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DataRay Inc. - ISO 11146-Compliant Laser Beam Profilers
Sharp Dictionary Terms

minimum object distance
Minimum object distance, often abbreviated as MOD, refers to the closest distance at which a camera lens or optical system...
fiber optic window
The face of a cathode-ray tube (CRT) that has a fiber optic sheet attached to its surface. The sheet's fibers are at right...
sharp height
The distance between the base and the vertex before the edging of a prism.
spectrograph
An optical instrument for forming the spectrum of a light source and recording it on a film. The dispersing medium may be a...
body
In the optical field, a piece of glass to which a lens or prism is cemented. The unit is ground and polished as a whole to...
chromatic aberration
Chromatic aberration is an optical phenomenon that occurs when different wavelengths (colors) of light are refracted by a...
apochromat
An apochromat, often referred to as an apochromatic lens or apochromatic objective, is a type of optical system designed to...
pinhole camera
A lensless photographic camera that uses a small sharp-edged hole as its aperture. The light passed by this aperture onto...
interstellar absorption lines
Sharp and narrow absorption lines found in the spectra of stars. They result from the absorption of a part of a star's...
wedge ring detector
A diffraction pattern sampling unit composed of a 32-element monolithic silicon photodiode array and a readout unit. The...
micro-LED
Micro-LED (micro-light-emitting diode) refers to a technology that involves the use of very small light-emitting diodes to...
cathode-ray tube faceplate
A fiber optic end plate constructed by drawing a bundle of parallel fibers embedded in glass and cutting it into thin...
didymium glass
Glass tinted with mixed oxides of neodymium and praseodymium that, unlike most solid materials, have absorption bands that...
tip-enhanced Raman scattering
Tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS) is a powerful technique that combines Raman spectroscopy with the enhanced spatial...
astronomical telescope
An astronomical telescope is a type of optical instrument designed to gather and magnify light from distant celestial...
horizon detector
An infrared device used in satellites and rockets to determine a heat horizon for the Earth at altitudes (above 200 miles)...
pixel
A pixel, short for "picture element," is the smallest controllable element of a digital image or display. It is a...
sharp
A term used to describe a convex surface having too short a radius of curvature. To correct this condition, material is cut...
sharpness index
A function of the intensity distribution in an image aberrated by a quadratic curvature wavefront distortion.
focus control
1. A mechanism that permits the focusing of an optical system.2. A means of obtaining the sharpest image from a cathode-ray...
field emission microscope
An image-forming instrument in which a strong electrostatic field causes cold emission of electrons from a sharply rounded...
working aperture
The maximum aperture of a lens at which it will still give a sharp image, even though its physical aperture may be larger.
aspheric lens
An aspheric lens is a type of lens whose surface profiles deviate from the traditional spherical shape. Unlike spherical...
spectrographic slits
The slits in a spectrograph that form images of spectral lines. Slits may be bilateral or unilateral, and generally close...
chamfer
The removal of sharp edges by grinding.
camera obscura
A forerunner of the modern camera, this instrument had a focusable lens that produced a sharp image on the enclosure...
lensometer
An ophthalmic instrument used to measure the magnitude and direction of the maximum and minimum powers of a spectacle lens,...
ionization spectrometer
Also known as the Bragg spectrometer. A system used for the x-ray analysis of crystal structure. In the instrument, a...
acutance
In photography, the density gradient across an edge separating light from darkness, a physically measurable quantity that...
image plane holography
A hologram in which the image of an object, or the object itself, is located near the hologram recording plane, for optimum...
autofocus system
A means of adjusting the sharpness of an image automatically, with a sensor for estimating distance or contrast and a drive...
microscopy
Microscopy is a scientific technique that involves the use of microscopes to observe and study objects that are too small to...
birefringent filter
A filter that transmits light in a series of sharp, widely spaced wavelength bands by its sandwich construction of...
microbending
In optical fiber, sharp but microscopic curvatures that create local axial displacements of a few microns and spatial...
modulation transfer function analysis/measurement equipment
MTF analysis/measurement equipment refers to instruments and tools used to measure and analyze the modulation transfer...
lip
A defect in the cleaved end face of an optical fiber, in the form of a sharp protrusion at the edge of the fiber.
absorption peak
An absorption peak refers to a sharp increase or spike in the absorption of electromagnetic radiation at a particular...
focus
1. The focal point. 2. To adjust the eyepiece or objective of a telescope so that the image is clearly seen by the observer....
cylindrical lens
A cylindrical lens is an optical component that has different curvatures along its two orthogonal axes, resulting in a shape...
spatial resolution
Spatial resolution refers to the level of detail or granularity in an image or a spatial dataset. It is a measure of the...
spherical aberration
Spherical aberration is an optical aberration that occurs when light rays passing through a lens or curved optical surface...
cesium oxide cell
A photoemissive detector sensitive to wavelengths up to 1 µm. It has one sharp maximum of sensitivity at 350 nm and a...
electron diffraction camera
A special evacuated camera equipped with means for holding a specimen and bombarding it with a sharply focused beam of...
double-raster format
A mode of laser printing in which each pixel is printed four times, providing sharper lines and a continuous tone from...
protective bevel
The removal of a sharp edge on an optical element by grinding, to prevent accidental chipping of that edge during subsequent...
hole burning
The dip or gap in the profile of a laser beam's line width when it is both homogeneously and inhomogeneously broadened. When...
emmetropia
The normal condition of vision where an object at infinity is in sharp focus with the eye lens in a neutral or relaxed state.
shock wave
Interruption in the normal flow of a plasma or fluid characterized by sharp rises in velocity, temperature and pressure. As...
atomic force microscope
An atomic force microscope (AFM) is a high-resolution imaging and measurement instrument used in nanotechnology, materials...
point spread function
The point spread function (PSF) is a fundamental concept in imaging that describes the response of an imaging system to a...
tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy
A spectroscopic technique that combines the high chemical specificity of Raman scattering and signal sensitivity provided by...
resonator
A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance, which is a phenomenon that occurs when an external force or...

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