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Bristol Instruments, Inc. - 872 Series High-Res 4/24 LB
glass Dictionary Terms

cribbing
The breaking of the excess glass from the specified shape.
whole slide imaging
Whole slide imaging (WSI), also known as virtual slide microscopy or digital pathology, is a technology that involves the...
pyrex
Trade name for a type of borosilicate glass manufactured by Corning Glass Works, noted for its low coefficient of thermal...
lab-on-a-chip
A lab-on-a-chip (LOC) is a miniaturized device that integrates various laboratory functions and capabilities onto a single,...
fused silica
Glass consisting of almost pure silicon dioxide (SiO2). Also called vitreous silica. Frequently used in optical fibers and...
high-speed movie camera
A camera designed to record at rates exceeding 50 fps. For frame rates up to about 500 fps, an ordinary pull-down mechanism...
glass
A noncrystalline, inorganic mixture of various metallic oxides fused by heating with glassifiers such as silica, or boric or...
delta prism
A compact, folded version of a Dove prism, made of high-index glass with a silvered base and used for image rotation.
laser marking
Laser marking is a process in which a laser beam is used to mark or engrave a surface by altering its properties or...
uviol glass
A type of glass contrived by Schott that is highly transparent to ultraviolet radiation.
Nichols radiometer
An instrument devised by Nichols and Hull for use in the measurement of radiation pressure. The device has two small...
ambrotype
The underexposed collodion that is present on a glass negative as a positive when backed with material.
retroreflection
Retroreflection is a phenomenon in optics where light is reflected back toward its source, typically in a direction nearly...
generating
A rapid roughing process for the quick removal of glass, the first step in manufacture of a curved lens surface. It is...
astronomical mirror
An astronomical mirror, also known as a telescope mirror or primary mirror, is a key component of a reflecting telescope. It...
window
1. A piece of glass with plane parallel surfaces used to admit light into an optical system and to exclude dirt and...
low
Term used to describe an optical surface that contacts the test glass only at its edges.
body
In the optical field, a piece of glass to which a lens or prism is cemented. The unit is ground and polished as a whole to...
resolution target
A chart on paper or glass containing a series of sets of lines at progressively smaller spacing and used to ascertain the...
fiber optics
The use of thin flexible glass or plastic fibers as wave guides — or "light pipes" — to channel light from one...
fluoride glass
Optical glass containing zirconium fluoride that results in special characteristics such as improved transmission.
case hardening
A surface heat-treating process that produces a highly stressed surface. In case-hardening of glass, a plate of glass is...
mirror blank
A mirror blank refers to the initial piece of material from which a mirror is made. It is typically a flat or slightly...
Fresnel reflection loss
Reflection losses incurred at input and output of optical elements because of the difference in refractive index between...
cathode-ray tube envelope
Envelopes for cathode-ray tubes are made by blowing glass in the same manner as light bulbs. They have a fairly flat end...
bifocal lens
A two-part lens that has a different focal length for each part. Generally, it is used in eyeglasses to correct for both...
fiber optic probe
A flexible single- or multifiber cable having a bundle of glass fibers arranged to transmit an image.
diamond turning
Diamond turning, also known as diamond machining or diamond cutting, is a precision machining process used to produce...
lasing medium
The material that produces stimulated emission from within a laser oscillator. Laser gain media may vary from...
optical glass
Optical glass refers to a type of glass specifically engineered and manufactured for use in optical components and systems,...
mirror
A smooth, highly polished surface, for reflecting light, that may be plane or curved if wanting to focus and or magnify the...
transparency illuminator
A metal box with an opal glass front enclosing a lamp, used for viewing color transparencies or x-ray films.
crystallized glass
Glass of special composition that is melted, formed into desired shapes, and subjected to a high-temperature treatment in...
infrared optical material
The range of materials that, unlike glass, may be used in the infrared. Water-soluble salts, such as cesium iodide, and...
cutting
The process of forming a lens to a given pattern, or of cutting a piece of glass along the line of scratch.
Maddox rod
Lenslike composition of stacked glass cylinders through which a spot of light appears as a streak perpendicular to the...
surface quality standards
The standards of MIL-O-13830 set by the US government relative to tolerable surface scratches and other such defects in an...
antireflection coating
An antireflection coating (AR coating) is a thin film or coating applied to optical surfaces, such as lenses or windows, to...
refracted ray
A light ray that has had its direction altered because of its traversing an air-to-glass interface at some angle. In an...
lens testing equipment
Lens testing equipment refers to a range of specialized tools and instruments used to evaluate the optical performance,...
superchromatic correction
Correction of an optical system at four separate wavelengths. This correction, longitudinal and lateral, is possible with...
glass spectrograph
A spectrograph having glass as its refracting component and used in cases where speed and high dispersion are not required....
chemical vapor deposition
Chemical vapor deposition is a process of applying dopants to a glass bait by flame reactions of gaseous compounds. See also...
ultraviolet fiber optics
Ultraviolet (UV) fiber optics refers to optical fibers that are designed and optimized for the transmission of ultraviolet...
stone
An opaque inclusion in glass that contains undissolved or crystalline material. Also known as a seed.
concave and convex spherical mirror
Concave and convex spherical mirrors are types of curved mirrors that have surfaces shaped like segments of spheres. These...
nanostructured glass
A unique glass made up of nano-structured materials to create millimeter sized monolithic glass space-variant polarization...
reading glass
A low-power magnifier that usually has a large diameter.
McLeod gauge
A gauge designed to measure high degrees of vacuum. It consists of a glass bulb attached to the vacuum vessel, the...
lens molding
The production of rough glass lens blanks that are pressed while red-hot to the approximate size and shape of the finished...
preform
A glass structure from which an optical fiber waveguide may be drawn.
finished lens molding
A method used to produce precision spherical and aspheric molded glass lenses without grinding or polishing.
surface reflection
Also known as Fresnel reflection. That portion of the incident radiation that is reflected from the surface of a refractive...
lap
A metal tool used to grind lenses with loose abrasive (see diamond cutting tool). The functional surface of the lap is...
sol-gel
A gelatinous fluid that can be used as a porous thin-film coating for optical components, including laser beam collimators,...
achromatic lens
A lens consisting of two or more elements, usually of crown and flint glass, that has been corrected for chromatic...
field lens
1. A lens situated at or near the plane of an internal image to project the aperture of a previous objective or erector upon...
Becke apertometer
Device used to measure the numerical aperture of a microscope, composed of a 14-mm-thick glass block with numerical aperture...
glass annealing furnace
A furnace, generally electrically heated, with a control system capable of following a cam by which the temperature can be...
visioceilometer
An instrument that uses an erbium:glass laser to determine cloud height from the ground.
flint glass
One of the two major types of optical glass, the other being crown glass. Flint glass is softer than crown glass, has a...
crust
A stain in a glass surface.
Zerodur
Schott Glass Technologies' trade name for a glass-ceramic material with a very low coefficient of thermal expansion.
virtual histology
Virtual histology refers to the use of digital technology and computational methods to simulate or recreate histological...
optical filter
An optical filter is a device that selectively transmits or blocks specific wavelengths, or colors, of light. Optical...
Lummer-Gehrcke plate
A high-resolution spectroscopic device commonly used in the early 20th century as a component of double-beam...
convex
Convex is an adjective used to describe a surface or shape that curves outward, bulges, or has a rounded and outwardly...
milling
An automatic surface-generating process involving the removal of a material from a given surface. Optical milling typically...
etaloning
Etaloning is an optical phenomenon that occurs in imaging systems, particularly in devices such as spectrometers,...
helium-neon laser
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...
fluorozirconate
A highly stable heavy-metal fluoride glass made from the fluorides of zirconium, barium, lanthanum, aluminum and sodium.
liquid crystal on silicon
Liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) is a display technology that combines liquid crystal materials with silicon-based...
strain
In optics, the mechanical tension, compression or shear in optical glass due to internal stress caused by improper cooling...
Christiansen effect
The monochromatic transparency effect produced by the immersion of a finely powdered substance (e.g., glass or quartz) into...
didymium glass
Glass tinted with mixed oxides of neodymium and praseodymium that, unlike most solid materials, have absorption bands that...
microchannel plate
A microchannel plate (MCP) is a specialized electron multiplier device used in various applications such as particle...
ream
A nonhomogeneity of index in flat glass that is in the form of an approximately plane layer.
hard coating
Usually a dielectric coating on glass or plastic optics; a coating that is comparable in hardness to glass itself.
ring-laser gyroscope
A solid block of glass-ceramic material with holes drilled the length of all four sides, and mirrors attached to the corners...
fiber bundle
A rigid or flexible, concentrated assembly of glass or plastic fibers used to transmit optical images or light. See aligned...
glass capacitor
A capacitor that uses glass as its dielectric material.
plasma display
A type of flat panel display made up of a layer of gas between two glass plates. The glass is coated with parallel...
swarf
The material removed during diamond machining of glass components.
optical materials
Optical materials refer to substances or compounds specifically chosen for their optical properties and used in the...
optics
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter...
optical blacking
A light absorbing material applied to ground optical surfaces during the process of making that surface non reflective. Such...
fiber optic window
The face of a cathode-ray tube (CRT) that has a fiber optic sheet attached to its surface. The sheet's fibers are at right...
incoherent bundle
A bundle of filaments of optical glass or other transparent materials that transmit only light, not optical images. The...
radiation-shielding windows
Plates of glass containing as many heavy metal oxides as can be dissolved in the glass without causing devitrification. The...
lambertian source plane
In optics, a plane that emits a flux proportional to the cosine of the angle of the normal; dense opal glass is an example.
beam-addressable technology
The application of reversible writing with a laser beam on particular storage materials. In one method, an amorphous film is...
polarization
Polarization refers to the orientation of oscillations in a transverse wave, such as light waves, radio waves, or other...
reflection reduction coating
The thin, transparent film made up of specific substances applied to glass-air surfaces for the purpose of decreasing the...
borosilicate glass
A strong, heat-resistant glass that contains a minimum of 5 percent boric oxide.
raw glass
A term that describes any state of glass before its manufacture as an element.
fluorescent light source
A tube containing mercury vapor and lined with a phosphor. When current is passed through the vapor the strong ultraviolet...
ultraviolet lamp
A type of lamp that emits a high quantity of ultraviolet radiation. This may be an arc lamp encased in a bulb of a glass...
silicon dioxide
An abundant material found in the form of quartz and agate and as one of the major constituents of sand. The silicates of...
laser tube
The device, usually made of glass or a similar material, that contains the resonant cavity and optics of a gas laser.
burning glass
A convex lens that brings an incident bundle of rays to a focus to produce intense heat at the focus.
optical encoder
A device designed to measure linear or rotary motion by detection of the movement of markings on a transparent medium past a...
Fresnel rhomb
A type of quarter-wave retarder in the form of a glass rhomb; light entering the retarder undergoes two total internal...
cylindrical lens
A cylindrical lens is an optical component that has different curvatures along its two orthogonal axes, resulting in a shape...
achromat
An achromat, in the context of optics, refers to a type of lens or lens system designed to reduce chromatic aberration....
cladding glass
In fiber optics, the glass that is found around the glass core of the fiber, and that has a lower refractive index than the...
SELFOC fiber
Derived from "self-focusing,'' Nippon Sheet Glass Co. (NSG) of Japan's trade name for graded-index fiber rods with parabolic...
immersion oil
An oil required by oil-immersion objectives that is applied between the exterior of the objective lens and a cover glass or...
spectrohelioscope
An instrument similar to the spectroheliograph, but having a scanning method that is performed by a pair of rapidly...
countersink
The concave portion of a surface, formed on a blank, on which the disk of higher refractive glass will be fused to form a...
zone plate
A plate of glass, usually a photograph, on which there is a central spot surrounded by concentric annular zones, alternately...
optical combiner
An optical combiner, in the context of optics and display technologies, refers to a device or component that combines...
neodymium glass
Glass containing small quantities of neodymium oxide that is used as a filter plate in color television or as a lasing...
etching liquid
An acid used to etch the surfaces of particular materials. For glass, hydrofluoric acid is used either as a liquid or a...
segment
In multifocal spectacles, a term used to denote glass with a high refractive index that has been fused to the blank and...
annealing
The process of heating and slowly cooling a solid material, like glass or metal, to stabilize its thermal, electrical or...
Astrosital
A glass-ceramic material developed in Russia. Astrosital resembles Zerodur in terms of its ultralow thermal expansion. Other...
etalon
An etalon is an optical device that consists of two parallel reflecting surfaces separated by a precise and known distance....
Fresnel reflection
Fresnel reflection refers to the reflection of light at the interface between two different media with different refractive...
dispersive power
A measure of the dispersive properties of a glass. The relative dispersion is defined as: where C, D, and F refer to the...
heavy seeds
A condition in which the solid inclusions within a glass blank are very numerous, such as 25 or more to the square inch.
major
A blank to which a piece of glass of a different refractive index will be fused to form a multifocal lens.
angle gauge
A glass or metal measurement tool having a precisely calibrated angle between two of its faces.
water glass
A solution containing colloidal silica particles.
contour projector
An inspection device in which the profile of a mechanical part is projected onto a ground-glass screen at a precisely known...
glass barium
A type of glass containing barium oxide, which is added to increase the refractive index while maintaining a relatively low...
measuring eyepiece
Also known as an eyepiece micrometer. A microscope eyepiece that has a finely divided scale ruled or photographed on a...
Dewar vessel
An evacuated, double-walled container for storing liquids at low temperatures. Often made of glass, the vessel resembles a...
disc
A piece of glass that eventually becomes the bifocal segment as it appears prior to being fused to the blank.
equivalent air path
When a block of glass (prism, window, filter, etc.) is placed into a converging light bundle, it increases the physical...
color comparator
1. A device used in chemistry to compare the colors of solutions held in flat-bottomed tubes and viewed along the length of...
glass-ceramic
A type of glass used in telescope mirrors, formed by adding a nucleating agent to standard glass and then heating it until...
cobalt glass
Glass that transmits near-ultraviolet radiation but is opaque in the visible region. Also known as woods glass.
rare-earth doped fiber
An optical fiber in which ions of a rare-earth element, such as neodymium, erbium or holmium, have been incorporated into...
adhesive
An intermolecular substance that serves to hold materials together. Two types are used in the optical industry: one, which...
light-emitting diode
An LED, or light emitting diode, is a semiconductor device that emits light when an electric current passes through it. LEDs...
Newton's rings
The series of rings or bands formed when light beams reflected from two polished, adjacent surfaces, placed together with a...
cathode-ray tube faceplate
A fiber optic end plate constructed by drawing a bundle of parallel fibers embedded in glass and cutting it into thin...
biprism
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...
photochromic
Photochromic refers to a property exhibited by certain materials, typically organic compounds or dyes, which undergo...
optical contact
The adhesion of two sufficiently clean and close-fitting surfaces without the use of cement or glue. The optically contacted...
seed
1. In glass, a solid inclusion having a small diameter. 2. A particular, single crystal that, after undergoing the...
metalens
A metalens, short for "metasurface lens," is a type of optical lens that uses nanostructured materials to manipulate light...
cord
A threadlike inclusion within a blank of optical glass. Rarely found in quality optical materials.
Huygenian eyepiece
An ocular having two planoconvex lenses that are formed from similar glass and that are separated by a space equal to half...
face-pumped laser
A device in which slab geometry internally compensates for thermal-optic distortion; the solid host material -- glass or...
channel electron multiplier
A photoelectric detector consisting of a glass tube internally coated with a low conductance material. Voltage applied along...
compound lens
A lens composed of two or more separate elements of optical glass that may or may not be cemented together. The surfaces of...
dispersion-flattened single-mode fiber
A type of glass optical fiber that provides low pulse dispersion over a broad portion of the light spectrum and as a result...
zirconium fluoride
An infrared transmitting material used in the production of fluoride glasses for optical fibers.
germanate glass
A type of glass used in near-infrared optical components, in which germanium is used as a cation instead of silicon.
metamaterial
Metamaterials are artificial materials engineered to have properties not found in naturally occurring substances. These...
fluor crown glass
Optical glass that possesses a refractive index equal to or less than 1.5, and an Abbe number that ranges from 62 to about...
microfluidics
Microfluidics is a multidisciplinary field that involves the manipulation and control of very small fluid volumes, typically...
allyl diglycol carbonate
Commonly known as CR39, this thermosetting plastic is used in the casting of eyeglass lenses because of its toughness and...
cross wire
Fine lines, wires or threads used in the focal plane of many optical instruments to point out and locate particular objects...
metallographic microscope
A specially designed microscope for observing the etched surface of a polished metal specimen. The specimen is often laid...
actinic glass
Glass designed to absorb most infrared and ultraviolet radiation while transmitting most of the visible region.
rare-earth type glass
Optical glasses containing the oxides of rare earths such as lanthanum to impart a very high refractive index combined with...
acetone
Optic surface cleaning liquid that may be applied to glass, crystal, dielectric and metal surfaces; however, may not be...
neutral density wedge
A strip or annulus of glass coated with a semitransparent material such as inconel. The coating thickness, and as a result...
molded lens
A molded lens is an optical lens manufactured using a molding process, typically involving the shaping of a material, such...
lens blank
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...
inclusion
The presence, within the body of the glass, of extraneous or alien material. See seed; striae.
Fresnel lens
A Fresnel lens is a type of optical lens that consists of a series of concentric grooves or steps carved into a flat, thin...
heat-resistant glass
Glass that has been specially treated so that it will not shatter when exposed to high temperatures followed by immediate...
total internal reflection fluorescence
Total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy is an advanced fluorescence microscopy technique that leverages the...
fused quartz and silica
Fused quartz and silica are closely related materials, both composed primarily of silicon dioxide (SiO2), but they are...
diffraction grating
A diffraction grating is an optical component consisting of a surface with a periodic structure of equally spaced, parallel...
lead sulfide cell
A photoconductive cell having greatest sensitivity in the infrared region. The photosensitive material of the cell is lead...
plastic optics
The integration of plastic materials into optical applications. When the materials are refined into lenses, prisms and...
vitreous
Having the characteristics of glass.
back-coated mirror
A glass substrate that has its rear surface coated with a reflective coating. Also known as a back-surface mirror.
zones
1. In a polished surface, concentric waves that appear as zones in Newton's rings when a test glass is applied. 2. An...
chip
1. A localized fracture at the end of a cleaved optical fiber or on a glass surface. 2. An integrated circuit.
opal glass
A material consisting of very small colorless particles imbedded in a clear glass matrix. It is available in two forms:...
definition test object
A chart, either printed on paper or prepared photographically on glass plates or film, that consists of 3-bar resolution...
chromatic aberration
Chromatic aberration is an optical phenomenon that occurs when different wavelengths (colors) of light are refracted by a...
blank
A piece of glass, quartz or other transparent material formed roughly by molding or cutting into the approximate shape and...
inside vapor-phase oxidation
A method that produces low-loss optical fibers. A glass tube rotates while reactants pass through the tube and heat is...
infrared lens
An infrared lens is an optical component specifically designed and optimized for transmitting, focusing, or manipulating...
glass laser
An optically pumped solid-state laser in which the active medium is a neodymium ion in a glass rod host. Abbreviated...
fiber-coupled LED
A fiber-coupled LED (light-emitting diode) refers to an LED device that is optically coupled to an optical fiber for the...
lumia
A laser effect used especially for laser light shows. Lumia are created by placing a distorting medium such as rippled glass...
plastic jackets
The direct cladding used for fused silica cores to create large numerical aperture fibers and used as overcoats to...
fluorophosphate glass
A special laser glass made primarily of fluoride compounds that exhibits extremely low refractive index and allows greater...
pressing
A blank having basic surface curves attained by forming heat-softened glass that is pressed in a mold.
fusing
The permanent uniting of two glass pieces by high-temperature heating.
aspheric lens
An aspheric lens is a type of lens whose surface profiles deviate from the traditional spherical shape. Unlike spherical...
micropit
A laser-induced scar on experimental bare glass surfaces usually attributable to threshold damage and indicative of isolated...
compacting
The heat-treating method in which the index of refraction of glass is fixed near or at its maximum value by holding the...
optical bench
A support for optical parts comprising a solid bed that permits precise longitudinal movement of one component relative to...
flat blank
A piece of glass having a crude plano surface on each side.
nanoimprint lithography
Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is a nanolithography technique used for fabricating nanoscale patterns on a substrate. It is a...
injection-mounted assembly
A process by which a plastic cell is molded around a glass lens or lenses to create a mount, eliminating the metal barrel...
diverging lens
A diverging lens is a type of lens that causes parallel rays of light to spread out or diverge. It is thinner in the center...
optical flat
A piece of glass, pyrex or quartz having one or both surfaces carefully ground and polished plano, generally flat to less...
diode-pumped solid-state laser
A diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL) is a type of laser system that uses semiconductor diode lasers to pump energy into...
oleophobic
Oleophobic is a term used to describe substances or materials that repel or resist oils. The word oleophobic comes from the...
illuminated table
A desklike apparatus with an opal glass surface illuminated from beneath by fluorescent tubes. It is equipped with roll...
augmented reality
Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that integrates digital information, typically in the form of computer-generated...
tempered glass
A glass that is heated, then chilled (usually by an air blast) to set up internal stresses so that the surfaces are under...
triple aplanat
A compound lens consisting of two negative lenses of flint glass. A double-convex lens of crown glass is cemented between...
Talbot's bands
The series of interference bands that appear in the spectrum when a specified glass plate is inserted into a spectroscope,...
crown glass
One of the two principal types of optical glass, the other being flint glass. Crown glass is harder than flint glass, and...
calcium fluoride
An optical material used in place of crown glass to produce lenses with extraordinary correction of chromatic aberrations....
polishing and abrasive material
Any of the numerous powders used for grinding and polishing glass, crystal or metal, the chief material being emery and...
optical fiber
Optical fiber is a thin, flexible, transparent strand or filament made of glass or plastic used for transmitting light...
ultraviolet lens
A lens intended for use with wavelengths shorter than about 380 nm. It must be made of quartz, calcium fluoride, lithium...
Hubner rhomb
A glass rhomb that is used in photometry to compare two illuminated surfaces. This is accomplished by the rhomb's angles,...
diffuser
An optical diffuser is an optical component or material designed to scatter or diffuse light that passes through it. It is...
woods glass
 diamond cutting tool
A tool made by imbedding small particles of diamond in the working edge. In the optical field, the most commonly used...
cladding
The low-refractive-index material that surrounds the core of an optical fiber to contain core light while protecting against...
liquid crystal display
An alphanumeric display formed by a layer of liquid crystal material sandwiched between two sheets of glass; a transparent...
blister
An extended bubble or seed on glass, elliptically shaped and more than one-quarter inch (6.3 mm) in length.
chalcogenide
Chalcogenide refers to a class of compounds containing elements from group 16 of the periodic table, which includes sulfur...
echelle grating
A specialized form of diffraction grating consisting of assembled glass plates of equal thickness that resemble a flight of...
test glass
A transparent block shaped accurately to reverse curvatures of the components it is used to test. By contacting an...
chemical vapor deposition equipment
Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) equipment refers to a class of specialized apparatus used in the process of chemical vapor...
mirror lens
An image-forming system having curved mirrors in place of transparent glass components. Mirror lenses are commonly used for...
effective numerical aperture
The real numerical aperture (NA) of a fiber when the computed NA is not valid because of change in the glass indices during...
envelope
Also referred to as a bulb. The glass housing that encloses an incandescent source, or the glass or metal housing that...
masks for evaporation/deposition
In the context of thin film deposition processes such as evaporation or sputtering, masks are used to selectively deposit...
oil-on plate
A polished plano-parallel plate that is contacted to an unpolished glass surface to permit see-through analysis of the...
heat-absorbing filter
A glass filter that transmits visible light while absorbing infrared energy (heat).
near-ultraviolet light source
A light source, such as the sun or an incandescent lamp, that freely penetrates ordinary glass bulbs and emits in the...
massive optics
Optical components exceeding 24 in. in diameter. The components are usually glass, acrylic or polystyrene and are used for...
long-pass filter
A long-pass filter is an optical filter that allows longer wavelengths of light to pass through while blocking or...
field glass
A handheld binocular telescope that is commonly of the Galilean type.
Fabry-Perot mirror
A highly reflective mirror that is usually flat on one surface and curved on the other, and that has silver, gold or...
beamsplitting block
A glass block that produces stationary fringes in the region crossed by incident light beams.
flexible display
A flexible display refers to a type of electronic visual display that is designed to be bendable, foldable, or rollable,...
GRIN lens
A GRIN (gradient index) lens is a type of optical lens that utilizes a gradient in refractive index across its volume rather...
ground glass
A plate of glass in which a face has been frosted by grinding or etching. It diffuses light by scattering in directions...
green block
A porous ceramic substance that is ground to a given optical form and on which a polished plate of glass is sagged by heat...
mercury arc
An electric arc that is formed in mercury vapor through which an electric current flows. The intensity of the illumination...
optical coatings
Optical coatings are thin layers of materials applied to optical components, such as lenses, mirrors, filters, and prisms,...
lens
A lens is a transparent optical device that focuses or diverges light, allowing it to pass through and form an image. Lenses...
scattered seeds
A term used to denote the condition of a few easily visible coarse inclusions within a blank of glass.
Babinet compensator
A device containing two opposed quartz wedges of equal angle, one wedge being movable along its length by a micrometer...
optical ceramics
Transparent glassy and or crystalline structured materials engineered from inorganic, non-metallic materials via various...
strength member
A strand of aramid yarn, steel or fiberglass in an optical cable intended to prevent bending or stretching that would damage...
silver spots
Spots in a polished glass surface that are opaque and have a silvery, metallic reflection.
Murty interferometer
A form of shearing interferometer that contains a simple wedged (plane-parallel) glass plate with a nonzero optical path...
Abbe refractometer
Device which measures the index of refraction of glass as well as the dispersion over visible range.
solid-state laser
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...
striae
An imperfection in optical glass consisting of a distinct streak of transparent material having a slightly different...
lensometer
An ophthalmic instrument used to measure the magnitude and direction of the maximum and minimum powers of a spectacle lens,...
leaching
The process of removing some of the constituents of a glass surface by chemical action.
case-hardened glass
Glass that has been treated by the case-hardening process.
heat treating
The process of subjecting glass to temperature cycling to produce physico-chemical reactions that alter its properties....
colmascope
A polariscope used to demonstrate strain inherent in a piece of glass.
strain viewer
A viewer that uses the transmittance of polarized light through glass or a similar medium to examine strained regions. See...
modified chemical vapor deposition
Modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) is a technique used in the fabrication of optical fibers. It is a specialized form...
string
Wavy transparent line in a sheet of glass appearing as though a thread of glass had been incorporated into the sheet.
molded blank
A blank whose basic surface curves are attained by heating and forming a given weight of raw glass; a rough glass blank...
outside vapor-phase oxidation
A process for the production of optical fibers. A glass bait is rotated in a traversing flame of a reaction burner....
feather
A featherlike flaw in a body of glass.
phosphate glass
A type of glass that includes phosphorus pentoxide and that, unlike silica-based glass, is resistant to hydrofluoric acid.
optical dummy
1. A lens formed to a desired curve and used to form a polisher. 2. A piece of glass included in a block to fill out the...
plasmonics
Plasmonics is a field of science and technology that focuses on the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and free...
emery
A natural abrasive, produced from corundum in grades ranging from rough to fine, used in the grinding and lapping of glass.
x-ray absorbing filter
A window made of glass containing a high percentage of lead or other dense material known to absorb x-rays readily.
button
A piece of glass with a high refractive index that is fused to the major blank.
fiber optic faceplate
A plate made up of thousands of glass fibers arranged parallel to one another, i.e., in a coherent bundle, and fused...
opal lamp
A tungsten filament lamp that uses an opal glass bulb to diffuse light.
infrared optic
Infrared optics refer to optical components and systems designed to manipulate and control infrared (IR) light, which lies...
free-abrasive machining
The process whereby a rotating wheel carries grains of an abrasive, suspended in a vehicle, across the surface of the...
laser rod
In a solid-state laser, the material (Nd:YAG, Nd:glass, ruby) in which lasing action takes place.
fire cracks
Small clefts or fissures that penetrate the glass surface in the form of short-hooked crescents. Fire cracks result from a...
reticle
An optical element located at an image plane, containing a pattern that assists in pointing an instrument or measuring...
Goldberg wedge
A neutral-colored gelatin wedge, cast between glass plates, that is used as an intensity scale in certain types of...
all-silica fiber
Also known as all-glass fiber. A fiber with both a silica core and a silica cladding, regardless of the presence of a...
compensating glass
Also known as clear glass or clear filter. The clear glass plate is used to simulate a filter, in converging or diverging...
optical cements and adhesive
Optical cements and adhesives are specialized materials used in the assembly and bonding of optical components in optical...
amorphous
The disordered, glassy solid state of a substance, as distinguished from the highly ordered crystalline solid state....
obsidian
An acid-resistant, lustrous volcanic glass, usually black or banded.
Brewster angle window
A parallel plate of glass in such a position that the refracted and reflected rays of incident parallel light are mutually...
glass dosimeter
A device that detects and measures the quantity of exposure to nuclear radiation. It uses a special glass rod that...
furnace
See glass annealing furnace; glass melting furnace.
solid optics
Optical elements arranged with no spaces between, so that the light travels only through glass, not air.
annealing furnace
An oven or furnace that possesses the design requirements and heat control necessary to anneal glass for the optical...
semifinished blank
A formed piece of glass, one surface of which has been ground and polished to the required curvatures.
halogen lamp
A halogen lamp, also known as a tungsten halogen, quartz-halogen, or quartz iodine lamp, is an incandescent lamp that uses a...
glass-melting furnace
A furnace used to heat glass materials. It may be a small laboratory-type furnace for small-scale experiments or large...
image amplifier
An electro-optic system using, in general form, an evacuated glass envelope with a semitransparent photocathode at one end...
four-level laser
A solid-state laser consisting of active atoms or ions of a transition metal, rare-earth metal or actinide, imbedded in a...
fiber optic cable assembly
A fiber optic cable assembly refers to a complete unit consisting of optical fibers, connectors, protective jackets, and...
photomask
A photomask, also known simply as a mask or reticle, is a key component in the photolithography process used in...
light diffusion
Light diffusion refers to the process by which light is scattered or spread out in various directions as it interacts with a...
polished mold
A mold for glass or plastics often made of stainless steel to prevent pitting or oxidation in service. It is polished to the...
high
In plano work, that property of a surface determining that it is convex and contacts a flat test glass at its center.
glass marking ink
Ink used for writing on glass, and also for blackening the edges of lenses to prevent reflection. In the latter case, the...
double-crucible method
A method of fabricating an optical waveguide by melting the core and clad glasses in two suitably joined concentric...
neutral density coating
A coating applied to a neutral density glass that is designed to reduce the amount of light evenly across the transmitted...
quartz spectrograph
A spectrograph used to detect radiation in the range of the ultraviolet in the electromagnetic spectrum. It is made up of...
sag
1. In the geometric sense, an abbreviation for the term "sagitta,'' the height of a curve measured from the chord. ...
fiber optic preform
A fiber optic preform is a cylindrical glass rod or tube used as the starting material for manufacturing optical fibers. It...
in vitro
In vitro is a Latin term that translates to "in glass." In scientific contexts, particularly in biology and medicine, it...
holographic camera
A holographic camera, also known as a holographic imaging system or holographic recorder, is a specialized device used to...
Nd:glass
 Kovar
Westinghouse trade name for an alloy of iron, nickel and cobalt, which has the same thermal expansion as glass and therefore...
glass film plates
An early form of photographic media consisting of glass plates coated with an emulsion.
beamsplitter
A beamsplitter is an optical device for dividing a beam into two or more separate beams. A simple beamsplitter may be a very...
dry objective
A microscope objective designed to be used without liquid between the cover glass and the objective, or, in the case of...
dispersion
Dispersion refers to the phenomenon where different wavelengths (colors) of light travel at different speeds when passing...

(306 results found)

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