two halves of the images formed by the two...

A scale located on the eyepiece focusing screw and used to measure the amount of defocusing of the eyepiece in diopters. The...

An operational mode for radiometers that analogs the method of operation of an angstrom pyrheliometer. In this mode, the...

A GaAlAs laser is a type of semiconductor laser diode that emits light in the near-infrared region of the electromagnetic...

A double-surfaced catadioptric spherical mirror whose spherical first surface consists of a negative meniscus (concave) lens...

A term pertaining to devices (generally optical) designed for use with both eyes viewing through a single exit pupil. The...

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

An optical data storage device that permits the user to store data (write) and play it back (read), but not to erase or...

Characteristic of the relationship between photoelectric activity and the wavelength of incident radiation.

Also known as RAMP microscopy, random access multiphoton microscopy is a microscopic technique that uses multiple...

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

In television system specifications, the number of parallel horizontal black and white lines of equal thickness, that can be...

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

Any systemic process that ultimately reassembles all the system's components into their initial alignment, or an arrangement...

Mode hopping in the context of lasers refers to a phenomenon where a laser system abruptly switches from one longitudinal...

Ability of a laser to resist variations in output power caused when it is slowly rotated about its optical or symmetrical...

The perceived brightness of an object being viewed at some distance, especially through an optical instrument.

A wireless stereo imaging device used in conjunction with a monitor to produce a virtual interactive environment. Liquid...

1. A term used to describe the clouded appearance of an incompletely polished surface that scatters light. 2. The...

1. A contour map of a photographic deposit consisting of lines and curves that join points of equal density. 2. The...

The bands found by Vegard in the spectrum of the aurora borealis and by Kaplan in the nitrogen afterglow. They are formed by...

In data communications, the instrumentation connecting two stations: transmitters, receivers and the cable that runs between...

A terahertz spectrometer is a scientific instrument used to measure and analyze the properties of materials in the terahertz...

Also known as Fresnel reflection. That portion of the incident radiation that is reflected from the surface of a refractive...

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

Thin-film coating, single or multilayer, that is applied to a substrate to increase its reflectance over a specified range...

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

A type of telescope mount that permits direct azimuth and elevation adjustments.

A coating that is capable of stopping the condensation of moisture on an optical surface.

The range of frequencies over which a particular instrument is designed to function within specified limits. See also fiber...

A thin layer of metal deposited on the surface of a substrate. The film may serve as a reflector, beamsplitter, neutral...

The study of the optical properties of living tissue. Increased understanding of the behavior of light in this varied,...

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

A projector used to project transparencies. A horizontal 8 x 10-in. stage for writing or laying down preformed...

A device used to investigate the dichroism of crystals.

A system used for measuring direct solar radiation.

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

A system that transmits and receives identification codes to facilitate the discrimination between enemy and friend in a...

A lens aberration that causes a flat object surface to be imaged onto a curved surface rather than a plane.

Multiple exposures of holograms, one for each position of a vibrating image, that are used for vibration analysis and that...

E.I. duPont's trade name for a material used in the jacket of fiber optic cables. It is flame-retardant, thermally stable...

Photographic recording that uses infrared radiation as the light source to form an image of a microscopic object and a...

An accurately produced hole of any size and shape that is used as a masking device in an optical system. Pinhole apertures...

A method of demonstration or examination using a point source illumination without the use of any projection lens between...

A device, such as a thermionic or crystal diode, that is introduced into the vision channel of a television receiver to...

Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) refers to a technology that converts heat energy into electricity using the principles of...

Primary image memory that is built into a digital camera and stores the digital images generated by the camera's image...

The product of Avogadro's constant and the electrical charge of an electron; thus, the electrical charge carried by 1 gmol...

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

Operation in which the minimum detectable signal has its limits set by the thermal noise of the detector, the load...

A porous ceramic substance that is ground to a given optical form and on which a polished plate of glass is sagged by heat...

An optical system that rapidly alternates two similar pictures or scenes to permit the detection of small dissimilarities...

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

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

A ray that has a nonisotropic speed in a doubly refracting crystal. It does not necessarily obey Snell's law upon refraction...

A camera system for recording lightning.

The study and utilization of interference phenomena, based on the wave properties of light.

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

A lens used in the optical testing of an aspheric surface. It converts a spherical wavefront into one that precisely matches...

A specialized form of diffraction grating consisting of assembled glass plates of equal thickness that resemble a flight of...

Optical cements and adhesives are specialized materials used in the assembly and bonding of optical components in optical...

Photogrammetry is a technique used to obtain accurate three-dimensional measurements of objects and environments through the...

An optical system used to examine the pharynx.

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

A device utilizing an electron beam for the observation and recording of submicroscopic samples with the aid of photographic...

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

A double block formed by placing two adjoining, equally thick sections of quartz, one being dextrorotary, the other...

A set of international standards by which a single telecommunications channel is used to transmit voice and data...

A spectrometer equipped with polarizing prisms and retardation plates that is used in the analysis of elliptically polarized...

The base used to hold an astronomical telescope. It may be either altazimuth, with horizontal and vertical axes of rotation,...

Any source that emits radiation of wavelengths between 100 and 300 nm. Instruments used to study these sources must be...

A complicated constant linked with the electron theory of the Faraday and Kerr effect. It demonstrates a specific value for...

The stationary state of an ion, atom or molecule, above the ground state that is produced by the interaction with the...

A device used to alter the shape of or energy distribution within a beam of radiation.

An evacuated, double-walled container for storing liquids at low temperatures. Often made of glass, the vessel resembles a...

Opsins are a group of light-sensitive proteins found primarily in the retinas of vertebrate and invertebrate eyes, as well...

A prism system designed to produce a very high dispersion of light.

Glass designed to absorb most infrared and ultraviolet radiation while transmitting most of the visible region.

A rotating disc that holds several lenses of differing focal length about a diameter. Used to switch lenses in a system...

An optical reflector with the reflective coating applied to the front surface of the substrate. This eliminates the ghost...

The photographing of a scene from positions corresponding to the locations of both eyes. A viewing device is used to present...

The nonthermal conversion of electrical energy into light in a liquid or solid substance. The photon emission resulting from...

The distance between the last vertex of a lens and the image.

An optical cable that is connector terminated. Generally, an optical cable that has been terminated by a manufacturer and is...

Pyramid error in optics refers to an aberration in the shape of an optical surface, particularly in the context of mirrors....

A pinhole camera used to record a radioactive tracer's distribution in a subject by means of a scintillation counter or a...

See color perception test equipment; eye test apparatus.

An electric filter that is characterized by a passband of the flattest possible shape.

Variations in a signal passing through an optical fiber caused by the effect on the pulse of the fiber's material and mode...

In coherent optical communications systems, a laser used at the receiving end to produce a steady wave that is combined with...

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

Photoconductive antenna (PCA) is a semiconductor element that generates or detects high-frequency electromagnetic signals....

Multiple, interconnected circuit elements, contained on or in a common substrate, that function as a unit and not separately.

A defect of natural quartz crystals in which both the right and left quartz are in the same crystal.

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

An imaging device whose technology contributes three specific advantages: ability to study large solid specimens that...

An electro-optical infrared tracker consisting of a beamsplitter, an illuminating source, an image dissector tube and an...

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

A CMOS image sensor, short for complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor image sensor, is a type of semiconductor device used...

Measures by heterodyning interferometry the local slope of a vibrating sample. The method allows the reconstruction of a...

Zone of laser operation in which the direct, reflected or scattered light exceeds the laser's MPE and (by ANSI standards)...

A type of laser spectroscopy used to measure short-lived isotopes by observing sudden bursts of fluorescence resulting from...

The physical area containing an assembly of computer graphics equipment for presenting generated images and allowing...

A gas laser wherein the gas mixture is not exhausted into the atmosphere but is continually recycled. It is excited in the...

An instrument for detecting or measuring small electric currents.

Designed for the function of optical wavefront analysis. Shack-Hartmann camera aberration sensors use a lens array to image...

The letter form used on visual performance test charts. The overall letter height is equal to five times the thickness of...

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

A material used to jacket fiber optic cables. It is chemical- and moisture-resistant, but not fire-resistant.

The characteristics of a material that determine its tendency to flow.

In fiber optics, the limitation on performance imposed by the system bandwidth rather than the amplitude of the signal.

Enhanced picture archiving and communication system (PACS) display (ePAD) is a software tool used in medical imaging to...

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

A reticle, also known as a reticule or graticule, is a pattern or set of markings placed in the focal plane of an optical...

A method for characterizing a fiber wherein an optical pulse is transmitted through the fiber, and the resulting light...

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

Radiation emitted by electrons when they travel in circular orbits at speeds close to that of light. Synchrotron radiation...

In fiber optics, the limitation on performance imposed by the amplitude of a received signal rather than distortion.

Commonly known as CR39, this thermosetting plastic is used in the casting of eyeglass lenses because of its toughness and...

Superresolution refers to the enhancement or improvement of the spatial resolution beyond the conventional limits imposed by...

In optics, a motion controller refers to a device or system that precisely controls the movement of optical components, such...

A technique for detecting free radicals by their electronic spectra. The material to be studied is placed in a...

A grating with very coarse rulings to match the long wavelengths in the far-infrared region. In the most efficient ruling...

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

A method of storing digital data using techniques that consume less memory space than basic methods do. See differential...

A shutter consisting of a ring of interweaving blades that open outward and allow light to pass when they are pivoted at...

Laser ablation is a process that involves the removal or erosion of material from a target surface using laser energy. This...

An electronic device used to encode video and audio signals of a television camera into radio waves that are broadcast to...

In a liquid crystal system, the director refers to the local symmetry axis around which the long range order of the liquid...

A crystal that is characterized by its relatively poor electrical conductance.

A test used to measure the degree of fading of different colored materials, especially those involving organic dyes, which...

The fine scratches formed when, in hand centering, the forked stick used to move the lens on the chuck marks the rotating...

A technique for observing the decay of light emissions from sources following their pulsed excitations, based on recording...

A valve that serves to release air into an evacuated system.

A system of Japanese origin that utilizes Fresnel lenses and a fiber optic network to transmit sunlight to otherwise...

An instrument for measuring the diameter of the human eye pupil.

The ratio of the illuminance at the peak of the diffraction pattern of an aberrated point image to that at the peak of an...

An electro-optic system using, in general form, an evacuated glass envelope with a semitransparent photocathode at one end...

A graph used in photography to portray the increase of a film's density as its time of exposure increases.

The limited light-gathering area of an optical system. The area is normally restricted to an edge or outer surface of an...

An instrument or system capable of both transmitting and receiving a signal.

An assembly of multiple prisms that disperses incident light into its spectral components without deviating light at the...

A V-shaped channel pressed or etched into a substrate, in which, for example, optical fibers may be placed to create an...

A crystal of microscopic size having no definite plane faces and having a globular shape. At the time the crystal is formed,...

In atmospheric optics, the almost total blocking of light transmission in the atmosphere due to the scattering and...

An old name for the rotating arm moving about an axis of rotation over a divided circle used to measure angles. Now the term...

One or more spots placed in the field of view of an optical system to provide a means of reference.

The point on an elliptical orbit about the Earth that is the farthest distance from the Earth.

The technology of manipulating light on a micro scale. In optical communications, this is usually accomplished using two or...

An instrument that serves to produce an enlarged electron image on a fluorescent screen by focusing an infrared image of a...

When a stereo pair of images is switched so that the right eye sees the left image and the left eye the right, the stereo...

Radiance per unit wavelength interval at a given wavelength, expressed in watts per steradian per unit area per wavelength...

An established point on which the observer's eye is focused.

In the context of materials science and semiconductor physics, doping refers to the intentional introduction of impurities...

A colorimeter using a spinning disc made of different colored sections for colorimetric analysis.

A very uncommon lamp in which a tungsten electrode is heated to incandescence by a radio-frequency electrical current.

Extensive data storage in the form of bits, with the use of high-resolution photographic materials and optics, and generally...

A method used in surface quality testing for accurate positioning and rotation of metal spheres about an axis or fixed point...

A waveguide that has a core with a lower refractive index than the refractive index of the cladding. This structure can...

Spectroscopy characterized by the Mossbauer effect - recoilless emission and absorption of nuclear gamma radiation- which...

A mount that uses a floating suspension and a motor-driven gyroscope to keep a motion picture or still camera at a set angle...

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

A camera that permits adjustments in the perspective of an image; this is accomplished by the camera design, which permits...

A deliberately nonlinear amplitude modulation that strengthens weak signals and reduces strong signals for transmission.

Van der Waals forces refer to the attractive or repulsive forces between molecules (or parts of molecules) that arise from...

The principal point of a lens relative to the object space.

The optical form of the crystal fluorspar, calcium fluoride, that is utilized for its low optical dispersion, its low...

An instrument used to test lenses by utilizing the optical transfer function. It consists of a HeNe laser, a beamsplitter...

A microscope to which a beamsplitter and illuminated reticle have been added to measure the radius of curvature of a...

That property of a substance that determines that there will be a decrease in conductivity when exposed to light radiation.

A structural method of optical character recognition, used where the input media are variable, as in hand-written or...

The angle between a light ray emerging from an optical system and the optical axis of that system.

A frame taken with a CCD camera of a surface that is evenly illuminated by diffuse light. This frame shows irregularities in...

An electrophoretic display, often referred to as an electronic paper display or e-paper display, is a type of electronic...

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

A system of sensors and related instrumentation that allows a navigable object (usually a missile) to locate its destination...

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

The ability of an electrical current to destroy superconductivity by means of the magnetic field generated by the current....

The projection of the image beam by a cathode-ray tube through a mask, where it is deflected through the suitable character...

A glass that is heated, then chilled (usually by an air blast) to set up internal stresses so that the surfaces are under...

A laser warning and countermeasure system containing a sensor that indicates the direction of a laser beam, and analytical...

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

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

An arc lamp that has its cavity filled with krypton to produce a light source with unique characteristics.

A filter that passes a series of wavelength regions that are at equal distances from one another, such that its output...

A thin-film device containing miniature optical components connected via optical waveguides on a transparent dielectric...

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

A disc composed of a series of holographic optical elements that diffract light at various angles. When spinning, a raster...

Carrier injection refers to the process of introducing charge carriers (either electrons or holes) into a semiconductor...

The use of lasers in tailoring of such components as thin-film resistors. The process improves speed and accuracy.

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

A system that uses the heat from a pulsed laser to weld metals. Because of the rapidity and localization in which the...

The series of rings or bands formed when light beams reflected from two polished, adjacent surfaces, placed together with a...

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

The measurable leakage of optical energy from one optical conductor to another. Also known as optical coupling.

Liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) is a display technology that combines liquid crystal materials with silicon-based...

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

A telescope similar to the customary Cassegrain telescope, but having a primary mirror that is ellipsoidal and a secondary...

In a semiconductor, the state created by the addition of a dopant that creates excess holes.

A photon-counting instrument for use in both space-borne and ground-based photometric and spectroscopic instrumentation....

The ability of the human eye to adjust itself to an alteration in the intensity of light.

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

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

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

A prism produced by severing a Nicol prism and reconstructing the polarization angles of the two halves so that they are...

1. A method of photographing distant objects with a lens of long focal length. 2. The reproduction of photographs over a...

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

A camera accurately aligned to a weapons system to provide a photographic record of system performance.

The ratio of the intensities of two specified spectral lines of a source having vastly different excitation energies. This...

A measure of the closeness with which an optical image is capable of resembling the original object. The factors that affect...

An instrument used to test the hardness of various materials. It measures the pressure on a standard point that is necessary...

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

A camera system in which the image formed on the fluorescent screen of an image converter tube in the system is recorded by...

The use of thin flexible glass or plastic fibers as wave guides — or "light pipes" — to channel light from one...

Device consisting of a laser diode, beam-correcting optics and collimating optics in a single housing. Also called a...

A method of producing an essentially constant output signal from an electronic circuit despite variations in the strength of...

A family of lenses commonly used in scan systems for reading or printing documents. The lens must be designed such that the...

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

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

The law stating that the brightness of an object that is examined through a slotted disc, rotating over a critical...

A measuring instrument composed of a microscope and reticle, and mounted on a calibrated slide mechanism. May be used...

The vertical or horizontal distance between two addressable points on a display screen; indicates the basic resolution...

The process of grinding the toric surface of a single vision sphero-cylindrical lens.

An electrically conductive layer for carrying off static charges that might accumulate on a surface.

A system composed of a prism spectroscope and compound microscope to provide the visual comparison of two spectra...

A spectroscopic process that detects and analyzes the discharge from an extrinsic surface with less than bandgap light. This...

In a fiber optic cable, the longitudinal length required for the transmission media, wrapped around a central member, to...

A natural or mechanical system adversely affected by the influence of laser radiation. During laser damage the common effect...

Optical surface damage due to abrasive rubbing. Abrasion damage affects are less than the thickness of the optical coating...

A nondestructive test, also referred to as LASAT, that uses a high-energy laser pulse that is targeted on an adhesively...

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

A polycrystalline material that transmits in the infrared; it is used as a phosphor in x-ray and television screens.

A type of recording in which the recording line remains fixed and the recording medium is fed past the recording device.

An instrument incorporating an infrared detector assembly, used to analyze carbon dioxide gases and in medical applications...

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

In an interferogram, an intense portion of the recording that corresponds in size to the amount of infrared radiation...

Phase contrast microscopy is an optical microscopy technique that enhances the contrast of transparent and colorless...

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

An instrument designed to produce an x-ray spectrum of a material as an aid in identifying it. This technique is...

Characteristic of optical correlators in which invariance to more than one distortion parameter per axis of the processor is...

A particle that will not normally diffuse through animal or vegetable membrane. Larger than most inorganic compounds,...

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

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

The mean square difference in a spatial parameter at points spaced a given distance.

A device, either visual or electronic, that emits signals to identify set positions for use in the navigation of aircraft...

In semiconductor physics and materials science, the term "III-V materials" refers to compounds composed of elements from...

The photographic recording of the distribution and location of radioactive substances found in a specimen. The record formed...

An optical system having one or more lens or mirror components that have nonspherical surfaces. These surfaces, whether...

The criterion maintaining that if light follows a specific path through an optical system, it will, if reversed, traverse...

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

An antigen is any substance that is capable of triggering an immune response in an organism. Antigens are typically proteins...

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

Information presented as a continuously variable relationship between a signal and a standard.

A light absorbing material applied to ground optical surfaces during the process of making that surface non reflective. Such...

Two 30° prisms that are used to produce constant deviation when rotated by equal and opposite angles.

A form of high-power microscope objective where the space between the object and the first element is filled with an oil...

The total optical power loss in a system. The loss budget is often stated in terms of the transmitted power and the power...

A rotating mirror coupled with a distant mirror and used in a system by Foucault to compute the velocity of light. Light...

Focal, nodal or principal points of a lens. If the respective distances of the object and image are measured from the...

The relation of power between center peak longitudinal mode with the nearest higher order mode.

A technique based on the principles of laser trapping and used to manipulate the position of small particles by gradually...

A photometer used to measure sky brightness and polarization associated with zodiacal light, background starlight, F-region...

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

A scanning laser radar system applied to transmission and concentration analysis in three dimensions of clouds as well as...

The natural log of the ratio of absorbed intensity over the total intensity which gives a constant value assuming a stable...

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

A light-sensitive resistor in which resistance decreases with increase in light intensity when illuminated. The device...

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

Fluorescence lifetime refers to the average time it takes for a fluorophore, a molecule that absorbs light at one wavelength...

An image that can be studied three-dimensionally through a pair of complementary color filters composed of two superimposed...

Any isolated wave that propagates without dispersion of energy. Specifically to photonics, an ultrashort pulse of laser...

A lens with aberrations corrected to the point that residual wavefront errors are substantially less than one-quarter the...

A Nernst glower, also known simply as a Nernst lamp or Nernst filament, is a type of incandescent lamp or radiant heater...

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

A single wavelength of light that matches the color of a given sample when combined in suitable proportions with white light...

A plane (through the focal point) at right angles to the principal axis of a lens or mirror; that surface on which the best...

The numerical aperture of an optical system used to couple (launch) power into an optical waveguide.

E.I. duPont's trade name for a polyester film. The most practical beamsplitter for use beyond the 15-µm wavelength...

A device used to create a light output that exceeds light input, the energy being provided by an electric field. It consists...

The smallest linear diameter to which a laser or other beam of radiant energy is capable of being focused, depending on the...

Degradation factor in coherent light systems where the amplitude of the recorded signal is decreased as the number of object...

A periodic structure formed by intersecting or superimposed laser beams. These beams can trap atoms in low-potential...

The amount of energy required to raise the energy level of an atom; a necessity if the atom is to radiate energy. High...

Diamond turning, also known as diamond machining or diamond cutting, is a precision machining process used to produce...

In microscopy, the clear distance between the specimen being viewed and the first optical element of the objective lens.

The circle of confusion is a defocused or aberrated image of a point. Focus is generally set where the diameter of this...

A high-speed motion camera, also known as a high-speed camera or slow-motion camera, is a specialized imaging device...

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

Method of preserving the measured color value and color information as it is translated from differing devices. For example...

In aerial photography, the ratio derived from a stereoscopic pair of photographs that represents the air-base length divided...

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

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

The branch of optics that deals with the study of the refraction of light, particularly by the transmitting medium of the...

The electron stream emitted by a phototube when the cathode is exposed to light.

A stationary noise that occurs for visible light photodetection when a steady light source, such as a heterodyne reference...

Turbidity is a measure of the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by the presence of suspended particles. These...

An image-forming system having curved mirrors in place of transparent glass components. Mirror lenses are commonly used for...

Laser texturing is a manufacturing process that involves using a laser beam to selectively modify the surface of a material,...

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

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

A device designed to detect microwave modulation and to mix modulated and unmodulated laser beams. It consists of a...

An etalon is an optical device that consists of two parallel reflecting surfaces separated by a precise and known distance....

An EMCCD (electron-multiplying charge-coupled device) camera is a type of scientific camera specifically designed for...

A pattern on an oscilloscope display that consists of a string of shapes that resemble eyes. Because the pattern becomes...

Quality or state of being luminous.

A perfect diffuser that exists only as a concept, or a white with known spectral characteristics used as a reference in...

A type of mosaic detector array that combines features of scanning and staring sensors by using a small rapid scanning...

A transducer is a device or component that converts one form of energy into another. It is commonly used in various fields,...

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

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

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

The measured wavelength of the most distinct edge of a spectral band.

A CCD device in which a solid-state electron multiplying register has been added to the end of the normal serial register....

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

A laser crystal, also known as an active medium or gain medium, is a solid-state material used in the construction of...

Also referred to as the width of the dark pulse. This is the time interval between the instant the particle approaches the...

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

The degree to which a vision system is capable of sensing differences in light intensity between two regions.

Radiant power emitted into a full sphere (4p steradians) by a unit area of a source; expressed in watts per square meter.

A vacuum pump in which heated oil or another substance is forced through jets as a vapor that collides with gas molecules...

Also known as radiation thermometer. A pyrometer in which the radiant intensity from the source to be measured is used to...

A plastic used in molded optical components. Styrene elements can be combined with acrylic elements to produce achromatic...

Photography involving the recording of events that occur too fast to be perceived by the human eye or recorded by...

The reciprocal of the back focal distance of a spectacle lens.

With respect to a crystal, the characteristic of possessing two ends symmetrical with each other.

Nonlinear optics is a branch of optics that studies the optical phenomena that occur when intense light interacts with a...

Small tungsten lamp used in surgical instruments such as cystoscopes, and for other purposes where space is limited.

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

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

A variation from standard physical vapor deposition (PVD) coating techniques, magnetron sputtering is a plasma coating...

A device for obtaining very low crosstalk in a crosspoint by arranging two simple switches along different arms of a passive...

Abbreviated TEA CO2 laser. A gas laser that provides shorter pulses and higher peak powers than conventional CO2 lasers. The...

The mathematical set of equations showing the relationship between oscillating electric and magnetic fields that are...

A type of filter consisting of a series of birefringent crystals and polarizers invented by French astronomer Bernard Lyot...

A design for bent crystal monochromators in which spacing is constant along any circular arc terminating at the two foci and...

Deformation of a material caused by mechanical factors, especially constant pressure, and not attributable to thermal...

Gram-positive bacteria are a group of bacteria that have a thick cell wall composed primarily of a substance called...

1. A faint second image caused by reflection that is sometimes seen when observing through an optical instrument. 2. With...

Machine vision, also known as computer vision or computer sight, refers to the technology that enables machines, typically...

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

The random noise having a spectral density that is substantially independent of the frequency over a specified frequency...

A number that indicates the magnitude of the shift in a solid of positive and negative charges in opposite directions when a...

The study of the physics of x-rays, where the x-rays exhibit properties similar to those of lightwaves. Also called Roentgen...

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 multilayer coating that manifests both a low radiant reflectance and radiant absorption.

A camera system used to form a high-precision hologram of the subject on a photographic plate. It contains a high-power...

A sapphire window refers to a transparent optical component made from sapphire crystal. Sapphire is a single-crystal form of...

A monochromator is an optical instrument used to isolate and select a narrow range of wavelengths from a broader spectrum of...

An electric arc that is formed in mercury vapor through which an electric current flows. The intensity of the illumination...

A transmission electron microscope (TEM) is a powerful microscopy technique that uses a beam of electrons to create...

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

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

An electroradiographic process that uses ionization of air by x-rays as a basis for forming electrostatic images.

The arc formed when the rare gas xenon is excited electrically and emits a brilliant white light. Xenon is used to fill...

An optical instrument that uses a yellow light of varying intensity with red and blue lights of fixed intensity to test for...

A multimode laser characteristic defined as the ratio of power loss for the second mode to that of the lowest mode.

The arrangement of two Porro prisms so that the inverted image formed by certain types of optical instruments is the same as...

A crystal that may serve as a diffraction grating if mounted effectively.

Three proportional coefficients labeled Am, Bmn, and Bnm, that respectively characterize the rate of spontaneous emission,...

The standards of MIL-O-13830 set by the US government relative to tolerable surface scratches and other such defects in an...

An instrument designed to give a visual indication to the pilot when the plane has strayed from a specific flight path.

An optical illusion in which distant objects are lighter in tone and less distinct in outline than those closer to the...

A transparent crystalline substance that is anisotropic relative to the velocity of light.

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

A surface that envelops a bundle of rays or bundle of normals to the wave surface. It may be observed as a hollow, luminous...

The production of a positron-electron pair by a photon having energy greater than one mega-electron-volt, whereby some of...

A type of birefringent filter, similar in principle to the Lyot filter, consisting of many identical birefringent elements,...

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

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

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 elimination of magnetic fields from within a material as that material makes the transition from the normal to...

The storage of data as bits in memory by holographic processes. The laser beam is divided into reference and object beams,...

A light filter that equally decreases the intensity of all wavelengths of light without altering the relative spectral...

An analog method of moving a cathode-ray tube beam across a display screen face, commonly used in high-performance vector...

The limitation on performance imposed by the distortion of a received signal rather than its amplitude or power.

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

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

Two electrodes that shift the electron beam vertically on a cathode-ray tube screen using electrostatic deflection.

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

An SI prefix meaning one billionth (10-9). Nano can also be used to indicate the study of atoms, molecules and other...

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

A technique for producing micron-size structures on surfaces by using short-wavelength light or electron beams.

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

Conduction of an electric current through a chemical compound in its natural state, solution or as a molten, to decompose...

A laser fitted with up to eight optical fibers that transmit the energy to different workstations in turn.

A graph of the intersections of a fan of rays with the final image plane, plotted as a function of the positions of the rays...

A thin layer of a substance deposited on an insulating base in a vacuum by a microelectronic process. Thin films are most...

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

The smallest amount of photon energy to pass a detector window and be counted.

A computer-generated hologram (CGH) is a holographic image produced using computational methods and algorithms, rather than...

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

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

With respect to pictorial displays, the ratio of the width to the height. The television standard in the US is 4:3....

An eyepiece consisting of a planoconvex field lens and a cemented doublet as the eye lens.

The combination of the organic dye in a stained specimen and the antibodies produced that is detected by exposure to light.

A process during which no heat enters or leaves the system.

The position and shape of the image of a point source, as predicted by geometric optics alone. The geometric image is to be...

A wave that is guided by the interface between two different media or by a refractive index gradient in the medium. The...

A form of a stereoscopic microscope having paired objectives, prisms and eyepieces, and invented by H. Greenough.

In a thermal imaging system, the smallest change in blackbody equivalent temperature that can be detected clearly by the...

An objective that uses the mineral fluorite in its construction to reduce the secondary spectrum. It is usually intermediate...

An individual circuit component, complete in itself, such as a resistor, diode, capacitor or transistor. It is used as an...

An instrument used to support optical parts to be cemented, or to be mounted in plaster.

A form of photography in which an electronic camera converts an image to an electronic signal that is stored in digital...

A device used to measure the opening time of a shutter. The most common devices depend on the charging or discharging of an...

The fundamental tool of microdensitometry, the microdensitometer is an instrument used for the precise measurement of...

In laser pumping, parasitic absorption that occurs at certain wavelengths, decreasing pump efficiency and gain.

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

A mode of data transmission whereby each bit of information is generated separately, with some stop/start code to indicate...

A transistor designed to respond to either light or electrical signals.

The plane shared by the pair of axes in a twin crystal.

Technique that uses high-pass filtering to reduce the local average to zero for all regions of the picture and then applies...

Gallium nitride (GaN) is a compound made up of gallium (Ga) and nitrogen (N). It is a wide-bandgap semiconductor material...

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

The coefficient Å in Angstrom's formula for the dispersing coefficient for dust present in the atmosphere. The formula...

The strongest light emitted by the Earth's upper atmosphere. It most often can be viewed in the Arctic as the aurora...

Stress applied to an optical fiber at a constant rate.

A mount for an optic element or optics assembly, designed so that all six degrees of freedom are singly constrained. This...

The three lines in the spectrum of cadmium that have the purest radiations and that were first used by Michelson to...

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

The material that has the lowest possible constant melting point of any possible combination of the same components.

Extremely small organic and inorganic systems of molecules within a substance. In general, systems are colloidal size in...

In the SI system, prefix meaning 10-21. (z).

A laser having a lasing material that is a fluorescing organic dye. Depending on the dye used, it can produce emission in...

Measurement of surface roughness or quality through the use of a diamond-pointed stylus connected to a coil in an electric...

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

A term used to describe a photograph, film or television picture where the values for black and white areas are at or near...

Calculation of gas and aerosol transmission and emission characteristics for several model atmospheres, including two model...

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

A type of mirage that creates a distorted vertical image of relatively flat objects so that they appear as mountains,...

A positively charged particle emitted from the nucleus of an unstable isotope, characterized by two protons and two...

The maximum distance at which the eye can perceive and evaluate objects.

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

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

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

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

A single positive lens or group of lenses used in a projection system to collect light from a source and cause it to...

The fusion frequency of flicker that is needed just to produce complete fusion and to assure the visual sensation of...

The lens of an eyepiece nearest the observer's eye.

Ultraviolet (UV) fiber optics refers to optical fibers that are designed and optimized for the transmission of ultraviolet...

The quality of asymmetrical intensity distribution in a laser beam, as opposed to a circular distribution.

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

Also known as gatling gun laser. A system that has an array of lasers sharing a common central axis on a rotating Fabry...

A type of photoelectric proximity mode sensing incorporating a lens system to focus the light from the emitter in a small,...

A device used to delay transmission of a signal for functions such as memory loops, sequential processing or built-in...

Also referred to as a funduscope, an ophthalmoscope is a specialized instrument used by ophthalmologists for observing and...

The principle stating that two diffraction screens, one being exactly the negative of the other, will form the same...

That part of the science involved in the study of the theory and interpretation of spectra that uses the unique...

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

A lithography method that allows the transfer of fine-pitch gratings from a phase mask into photoresist. The exposure takes...

The angular field of view that is seen by the eyes when fixed on a point straight ahead. The normal binocular visual field...

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is an advanced imaging technique used in microscopy to obtain high-resolution,...

A process used in pyrometry and photothermometry to create a photographic record of a surface's temperature gradients....

The unit solid angle subtended at the center of a sphere by an area on its surface equivalent to the square of the radius;...

A technique in which a beam of x-rays is directed against a crystal, the atoms of which, because of their lattice...

1. An instrument used to determine the visual range in an environment. 2. A type of photometer that artificially reduces an...

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

An excimer laser is a type of ultraviolet laser that emits short pulses of light in the ultraviolet spectrum. The term...

Graphic representation of quantified values of image quality whose points all refer to images that are of a constant...

A method of studying the chemical and physical properties of atoms and molecules (typically living tissue and chemical...

The term gradient-index profile refers to a specific type of refractive index distribution within an optical material. In...

The surface of an optical fiber that is used as a reference when joining optical fibers. Although the outermost cladding is...

In an optical waveguide, a mode whose field decays monotonically for a finite distance in the transverse direction but which...

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...

Any irregular motion, variation in intensity or change in color that arises because of atmospheric turbulence during the...

The combination of two or more signals for transmission along a single wire, path or carrier. In most optical communication...

Gallium nitride-based light-emitting diodes (GaN-based LEDs) are semiconductor devices that emit light when an electric...

The finite amount of electrical charge generated in response to incident radiation and transferred from one storage element...

A laser radar application in which a sequence of direct measurements of target position is fed into a tracking filter to...

Also known as transverse mode. The configurations of energy storage, relative to the structure of a laser resonator, that...

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

An optical combiner, in the context of optics and display technologies, refers to a device or component that combines...

An optical fiber in which the core is of uniform refractive index.

A charged elementary particle of an atom; the term is most commonly used in reference to the negatively charged particle...

In the SI system, prefix meaning 1018. (E).

A reflecting prism that is rhomboidal in shape. It has two parallel transmitting faces, and two parallel reflecting faces;...

Optical components, usually reflectors, produced using proprietary techniques that transfer the precision of a master to a...

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

With respect to a traveling plane wave at a known frequency, the space rate of decrease of phase of a field component in the...

A length that denotes the size of the unit cell in a crystal lattice. With respect to the cubic crystal, this is the length...

A term referring to an optical force field used to trap and stabilize particles acted upon by a force such as laser light.

A wedge in a rangefinder or heightfinder used to displace the image produced by one telescope so that it coincides with that...

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) equipment refers to a class of specialized apparatus used in the process of chemical vapor...

Equipment for testing an observer's color vision. Some tests require the identification or ordering of colored samples. The...

An instrument used to measure the temperature of a source through the use of photoelectric cells to detect and measure the...

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

An optical gate typically refers to a device or system that controls the transmission of light, allowing it to pass through...

The distance, on either side of the object plane focused on, through which satisfactory image definition can be obtained....

A method that embraces the classical approach to image restoration and attempts to minimize the mean square difference...

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

In a multicrystalline material, the meeting point between crystallites.

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

A diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL) is a type of laser system that uses semiconductor diode lasers to pump energy into...

The property of an optical system whereby only the effects of diffraction determine the quality of the image it produces.

High dynamic range (HDR) refers to a technology that allows for a broader and more dynamic range of luminosity in visual...

An afocal optical device made up of lenses or mirrors, usually with a magnification greater than unity, that renders distant...

An instrument capable of precise measurements of the Earth's gravity. This permits the detection of small changes in local...

A regular, periodic, geometric array of points corresponding to the positions of the atoms in a perfect crystal.

Liquid crystals are a state of matter that exhibits properties intermediate between those of conventional liquids and solid...

Automated optical inspection (AOI) is a technology used in manufacturing processes, particularly in electronics, to...

The measure used in vacuum technology to quantify the total pressure capacity of the ferrofluidic seal before it fails.

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

Single-mode fiber that preserves the plane of polarization of the light launched into it as the beam propagates through its...

A cement used to reduce crosstalk in fiber optic bundles or plates.

Developing a photographic image by means of an applied electric field. The methods used include electrolysis and...

The bending of an electron stream that occurs when the stream travels through a medium such as very thin metal foil.

An instrument for detecting and analyzing repetitive signals. Using a fixed time delay or "gate," the input signal...

The reflection that occurs within a substance because the angle of incidence of light striking the boundary surface is in...

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

The prism used in a rangefinder to bend the lines of sight through the instruments into the eyepieces.

A stain in a glass surface.

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

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

The component of a microscope on which the sample or slide to be examined is placed. Depending on the design of the...

The relative power emitted by a source as a function of wavelength. It determines the color-rendering properties of the...

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

Technique for the precision evaluation of coincidence of a laser beam's center with the edge of the object under study and...

A mechanical or electrical-electromagnetic device for periodically interrupting or blocking abeam of light for a brief known...

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

A type of sheathing for fiber optic cable that incorporates a coil of metal; often used in harsh environments.

As a wavefront of light passes by an opaque edge or through an opening, secondary weaker wavefronts are generated,...

The multiple storage of a single image.

Measure of a detector's signal during exposure to radiation of a constant power level and varying wavelength.

A technique used in integrated optics where a groove is cut on a substrate surface and covered by a thin film to facilitate...

Lasers based on neodymium-doped yttrium or gadolinium vanadate crystals. These include yttrium vanadate (Nd:YVO4),...

The axes of symmetry in a crystal structure. See also biaxial crystal; uniaxial crystal.

3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing (AM), is a manufacturing process that builds three-dimensional objects...

A device used to compare the luminous intensities of two sources by locating a point between the two light sources where the...

The difference between the energy of an atom in its ground state and that of the same atom in its excited (quantum) state.

An instrument for the detection of the energy distribution of b-particles and secondary electrons.

A wave whose surfaces of constant phase are infinite parallel planes normal to the direction of propagation.

A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) is a compact and integrated device that incorporates multiple photonic components and...

Lidar, short for light detection and ranging, is a remote sensing technology that uses laser light to measure distances and...

1. In a plane Cartesian coordinate system, the horizontal axis, or axis in the left to right direction. 2. In a quartz...

A method used in facsimile scanning that sweeps the elemental area across the copy in a spiral motion as the result of the...

A thermal infrared imaging procedure developed for quality control of printed circuit boards. The thermogram of each board...

A multiple-beam interferometer, usually consisting of two flat plates, with high reflective ability. The plates are set...

A halogen lamp, also known as a tungsten halogen, quartz-halogen, or quartz iodine lamp, is an incandescent lamp that uses a...

The distance between the center of the two concentric circles of an optical fiber that designate the diameter of the...

A system in which the electrical signal embedded within an audio input signal is converted to a modulated light pattern and...

An instrument designed to calculate the amplitude and phase of the different harmonic elements of a radiation wave utilizing...

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) refers to a set of safety features and technologies designed to assist drivers in...

A method of erasable optical data storage in which information is stored by visible light, then read by illumination with an...

Sparkling granular pattern that is observed when an object diffusely reflects coincident laser light. Speckle appears as an...

Technique that defocuses activity from surrounding planes by means of the relative motions at the point of interest.

A device (e.g., prisms, lenses, tubes) used to align a beam in a system.

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

The number of molecules in one gram mole of a substance, numerically approximated by 6.02 x 1023.

An instrument that detects high-energy charged particles by analysis of the Cerenkov radiation that they emit.

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

The observed time dependence of the transmittance of a step of radiation through a given medium.

Mod Method of obtaining precise temporal mode characteristics.

Also referred to as fundus photography, ophthalmoscopy is the dioptrical study of the various interior components of the eye...

Epitaxial refers to the growth of a crystalline layer on a crystalline substrate in such a way that the orientation of the...

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

Electromagnetic radiation that is emitted by an electron as it is accelerated or decelerated while moving through the...

A solid-state video detector consisting of a single row of light-sensitive semiconductor devices, used in linear-array...

A hologram imprinted on plastic or another medium; e.g., those commonly found on credit cards.

A simple electrostatic lens with a focus controlled by a single potential difference.

A measure of image quality produced by an optical system. May be specified in terms of cycles per millimeter, referencing a...

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

A category of systems designed to communicate a photo taken from the air (e.g., aircraft, balloon, satellite) to a ground...

A system of local area networking in which each node or station is connected to two others, ultimately forming a loop. Data...

A form of binary notation that includes a third code representing a stop between bits.

Imaging materials that generally consist of a polyester base, a transparent electrically conductive layer and an organic...

A radar system that uses electro-optic rather than microwave instrumentation and methods to perform its acquisition and...

With respect to crystals, having three mutually rectangular axes, only two of which are equal.

An instrument that divides a single laser beam in two and uses one half as a sensing beam and the other as a reference beam,...

Typically represented by the Greek letter μ, magnetic permeability is the measure of a material's ability to generate and...

With respect to color photography, the measurement, at a given wavelength, of the way the color film modulates the radiant...

Fused quartz and silica are closely related materials, both composed primarily of silicon dioxide (SiO2), but they are...

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

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

An adhesive used to hold optical components in their mounts. It may be a thermoplastic or chemical-hardening substance.

A projection screen having vertical ribs or flutes set into a plastic surface.

A write-once optical disc storage system in which the optical head reads continuously while writing to check the accuracy of...

A system used to measure very small displacement by electrical means.

A linear positioning stage, also known as a linear stage or translation stage, is a precision mechanical device used to...

Radiation emitted when a quantum mechanical system drops spontaneously from an excited level to a lower level. This...

The distribution of one signal to more than one location. In a digital computer, it refers to the number of outputs that can...

A reflection grating is an optical component that consists of a series of closely spaced, parallel reflecting surfaces or...

In the SI system, prefix meaning 1021. (Z).

A lens derived from the Cooke triplet anastigmat, but with one of the crown elements split in two, resulting in improved...

In the context of electronics and optics, an isolator refers to a device that allows the transmission of signals in one...

Capability requirement for optical switches for transmission lines to process arbitrarily polarized light because of the...

The linear relationship between input and output optical fields for a given optical system or application that allows the...

Any pyrheliometer that has a filter placed over its sensor to limit the range of solar radiation it will detect; used to...

An optical table, also known as an optical bench or an optical breadboard, is a specialized platform used in optics...

The use of a reflective device, which can be fashioned from a variety of materials including gases, solids, dyes, aerosols,...

Anisotropy refers to the property of exhibiting different values or characteristics when measured in different directions....

In chemistry, the addition of an inert substance to reduce the concentration of a species. In colorimetry, addition of white...

The optical element that receives light from the object and forms the first or primary image in telescopes and microscopes....

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

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

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

With respect to a crystal, having three unequal axes intersecting at angles, only two of which can be equal and only one of...

A hollow sphere coated internally with a white diffusing material and provided with openings for incident beam, specimen and...

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...

Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a method of secure communication that utilizes principles from quantum mechanics to...

In an optical data storage system, denoting the optical head's ability both to record information and to detect it for...

A bandpass filter with piezoelectric crystal components for the passage or impedance of electrical signals of various...

A television system that is capable of producing an image whose colors approximate the colors of the original, by the use of...

Structural surfaces that incorporate an embedded sensor network capable of detecting flaws within the structure.

A viewer that uses the transmittance of polarized light through glass or a similar medium to examine strained regions. See...

A host crystal for chromium that emits pulsed or continuous-wave laser light, tunable from about 720 to 790 nm.

The operation of a laser diode or other component prior to its use in its intended application, as a means of testing and...

A device that varies the amplitude and phase of a light beam; e.g., from a laser or by sound waves. Also known as a Bragg...

A profile of an optical component, usually a fiber, in which the core is of uniform refractive index and the cladding or...

An infrared detector is a device that is used to detect and measure infrared radiation, which lies beyond the visible...

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

Instruments used by ophthalmologists and optometrists to study the eye. There are, for instance, the ophthalmoscope to...

An optical test table made up of two outer layers or "skins'' bonded to either side of a honeycomblike core, usually of...

A strip or annulus of glass coated with a semitransparent material such as inconel. The coating thickness, and as a result...

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

1. In a plane Cartesian coordinate system, the vertical axis orthogonal to the X-axis. 2. In a quartz crystal structure, the...

The total optical power loss caused by the insertion of an optical component such as a connector, splice or coupler into a...

In target tracking, a technique for speeding up the image processing by removing bunches of pixels that are outside the area...

A line of the Raman spectrum that fulfills Stokes' law because it possesses a wavelength that is greater than the radiation...

A wide-field camera based on the classic Schmidt optical system used to photograph Earth-orbiting satellites.

The characteristic of displaying three colors when observed in as many separate directions.

A device that permits only electrons within a narrow velocity range to pass through it, while rejecting those above and...

That part of an infrared detector-Dewar assembly that limits the solid angle viewed by the sensor; it is maintained at a...

The light from a nonselective diffuse reflector due to the standard illumination of the scene to be televised.

The angle between the most divergent rays that can pass through the lens to form an image. In a birefringent crystal light...

A technique for obtaining improved resolution of images produced by large telescopes and distorted by the effects of...

Made up of four elements; for instance, gadolinium, scandium, gallium and garnet (GSGG).

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

Solar regions characterized by low density and open magnetic fields where high-speed solar wind streams originate....

Polarization refers to the orientation of oscillations in a transverse wave, such as light waves, radio waves, or other...

The deformation of a material at high levels of stress, often associated with elevated temperatures.

A cathode-ray display where information is represented visually as spots. Each spot's location is represented by a...

The science of producing, recording, storing, transmitting and displaying visual images by any system (photographic, video,...

A material often used in the construction of optical instruments because of its low coefficient of thermal expansion (0.9 x...

A special laser glass made primarily of fluoride compounds that exhibits extremely low refractive index and allows greater...

The study of the generation of electromagnetic power by radiation from high-energy beams.

An instrument that transforms heat energy into electrical energy.

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

A polarizing prism consisting of two calcite prisms cemented such that they deviate the two emerging beams (which are...

A standard for fiber optic telecommunications interfaces, with a 1300-nm data link operating over single-mode fiber at data...

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

A solid-state device similar to an ordinary transistor except that incident light on the PN junctions regulates the response...

In astronomy, the relation that states that the intensity of a star's visible radiation is inversely proportional to the...

1. A defect inherent in a multiple-axis positioning system whereby an adjustment of one axis causes an undesired change in...

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot onboard. UAVs are remotely...

In atomic fluorescence spectroscopy, fluorescence emitted by an atom at a spectral line of a wavelength identical to that of...

A unit of measurement of luminous intensity based on a physical standard, a set of calibrated carbon filament lamps. The old...

Laser marking is a process in which a laser beam is used to mark or engrave a surface by altering its properties or...

Noise generated within an optical communications system link that has both internal (dark current) and external (background...

A relationship between two variables so that when plotted on a graph they yield a straight line.

A thermoplastic, self-extinguishing polymer with excellent high-temperature, low-creep and arc resistance properties.

The collection and detection of x-rays by virtue of their ionizing properties. The ionization may be perceived directly by a...

An instrument consisting essentially of a tube 160 mm long, with an objective lens at the distant end and an eyepiece at the...

A small xenon-filled tube with metal electrodes fused into the ends. The gas flashes brilliantly when a condenser is...

The measured width of the field of view at any distance.

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

With respect to atomic fluorescence spectroscopy, the fluorescence that is emitted by an atom at a spectral line of a...

In computer graphics, the point on the display screen where the electron beam is located before the display instruction is...

Medical lasers are devices that produce intense beams of light with specific characteristics and properties, which are used...

A form of an element that cannot demonstrate optical activity as a result of dextrogyrate and levogyrate effects that are...

The visual perception of motion when fixed stimuli are exposed in rapid temporal and spatial succession.

A crystal that is held together by covalent bonds.

The branch of science that treats light as a wave phenomenon wherein light propagation is studied by wavefronts rather than...

A circuit whose passive components are deposited on a given substrate by sputtering or vacuum processes.

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

An aperture, usually rectangular in shape, with a large length-to-width ratio, and a fixed or adjustable shape through which...

With respect to a unit cell in a crystal structure, the property defining an atom located at the center of each face.

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

The use of a small ultrastable master oscillator (a diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser) to achieve single-frequency operation of a...

Potential hazards to a system's application and installation, including temperature variations, chemical reactivity,...

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

A permanent, transparent, and highly transmissive adhesive capable of withstanding extreme temperatures that is applied to...

The angular width of a radiation beam. With respect to a conical beam of light, it is the vertex angle of the cone. The...

A material that produces stimulated emission during the process of amplification with a laser system.

A refractometer that has a greater resolving power than a standard refractometer, and that uses a pentagonal prism to split...

Calculated at a given point in a medium as the instantaneous pressure at that point in the presence of a sound wave, minus...

A filtering device that detects what is new in a scene of interest. Often compared to that of a temporal high pass filter,...

The average length in a specific material in which a relativistic charged particle will lose 67 percent of its energy by...

A material property that is the inverse of its resistance to the flow of electricity.

The unwanted and unpredictable fluctuations that distort a received signal and hence tend to obscure the desired message....

In rangefinders and height finders, a rotatable or sliding wedge-shaped element used to divert the line of sight precisely...

The optical reconstruction of image information contained in a sound field. First the diffraction pattern, formed by an...

A set of samples used in the analysis of multielement thin films.

The process of using a spectrograph with a telescope to acquire information on an astronomical object's speed and physical...

A colorimeter is a device used to measure and quantify the color characteristics of an object or a light source. It provides...

An interferometer constructed to be positioned on a telescope to measure the angular separation of the components of double...

The Golgi staining technique (also called the black reaction) makes it possible to look at the nervous system by rendering...

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

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

A reflecting or refracting surface contained within an optical system.

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

A bomb guided to its target by some form of electro-optical system.

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

A mass spectrometer utilizing both radial electrostatic and magnetic field analyzers to improve the focusing and increase...

A technique used to suppress extreme noise amplification during digital image reconstruction that relies on smoothing and...

A blank whose basic surface curves are attained by heating and forming a given weight of raw glass; a rough glass blank...

An image that is formed when rays emerging from an optical system are diverging from the optical axis. The virtual image is...

The photographic record of the diffraction pattern formed when x-rays pass through a crystal.

A direct method of measuring refractive index that works best with flat-surfaced samples (i.e., those that are not dependent...

An intermolecular substance that serves to hold materials together. Two types are used in the optical industry: one, which...

One or more thin-film layers of optical material deposited on a mirror blank/substrate in order to enhance the way that...

The capability of the spatial distributions of incident and reflected flux to interchange completely without alteration of...

A theoretical instrument conceived of as a box that receives a beam of radiation of any arbitrary polarization angle and...

The field of photography concerned with the recording of subjects beneath the water with a watertight, water-resistant...

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

The sunlight that extends to the earth after scattering from other solar bodies, mostly from meteorite dust of radii...

Counter propagating beams imaged along the same path in order to detect rotation. Precise rotation is measured through...

In a medium of constant refractive index, the product of the geometrical distance and the refractive index.

Beam profiling is a technique used to characterize and analyze the spatial intensity distribution of a laser beam. It...

The object distance at which the eye is focused with the eye lens in a neutral or relaxed state.

Molecules composed entirely of carbon, in the form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid or tube. Also called buckyballs....

A framework or latticework having an even arrangement of rods, or any other long narrow objects with interstices between...

The use of optical or electronic recording systems to extract information from the terrain, while aloft, for reconnaissance...

A low-power telescope with a wide field of view, typically attached to a higher power telescope with a narrower field of...

1. A strainmeter capable of measuring the change in the relationship between two reference points, provided that the points...

A reflecting optic whose reflectivity is a function of the radial distance from the optic axis; can be used to convert a...

A spatial light modulator consisting of a metallized polymer film stretched over an array of metal-oxide semiconductor...

A device that uses a piezoelectric crystal to convert ultrasonic sound waves, transmitted through a subject, into a voltage...

A material or system that emits x-rays.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive imaging technique used in medical and scientific fields to capture...

A device that detects radiation by utilizing the influence of light in forming an electrical signal. It may be a phototube;...

A microscope that has been modified to permit the quantitative analysis of dust samples.

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

A spatial light modulator (SLM) is an optical device that modulates or manipulates the amplitude, phase, or polarization of...

The distance between two focal lines in an astigmatic image produced by a lens or mirror.

An optical tooling instrument consisting of an objective lens, a focusing lens, an optical micrometer, a reticle and an...

A microscope designed with two eyepieces (oculars), permitting the use of both eyes when viewing through the instrument.

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

Second-order nonlinear optical properties refer to a class of phenomena exhibited by certain materials in response to...

A gas laser in which the energy-state transitions between vibrational and rotational states of CO2 molecules give emission...

A CRT screen on which two phosphors differing in color and persistence are deposited.

Radiation consisting of more than a single wavelength in the visible region of the spectrum.

The power, expressed in prism diopters, that is the linear displacement, in centimeters, produced by the prism one meter...

On a test chart, the pattern designed to direct and measure geometric distortion.

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

An alexandrite laser is a solid-state laser that utilizes a synthetic crystal made from the rare earth element alexandrite...

The luminescence of a substance resulting from its exposure to ultrasonic waves.

1. The near total absorption of plane-polarized light by a polarizer that has an axis perpendicular to the plane of...

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

The purest gas source of antimony, which is used in the manufacture of compound semiconductors for IR sensors and...

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

A specific, right-angle prism having a transmission grating replicated on its hypotenuse face and used in applications...

The shortest wavelengths of the infrared region, nominally 0.75 to 3 µm.

Cathode radiant sensitivity refers to the ability of a photocathode to convert incident radiant energy, typically in the...

A camera designed with a telecentric optical system and a narrow field of view; the telecentric optical system (placement of...

Discipline within optical physics that addresses sound vibration, phonon effects and their influencing behavior within...

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

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

An instrument used to detect the fluorescence emitted by a source in comparison with a reference.

A lens whose focal length is roughly equal to the diagonal of the negative format of the camera on which it is mounted.

Computer vision enables computers to interpret and make decisions based on visual data, such as images and videos. It...

Descriptive of an optical fiber having a core refractive index that decreases almost parabolically and radially outward...

A multifaceted holographic disc that is rotated by a motor to deflect incident light to a scanning system's lens.

A system that satisfies the Abbe sine condition, and is free from spherical aberration and coma.

The use of a surgical laser instead of sutures or staples to close a wound or rejoin severed blood vessels.

An instrument designed to measure the index of refraction of a gas by the interference patterns formed by two beams, one of...

1. The decrease of the absorption (or gain) coefficient of a medium near some transition frequency when the power of the...

The distance between the base and the vertex before the edging of a prism.

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