A measurement of the hardness of a material as determined by the penetration depth of a diamond stylus under a specified...

Terahertz (THz) refers to a unit of frequency in the electromagnetic spectrum, denoting waves with frequencies between 0.1...

A special-purpose camera used by ophthalmologists to photograph the retina of the eye. The optical system operates through...

A mirror blank refers to the initial piece of material from which a mirror is made. It is typically a flat or slightly...

An angle formed by the lines of sight of both eyes when focusing on an object. Also, the rate at which a ray approaches the...

1. An undulation or vibration; a form of movement by which all radiant energy of the electromagnetic spectrum is estimated...

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a non-invasive analytical technique that uses the near-infrared region of the...

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

Ophthalmology is a branch of medicine that focuses on the anatomy, physiology, and diseases of the eyes and visual system....

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

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

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

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

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

Also known as OCT-A, optical coherence tomography angiography is an imaging technique that uses light waves to measure...

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

Commonly known as CR39, this thermosetting plastic is used in the casting of eyeglass lenses because of its toughness and...

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...

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

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

A microring resonator is a compact optical device that utilizes the resonant behavior of light within a small ring-shaped...

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

In the fabrication of an optical fiber, a layer that can be used to create a boundary against OH-ion diffusion into the core.

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

A lamp that yields a nonluminous flame; used in the spectroscopic analysis of radiation emitted by a substance placed in the...

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

The use of thin flexible glass or plastic fibers as wave guides — or "light pipes" — to channel light from one...

A compound prism consisting of an assembly of small prisms cemented together that is used in a coincidence rangefinder to...

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

Ultrasonic refers to sound waves with frequencies higher than the upper audible limit of human hearing, typically above...

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

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

A defect in infrared systems that appears as a dark circular area on a displayed image, caused by radiation reflecting into...

1. The continuous thin strip marked by the scanning beam. Generally, during return of the scan, the line is blanked out. 2....

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 write-once optical disc storage system in which the optical head reads continuously while writing to check the accuracy of...

Intravital microscopy is an imaging technique used to visualize biological processes within living organisms, typically in...

A component used to modify light rays by diffraction; the HOE is produced by recording the interference pattern of two laser...

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

The physical limit of an optical fiber or cable to withstand an applied force or weight perpendicular to the axis of the...

Use of a laser to solder joints by melting the solder coatings on the mating components.

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

A moving group of fluid-suspended biological species directed through separate channels by which the population is isolated....

A device having electrical resistance and used in an electric current for purposes of protection, operation or control of...

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

An analytical technique used to determine the nature of extremely small samples by forming the x-ray spectrum of the samples...

Plates of glass containing as many heavy metal oxides as can be dissolved in the glass without causing devitrification. The...

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

A precision positioning device used to produce rotary motion.

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

A technique based on the principles of laser trapping and used to manipulate the position of small particles by gradually...

The illumination generally used in microscopy, whereby the specimen appears dark against a light background.

A two-lens arrangement intended to image light into a microscope slide sample. The primary aberrations present are red and...

A retroreflector that can focus a beam of light, with one planar reflective surface, one spherical and a third that is...

1. With respect to radiation, a device used to attenuate particular wavelengths or frequencies while passing others with...

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

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

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

MTF analysis/measurement equipment refers to instruments and tools used to measure and analyze the modulation transfer...

A thermoplastic or thermosetting material used to hold an object fixed and keep it from deterioration. In microcircuitry,...

Photon flow created by imaging of light into a detector array; IPD is the electrical signal used by the image processor in a...

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

A metal device of convex or concave curvature to which lens castings or semifinished lenses are cemented with only their...

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

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

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

The greatest luminous transmittance possible for a specified chromaticity.

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

An incandescent or carbon arc lamp designed with a stable and compact arc or filament that permits it to be used as a light...

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

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

A bulk crystalline optic which permits the propagation of light through a volume of index altered material. The variation in...

A caustic formed by reflection.

The spot on the retina where the optic nerve is attached; it is incapable of sensing light because of the absence of light...

That state determining that two waves of like frequency will travel through their maximum and minimum values of the same...

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

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

A chart on paper or glass containing a series of sets of lines at progressively smaller spacing and used to ascertain the...

The use of narrow bandpass filters and special photographic emulsions to discern features of a surface that would not be...

The concept of the de Broglie wavelength exploits the wave-particle duality of quantum physics by associating all matter (of...

The use of a small ultrastable master oscillator (a diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser) to achieve single-frequency operation of a...

A method of focusing an optical system by moving the front component (the lens closest to the subject) to change the...

A device used to measure directional reflectance, with light collection restricted to a narrow range of angles of which the...

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

A transparent powdered solid immersed in a liquid or plastic of similar refractive index but widely different dispersion;...

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

A coarse diffraction grating that is used to form a scale of intensities to determine the relative magnitudes of stars. The...

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

The alteration and reduction of color with the addition of white light. The perceived color shift that occurs as the...

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

In vivo is a Latin term that translates to "within the living." In scientific contexts, particularly in biology and...

A device used in broadcast CCD cameras to improve definition in heavily saturated colors by band-limiting the color...

The use of photographs taken from specially placed cameras, to develop, through computation, a spatial solution of the...

An approach to character recognition based on the structure of the character to be identified (number of straight lines,...

An infrared transmitting material used in the production of fluoride glasses for optical fibers.

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

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

An extremely short, high intensity electronic flash of light, having a duration of about 1 x 10-6 s, used in photographing...

A light therapy that utilizes nonionizing light sources, including lasers, LEDs, and broadband light, in the visible and...

Single-mode fiber that preserves the plane of polarization of the light launched into it as the beam propagates through its...

A laser having a material, such as ruby, that has an energy state structure of three levels: the ground state (1) wherein...

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

A system composed of a prism spectroscope and compound microscope to provide the visual comparison of two spectra...

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

A small mirror, sometimes plane and sometimes concave, attached to the rotating coil of a galvanometer to cause a spot of...

An image-forming instrument in which a strong electrostatic field causes cold emission of electrons from a sharply rounded...

Optical confinement of matter with high field energies intended to induce a stable nuclear fusion interaction.

Holography is a technique used to capture and reconstruct three-dimensional images using the principles of interference and...

The process of microphotography that involves the reduction of the original at a ratio greater than 100 to 1. The process is...

A nonlinear crystal used to modulate a polarized beam of light by means of the Pockels effect. A Pockels cell is used as a...

A technique used in integrated optics where a groove is cut on a substrate surface and covered by a thin film to facilitate...

A robotic process commonly employed by automakers that enables high-speed and flexible production throughput by using...

A defect on a polished optical surface whose length is many times its width. Block reek is a chainlike scratch formed in...

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

Computer vision enables computers to interpret and make decisions based on visual data, such as images and videos. It...

Optical manufacturing tools and machinery encompass a wide range of equipment, instruments, and systems used in the...

A gyroscope is a mechanical device consisting of a spinning disk or wheel mounted on a spinning axis in such a way that its...

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

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

Van der Waals forces refer to the attractive or repulsive forces between molecules (or parts of molecules) that arise from...

The area of optics in which the propagation of light is described by geometrical lines (or rays) governed by Fermat's...

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

An instrument that uses a beam of light to scan a color transparency, and three differently filtered photosensors to record...

The use of phase conjugation or other methods to increase the power density of a laser beam under adverse atmospheric...

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

In fiber optics, a material whose properties, usually of transmission, are distinctly affected by the absorption of water...

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

A reference sphere used to represent all possible states of polarization. All linear polarizations will lie on the equator...

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

In image processing, machine vision and television, discrete brightness values quantized for a group of pixels. They can...

A process used in the design, repair and customization of integrated circuits. A low-power laser etches a silicon wafer...

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

A scanning device used to cyclically tune through a given frequency range to determine the amplitude-frequency distribution...

A detector-Dewar assembly typically refers to a combination of a detector and a Dewar flask used in scientific instruments,...

An established point on which the observer's eye is focused.

Irregularities and disturbances in the atmosphere that are of particular interest because they induce random temporal and...

A spectrophotometer having a prism or, more frequently, a grating for the study and recording of infrared spectra. It...

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

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

A surface imperfection caused by a polisher running dry too long. It occurs with felt or plastic polishers, and may appear...

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

In physics, the law of reversibility is often associated with the concept of reversibility in thermodynamics. The law...

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

1. A polariscope consisting of a Savart plate and a tourmaline plate analyzer, and used to produce parallel color fringes by...

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

A diagnostic instrument that uses a photocathode design to see a broad range of x-ray radiation by streaking the...

Epitaxial deposition is a process used in semiconductor manufacturing and materials science to grow a thin crystalline...

A technology that uses electrically activated holograms stored within specially developed crystals to route information in...

A television camera tube in which a low-velocity electron beam scans a photoactive mosaic that has been created by an...

The image of a point source that appears as a circle of finite diameter because of defocusing or the aberrations inherent in...

The difference in electrokinetic potential between the stationary liquid connected to a solid phase surface and the mobile...

A solar cell that is lightweight and flexible because of its construction by vacuum deposition of a semiconductor material...

A vibrational transition refers to a change in the vibrational energy of a molecule. Molecules consist of atoms that are...

An EMCCD (electron-multiplying charge-coupled device) camera is a type of scientific camera specifically designed for...

A noncontact sensor used in the remote measurement of position, speed or other variables of moving parts.

A 3D profile sensor, also known as a 3D profiling sensor or 3D depth sensor, is a technology that is used to capture and...

Mount attached to a camera or camcorder which allows the user to attach a microphone or flash unit.

The interferometric analysis of a complex object by utilizing the three-dimensional hologram. By causing a laser beam to...

A device designed to concentrate and direct a light source by enclosing the source in it and using a concave reflector to...

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

The scale for floating hydrometers used to measure the specific gravity of a polishing suspension. The depth of immersion is...

The determination of axially symmetric and asymmetric refractive-index distributions by use of interferometry carried out on...

For an electromagnetic field mode varying sinusoidally with time at a given frequency, the logarithmic rate of change, with...

A camera that uses multiple exposures to record the trajectory of an ordnance from a ground-level position.

A laser pumped by solar radiation focused by mirrors.

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

The circle that contains the slit, grating and primary astigmatic focus of a concave diffraction grating.

A camera with two taking lenses and synchronized shutters. Two images are recorded simultaneously on separate frames,...

Basically, a hydrogen atom with two alterations, positronium is the lightest atom in the universe and has an extremely light...

Optical components, usually reflectors, produced using proprietary techniques that transfer the precision of a master to a...

A technique used to generate a phase shift between reference and sample light beams. The phase shift can be performed...

A spectroradiometer having a means to scan different regions of the light spectrum, providing simultaneous representations...

Luminous flux incident per unit area of a surface; luminous incidence. (The use of the term "illumination" for...

A technique for confining atoms, molecules or small particles within one or more laser beams. This can be accomplished...

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

A crystal, glass, or quartz slicing and cutting machine is a specialized piece of equipment used in the manufacturing...

A photometer that uses a photoemissive tube to detect and measure light. See photoelectric photometry.

A small xenon-filled tube with metal electrodes fused into the ends. The gas flashes brilliantly when a condenser is...

A theoretical analysis of radiation loss from planar optical waveguides due to scattering by surface irregularities/surface...

A method used in surface quality testing for accurate positioning and rotation of metal spheres about an axis or fixed point...

A laser effect used especially for laser light shows. Lumia are created by placing a distorting medium such as rippled glass...

An obsolete term once used to describe a unit of radiation dosage.

That characteristic which makes a weapon system less visible to radar, optical, acousto-optic, infrared and other military...

A strip or annulus of glass coated with a semitransparent material such as inconel. The coating thickness, and as a result...

A tough, durable, heat- and cold-resistant optical quality plastic used in injection-molded items such as streetlight...

In a symmetrical optical system this is a measure of the influence of the system upon the focus of a pencil of rays passing...

Pertaining to electromagnetic radiation as perceived by the eye; that is, with the contributions as wavelengths in the...

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

The prism used in a rangefinder to bend the lines of sight through the instruments into the eyepieces.

Quotient of total luminous flux divided by total radiant flux; lumens per watt. (For a source, quotient of total luminous...

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

An optical-quality polymer used in birefringent retarders.

The optical reconstruction of image information contained in a sound field. First the diffraction pattern, formed by an...

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

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

Ability of a laser to resist variations in output power caused when it is slowly rotated about its optical or symmetrical...

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

The use of a short-duration electron beam to record high-speed events that occur in microscopic objects made of materials...

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

A point source of light used for the test and evaluation of image quality. May be a backlit pinhole in an otherwise opaque...

A technique used in holography that involves the mixing of lasers of different wavelengths to produce a beam of shorter...

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

The three lines in the spectrum of cadmium that have the purest radiations and that were first used by Michelson to...

The spontaneous emittance of electromagnetic radiation by the nucleus of certain radioactive elements during their quantum...

Radiation emitted by electrons when they travel in circular orbits at speeds close to that of light. Synchrotron radiation...

Light produced when a metal is bombarded with high-velocity electrons causing small amounts of the metal to vaporize and...

Luminous flux emitted by a source in a given range of directions; the unit of measure is the lumen/steradian, now known as...

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

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

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

A wedge in a rangefinder or heightfinder used to displace the image produced by one telescope so that it coincides with that...

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

The luminous flux emitted by a light source in all directions.

An instrument consisting essentially of a tube 160 mm long, with an objective lens at the distant end and an eyepiece at the...

A lens with internally adjustable elements to produce a range of focal lengths. Unlike a true zoom lens, a multifocal lens...

A double-surfaced catadioptric spherical mirror whose spherical first surface consists of a negative meniscus (concave) lens...

In analysis, a reference spectrum, having predetermined wavelengths, that is used to determine the wavelengths of another...

1. A device designed to convert the energy of incident radiation into another form for the determination of the presence of...

Azimuthal polarization refers to a specific polarization state of light where the electric field vector of the...

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

A device used to accelerate the electrons in a free-electron laser by supplying electrical energy to the electron beam...

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

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

A collector for photovoltaic power generation that consists of a thin plate that strongly absorbs sunlight striking its...

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

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

Transmission loss in optical fibers caused by packaging processes; it is considered a power-coupling effect from the guided...

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

A semiconductor device with the property of conducting current more easily in one direction than the other. It has two...

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

In a lens, the square of the radius of its aperture divided by the product of the focal length and the wavelength. It...

An apparatus, designed for use with a camera, that is used to rapidly open the path from lens to film, to maintain the...

Descriptive of the radiant power of visible light modified by the eye response. It is the measure of the flow of visible...

Epitaxial equipment refers to a set of specialized tools and systems used in the process of epitaxy, which is the growth of...

A photon-counting instrument for use in both space-borne and ground-based photometric and spectroscopic instrumentation....

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...

A refracting telescope that uses a prism to bend the line of sight 90°.

Mode hopping in the context of lasers refers to a phenomenon where a laser system abruptly switches from one longitudinal...

Histochemical staining is a laboratory technique used in biology and medicine to visualize specific chemical components...

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

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

The recording and mathematical analysis of all spectral intervals of the spectrometer simultaneously.

Charged frozen pellets that are rapidly bombarded with a focused high-power laser to form a dense plasma that can be heated...

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

A lightproof box used for storing photosensitive materials.

The total luminous flux given out per unit area; i.e., the sum of the luminous emittance and any radiation that is reflected...

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

A device that acquires a signal and then stores it for a specified period of time before processing, and used, for example,...

A semiconductor diode operating in either a coherent or incoherent mode that is used as a near-infrared or visible source in...

An electron tube containing neon gas that uses the transmission of an electric current through the gas to ionize the neon...

Also known as RAMP microscopy, random access multiphoton microscopy is a microscopic technique that uses multiple...

A photoconductive cell that uses thallium oxysulfide as the light-sensitive medium.

A phase reflection scanner that eliminates the need for a complex translation device while maintaining a high-energy-density...

Hyperspectral imaging is an advanced imaging technique that captures and processes information from across the...

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

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

A term for the ring-shaped stop in a phase contrast microscope. The phase annulus limits the amount of light that reaches...

A high-frequency pulse-rate laser with an output limited by the heat capacity of the laser medium. Instead of having...

A device consisting of a disc with a spiral arrangement of holes that is used to convert visible patterns into electrical...

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

A lens that exhibits spherical aberration when used at large aperture settings, and that forms an image with a slightly...

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

A photoreceptor material used in solar cells and in drums for laser printers and high-speed copiers because of its high...

1. A faint second image caused by reflection that is sometimes seen when observing through an optical instrument. 2. With...

Locus of points on a chromaticity diagram that includes the chromaticities of blackbody radiators.

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

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

A machine vision lens is a specialized optical lens designed for use in machine vision systems, which are used for automated...

A nondestructive testing method for very large scale integration circuits, using a scanning electron microscope to monitor...

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

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

An analytical technique used to determine, identify and localize impending malfunctions. It is based upon quantitative and...

A type of sheathing for fiber optic cable that incorporates a coil of metal; often used in harsh environments.

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

An instrument with a fluid that modulates a light beam traversing it because of the effect of ultrasonic waves passing...

An acousto-optic modulator (AOM) is a device that utilizes the interaction between sound waves and light waves to modulate...

Quality or state of being luminous.

A hologram formed when the light of the illuminating beam is absorbed in correspondence with the recording exposure. In...

A device used in a free-electron laser to convert the electron-beam's energy into microwave laser radiation by creating a...

A blackbody source, often simply referred to as a blackbody, is a theoretical or practical physical object that absorbs all...

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

Liquid marble refers to a unique form of microscale liquid encapsulation, where small droplets of liquid are coated with a...

In the spectral sense, an optical source that emits one or more spectrally narrow lines as opposed to a continuous spectrum....

Any integrated circuit that also makes use of one or more discrete components; frequently used to describe circuits that...

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

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

Glass containing small quantities of neodymium oxide that is used as a filter plate in color television or as a lasing...

A physical stop that is conjugate to the entrance pupil and is used primarily to reduce diffraction effects at longer...

The process whereby a quantum mechanical system alters from one energy level to another. During this process, energy is...

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

A cathode-ray tube combined with an electrostatic storage unit that is used to introduce, store and retrieve information...

A telescopic light-sensing meter used to measure illumination levels of small regions at a distance of many feet; it is used...

A line of the Raman spectrum that fulfills Stokes' law because it possesses a wavelength that is greater than the radiation...

The measure of departure from a flat surface, as applied to lenses; the reciprocal of radius. Applies to any surface,...

A field of physics that deals with light as if it truly were composed of rays diverging in various directions from the...

A means of adjusting the sharpness of an image automatically, with a sensor for estimating distance or contrast and a drive...

Effect whereby two electrons lose synchronism with the accelerating field and are lost during synchronous radiation. The...

Optical cements and adhesives are specialized materials used in the assembly and bonding of optical components in optical...

Device used to measure the numerical aperture of a microscope, composed of a 14-mm-thick glass block with numerical aperture...

A miniature projecting device designed to enhance and reproduce the image generated by a smaller image-forming instrument....

Ultraviolet-C (UV-C) refers to a specific range of ultraviolet radiation with shorter wavelengths than those of visible...

An etalon is an optical device that consists of two parallel reflecting surfaces separated by a precise and known distance....

The determination of what, how much and in what proportions chemicals must be combined to produce the desired reactions and...

The permanent uniting of two glass pieces by high-temperature heating.

1. Synonymous with radioactivity. The intensity of a radioactive source illustrated as the number of atoms disintegrating in...

A light absorbing material applied to ground optical surfaces during the process of making that surface non reflective. Such...

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

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

A type of spectroscopy used extensively in the analysis of biological samples. Because most biologically synthesized...

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

The propagation or hindrance of waves reaching each aperture of the interferometer because of atmospheric turbulence.

Derivative of the half-tone screen process involving the fabrication of a binary pulse-width modulated copy of the...

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

Gallium arsenide phosphide (GaAsP) is a semiconductor alloy composed of gallium (Ga), arsenic (As), and phosphorus (P). It...

Contains elements which produce lasing., e.g. gain medium, oscillator mirrors as well as housing.

A light, radar or electron beam used to scan according to a particular method.

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

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

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

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

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

A high-speed motion camera, also known as a high-speed camera or slow-motion camera, is a specialized imaging device...

A discipline that combines optics and genetics to enable the use of light to stimulate and control cells in living tissue,...

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

A term for thermoplastic optical materials; that is, those in which the polymer chains remain linear after heating and...

A method of synthesis for crystals such as KTP. The process involves the use of a high-temperature solution called flux to...

A transistor that uses an electro-luminescent source, a transparent base and a photoelectric collector.

A microscope used either to detect selective absorption of various wavelengths by the specimen or to achieve increased...

A radiation detector with its active medium mounted within a lens that focuses the radiation signal. The improvement in...

In gradient index optics, a gradient profile in which the index varies in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis....

A device used to rapidly change the Q of an optical resonator. It is used in the optical resonator of a laser to prevent...

A photographic process using x-ray radiation or the g-rays of radioactive materials.

The loss of focus of a camera sensor because of excessive brightness, characterized by the enlargement of spot size and...

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

The number of fields scanned per second in a television system. The US standard is 60. Also called field frequency.

A fiber optic imaging bundle is a specialized optical device composed of multiple optical fibers bundled together. Each...

A platform mount used to hold sensitive optical instruments immobile.

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

A photometric instrument used to measure the illumination falling on a surface. It may be photoelectric or visual.

Discharge that results when a doped semiconductor crystal with a PN junction is charged with a low-voltage direct current....

A method of measuring flow velocity by seeding the flow with neutrally buoyant particles and using a pulsed laser to...

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

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

In present usage, especially for spectroscopic identification, an arc between electrodes that serves as a radiation source....

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

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

The greatest luminous reflectance possible for a specified chromaticity.

Fused quartz and silica are closely related materials, both composed primarily of silicon dioxide (SiO2), but they are...

The principles and techniques involved in the use of telephotometers to measure atmospheric extinction.

Decrease in cosmic ray activity that is observed approximately 24 hours after a solar flare, attributed to a shielding...

A fusion system conductor capable of carrying current in opposite directions in alternating time phases.

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

Visual equivalence of physically (usually spectrally) different stimuli.

An optical table, also known as an optical bench or an optical breadboard, is a specialized platform used in optics...

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...

Nonspecular reflection from a rough surface.

Superresolution refers to the enhancement or improvement of the spatial resolution beyond the conventional limits imposed by...

Multiple scattering method used in biological analysis in which approximations yield simple, explicit solutions, at least...

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

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

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

The use of the photographic process to produce precision copies of an original image that are many times smaller in size....

The term delta error (delta-E) generally refers to the difference or change in error between two values or states. The word...

A fiber used in conjunction with a source to excite the modes of another fiber in a particular fashion.

That point in the electromagnetic spectrum at which an optical system focuses the most chemically effective rays.

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

Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) refers to a technology that converts heat energy into electricity using the principles of...

A set of algorithms used to study the structural and spatial characteristics of objects in a digitized image for...

A laser rangefinder is a device that uses laser technology to measure the distance between the device and a target. It...

A spectrometer that uses a grating to diffract light into specific wavelengths.

A mixture of phosphor with a trace of a radioactive element that emits faint light continually. It is used on watch dials...

A lensless photographic camera that uses a small sharp-edged hole as its aperture. The light passed by this aperture onto...

A corner reflector that provides an increase in the range of angles over which it may be used.

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...

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

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

An embossed or marked disk, constructed out of a transparent material and used with a camera system to soften an image.

Heatless light emissions from living organisms caused by the combination of oxygen and pigments such as luciferin.

An acronym of gamma ray amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. It is a gamma ray laser that operates between...

A grating used as a reflectance filter, particularly in the far-infrared. Small plane gratings, blazed for the wavelength of...

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

One of the two principal types of optical glass, the other being flint glass. Crown glass is harder than flint glass, and...

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

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

A metabolite is any small molecule that is a product of metabolism, the chemical processes that occur within living...

A measurement technique used for the rapid quantitative evaluation of surface quality based on the detection and analysis of...

A source of energy that produces needed excitation for population inversion in laser operation. The excitation source that...

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

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) refers to a set of safety features and technologies designed to assist drivers in...

PCSEL stands for "photonic crystal surface-emitting laser." It refers to a type of laser diode that emits light from its...

A mode of data transmission whereby bits of information are carried simultaneously at different frequencies over a single...

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

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

A YAG crystal refers to a solid-state crystal made of yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG), which is a synthetic crystalline...

A type of laser welding of thin materials using a defocused or low-power carbon dioxide laser beam. The energy is absorbed...

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

The use of computer analysis in the calculation of diffraction patterns for information on the design of optical systems. In...

A defect of a binocular instrument causing two images to be seen separately instead of being fused. It is caused when the...

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

Sapphire optical fiber is a type of optical fiber made from single-crystal sapphire, which is a form of aluminum oxide...

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

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

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

A form of photometric measurement, often used with light sources that are transparent or fluctuating, in which a...

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

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

The recording of patterns by the production and use of latent electrostatic charge patterns. See electrostatic process.

The re-emission of absorbed energy, having the same wavelength as the incident energy, in an arbitrary direction from a...

A metal box with an opal glass front enclosing a lamp, used for viewing color transparencies or x-ray films.

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

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

A phase-shift interferometer used to detect the relative angular speeds or positions of two concentric rotors.

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

A mode of transmission whereby the sending and receiving stations operate continuously at a fixed relationship of phase and...

A method of erasable optical data storage in which information is stored by visible light, then read by illumination with an...

The coefficient Å in Angstrom's formula for the dispersing coefficient for dust present in the atmosphere. The formula...

The physical area containing an assembly of computer graphics equipment for presenting generated images and allowing...

An instrument used for video or computer data storage in which a laser optical head is used to write digital information...

A type of photographic film, often used in microfilming, that is processed by heat treatment, needing no liquid application.

A device used to compare the luminous intensities of two sources by comparing the illuminance they produce.

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

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

A type of electroluminescent display that will record and maintain an irradiated image on its phosphor screen, provided a DC...

A flexible fiber cable with a small diameter that transports light from the excitation laser to the target. Used in Raman...

A passive infrared system that uses two line-of-sight telescopes to generate both narrow and wide field-of-view images of...

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

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

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

A perfect diffuser that exists only as a concept, or a white with known spectral characteristics used as a reference in...

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

A coil used to focus an electron beam by the generation of a magnetic field parallel to the beam.

A system used for measuring direct solar radiation.

An electron tube that has an anode, a cathode, a control electrode and another electrode (usually a screen grid).

The photographing of a scene from positions corresponding to the locations of both eyes. A viewing device is used to present...

A laser that emits radiation continuously rather than in short bursts, as in a pulsed laser.

A scale located on the eyepiece focusing screw and used to measure the amount of defocusing of the eyepiece in diopters. The...

Attosecond photonics sources refer to devices or systems that generate extremely short pulses of light on the order of...

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

A photovoltaic device that consists of multiple p-n junctions to produce a greater efficiency when in use than that of...

A coating having pigments that change color when exposed to heat. This effect has been widely used to monitor hot spots in...

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

A small incandescent lamp whose intense beam is focused on the optical soundtrack of a motion picture film. The soundtrack...

In physics, nuclear fusion refers to the process in which two atomic nuclei come together to form a heavier nucleus,...

Material hardness scale that is used to characterize the scratch resistance of various materials. This surface hardness...

In solar energy technology, the percent of usable land covered by collectors. The horizontal collector is the only design...

An optical system that is designed to produce a high temperature in a specified area by the optical direction and...

A polycrystalline material that transmits in the infrared; it is used as a phosphor in x-ray and television screens.

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

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

The probability that an atom in one state will move spontaneously to a lower state within a given unit of time.

An imaging system that uses a mosaic of tiny light-sensitive semiconductors (phototransistors) to produce individual outputs...

A device used to measure the speed of light by adjusting the rotation of a toothed wheel so that light passing through one...

An immersion liquid used to treat polarizing filters to eliminate the effects of surface variations and to minimize the...

A solar simulator is a device used to replicate the spectrum and intensity of sunlight in a controlled environment for...

Contains the light or beam path within a laser device. The oscillator uses reflective optical components that are oriented...

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

In ultraviolet and fluorescence photography, the term applied to the filter used in the photographic system and with the...

A display standard no longer in use and originally defined for IBM PCs, with 640 3 480 pixels in 16 colors and a 4:3 aspect...

A material often used in the construction of optical instruments because of its low coefficient of thermal expansion (0.9 x...

An aspheric plate placed at, or near, the center of curvature of a spherical reflector and used to correct for spherical...

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

A plane mirror mounted on a polar axis that lies parallel to the plane of the mirror. When the mirror is rotated once in 48...

Also known as gas focusing. The introduction of an inert gas into a cathode-ray tube for the concentration of the electron...

The standards of MIL-O-13830 set by the US government relative to tolerable surface scratches and other such defects in an...

An artificial star used to aid in adaptive optics imaging of the sky. The guide star is provided from a telescope system on...

Gallium nitride (GaN) is a compound made up of gallium (Ga) and nitrogen (N). It is a wide-bandgap semiconductor material...

A device used to measure the pressure of gases and vapors, without regard to atmospheric pressure.

In image processing, inclusive term for point and group processing.

In an optical waveguide, the refractive index as a function of radius.

The formation of an interferogram by means of two holograms on the same recording medium, often used for determining small...

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

A photometer that uses a wedge, marked to show its reduction of flux density, to make two light sources equal in intensity...

A technique for determining the nonlinear optical properties of a sample material by moving the sample through a focused...

A term referring to the cathode-ray tube used in television receivers.

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

A color filter that is designed to gradually increase or decrease its absorption with wavelength.

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

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

Direct conversion of a photon from one wavelength to a lower energy photon of another wavelength(s) due to inelastic...

A device used to delay transmission of a signal for functions such as memory loops, sequential processing or built-in...

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

1. That action occurring when light passes through an optical interface at other than normal incidence, i.e., refraction. 2....

An instrument capable of precise measurements of the Earth's gravity. This permits the detection of small changes in local...

Characteristic of an acousto-optic modulator, defined by the overlap integral of the incident light and sound field...

Expression of the nondimensional coefficient of the heat transfer in a convection process.

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

gas laser using ionized argon as the active medium and applying electronic excitation in order to produce the laser light

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

The law stating that the critical fusion frequency is approximately proportional to the logarithm of the luminance and the...

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

Coherent source used for analysis of excited state species.

The focusing of an electron beam by a magnetic field that permanently retains the majority of its magnetic properties.

An instrument used to measure expansion of solids, liquids and gases.

The code used to describe the United States system of color telecasting.

An angstrom, symbolized by the Ångström or Å, is a unit of length used to express atomic and molecular...

A crucible made of electrically resistive material through which a current is passed to heat the material inside, which then...

Short wavelength infrared (SWIR) refers to the portion of the infrared spectrum that encompasses wavelengths roughly between...

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

A lidar (light detection and ranging) technique used in pollution monitoring. Two light beams are emitted simultaneously,...

A device used to measure the masses and relative concentrations of atoms and molecules. It utilizes the Lorentz force...

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

A term used to describe a photograph, film or television picture where the values for black and white areas are at or near...

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

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

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

An optical diffuser is an optical component or material designed to scatter or diffuse light that passes through it. It is...

A sensitometer having a continuously controlled monochromator to measure spectral sensitivity and contrast of photographic...

A portable instrument that uses a four-sided reflecting prism or set of mirrors to create a duplicate image of an object on...

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

Gas detection measurement technique that uses a built-in capacitative microphone to calculate the amount of absorbed laser...

1. The angle between two vectors that represent two simple periodic quantities that vary sinusoidally and that have the same...

A glass rhomb that is used in photometry to compare two illuminated surfaces. This is accomplished by the rhomb's angles,...

Blocking by means of a pitch ring, pitch button or a totally pitched block. Pitch, containing a soft filter, may be used...

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

An optical instrument consisting of an objective lens, a coherent (usually flexible) fiber bundle and an eyepiece to examine...

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

Scalar diffraction theory is a simplified approach used to describe the propagation of electromagnetic waves, particularly...

A filter that creates spherical aberration resulting in an image with a soft outline.

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

A method used to compare two pictures of the same subject taken at different times. See image comparison.

A very hard, highly transparent coating based on forms of carbon, used to protect optical components from abrasion and...

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

Spontaneous changes to the visual system making it more or less sensitive to light.

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

A monochromator is an optical instrument used to isolate and select a narrow range of wavelengths from a broader spectrum of...

A blank to which a piece of glass of a different refractive index will be fused to form a multifocal lens.

The base used to hold an astronomical telescope. It may be either altazimuth, with horizontal and vertical axes of rotation,...

A digital twin refers to a virtual representation or digital counterpart of a physical object, system, or process. This...

Wavelengths between 400 and 1400 nm (VIS to NIR) are focused onto the retina by the cornea. Because the retina is sensitive...

The photographic recording of images on a medium sensitive to infrared radiation, using a source capable of emitting in the...

A material widely used as a transparent conductive coating.

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

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

Denoting a finished circular edge. A decentered lens is adjusted on a centering chuck so that its image runs true, and the...

A stain in a glass surface.

A type of holographic film widely used for industrial applications because it is inexpensive and erasable.

Developing a photographic image by means of an applied electric field. The methods used include electrolysis and...

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

The product of Avogadro's constant and the electrical charge of an electron; thus, the electrical charge carried by 1 gmol...

Photographic recording that uses infrared radiation as the light source to form an image of a microscopic object and a...

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

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

The use of optical or electronic recording systems to extract information from the terrain, while aloft, for reconnaissance...

A quantum dot is a nanoscale semiconductor structure, typically composed of materials like cadmium selenide or indium...

A characteristic of laser output, calculated by dividing the speed of light by the linewidth of the laser beam. The temporal...

A reflecting prism that is rhomboidal in shape. It has two parallel transmitting faces, and two parallel reflecting faces;...

In rangefinders and height finders, a rotatable or sliding wedge-shaped element used to divert the line of sight precisely...

A structural method of optical character recognition, used where the input media are variable, as in hand-written or...

An optical instrument, generally a polarizing microscope, that is used to determine the interference figures and optical...

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

Carrier injection refers to the process of introducing charge carriers (either electrons or holes) into a semiconductor...

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

Hydrophilic is a term used to describe substances or materials that have an affinity for water. The word hydrophilic comes...

A device used to accelerate the electrons in a free-electron laser by channeling microwave energy into waveguide cavity...

Characterizes an Earth-orbiting satellite whose orbit plane is near polar and positioned at an altitude that allows it to...

A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) is a compact and integrated device that incorporates multiple photonic components and...

A lens blank is a piece of optical material in a raw, unfinished state, typically in the form of a disk or block, from which...

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

A microscope that has been modified to permit the quantitative analysis of dust samples.

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

A television receiver that receives the signals generated by a television camera directly, or remotely through a radio...

Thermal emission caused by the unity in absorption bands that must be discriminated when calculating radiation intensity of...

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

A rotating chamber that can be spun at different speeds to generate great radial forces used to simulate different gravity...

Also known as an anticathode. An electrode or electrode section that is focused upon by an electron beam and that emits...

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

The optical Fourier transform is a mathematical operation applied to optical signals that involves transforming a spatial...

A type of piezoelectric translator that uses two thin strips of piezoelectric material, one expanding while the other...

An imaging process in which the single opening of a simple pinhole camera is replaced with many openings called,...

A naturally occurring pigment in tissue that may selectively absorb certain wavelengths and can be used to aid in targeting...

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

A solid-state laser using yttrium aluminum garnet as the matrix material, doped with neodymium (Nd:YAG).

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

A technique used in radiography to determine a crystal's structure by obtaining radiographs of it in powder form, normally...

A device that detects and measures the quantity of exposure to nuclear radiation. It uses a special glass rod that...

A Dammann grating is a type of diffractive optical element (DOE) used to create an array of equally spaced,...

A wide-field camera based on the classic Schmidt optical system used to photograph Earth-orbiting satellites.

Linear optics refers to the study and manipulation of light in a linear and deterministic manner, where the response of...

A closed vessel with electrodes of different potentials that is used to determine how much ionization took place in a gas...

A method used to generate graphics within a computer system. Rather than dots or lines, fractal graphics work with...

The ability of the human eye to adjust itself to low levels of illumination.

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

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

The formation of microimages for microreduction. The technique is used, for example, in the production of precision reticles...

In an optical waveguide,- typically a multimode fiber - the distortion resulting from differential mode delay, i.e. axial...

Sparkling granular pattern that is observed when an object diffusely reflects coincident laser light. Speckle appears as an...

An exaggerated depth appearance in stereo photographs caused by the lenses in the camera being farther apart than the eyes...

The smallest linear diameter to which a laser or other beam of radiant energy is capable of being focused, depending on the...

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

The film used in photographic dosimetry to record the types and amounts of ionizing radiation, such as x-rays and gamma...

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

The use of a microscope in photographing objects. A device for photomicrography includes a light source, microscope and...

An instrument used to record infrared images of large areas. The recorded data are used to produce maps in false color...

Deformation of a material caused by mechanical factors, especially constant pressure, and not attributable to thermal...

Small tungsten lamp used in surgical instruments such as cystoscopes, and for other purposes where space is limited.

The method used to measure the index profile of an optical fiber by placing it in an interferometer and illuminating the...

A high-intensity source of incoherent white light in which a capacitor is discharged through a tube of xenon gas; often used...

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

A method of projecting integrated circuit patterns on a silicon wafer using x-ray wavelengths focused through a special mask.

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

An instrument designed to place nongraphic information, usually generated by a computer, onto photographic film. The...

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

The random noise having a spectral density that is substantially independent of the frequency over a specified frequency...

A free-electron laser (FEL) is a type of laser that generates coherent, high-intensity electromagnetic radiation by using a...

A lens with one concave surface and one convex surface; synonymous with meniscus.

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

A high-speed shutter, similar to a Kerr cell, that uses the birefringence produced in a liquid during the passage of an...

Second-order nonlinear optical properties refer to a class of phenomena exhibited by certain materials in response to...

A device used to control or block a light beam by means of the Kerr electro-optical effect.

An artificial material, engineered to have a negative refractive index value, such that light or any other form of...

Device in which the various circuit elements are fabricated in different substrate materials and then appropriately joined...

The smallest angle through which light is bent by an optical element or system. In a prism, the angle of deviation is a...

A hyperspectral imaging camera is a sophisticated imaging device capable of capturing and processing data across a wide...

A microscope to which a beamsplitter and illuminated reticle have been added to measure the radius of curvature of a...

Also called proximity focus image intensifier. A compact image intensifier that utilizes a microchannel plate...

A spectrophotometer designed for use in the 200- to 380-nm range of the electromagnetic spectrum and equipped with a...

A MEMS fiber optic switch is a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) device designed to selectively route optical signals...

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

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

A tungsten filament lamp that uses an opal glass bulb to diffuse light.

A form of monochromator optical system consisting of two spherical concave mirrors used in conjunction with a movable...

Photolithography is a key process in the manufacturing of semiconductor devices, integrated circuits, and...

The use of two lasers as a master-slave pair in order to control frequency and prevent chirp. When light from the master is...

The fusion frequency of flicker that is needed just to produce complete fusion and to assure the visual sensation of...

A form of shearing interferometer that contains a simple wedged (plane-parallel) glass plate with a nonzero optical path...

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

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

A spectroscopic technique used to display the intensity of an optical pulse as functions of time and frequency...

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

A mirror that supplies equal reflectance for both the S-polarization and the P-polarization of a laser for a defined angle...

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

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

A polygonal mirror, also known as a multifaceted mirror or facet mirror, is a type of optical component used in various...

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

A form of lens assembly used in a projection system to maximize efficiency and assure uniform illumination of the object...

This term literally means "to lag behind.'' It is quite often used to describe the residual effect that remains after...

The simultaneous occurrence of direct and diffuse transmission.

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

STED microscopy, or stimulated emission depletion microscopy, is a superresolution imaging technique in fluorescence...

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

Any of a number of instruments that uses a flame to vaporize a solution of the chemical being analyzed so that light may be...

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

A graphic reproduction of an object formed by a microscope or another optical system. Also an instrument used to make tiny...

The simultaneous collection of two or more signals at a single location. In a digital computer, it refers to the number of...

The signal formed when two signals, such as light waves, of different frequencies are present simultaneously in a nonlinear...

1. A stereoscope that has adjustable scales to allow the determination of distances and dimensions from stereoscopic...

A viewer that uses the transmittance of polarized light through glass or a similar medium to examine strained regions. See...

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

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

A television system that is capable of producing an image whose colors approximate the colors of the original, by the use of...

A method of storing digital data using techniques that consume less memory space than basic methods do. See differential...

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

A method of analysis in which a pulsed laser beam is used to heat a particle, producing a plasma, or laser spark. As the...

A diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL) is a type of laser system that uses semiconductor diode lasers to pump energy into...

A system of beacons used in navigation.

The photographing of objects within generally inaccessible areas using endoscopes with camera attachments.

The linear relationship between input and output optical fields for a given optical system or application that allows the...

A single number, defined by the computer program or the user that expresses the performance of an optical system. Also known...

The locus of the points in the field of binocular vision that are observed singly. The images of these points correspond to...

Luminescence that arises from friction and that usually occurs in crystalline materials.

A mass spectrometer utilizing both radial electrostatic and magnetic field analyzers to improve the focusing and increase...

1. A term used to describe the clouded appearance of an incompletely polished surface that scatters light. 2. The...

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

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

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

The time rate of flow of radiant energy, expressed in watts (W), and carries the units of Joule per second (J/s). The prefix...

A Huygenian eyepiece containing a pointer at its focal plane that is used -- when viewing an object through the eyepiece --...

A metal tool used to hold a number of lens blanks during grinding and polishing.

An excimer laser is a type of ultraviolet laser that emits short pulses of light in the ultraviolet spectrum. The term...

A measure of the relative difference in refractive index between two optical materials. Most commonly used in fiber optics...

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

Design and engineering consulting services refer to professional services provided by specialized firms or individuals to...

An abundant material found in the form of quartz and agate and as one of the major constituents of sand. The silicates of...

A diagram that uses special symbols called logic symbols to represent the detailed functioning of electronic logic circuits....

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

A spectrophotometer that makes use of filters to isolate narrow bands of the spectrum.

Also known as cathode-ray tube grid or shield. A cylindrically shaped electrode that, containing the cathode of a...

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

A framework or latticework having an even arrangement of rods, or any other long narrow objects with interstices between...

A type of high-speed photographic shutter that uses Faraday rotation to produce exposure times as fast as 1 microsecond. It...

A circuit that uses feedback to synchronize the phase of a voltage-controlled oscillator with the phase of an incoming or...

A substrate refers to a material or surface upon which another material or process is applied or deposited. In various...

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

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

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

A fiber optic spectrometer is a device used for measuring the spectral content of light. It utilizes optical fibers to...

A laser that distributes its output power among two, three or four optical fibers simultaneously.

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

Defines the minimum operational standards for a self-sustaining fusion reactor as equivalence between energy released per...

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

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

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

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

In photolithography, an opaque material used in masks that has a lower optical density and grainier composition than chrome.

A portion of computer memory that is used for temporary storage of frequently accessed data. Substantially increases...

A unit of metric measure equivalent to 1 thousandth (or 10-3 ) of the standard unit of optical power which is the diopter (1...

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

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

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

A photofluorescent compound that, when used with a scintillating substance, absorbs photons and emits related photons having...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Light diffusion refers to the process by which light is scattered or spread out in various directions as it interacts with a...

A scanning technique in optical character recognition in which an array of photocells is used to scan each character to...

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

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

Refers to a notation system using a base of 3 and the numerical characters 0, 1 and 2.

A polariscope used to demonstrate strain inherent in a piece of glass.

Frequently used in astronomical measurement, it is based on the diurnal rotation of a star relative to the fixed stellar...

Ferroelectric materials are a type of dielectric materials that exhibit spontaneous electric polarization, meaning they...

The attraction of particles suspended in a solution to a cathode, as a result of an electric field.

An endoscope used for the visual examination of the bladder.

An instrument in which visible light beyond the critical angle from a metallurgical microscope is focused on a reference...

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

A multiple-beam interferometer, usually consisting of two flat plates, with high reflective ability. The plates are set...

A type of conducting surface or material used to reflect radiant energy.

A specialized form of diffraction grating consisting of assembled glass plates of equal thickness that resemble a flight of...

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

The analysis of the photographs taken from the radar display of a survey aircraft and used when recording terrain that is...

See eye test apparatus; ophthalmic instruments.

A prism used in a photometer for the adjacent comparison of separate luminance.

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

A photometer having a pair of Nicol prisms introduced into the beam from the brighter of two sources to be compared. Turning...

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

Any material that derives its energy from chemically or electrically induced reactions; isotope or radium excitation is used...

A tool used in cutting circular holes around a center. Also, a laser cutter in which the beam moves in relation to the cut...

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

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

Collisional absorption of energy that occurs in inertial confinement fusion systems when hydrodynamic expansion of the...

Photocells of various kinds used to measure photometric quantities; i.e., intensity, luminance and illuminance. Meter...

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

Photoimmunotherapy (PIT) is a medical treatment approach that combines elements of phototherapy and immunotherapy to target...

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

A feature in the chromosphere of the sun formed by a jet of gas that reaches from the chromosphere into the corona and has...

Also called coating jig allowance. That margin on an optical component that is outside the clear aperture for use in holding...

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

A 2D profile sensor is a type of sensor used in various industrial and technological applications to measure and capture...

The ratio of diffusely transmitted flux to incident flux.

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

In image processing, any operation that strengthens information about the edges of objects displayed. Three types of spatial...

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

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

A photoelectrical relay that uses a phototube as its photoelectric device to open and close an electrical relay; used to...

A means of high resolution study through the application of soft and hard x-rays onto a sample surface in order to obtain...

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

The technology of manipulating light on a micro scale. In optical communications, this is usually accomplished using two or...

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

An optical instrument designed to displace the line of sight in a vertical direction. For submarines and other military uses...

Theoretical calculation of the cross section for a nuclear reaction given in the vicinity of a single resonance level in the...

Light emitted by one or more sources and characterized by a high degree of scatter.

A furnace used to heat glass materials. It may be a small laboratory-type furnace for small-scale experiments or large...

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

A system that uses both reflection and refraction to achieve its focal power. While the relative powers of the lenses and...

A substance such as a dye or pigment that is used to alter the color of light.

A device used to take turbidimetric or nephelometric measurements by considering the contrast between a constant brightness...

When uncontrolled laser energy leaks from a laser cavity prematurely, it causes serious damage to optical components and...

A type of matched filter that responds only to the phase of incoming light; the output has a much greater intensity than...

In optics, a motion controller refers to a device or system that precisely controls the movement of optical components, such...

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

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

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

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

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

A mirror composed of liquid, taking advantage of the parabolic shape of a spinning liquid and the fact that the mirror's...

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

A high-quality focuser that uses rollers rather than gears and offers smooth, precise motion while reducing or eliminating...

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

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

Transparencies that represent progressive steps in the amount of transmitted radiation for administering predetermined...

Potential alternative to the conventional pulse approximation method of digital image processing because of its highly...

A type of mirage that creates a distorted vertical image of relatively flat objects so that they appear as mountains,...

The processes in which luminous energy incident on the eye is perceived and evaluated.

A laser crystal, also known as an active medium or gain medium, is a solid-state material used in the construction of...

In multifocal spectacles, a term used to denote glass with a high refractive index that has been fused to the blank and...

A well controlled thin films technique for growing films with good crystal structure in ultra high vacuum environments at...

A small instrument containing a picture support and a pair of magnifying lenses so arranged that the left eye sees only the...

A shield of rubber, plastic or metal used to protect the eyes of the observer from stray light and wind, and to maintain the...

The methods used to determine the extinction characteristics of a medium.

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 specific form of phase shifting interferometry - commonly referred to as multiple wavelength phase shifting interferometry...

A technique developed by British Telecom in which the viscous drag of air is used to install optical fibers in narrow...

Observed when alterations in the luminous sterance at the contour of an object create the illusion of the outer zones...

A test similar to the Knoop hardness test, but used for fractured material. The indenter is a square-based pyramid-shaped...

A colorimeter using a spinning disc made of different colored sections for colorimetric analysis.

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

The photographic recording of the heat radiation emitted from various points on the object as corresponding density...

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

A single-anode mercury pool tube that is designed to maintain a continuous cathode spot.

Two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) is a nonlinear optical method that allows imaging of biological cells and living...

A type of fluorescence spectroscopy in which an excimer laser, a dye laser and a frequency-doubling device are used to...

A double-plate device used to transmit polarized light and form interference fringes of the light, thus indicating its...

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

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

Label-free refers to a technique or method that does not require the use of additional labels, tags, or markers to detect or...

A device used to detect and measure the quantity of exposure to nuclear or x-ray radiation, and dependent on the fact that...

A fiber for which the difference between the maximum and the minimum refractive index is small, usually less than 1 percent.

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

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

An electronic transducer, either fixed or adjustable, that reduces the amplitude of a wave without causing significant...

A specialized spectrophotometer for use through a microscope on very small areas of an object.

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

The movement of particles or ions in a solution toward the electrode having the opposite sign because of the application of...

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

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

In a laser diode, the photocurrent produced by a photodiode that detects the emission from the rear facet of the...

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

A type of internal focusing in which only the lens elements closest to the rear of the lens barrel are moved.

CID, or charge injection device, camera refers to a type of imaging device that utilizes a specific kind of solid-state...

Proportions of standard primaries (tristimulus values) required for a color match; ratios of each tristimulus value of a...

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

The breakdown of the bonds in polymer chains caused by illumination.

A laser diode module is a compact device that incorporates a laser diode, optics, and often other components into a single...

An optical system used to collect infrared energy from a scene using scanning optics with a point or line detector, as...

A fluid having three components: a carrier fluid, magnetite particles suspended by Brownian motion and a stabilizer to...

Laser ablation is a process that involves the removal or erosion of material from a target surface using laser energy. This...

A device using a parametric amplifier inside a resonant optical cavity to generate a frequency-tunable coherent beam of...

A specified cold-cathode gas tube used to apply a short-duration, high-power arc for a stroboscope.

1. A geometrical arrangement of two or more light beams for use in laser shows, object detection or other applications...

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

A two-part lens that has a different focal length for each part. Generally, it is used in eyeglasses to correct for both...

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

In avalanche photodiodes, the point at which an increase in the reverse bias voltage causes the current gain to approach...

Particle acceleration refers to the process by which charged particles, such as electrons or protons, gain kinetic energy...

The series of rings or bands formed when light beams reflected from two polished, adjacent surfaces, placed together with a...

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

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

An instrument used to test lenses by utilizing the optical transfer function. It consists of a HeNe laser, a beamsplitter...

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

Also known as roof prism. A type of prism designed by G.B. Amici. It consists of a roof edge produced upon the long...

A fiber optic cable assembly refers to a complete unit consisting of optical fibers, connectors, protective jackets, and...

A term referring to the pre-exposed hologram of the subject used in holographic interferometry.

The reflection that occurs within a substance because the angle of incidence of light striking the boundary surface is in...

A spectrograph having glass as its refracting component and used in cases where speed and high dispersion are not required....

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

Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) refers to a technology used in the fabrication of integrated circuits,...

Typically used for the examination of manufactured or engineered parts, an optical gauging device, in which a backlight is...

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

Equal to 10-3 lux; used in measuring low values of illumination and luminance.

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

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

The process of grinding the concave surface of a single-vision spherical lens.

The use of a computer to generate a series of interrelated images so that the images give the illusion of movement in space...

An achromat, in the context of optics, refers to a type of lens or lens system designed to reduce chromatic aberration....

A surface that obeys Lambert's cosine law and has a reflectance of unity.

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

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

A sequential scanning device, utilizing a revolving lens, in which the cathode-ray tube image is transformed into a circle...

A plate made up of thousands of glass fibers arranged parallel to one another, i.e., in a coherent bundle, and fused...

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...

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

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

A ferroelectric polycrystalline ceramic material used in optical memories for computers and as a piezoelectric transducer.

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

A type of laser spectroscopy used to measure short-lived isotopes by observing sudden bursts of fluorescence resulting from...

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

Dispersion refers to the phenomenon where different wavelengths (colors) of light travel at different speeds when passing...

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

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

A device that uses a photoelectric cell to determine the level of oxygenation in the blood.

A pollution-measuring device used to detect the presence of nitric oxide regardless of other gases present. It utilizes the...

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

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

An apparatus used to determine the degree of adaptation of the eye under different conditions.

A type of eyepiece, or the modification of an eyepiece, in which a small hole, without a lens, functions as the eye lens;...

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

A flanged or plain ring with a restricted aperture, located in an optical system at any of several points, that cuts off...

Gallium nitride-based light-emitting diodes (GaN-based LEDs) are semiconductor devices that emit light when an electric...

A partially filled or empty energy band through which electrons can move easily. The material can therefore carry an...

A spatial light modulator consisting of a metallized polymer film stretched over an array of metal-oxide semiconductor...

A device that provides means for accurately moving minuscule tools over the surface of a microscopic object. The motion...

A method that uses electronic means to move the scanning spot along the scanning line.

Breakdown of a gas produced by the attenuation of an intense pulse of focused laser light.

The intensification of a latent image, because of exposure to light to which the emulsion is otherwise insensitive.

Piezoelectric transducers are devices that utilize the piezoelectric effect to convert electrical energy into mechanical...

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

Interruption in the normal flow of a plasma or fluid characterized by sharp rises in velocity, temperature and pressure. As...

An aperture, usually rectangular in shape, with a large length-to-width ratio, and a fixed or adjustable shape through which...

An image-forming system that uses mirrors rather than lenses. Such objectives are frequently used for astronomical...

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

The properties of certain materials that cause them to have relative permeabilities that exceed unity. This permeability...

Sets of lenses (positive, negative and cylindrical) usually mounted in circular rims suitable for slipping into trial...

The disordered, glassy solid state of a substance, as distinguished from the highly ordered crystalline solid state....

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

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

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

A powerful method, referred to as FCS, for determining the average diffusion coefficients of fluorescent molecules in...

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

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

A rare gas used in small high-pressure arc lamps to produce a high-intensity source of light closely resembling the color...

Flux per unit solid angle leaving a surface in any direction is proportional to the cosine of the angle between that...

A porous ceramic substance that is ground to a given optical form and on which a polished plate of glass is sagged by heat...

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

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

A substance that transmits the infrared, but which is too delicate or fragile to be used in the form of a single crystal....

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

A device used to compare the luminous intensities of two sources by locating a point between the two light sources where the...

A computer architecture used in parallel processing whereby the processing elements are directed by a single, central...

Vision at intermediate levels of luminance between photopic and scotopic vision, where both retinal cones and retinal rods...

A CCD that has been reduced in thickness by etching so that light passes through the back layers of the CCD. This type of...

A lens with one surface convex and the other concave, the latter having the greater curvature. It also is known as a...

The use of high temperatures, between 2000 and 3000 °C, to excite emission lines from a sample in spectroscopic...

With respect to television, a potentiometer that allows variation of the intensity of the different elements of an image and...

An instrument devised by Nichols and Hull for use in the measurement of radiation pressure. The device has two small...

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

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

An optical illusion in which distant objects are lighter in tone and less distinct in outline than those closer to the...

Two electrodes that shift the electron beam vertically on a cathode-ray tube screen using electrostatic deflection.

An array or mosaic of optical surfaces. May be a number of lenses closely packed to form multiple images or many parallel...

A device used in measuring the attenuation of multimode optical fibers. A short reference length of fiber when combined with...

An electrophoretic display, often referred to as an electronic paper display or e-paper display, is a type of electronic...

A technique in photometry that uses an oxyhydrogen or oxyacetylene flame to optically excite a solution containing the...

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

The maximum number of users who are using a given communication channel. Typically, the number of users at any given time is...

A rotating disc that holds several lenses of differing focal length about a diameter. Used to switch lenses in a system...

A term used to denote the condition of a few easily visible coarse inclusions within a blank of glass.

A mechanical or electronic device used to control the amount of time that a light-sensitive material is exposed to radiation.

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

The arc formed when the rare gas xenon is excited electrically and emits a brilliant white light. Xenon is used to fill...

The technique that uses light to detect and analyze the antibodies produced by a specimen stained with an organic dye.

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

A measure of image quality produced by an optical system. May be specified in terms of cycles per millimeter, referencing a...

A host crystal for chromium that emits pulsed or continuous-wave laser light, tunable from about 720 to 790 nm.

A type of cooling system in which one fluid is used to carry heat off another without direct contact between the two.

Sapphire can refer to either a gemstone or a specific type of crystalline material commonly used in various industrial...

The loss of optical power in an optical fiber because radiation escapes through its bends. The radiation loss caused by...

A semiconductor material used in photodetectors, sensitive in the infrared up to 5 µm.

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

Machinery used to grind and finish a component, such as a lens or prism, to a desired precision. Usually such machines carry...

A solid-state laser that is continuously tunable in the wavelength region from 700 to 1100 nm. It is suitable for both...

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

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

An optical device used to monitor movement of the human eye.

In vitro is a Latin term that translates to "in glass." In scientific contexts, particularly in biology and medicine, it...

A gas laser having a mixture of gases that makes it useful in the lab. The mixture of gases flows through a pressure and...

Plasmonics is a field of science and technology that focuses on the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and free...

A short length of optical fiber permanently fixed to a component and used to couple power between it and the transmission...

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

A desklike apparatus with an opal glass surface illuminated from beneath by fluorescent tubes. It is equipped with roll...

An arranged series of coils, magnets or electromagnets disposed in such a way that the resulting magnetic fields generate a...

A semispherical or conical lens created directly on the core of an optical fiber to focus light from a laser into the fiber...

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

Measurement of absorption by the gas of interest in the 2- to 6-µm range as a function of tangent height pressure. The...

Refers to a variety of methods and tools used to determine the surface contour and performance of optical components and...

A computer-generated kinoform used for data processing because of its use of incoherent light and its wide field of view,...

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

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

The optical element that receives light from the object and forms the first or primary image in telescopes and microscopes....

Thin-film coatings are layers of material applied to the surface of an object or substrate, typically to modify its optical,...

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

An instrument using a Michelson interferometer, a beamsplitter, two plane mirrors and a detector to give Fourier analysis of...

A bandpass filter with piezoelectric crystal components for the passage or impedance of electrical signals of various...

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

The maximum distance at which the stereoscopic effect may be observed. With respect to the unaided human eye, it has been...

The standard unit used to express gain or loss and relative power levels. The decibel (dB) = 10 log (P2/P1).

The light emitted from tissues without the use of fluorescent dyes as markers. Because cancerous tissues and normal tissues...

Loss intrinsic to the fiber caused by parameter (core dimension, profile parameter) mismatches when two nonidentical fibers...

An exciton is a quasiparticle that represents the bound state of an electron and a hole in a solid-state material, typically...

A device using the Kerr effect to read back the signals from mechanically recorded tapes and discs. It consists of a light...

A crystal-based device that combines and adjusts the intensities of multiple wavelengths of laser light in order to obtain...

An electroradiographic process that uses ionization of air by x-rays as a basis for forming electrostatic images.

The total optical power loss caused by the insertion of an optical component such as a connector, splice or coupler into a...

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

A discharge tube filled with various gases and used as a source in spectroscopy.

The law stating that the just-perceptible increment of stimulus is a constant fraction of the stimulus.

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

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

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

A device used to detect elevation, pyramid and resolution errors in prisms and other components by bringing them into...

A term referring to various processes for forming visible images outside of a camera to be photographed on ordinary film....

An optical instrument used to track and image a test vehicle (target) throughout its flight. The cinesextant frequently...

1. An instrument used to determine the visual range in an environment. 2. A type of photometer that artificially reduces an...

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

In a laser, the fraction of plasma volume used by a particular transverse mode of oscillation, a determinant of the gain...

A fiber-coupled photoconductive antenna (FCPA) is a type of optoelectronic device that combines a photoconductive antenna...

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

Characteristic of optical analyses that are limited to infinitesimally small apertures. Also called first-order or Gaussian...

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

A laser cavity, also known as an optical cavity or resonator, is a fundamental component of a laser system. It is a confined...

1. A mechanism that permits the focusing of an optical system.2. A means of obtaining the sharpest image from a cathode-ray...

The two points on the principal axis of a mirror or lens so positioned that light emitted from either point will be focused...

Turbidity is a measure of the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by the presence of suspended particles. These...

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

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

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

Characterized by having the same center. Concentric circles differ in radius but have a common center point.

The color process that is used to form positive color cine films by dye transfer or imbibition, based on the use of separate...

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

A function used in a convolution filtering operation. The image to be filtered is convolved with the filtering kernel to...

1. A strainmeter capable of measuring the change in the relationship between two reference points, provided that the points...

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

A spectrum formed by radiation whose energy values of the property being measured cluster about at least one discrete value,...

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

An acid used to etch the surfaces of particular materials. For glass, hydrofluoric acid is used either as a liquid or a...

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

A prism that often is used as a dispersing element in spectrographs and monochromators.

Usually consists of a set of filters that attenuate specific wavelengths but transmit as much visible radiation as possible.

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

The degree to which a predetermined or previous setting of a positioning device can be duplicated by observance of the...

An optical test table made up of two outer layers or "skins'' bonded to either side of a honeycomblike core, usually of...

A lens assembly containing several movable elements to permit changing of the effective focal length (EFL). Unlike a zoom...

Technique that uses high-pass filtering to reduce the local average to zero for all regions of the picture and then applies...

The real numerical aperture (NA) of a fiber when the computed NA is not valid because of change in the glass indices during...

A simple electrostatic lens with a focus controlled by a single potential difference.

A device used to measure the intensity of radiant energy.

Metrology is the science and practice of measurement. It encompasses the theoretical and practical aspects of measurement,...

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

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

Off-axis paraboloid and ellipsoid mirrors are specialized optical components used in various optical systems, particularly...

An enclosure for a calorimeter that allows measurement of unusually low quantities of power and energy.

In an interlaced scanning electro-optical system such as television, the system resolution will be less than the number of...

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

A self-healing, index-matching, nonporous coating for optical components that can eliminate production difficulties and...

Optical design and engineering services involve the development, customization, and optimization of optical systems and...

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

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

A photometer used to measure sky brightness and polarization associated with zodiacal light, background starlight, F-region...

Anisotropic is a term used to describe a material or substance that exhibits different properties or behaviors in different...

A calculated measure of the ability of an incident force to cause an object to spin. The spin speed of any given object is a...

Ratio of the directionally reflected flux to that reflected in the same direction by a perfect reflecting diffuser...

A zone plate produced by a computer and having a binary structure that can be etched into a chromium or quartz layer. It...

A spheric lens, also known as a spherical lens, is a type of optical lens with at least one surface that is part of a...

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

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

More efficient than the Foucault knife-edge test, this test examines curved mirrors by using a transmission grating with 40...

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

A rotating mirror coupled with a distant mirror and used in a system by Foucault to compute the velocity of light. Light...

A splice accomplished by the application of localized heat sufficient to fuse or melt the ends of two lengths of optical...

The process, used with a positive photoresist, in which the photoresist is immersed in developing chemicals while being...

A symbol used to represent the refractive index. It is commonly used with a subscript to represent the wavelength of light.

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

A technique used in radiography to obtain an unblurred image of a moving object by the use of very short x-ray exposures,...

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

A group of four cameras loaded with different combinations of filters and film (one is usually an infrared color film) to...

The use of head-mounted displays and body-operated remote actuators to control distant machinery. Provides a virtual...

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

Decibels referenced to one milliwatt; often used to specify power ratings for semiconductor diode lasers.

Fluid used to aid in examination of semifinished blanks.

Irregular propagation of a wave due to variations in the medium's density or refractive index.

A thin film or coating that forms on various finished surfaces. On optical surfaces it usually denotes aging.

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

Digital signal processing (DSP) refers to the manipulation and analysis of signals, which are representations of physical...

An interference microscope that uses a light beam originating from a low-coherence light source. The sample is placed in one...

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

A specific, right-angle prism having a transmission grating replicated on its hypotenuse face and used in applications...

A spectrum that is continuous in the UV region with borders ranging from the visible to 300 A and lower.

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

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

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

The numerical aperture of an optical system used to couple (launch) power into an optical waveguide.

A mirror mount is a mechanical device used to secure and precisely position mirrors in optical systems. Mirrors are...

The slits in a spectrograph that form images of spectral lines. Slits may be bilateral or unilateral, and generally close...

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

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

A rotating component with a series of flat reflective surfaces around the perimeter that is used in scanning systems to...

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

A fiber optic device that uses a HeNe laser, beamsplitter, monochromator and photomultiplier to detect trace levels of...

A reticle carrying patterns of various forms that can be rotated in an optical beam to cause variations in the intensity of...

A type of color-generating cathode-ray tube that uses a shadow mask, a thin perforated electrode, located close to the...

A solid-state device, composed of silicon, that is used to convert radiation into electrical energy.

Cold atoms refer to atoms that have been cooled to extremely low temperatures, typically in the microkelvin (µK) to...

The photographic recording of data, in binary form, for storage in memory. Exposure is achieved by a cathode-ray tube or by...

A set of three colored lights which, when mixed, give the sensation of white light. The set used in color television, for...

A type of wide-angle lens that has an angular field above 140° and that exhibits barrel distortion. The most commonly...

A near-infrared (NIR) spectrometer is an analytical instrument used to measure the absorption, transmission, or reflection...

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

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

Radiation used to excite an optical or laser material to a higher energy level. See optical pumping.

A light source, such as the sun or an incandescent lamp, that freely penetrates ordinary glass bulbs and emits in the...

A contraction for "texture element." A base unit used in computer graphics that defines the surface of three-dimensional...

1. The process of wearing down the surface of a softer material by rubbing it under pressure against the surface of a harder...

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

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

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

A permanent, transparent, and highly transmissive adhesive capable of withstanding extreme temperatures that is applied to...

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

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

A telescope that is fixed or has a limited degree of movement in a vertical plane; primarily used to determine the position...

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

A form of liquid crystal widely used in displays, achieved by sandwiching a liquid crystal material between two substrates...

Westinghouse trade name for an alloy of iron, nickel and cobalt, which has the same thermal expansion as glass and therefore...

The total fusion and sealing of materials, or usually an enclosure, to ensure that they are airtight.

An imperfection in optical glass consisting of a distinct streak of transparent material having a slightly different...

A thermosetting material used in the jacket of fiber optic cables.

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

A beam shaper is an optical device or system designed to modify the spatial profile or intensity distribution of a laser or...

A reflecting surface that scatters radiation that is incident on it, thus producing diffuse reflection.

Entirely analogous to color photography, but inclusive of light bands that do not appear in the visible spectrum.

A system that determines whether an image is in or out of focus by means of a source of illumination at the conjugate focal...

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

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

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

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

A spectral phenomenon in which the degree of the photoresponse of an illuminated semiconductor is determined by the...

Having the characteristics of glass.

In chemistry, a halide refers to a chemical compound containing one or more halogen atoms bonded to another element. The...

The determination of a substance's identity or quantity through the analysis of its optical rotation. For example, the...

Self-phase modulation (SPM) is a nonlinear optical phenomenon that occurs when an intense laser beam passes through a...

A light valve that uses a crystal as the control layer medium and that operates on the principle of the electro-optic effect.

A machine vision technique that compares a template of the desired image (the correlation kernel) with the actual camera...

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

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

E.I. duPont's trade name for a polyester film. The most practical beamsplitter for use beyond the 15-µm wavelength...

Pertaining to a device that responds to optical power, emits or modifies optical radiation, or utilizes optical radiation...

A step before fusion splicing that involves cleaning the fiber end with low-current electricity.

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

An electron-gun system is an assembly used to generate and control a focused beam of electrons. Electron guns find...

A type of optical fiber in which a silica core is surrounded by a hard polymer or similar material much stronger than the...

The theoretical explanation and analysis of the interactions between electron waves and crystals used in studying electron...

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

A linear image sensor is a type of solid-state electronic device used to capture and convert light into electrical signals....

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

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

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

A mathematical transformation used in image and video compression that changes two-dimensional representation of data into...

An optical coupling device that uses light to bridge the gap between incompatible wire communications systems. It contains...

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

A device used to measure the focal length of an optical system or lens.

An instrument used to detect the fluorescence emitted by a source in comparison with a reference.

A custom optic refers to an optical component that is designed, manufactured, and tailored to meet specific requirements or...

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

The use of a krypton laser system for the measurement of small molecules aligned by an electric field, by analyzing the...

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

A group of single emitter laser diodes, usually arranged vertically or horizontally with respect to each other. The power...

A type of tubing used to protect optical fiber cables, consisting of a wire spiral of aluminum, galvanized steel or...

A spectral line of an internal standard; used to compare radiant energy of the line being analyzed.

A frame taken with a CCD camera of a surface that is evenly illuminated by diffuse light. This frame shows irregularities in...

A camera lens, used in macrophotography, that is designed and corrected to produce optimum definition of a nearby object...

A device for the internal inspection of hard-to-get-at mechanical parts, such as rifle barrels, sewer pipes, oil wells, or...

Bohr's formulation that every new theoretical principle must correspond to the salient classical predecessor. The principle...

In semiconductor physics and materials science, the term "III-V materials" refers to compounds composed of elements from...

The range of frequencies that will pass through a filter or other device. Synonymous with passband.

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

An instrument that uses a photocell to detect and measure the intensity of incident light.

Optical materials refer to substances or compounds specifically chosen for their optical properties and used in the...

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

Measurement of surface roughness or quality through the use of a diamond-pointed stylus connected to a coil in an electric...

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

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

Histology is the branch of biology and medicine that involves the study of the microscopic structure of tissues and organs...

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

The optical power loss caused by a space between axially aligned fibers.

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

Distortion caused by variations in the rate of change of phase shift with frequency over the signal's necessary bandwidth.

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

A plate of glass, usually a photograph, on which there is a central spot surrounded by concentric annular zones, alternately...

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

An instrument used for viewing in low levels of illumination by means of infrared radiation. A high-aperture lens forms an...

The compression and intensification of a laser pulse of a specific width into a smaller pulse width. A spherical cavity, in...

The locus of points in a system along a line that remains stationary while the remainder of the system rotates.

A fluorophore is a molecule or a portion of a molecule that has the ability to emit light upon excitation by an external...

An electrowetting display (EWD) is a type of electronic display technology that utilizes the principles of electrowetting to...

A cathode-ray tube that generates symbols for use in other displays. The tube operates by scanning specific characters on...

The projection of a plane or grid pattern of light onto an object. It can be used for the determination of three-dimensional...

A spectrometer equipped with polarizing prisms and retardation plates that is used in the analysis of elliptically polarized...

A GaAlAs laser is a type of semiconductor laser diode that emits light in the near-infrared region of the electromagnetic...

An aptamer is a short, single-stranded DNA or RNA molecule that can bind to a specific target molecule with high affinity...

An electronic device used to encode video and audio signals of a television camera into radio waves that are broadcast to...

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

A filter that polarizes light passing through it. It is possible to fabricate sheets of plastic or gelatin that contain...

Long-wave infrared (LWIR) refers to a specific range of the infrared spectrum. Infrared radiation is divided into three main...

An imaging technique used in radiology that is based on the principles of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to produce...

An instrument used to detect and measure the energy distribution of gamma rays. It has been used to chart the radioactivity...

A coating made up of particular birefringent materials having polarizing properties. It may be used, in some cases, to...

The use of chemicals or radiation to induce a desired change in a substance; e.g., some optical adhesives are set by...

The hollow electrode used in emission spectroscopy to hold the material to be examined and, using an arc or spark source, to...

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a powerful analytical technique that enhances the Raman scattering signal of...

A pair of long, slender parallel apertures used in experiments on diffraction and interference.

Reflection losses incurred at input and output of optical elements because of the difference in refractive index between...

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

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

Also known as a shadow mask, a perforated plate placed between the focusing and accelerating electrodes, and the tricolor...

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

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

The exact mathematical description of the interactions of matter and intense electromagnetic fields, such as those that...

A fiber optic preform is a cylindrical glass rod or tube used as the starting material for manufacturing optical fibers. It...

Attenuation refers to the gradual loss or reduction of intensity, force, or magnitude of a particular property as it...

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

An early type of nonvacuum photocell consisting of a layer of copper oxide on a metallic substrate, with a thin transparent...

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

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

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

The term quantum refers to the fundamental unit or discrete amount of a physical quantity involved in interactions at the...

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

A device containing two photocells behind deep red and blue filters to measure color temperatures. The amplifier gain is...

A device, also called a fluorescence lifetime instrument, that measures decay curves of fluorescing samples. It generally...

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

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

A microbubble resonator is a device used in photonics and optical physics for the precise manipulation of light waves. It...

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

A crystal often used for windows and refracting components in the ultraviolet, visible and infrared. Characteristically,...

Hyperspectral resolution refers to the level of detail or granularity in the spectral information captured by a...

Plastic optics refers to optical components or systems that are made from transparent plastic materials, as opposed to...

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

The condition in which the index of refraction in an optical fiber varies as a parabolic function of the radius.

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

A convex lens that brings an incident bundle of rays to a focus to produce intense heat at the focus.

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

A refractometer that has a greater resolving power than a standard refractometer, and that uses a pentagonal prism to split...

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

Light that is directed or focused by means of curved reflective surfaces.

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

A long-pass filter is an optical filter that allows longer wavelengths of light to pass through while blocking or...

An automatic camera that can record reduced images of documents at a rate of up to 30,000 documents per hour by having the...

A flowmeter is a device used to measure the flow rate or quantity of a fluid passing through a particular point in a system....

Power modulation refers to the intentional variation of power levels in a signal, often in the context of electronic...

A camera tube widely used in television broadcasting. It consists of three sections within a single vacuum envelope. 1. A...

In optical character recognition, the mechanical or electronic transducer used to detect the level of illumination present...

A means of achieving higher peak powers and more efficient harmonic generation by narrowing the pulse width and thus...

The process of grinding the convex surface of a convexo-concave meniscus.

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) refers to a specific range of electromagnetic radiation in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum....

A facility selected by mutual agreement of the user and the prospective vendor to test a prototype before it is offered for...

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

A term used to describe a spectacle lens or blank with one surface totally finished.

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

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

A reflecting optic whose reflectivity is a function of the radial distance from the optic axis; can be used to convert a...

The term used in reference to vacuum systems using oil and diffusion pumps, describes the migration of pump fluids and their...

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

The direct cladding used for fused silica cores to create large numerical aperture fibers and used as overcoats to...

The term "embedded laser" typically refers to a laser device that is integrated or embedded into a larger system or...

A stroboscopelike apparatus that uses a copper vapor laser to illuminate an object for very short time periods (about 30 ns).

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

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

Integration time, in the context of optics, imaging systems, and sensor technology, refers to the duration over which a...

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

The line that divides the two half-images in a coincidence rangefinder. The two halves of the images formed by the two...

A resonator often used for mode control in Fresnel number laser cavities that is highly vulnerable to extremely weak...

Continuous wave (CW) refers to a type of signal or transmission where the signal is constant and does not vary with time. In...

A source made to glow by electrons that are produced either electrically or by isotopes of various elements.

Thin-film deposition equipment refers to machinery and tools used in the process of depositing thin layers of material onto...

That part of the cladding wherein the refractive index is constant within a specified tolerance, as a function of radius.

A kinescope used to survey the details of television video transmission.

The use of photoetching techniques to produce small tools, parts and dies from sheet metal.

A term referring to an optical force field used to trap and stabilize particles acted upon by a force such as laser light.

A device used to measure the opening time of a shutter. The most common devices depend on the charging or discharging of an...

Dispersion that occurs when the medium's index of refraction decreases as the frequency of the propagating light increases....

Injecting a gas (usually nitrogen) with a very low moisture content into the body of an optical instrument to create a...

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

The process of adjusting input pixel by pixel at the filter plane to adapt to nondeal phase behavior in an optical...

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

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

A computer-generated, phase-and-amplitude, off-axis hologram made by a multi-exposure technique that uses three computer...

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

The physical adaption of the eye lens, by means of ciliary muscle contraction, in order to maintain a clear, in focus image...

A doubly refracting mineral used to produce polarizing prisms. It is uniaxial negative and in the trigonal division of the...

A system of sensors and related instrumentation that allows a navigable object (usually a missile) to locate its destination...

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

Ratio of the radiant flux at a particular wavelength lm to that at any other wavelength l, such that both radiations produce...

A filter designed to decrease the luminosity of the sky without decreasing that of the landscape in the foreground. A filter...

One or more thin-film layers of optical material deposited on a mirror blank/substrate in order to enhance the way that...

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

A device small enough to be held in a hand that uses a magnifying lens and a translucent back to permit the viewing of...

Any testing method for materials and components that does not damage or destroy the test sample. Some of the methods used...

Property of a surface which, because of directional reflection, is responsible for the degree to which reflected highlights...

A method of demonstration or examination using a point source illumination without the use of any projection lens between...

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

The circle of confusion is a defocused or aberrated image of a point. Focus is generally set where the diameter of this...

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

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

A device that is used to produce or analyze plane-polarized light. It may be a Nicol prism or some other form of calcite...

A filter designed to improve contrast in an imaging system. For visual and black and white photosystems, a yellow filter is...

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

A glass that is heated, then chilled (usually by an air blast) to set up internal stresses so that the surfaces are under...

Cinematography performed with the use of a microscope to film the actions of microscopic specimens.

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

As applied to a device or machine, the ratio of total power input to the usable power output of the device.

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

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

An infrared light source is a device that emits light in the infrared spectrum, which lies beyond the visible spectrum of...

A defect in an optical system that prevents rays from reaching their intended destination; it can be caused by an undersized...

In a single-mode optical fiber, the wavelength that causes material dispersion and waveguide dispersion to cancel each...

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

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

A microlens array is a grid-like structure composed of numerous small lenses, typically arranged in a regular pattern. Each...

The use of mathematical analysis to derive solutions in the science of photogrammetry.

A light ray that has had its direction altered because of its traversing an air-to-glass interface at some angle. In an...

A device composed of a light source and phototube used to scan a moving strip of material in photoelectric side-register...

Powder used to produce a smooth optical surface through abrasive polishing. Compounds may produce a surface finish specified...

Extended period exposure photographs of a laser light created with various patterns within full image (laser graffiti).

The adjustment of a binocular instrument so that the lines of sight of both telescopes are parallel.

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

The internet of things (IoT) refers to a network of interconnected physical devices, vehicles, appliances, and other objects...

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

Return of radiation by a surface, without change in wavelength. The reflection may be specular, from a smooth surface;...

An electron instrument used to reflect an electron beam totally.

The device, usually made of glass or a similar material, that contains the resonant cavity and optics of a gas laser.

Techniques used in biology to produce microradiographs of cells, tissues or small organisms.

The progressive defocusing of a cathode-ray tube display image that occurs when the deflected electron beam impinges on the...

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

Atmospheric aberration caused by the Earth's rotation; the degree varies from 0 at the poles to a maximum of 0.31 s of arc...

A resin obtained from the balsam fir, Abies balsamea, used as a lens cement.

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

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

A wave in which energy is focused near a boundary separating materials having different properties. Propagation of the wave...

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

A lens used in the optical testing of an aspheric surface. It converts a spherical wavefront into one that precisely matches...

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

Also referred to as physical optics - the area of optics in which the wave nature of light is essential when defining its...

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

An afocal optical device made up of lenses or mirrors, usually with a magnification greater than unity, that renders distant...

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 tool made by imbedding small particles of diamond in the working edge. In the optical field, the most commonly used...

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

Measurement derived from calculation when incident flux of a negative is entirely diffuse and all radiation transmissions...

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

An electrochemical process of metal fabrication using an electrolyte, an anode to supply the metal, and a control of the...

An infrared source, set in a stationary position, that is used as a reference in certain navigational systems.

Whispering gallery mode (WGM) refers to a phenomenon in wave physics, particularly in optics, where waves, such as light or...

In optics, an octave typically refers to a range of frequencies or wavelengths that spans a factor of 2. In other words,...

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

A hydrogel is a three-dimensional network of polymer chains that are hydrophilic, meaning they have a strong affinity for...

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

The radiation spectrum of matter found in condensed states, liquid or solid, that is continuous and not a line spectrum. The...

Electromagnetic radiation with frequencies between 300 GHz and 10 THz, and existing between regions of the electromagnetic...

An optical system that is corrected chromatically for three colors simultaneously.

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

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

A filter fluorometer that uses a photomultiplier tube to detect the fluorescence of a sample.

Spherical aberration is an optical aberration that occurs when light rays passing through a lens or curved optical surface...

One of the two major types of optical glass, the other being crown glass. Flint glass is softer than crown glass, has a...

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

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

A slight displacement in the position of a spectral line because of an alteration in frequency, as a result, in turn, of a...

A standard lens interface initially made for 16mm movie cameras and now used primarily on closed-circuit television cameras....

Equipment dependent on the effects of a vacuum. The principal applications in optics are in the coating of lenses and...

A transducer is a device or component that converts one form of energy into another. It is commonly used in various fields,...

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

A change in the refractive index of an optical fiber caused by variation in the length of the fiber core in response to...

A device used to maintain near-absolute temperatures for experimental procedures.

A tiny lens (as small as 100 µm in diameter) used to focus light on charge-coupled devices, formed by heating a...

Describing a laser that emits simultaneously at more than one wavelength.

Luminous flux emitted per unit area of a source, expressed as lumens per area.

Use of a photoelectric receiver to sense an object's presence by detecting a small amount of the emitter's light that is...

With respect to photography, the process used to increase the effective speed of an emulsion between manufacture and...

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

The unit angle, within an arc of a circle, equal to the radius of the circle (180/p°, numerically).

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

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

Rare earth dopants refer to elements from the lanthanide series, also known as rare earth elements, that are intentionally...

A technique in which a beam of x-rays is directed against a crystal, the atoms of which, because of their lattice...

Film that produces color negatives or transparencies by the use of three emulsions, one coated over the other, that are each...

A type of erasable data storage device that uses a medium deposited on the disc in two layers, each dyed to absorb a...

Magneto-optics refers to the study and manipulation of the interaction between magnetic fields and light (electromagnetic...

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

The fine scratches formed when, in hand centering, the forked stick used to move the lens on the chuck marks the rotating...

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

A projection printer that is capable of reproducing a multiplicity of images from a master transparency on a single support...

A laser with a gain medium consisting of an organic dye, which is carbon-based. The dye is mixed with a solvent, allowing...

A pathogen is a biological agent, such as a virus, bacterium, fungus, protozoan, or parasite, that causes disease in its...

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

Transmission accompanied by diffusion or scatter to the extent that there is no regular or direct transmission.

A lens or lens system used to transfer a real image from one point within an optical system to another, with or without...

An ultrafast pulsed laser is a type of laser that emits extremely short pulses of light with durations typically on the...

A charged elementary particle of an atom; the term is most commonly used in reference to the negatively charged particle...

A laser-pumped crystal with nonlinear optical properties inside of an optical resonator in which the output generates...

A shaft, spindle or any object generally passed through a workpiece to hold, support or shape a particular piece during its...

A concave mirror that has the form of a paraboloid of revolution. The paraboloidal mirror may have only a portion of a...

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

MWIR stands for mid-wave infrared, referring to a specific range of wavelengths within the infrared spectrum. Infrared...

Microscopy is a scientific technique that involves the use of microscopes to observe and study objects that are too small to...

An antigen is any substance that is capable of triggering an immune response in an organism. Antigens are typically proteins...

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

A cathode-ray tube, driven by a computer, that receives impulses of information from the computer and displays it in a...

Information presented as a continuously variable relationship between a signal and a standard.

Remote sensing is a method of data collection and observation where information about objects, areas, or phenomena on...

A camera capable of making successive exposures on a continuous film driven by accurately spaced sprocket holes (a motion...

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

The process of perforating a silicon or ceramic substrate with a series of tiny holes along which it will break. Nd:YAG or...

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

A television system designed to obtain pictures of objects or scenes beneath the surface of the water. Generally, a...

The utilization of the light produced when electrical energy is directly converted into light within devices used for visual...

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

An anastigmatic lens with a thick meniscus construction that flattens the field and corrects chromatic and spherical...

A capacitor that uses glass as its dielectric material.

A calcium indicator is a molecule that is sensitive to changes in calcium ion (Ca2+) concentrations in biological systems....

A device that determines the lens shape in the cutting or edging phase of fabrication. It also is used to denote the...

In fiber optics, the annular region between two concentric circles; used to specify fiber cladding and core sizes.

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 binary semiconductor compound used as a substrate or active layer for diode lasers.

Any source that emits radiation of wavelengths between 100 and 300 nm. Instruments used to study these sources must be...

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

Two 30° prisms that are used to produce constant deviation when rotated by equal and opposite angles.

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

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

A type of semiconductor diode used in voltage-limiting circuits; when voltage reaches a certain value, the device becomes a...

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

A technique used to suppress extreme noise amplification during digital image reconstruction that relies on smoothing and...

A reflection grating is an optical component that consists of a series of closely spaced, parallel reflecting surfaces or...

An imaging device analogous to a drum scanner, but operating at greater speeds; it uses a row of sensors to traverse an...

In image processing, a specially designed programmable computer peripheral that attaches to the host system for the purpose...

A microscope that uses an extremely fine x-ray focal point to produce an enlarged photographic image of a sample. Also known...

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

A microscope that has an annular stop in the lower focal plane of the condenser, and a quarter-wave retarding and absorbing...

A computer-generated hologram (CGH) is a holographic image produced using computational methods and algorithms, rather than...

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

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

A method of resampling in which a 16-pixel neighborhood around a given pixel from the original image is used to calculate...

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

An atomic clock is a highly precise timekeeping device that uses the vibrations or oscillations of atoms as a reference for...

A retroreflector is an optical device or structure that reflects incident light or electromagnetic waves back to their...

An oscillator that uses a piezoelectric crystal to control its frequency.

A thin layer of a substance deposited on an insulating base in a vacuum by a microelectronic process. Thin films are most...

The term half bandwidth (HBW) generally refers to the width of a spectral band or frequency range at half of its maximum...

A photodetector, also known as a photosensor or photodiode, is a device that detects and converts light into an electrical...

A surface that envelops a bundle of rays or bundle of normals to the wave surface. It may be observed as a hollow, luminous...

A material used in the jacket of fiber optic cables.

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

A natural abrasive, produced from corundum in grades ranging from rough to fine, used in the grinding and lapping of glass.

A current-source thermal detector used to detect and study the pulses obtained from particular lasers.

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

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

A test used to measure the degree of fading of different colored materials, especially those involving organic dyes, which...

A motion-picture camera that can be advanced one frame at a time, either randomly or at set intervals. Used in animation and...

A connection, typically made up of one or more cables, between a laser head and a separate power supply. Flexible pipes or...

A lumen is a unit of measurement used to quantify the amount of luminous flux, which is the perceived power of light. In...

An opaque inclusion in glass that contains undissolved or crystalline material. Also known as a seed.

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

The method by which photographic film is scanned by an electron beam. One technique uses the uniform light of a television...

An amorphous film in which cylindrical bubbles of reverse magnetization can be formed to follow circuit paths usually made...

3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing (AM), is a manufacturing process that builds three-dimensional objects...

An electrically excited laser having carbon monoxide as the lasing material and in which lasing occurs in a partial...

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

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

Liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) is a display technology that combines liquid crystal materials with silicon-based...

The use of a plasma to induce the formation of oxides in the production of graded-index optical fibers.

An instrument that is used to detect high-energy particles by the pulse of the current formed when a particle passes through...

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

A chemical used in the developing of positive photographs that incites oxidation and thereby dissolves the negative silver...

Filtered light to which photographic or other photosensitive materials are not responsive; used to illuminate darkrooms when...

Short-distance scattering of light in holography caused by random index inhomogeneities and the developing index that...

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

A digital imaging method whereby the first gray level of each sequential point-by-point sample and its position in the...

A technique developed to measure the molecular weight of macromolecules by analyzing the spontaneous fluctuations that occur...

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...

The plot that expresses a reaction rate vs. the reciprocal of absolute temperature. Often used to describe the thermal...

Relation between a material's transport rate and the material's concentration gradient and the diffusion coefficient.

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

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

A device consisting of two optical systems in which two signals are simultaneously transformed to produce their spectra, and...

Spatial resolution refers to the level of detail or granularity in an image or a spatial dataset. It is a measure of the...

Denoting the use of binary notation; i.e., the representation of data by bits (1 or 0).

An oscilloscope used to survey the waveform of a video signal.

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

A vision defect commonly referred to as farsightedness. Results when the image of a distant object is focused beyond the...

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

Variations in signal detected on a bolometer that are caused by instabilities in the temperature of the sky.

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

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

A linear or two-dimensional matrix of individual detector elements, typically used at the focus of an imaging system.

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

Second-harmonic generation (SHG) is a nonlinear optical process that occurs when two photons with the same frequency combine...

A device utilizing an electron beam for the observation and recording of submicroscopic samples with the aid of photographic...

1. In glass, a solid inclusion having a small diameter. 2. A particular, single crystal that, after undergoing the...

X-rays of one frequency or a narrow band of frequencies.

Lithography is a key process used in microfabrication and semiconductor manufacturing to create intricate patterns on the...

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

A sound wave that travels through a piezoelectric material.

The radiant energy emitted within a time period per unit solid angle, usually measured in watts per steradian.

Operation in which the minimum detectable signal is set because of variations in the average signal current; e.g., quantum...

Describes devices that are not provided with a means of focusing.

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

A lateral shearing interferometer is an optical device used in interferometry to measure phase differences between two beams...

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

A spectrometer or autocollimator used to measure prism angles.

A measuring eyepiece with a screw-micrometer-driven crosshair used to measure the size of the image.

A light-tight box that receives light from an object or scene and focuses it to form an image on a light-sensitive material...

Ratio of the molecular diffusion coefficients of momentum in terms of heat; used in convection studies.

An aberration that remains after primary color is corrected. Primary color causes the back focus of a lens to vary with...

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

Modulation transfer function of an optical element when used for transporting images from a lambertian source such as...

A Nernst glower, also known simply as a Nernst lamp or Nernst filament, is a type of incandescent lamp or radiant heater...

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

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

The splitting or shifting of spectral lines or energy levels caused by the application of a strong transverse electrical...

Continuous conversion of oscillatory energy into heat, relative to time or distance.

An atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) is an analytical instrument used to determine the concentration of specific chemical...

An objective that uses the mineral fluorite in its construction to reduce the secondary spectrum. It is usually intermediate...

Whole slide imaging (WSI), also known as virtual slide microscopy or digital pathology, is a technology that involves the...

A solid with a structure that exhibits a basically symmetrical and geometrical arrangement. A crystal may already possess...

The pattern used as a probe in morphological image processing to manipulate the size and shape of objects in an image.

In fiber optic cable, containment of the fiber or fibers within an outer protective tube in which they can move to some...

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

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

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

An exposure meter designed to measure the light striking an object and used at a suitable location in a scene.

Spectroscopy used to study the concentration, diffusion and Brownian motion of small particles suspended in a fluid by...

With respect to photography, the law stating that the optical density of an exposed emulsion with standard development is a...

A light-sensitive detector having a chemical compound that reacts when exposed to light. It is used in photochemistry and...

An electro-optic system using, in general form, an evacuated glass envelope with a semitransparent photocathode at one end...

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

A fluorescent screen refers to a phosphorescent or fluorescent-coated surface that emits visible light when exposed to other...

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

A term used to denote a concave surface having too long a radius of curvature. That is, its negative power is too small or...

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

A prism or series of prisms used to disperse a beam of radiant energy of mixed wavelengths into its spectral components.

A phosphor, such as sulfide or selenide, that can be excited to luminescence by incident infrared radiation simultaneous to...

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

Fluorescence microscopy is a specialized optical imaging technique used in biology, chemistry, and materials science to...

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

With respect to a chromaticity diagram, this is the locus of points that represent the chromaticities of blackbodies...

Situation in which the observer requires fewer than three independent stimuli to make color matches. Dichromats require only...

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

1. A measure of absorbed dose, equal to the energy imparted by ionizing radiation to a mass of matter corresponding to 1 J...

Electric polarization characterized by homogeneous polar dielectrics and ascribed to the position of the permanent molecular...

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

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

A device that utilizes avalanche multiplication of photocurrent by means of hole-electrons created by absorbed photons. When...

A two-sided mirror suspended by a pendulum mechanism. An autocollimator set normal to such a mirror surface will, by...

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

A polished plano-parallel plate that is contacted to an unpolished glass surface to permit see-through analysis of the...

1. In detector technology, the long wavelength at which detector response falls to a set percentage (usually 20 or 50...

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

The process or device by which more than one signal can be sent over a single channel by using different time intervals for...

A diffraction grating with lines and grooves formed so as to concentrate the radiation of a particular wavelength into one...

The optical phenomenon in which white light dispersed by small particles in suspension appears blue when viewed through a...

An instrument that is used to chart x-ray diffraction patterns, such as an x-ray spectrometer having photographic or other...

Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, is a manufacturing process that involves creating three-dimensional...

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

Hardware installed on fiber cable ends to provide cable attachment to a transmitter, receiver or other cable. Usually a...

Discipline within optical physics that addresses sound vibration, phonon effects and their influencing behavior within...

The adjustment of the eyepiece of an instrument to provide accommodation for the eyesight differences of individual...

Also known as the Bragg spectrometer. A system used for the x-ray analysis of crystal structure. In the instrument, a...

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

A surface heat-treating process that produces a highly stressed surface. In case-hardening of glass, a plate of glass is...

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

The process whereby a rotating wheel carries grains of an abrasive, suspended in a vehicle, across the surface of the...

A method of spectral analysis using wavelengths between 100 and 300 nm that utilizes both emission and absorption techniques.

Certain color centers in the alkali halides have been optically pumped to produce efficient tunable pulsed and...

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

A sapphire window refers to a transparent optical component made from sapphire crystal. Sapphire is a single-crystal form of...

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

1. In optics, the housing, usually cylindrical, that contains the lenses and iris diaphragm of a camera. 2. In fiber optics,...

A mid-infrared camera is a type of imaging device designed to capture images in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectral range,...

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

A surveying device used to measure vertical displacement of target centers of scale lines from a horizontal plane generated...

A type of receiver that uses a local oscillator at a frequency deliberately offset from that of the incoming signal. It is...

Electromagnetic energy is transmitted in the form of a sinusoidal wave. The wavelength is the physical distance covered by...

A traveling microscope or an automatic microdensitometer used to measure the spectrum plate obtained in a spectrograph.

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

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

A metal coil or coils wrapped around the outside of the neck of a cathode-ray tube. Current passing through the coils...

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...

Radiation emitted when a quantum mechanical system drops spontaneously from an excited level to a lower level. This...

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

A coating applied to a neutral density glass that is designed to reduce the amount of light evenly across the transmitted...

A piece of glass polished flat on one side, with a pair of polished faces that form an angle close to 180° on the other...

A power loss caused by transverse or lateral deviation from optimum alignment of source to optical waveguide, waveguide to...

Technique in which the polarization rotation of light, and its relationship to the magnetic field strength can be analyzed...

A small telescope mounted on a tripod and free to rotate about a vertical axis. A spirit level is mounted over the telescope...

A low-power magnifier that usually has a large diameter.

Any irregular motion, variation in intensity or change in color that arises because of atmospheric turbulence during the...

A reference incandescent light source having a luminous intensity that is used in photometry for comparison of other light...

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

The lowest anode voltage at which a gas tube can sustain a discharge.

A measure of the ability of a photographic system to record fine detail. Usually stated in terms of cycles per millimeter on...

The use of a material's emissivity to measure absorption. It is useful as an absorption loss measurement technique, since at...

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

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

A type of radial gradient lens that can focus light even though its surfaces are flat.

A technique used in photogrammetry to ensure parallelism during projection printing. Failure to do this will change a...

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

Reactive evaporation refers to a process in thin-film deposition where a material is deposited onto a substrate through...

Characterizes the significant solar radiation at the surface of the earth, so named because its spectral range extends only...

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

Two simple meniscus lenses arranged symmetrically on either side of the aperture stop, providing reduced coma, lateral color...

Optimization method used in optical design computer programs that employs a variable-by-variable approach to construct new...

A form of roof prism used to invert an image. The prism has faces cut normal to the optical axis; therefore, the prism may...

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

A system having a photoelectric detector for the measurement of three quantities related by linear combination to...

Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter...

A contour mapping technique that uses electronic scanning and sampling techniques instead of a reference grating (see moire...

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

A spatial light modulator (SLM) is an optical device that modulates or manipulates the amplitude, phase, or polarization of...

Ion-beam sputtering (IBS) is a physical vapor deposition (PVD) technique used for depositing thin films onto substrates. It...

Autofluorescence refers to the natural emission of fluorescence exhibited by certain biological structures or molecules when...

A term used to describe a convex surface having too short a radius of curvature. To correct this condition, material is cut...

A system that uses infrared detectors and related instrumentation to determine when abnormal amounts of infrared radiation,...

An instrument that serves to produce an enlarged electron image on a fluorescent screen by focusing an infrared image of a...

Time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) is a technique used in photon counting applications, particularly in the...

A detector and signal demodulator used in optical communications systems to receive a signal and often to translate it into...

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

An instrument used to measure the luminance (brightness) of a distant object. The object is viewed through a small...

A tool of cast iron or another suitable medium used with a slurry of silicon carbide, aluminum oxide or emery for grinding...

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

Epitaxial refers to the growth of a crystalline layer on a crystalline substrate in such a way that the orientation of the...

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is an advanced imaging technique used in microscopy to obtain high-resolution,...

A semicircular, half-wave quartz plate between the polarizer and analyzer. It often is used in forming precision settings...

The graphic recording of physical changes vs. time, in electrical quantities, using an oscilloscope.

The component of a microscope on which the sample or slide to be examined is placed. Depending on the design of the...

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

A polishing machine designed to permit adjustment of the polisher speed and motion for the control of flat surfaces.

A beam of light whose electrical field amplitude distribution is Gaussian. When such a beam is circular in cross section,...

A feature of some imaging devices, such as digital cameras, that allows them to compensate for different lighting conditions...

A frequency comb is a precise and regular series of equally spaced spectral lines, or frequencies, that are generated with...

A nonmagnetic instrument utilizing an electrofocus and deflection tube with a photocathode for imaging purposes. The optical...

A specific method for measuring the diameter of irregular shaped particles, Martin's diameter is the measured distance...

A photon jet is a narrow, highly collimated beam of light that is formed when light interacts with small dielectric...

The transport of molecules in a cell which requires the use of a cell's internal energy. The energy used in the cell may be...

A device used to evaluate the luminance of a surface by determining the number of photons emitted from a sample surface area.

Any of the many devices used to detect the presence of radiation from a specific region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

A type of glass used in telescope mirrors, formed by adding a nucleating agent to standard glass and then heating it until...

The ratio of radiant energy reflected from a rough surface to that incident on it. Usually, the radiant energy is total...

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

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

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

Oleophobic is a term used to describe substances or materials that repel or resist oils. The word oleophobic comes from the...

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

With respect to pictorial displays, the ratio of the width to the height. The television standard in the US is 4:3....

An interferometer that uses a laser as its light source. The purely monochromatic nature of the laser results in improved...

A Mach-Zehnder interferometer is an optical device used to measure the phase difference between two collimated beams of...

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

The term reflective is an adjective that describes the ability of a surface or material to reflect light or other forms of...

RGB stands for red, green, blue, which are the primary colors of light used in additive color mixing. The RGB color model is...

A device used to determine the location and attitude with respect to the Earth of orbiting spacecraft by detecting the...

Formula used in convection study to express the ratio of buoyant force to viscous force.

The use of a surgical laser instead of sutures or staples to close a wound or rejoin severed blood vessels.

Lasers based on neodymium-doped yttrium or gadolinium vanadate crystals. These include yttrium vanadate (Nd:YVO4),...

A device used to detect and measure small amounts of rotation. The rotating object contains a reflecting surface from which...

Activity of a radionuclide having one spontaneous nuclear transition per second.

The decrease in the refractive index at the center of a fiber's core, caused by certain fabrication techniques. Also called...

A surgical device used to deliver laser light. Specifically,contact tips are made with artificially grown sapphire which is...

The study and photographing of microscope specimens in ultraviolet light; using an optical microscope containing fluorite...

A camera that permits adjustments in the perspective of an image; this is accomplished by the camera design, which permits...

1. The basic unit of length in the metric system, equal to 39.37 in. or 3.28 ft. 2. Any device or instrument used for...

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

A coherent fiber optic bundle made from fibers whose diameter changes gradually along its length. Used to magnify or reduce...

The letter form used on visual performance test charts. The overall letter height is equal to five times the thickness of...

Color vision whereby abnormal proportions of three colors are needed for color matching.

An optical element having plane-inclined surfaces. Usually the faces are inclined toward one another at very small angles....

A machining process that uses a laser to cut three-dimensional molds or models.

Device consisting of a laser diode, beam-correcting optics and collimating optics in a single housing. Also called a...

A mount that uses a floating suspension and a motor-driven gyroscope to keep a motion picture or still camera at a set angle...

A filter, pale purple in color, used in black and white photography to display the brightness values of a subject being...

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

A form of an element that cannot demonstrate optical activity as a result of dextrogyrate and levogyrate effects that are...

A lens aberration that causes a flat object surface to be imaged onto a curved surface rather than a plane.

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

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

Also known as display primaries. Colors formed by a television receiver that are of constant chromaticity and variable...

Any pyrheliometer that has a filter placed over its sensor to limit the range of solar radiation it will detect; used to...

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

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

Gram-positive bacteria are a group of bacteria that have a thick cell wall composed primarily of a substance called...

The observable illustration of an image, scene or data on a screen such as a console or cathode-ray tube, seen as a graph,...

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

A nonluminous area around a negatively charged probe that is inserted into the positive column of an arc or glow discharge.

A single wavelength of light that matches the color of a given sample when combined in suitable proportions with white light...

A type of laser welding that produces short-duration vapor pockets without buildup of heat in the part, useful for parts...

Free-space optics (FSO), also known as optical wireless communication or optical wireless networking, refers to the...

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

A transmission electron microscope (TEM) is a powerful microscopy technique that uses a beam of electrons to create...

Characteristic of an absorber in the IR region, whereby absorption increases as a direct function of the intensity of the...

Liquid crystals are a state of matter that exhibits properties intermediate between those of conventional liquids and solid...

Nonimage-forming light, concentrated or diffuse, that is transmitted through the lens to the image. It is frequently the...

An instrument used to measure the refractive index of solids and liquids. Several types exist, the most common being the...

A diffraction pattern sampling unit composed of a 32-element monolithic silicon photodiode array and a readout unit. The...

GaN (Gallium Nitride) distributed feedback (DFB) lasers refer to a specific type of semiconductor laser based on Gallium...

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

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

A family of specialized instruments used by ophthalmologists and optometrists to study a patient's eyes and prescribe...

A highly reflective mirror that is usually flat on one surface and curved on the other, and that has silver, gold or...

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

The method used to determine the refractive index of a given substance.

In image acquisition (and sampling theory), the postulate that the pickup sampling frequency must be a minimum of twice as...

A charge-coupled device (CCD) is a type of electronic image sensor used in various imaging devices, including digital...

A color center, in the context of materials science and condensed matter physics, refers to a specific type of...

Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) is a nondestructive analytical technique used to investigate the optical properties...

A multidimensional array of values that is commonly used in programming to describe a time series of image data. Each...

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

Electron lens consisting of an homogeneous axial electric field.

The simplest method of transmission on a local area network. The entire bandwidth of the cable is used to transmit a single...

A solid-state laser consisting of active atoms or ions of a transition metal, rare-earth metal or actinide, imbedded in a...

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

A type of thermoset rubber used to jacket fiber optic cables, including those used in outdoor military installations.

A device used for the comparison of spectra used, in turn, for the comparison of elements, such as the absorption lines in...

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

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

The operation of a laser diode or other component prior to its use in its intended application, as a means of testing and...

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

A fiber optic connector or splice that mates two multifiber cables, optically aligning all of the individual fibers...

The term gradient-index profile refers to a specific type of refractive index distribution within an optical material. In...

A device used for slicing very thin specimens in preparation for mounting on a microscope slide.

Diffuse light emitted by the atmosphere due to the excitation of particles of atmospheric gas. These excited particles...

FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) spectrometer is a powerful analytical instrument used to obtain an infrared spectrum of...

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

Sputtering equipment is machinery used in the process of physical vapor deposition (PVD), specifically sputtering....

A phase-modulated sensor is a type of sensor that uses modulation of the phase of a signal to measure changes in a physical...

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

In photography, the layer of light-sensitive material (usually a suspension of silver halide crystals) that coats the film...

In data transmission, a self-checking code using a separate bit (the parity bit) to assure that all bytes of transmitted...

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

A photoelectric photometer used to measure the reflectance of a surface.

A shutter actuated by means other than mechanical springs for timings on the order of nanoseconds. The shutter is used in...

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

A smooth, highly polished surface, for reflecting light, that may be plane or curved if wanting to focus and or magnify the...

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

In fiber optics, a device used to polish a biconic plug to a specified length and surface finish. Also called a polishing...

A camera used in scintillation recording to make a visible record of the distribution and relative concentration of...

A device employed to identify toxic agents lingering on the ground or in the air from up to three miles away, by using laser...

The phenomenon whereby certain crystals exhibit spontaneous electric polarization. It is analogous with ferromagnetism.

Quantum sensing refers to a class of sensing technologies that leverage principles from quantum mechanics to enhance the...

An optical fiber, usually a single-mode fiber, that has an outer cladding with nearly the same index of refraction as the...

The rainbow exhibition of colors, usually caused by interference of light of different wavelengths reflected from...

A night-vision device that uses one or more infrared transducers to scan a scene in the 3- to 5-µm or 8- to...

An instrument providing a continuous measure of color.

The potential difference between two areas of a semiconductor when one is exposed to light.

The engraving of a surface by acid, acid fumes or a tool; a process extensively used in the manufacture of reticles.

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

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

Any form of laser; e.g., a dye laser, having an output that can be adjusted over a wide range of wavelengths. Normally the...

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

A camera system used for microphotography that has a structure, such as a cylinder or surveyor belt, to rotate the documents...

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

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

A semiconductor platelet laser that emits a coherent image by means of plane optical pumping over the platelet surface, and...

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

An analog method of moving a cathode-ray tube beam across a display screen face, commonly used in high-performance vector...

The Golgi staining technique (also called the black reaction) makes it possible to look at the nervous system by rendering...

An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) is a type of light-emitting diode (LED) technology that utilizes organic compounds to...

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...

An adhesive used for bonding optical elements or for holding devices.

A probe card is a testing device used in the semiconductor manufacturing industry to evaluate and test the electrical...

A large table with an accurately designed plane surface used to test other surfaces, or to provide a true surface for...

Nonlinear optical materials are substances that exhibit optical properties that are not linearly proportional to the...

A mechanical fixture, generally a rigid tube, used to confine the stripped end of a fiber or a fiber bundle.