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laser Dictionary Terms

light modulator
A device that is designed to modulate a beam of light, usually from a laser source, by acting upon the beam directly. The...
acousto-optic modulator
A device that varies the amplitude and phase of a light beam; e.g., from a laser or by sound waves. Also known as a Bragg...
quasi-CW laser diode
A type of laser diode that operates at long pulsewidths.
fused quartz and silica
Fused quartz and silica are closely related materials, both composed primarily of silicon dioxide (SiO2), but they are...
laser diode
 nanotube
A nanotube, also known as a nanotubule or simply a tube-like structure, is a nanoscale cylindrical structure composed of...
focused laser scattering
A single-particle scattering technique in which an incident laser beam is tightly focused by means of lenses to yield a...
optical clock
An optical clock is a highly precise and advanced timekeeping device that relies on the oscillations of electromagnetic...
Z-scan
A technique for determining the nonlinear optical properties of a sample material by moving the sample through a focused...
field of collimator
An expression of the tolerance of decentration of a laser diode from the optical axis: the region around the axis in the...
plasma laser
Operates with light collectively emitted by the recombination of free electrons and ions in the plasma state.
Ti:sapphire laser
A Ti:sapphire laser is a type of solid-state laser that utilizes a titanium-doped sapphire crystal as the gain medium. The...
laser cloud mapper
A scanning laser radar system applied to transmission and concentration analysis in three dimensions of clouds as well as...
direct laser interference patterning
Also called DLIP, a high-speed, high-resolution processing technique that uses high-power, pulsed laser systems to directly...
cavity
In a laser, the optical resonator formed by two coaxial mirrors, one totally and one partially reflective, positioned so...
gallium nitride
Gallium nitride (GaN) is a compound made up of gallium (Ga) and nitrogen (N). It is a wide-bandgap semiconductor material...
hot spot
Term applied to laser technology to denote an area of above-average intensity often attributable to atmospheric...
mode
1. The characteristic of how light propagates through a waveguide that can be designated by a radiation pattern in a plane...
gain-switching
Gain-switching is a technique used in lasers to generate short pulses of light by modulating the gain of the laser medium....
infrared optic
Infrared optics refer to optical components and systems designed to manipulate and control infrared (IR) light, which lies...
traveling wave phototube
A traveling wave tube (TWT) containing a photocathode and window that, receiving a laser beam, produces a modified...
kinetic cooling
An atmospheric nonlinear process unique to CO2 laser wavelengths, whereby CO2 absorbs 10.6-µm radiation and the CO2...
intermediate frequency
In a heterodyne optical receiver, the frequency that is the difference between that of an incoming laser signal and that of...
pulse compression
A means of achieving higher peak powers and more efficient harmonic generation by narrowing the pulse width and thus...
microbubble resonator
A microbubble resonator is a device used in photonics and optical physics for the precise manipulation of light waves. It...
medical lasers
Medical lasers are devices that produce intense beams of light with specific characteristics and properties, which are used...
laser
A laser, which stands for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation," is a device that produces coherent and...
nonlinear optical detector
A type of radiation detector designed to recognize nonlinear optical effects, such as the Raman effect, by means of a...
scribing
The process of perforating a silicon or ceramic substrate with a series of tiny holes along which it will break. Nd:YAG or...
enhanced pulsing
A type of laser pulsing with high laser power at the beginning of the pulse.
optical parametric oscillator
A laser-pumped crystal with nonlinear optical properties inside of an optical resonator in which the output generates...
particle image velocimetry
A whole-flow-field technique providing instantaneous velocity vector measurements in a cross-section of a flow that is...
hole burning
The dip or gap in the profile of a laser beam's line width when it is both homogeneously and inhomogeneously broadened. When...
spatially offset Raman spectroscopy
Spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS) is a technique that extends traditional Raman spectroscopy by incorporating...
diode laser
 laser cell sorting
A moving group of fluid-suspended biological species directed through separate channels by which the population is isolated....
optical assembly
An optical assembly refers to a collection of optical components that are carefully arranged and aligned to perform a...
laser detector
Device that operates by interaction of incident radiation with semiconductor based material in order to produce an...
multiple laser sequence
Also known as gatling gun laser. A system that has an array of lasers sharing a common central axis on a rotating Fabry...
pulse forming network
A series of capacitors and inductors connected to the flashlamp in a pumped Nd:YAG laser system in order to regulate the...
optics
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter...
embedded laser
The term "embedded laser" typically refers to a laser device that is integrated or embedded into a larger system or...
gallium arsenide phosphide
Gallium arsenide phosphide (GaAsP) is a semiconductor alloy composed of gallium (Ga), arsenic (As), and phosphorus (P). It...
laser velocimeter signal detection
The variation of the electronically detected signal with respect to the scaled version of the classical optical signal...
choledochoscope
A small fiber optic endoscope used in laser surgery.
laser scalpel
coherent communications
A fiber optic communications system that works on the principles of homodyning or heterodyning. The transmitting laser...
Fabry-Perot interferometer
A multiple-beam interferometer, usually consisting of two flat plates, with high reflective ability. The plates are set...
contact laser surgery
Laser surgery by means of a low-power laser system using a synthetic sapphire scalpel that transmits the laser light while...
lateral mode
In a diode laser, a mode in the plane of the active layer that is perpendicular to the direction of the emitted beam.
burn-in
The operation of a laser diode or other component prior to its use in its intended application, as a means of testing and...
liquid crystal light valve
A liquid crystal light valve (LCLV), also known as a spatial light modulator (SLM), is an optical device that modulates the...
disc laser
A laser having a rod that is a stacked array of discs immersed in a transparent flowing coolant fluid. In this way, the...
laser controlled area
Area in which laser operation occurs and therefore safety requirements are met and regulations are implemented. Lasers...
hematoporphyrin derivative
A material used in photodynamic therapy that is retained selectively by tumor tissue when injected into the body; it then...
beamwidth
The angular width of a radiation beam. With respect to a conical beam of light, it is the vertex angle of the cone. The...
laser trimming
The use of lasers in tailoring of such components as thin-film resistors. The process improves speed and accuracy.
laser gravimeter
Means of determining the relative motion of a (seismic) mass or acceleration body from a stable laser operated system.
pulsed-dye laser
A laser with a gain medium consisting of an organic dye, which is carbon-based. The dye is mixed with a solvent, allowing...
double-pulsed holographic interferometry
Interferometric measurement of the interference pattern recorded when a complex object is illuminated by two laser pulses...
flux rise time
Time elapsed during the radiant output change from 10 to 90 percent of maximum in a light-emitting diode or laser. Usually...
erbium-doped fiber amplifier
An optical fiber that can be used to amplify an optical input. Erbium rare earth ions are added to the fiber core material...
distributed feedback laser
A distributed feedback laser (DFB laser) is a type of semiconductor laser diode designed to emit coherent, narrow-bandwidth...
pulsed welding
A type of laser welding that produces short-duration vapor pockets without buildup of heat in the part, useful for parts...
ring dye laser
A laser using a dye solution as the active medium whose resonator is formed into a ring (or a triangle or another shape) by...
resonator
A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance, which is a phenomenon that occurs when an external force or...
laser drift
Laser drift typically refers to a phenomenon where the frequency or wavelength of a laser source gradually changes over...
multimode laser
A laser that produces emission in two or more transverse or longitudinal modes.
attosecond photonics sources
Attosecond photonics sources refer to devices or systems that generate extremely short pulses of light on the order of...
laser oscillator
Contains the light or beam path within a laser device. The oscillator uses reflective optical components that are oriented...
laser-mediated gene transfer
Laser-mediated gene transfer refers to a technique in molecular biology and genetic engineering that utilizes lasers to...
optical microphone
Laser-powered telephone device for analog communications that employs a vibrating plastic membrane as a transmitter to...
laser fusion
Optical confinement of matter with high field energies intended to induce a stable nuclear fusion interaction.
laser absorption spectroscopy
An experimental research technique by which absorbed or unabsorbed radiation is analyzed in order to characterize and...
line-selectable laser
 pulse shaping
The use of variations in the power supplied to a laser to change the shape of the output pulse. The technique is used in...
recombination radiation
The radiation emitted in semiconductors when electrons in the conduction band recombine with holes in the valence band. If...
atmospheric turbulence
Irregularities and disturbances in the atmosphere that are of particular interest because they induce random temporal and...
gatling gun laser
 ultrafast pulsed laser
An ultrafast pulsed laser is a type of laser that emits extremely short pulses of light with durations typically on the...
laser sintering
Laser sintering is an additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing technology that involves using a laser to selectively fuse...
distributed Bragg reflector
A device similar to distributed feedback lasers in construction and operation, but in which the period grating that produces...
III-V material
In semiconductor physics and materials science, the term "III-V materials" refers to compounds composed of elements from...
laser guide star
An artificial star used to aid in adaptive optics imaging of the sky. The guide star is provided from a telescope system on...
custom optic
A custom optic refers to an optical component that is designed, manufactured, and tailored to meet specific requirements or...
optical data storage
The storage of information via optical means, primarily employing a low-power laser to inscribe data on a photosensitive...
junction diode
A semiconductor device with the property of conducting current more easily in one direction than the other. It has two...
power density
In laser welding or heat treating, the instantaneous laser beam power per unit area. This parameter is key in determining...
time-sharing laser
A laser fitted with up to eight optical fibers that transmit the energy to different workstations in turn.
fiber Bragg grating
A fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is a type of optical filter that is inscribed or "written" into the core of an optical fiber. It...
supercontinuum
Supercontinuum refers to a broad spectrum of light that spans a wide range of wavelengths, typically from the visible to the...
excimer laser coronary angioplasty
Excimer laser coronary angioplasty (ELCA) refers to a medical procedure used in the treatment of coronary artery disease....
keyhole welding
The process of binding or attaching larger metal sheets by laser welding. The effect is generated by higher power densities...
transverse mode
In the context of optics and lasers, a transverse mode refers to a specific spatial pattern of the electric field within the...
spatial mode
Also known as transverse mode. The configurations of energy storage, relative to the structure of a laser resonator, that...
energy-sharing laser
A laser that distributes its output power among two, three or four optical fibers simultaneously.
multistripe array
A monolithic laser diode incorporating multiple coupled emitters.
laser radar
mode hopping
Mode hopping in the context of lasers refers to a phenomenon where a laser system abruptly switches from one longitudinal...
velocity modulation laser spectroscopy
A method of measuring negatively charged phase ions using a color-center or lead-salt diode laser.
Fresnel number
In a lens, the square of the radius of its aperture divided by the product of the focal length and the wavelength. It...
machine vision lighting
Machine vision lighting refers to the use of specific lighting techniques and equipment in the field of machine vision,...
integram
A reflection hologram using multiple color lasers that integrates various graphical techniques to allow the display of...
linear optics
Linear optics refers to the study and manipulation of light in a linear and deterministic manner, where the response of...
quenching
The inhibition or elimination of one process by another process. The stimulated emission of a laser oscillator can be...
metal vapor laser
Devices in which the lasing medium is a vapor of metal atoms or ions, sometimes mixed with another gas. Metal vapor lasers...
phase conjugation
The use of a reflective device, which can be fashioned from a variety of materials including gases, solids, dyes, aerosols,...
solarization
1. The reduction in the developable density of a photographic emulsion that has been extremely overexposed. 2. In a laser...
high harmonic generation
High harmonic generation (HHG) refers to a nonlinear optical process in which intense laser light interacts with a gaseous...
umbilical
A connection, typically made up of one or more cables, between a laser head and a separate power supply. Flexible pipes or...
GaN distributed feedback lasers
GaN (gallium nitride) distributed feedback (DFB) lasers refer to a specific type of semiconductor laser based on Gallium...
photon burst detection of fluorescence
A type of laser spectroscopy used to measure short-lived isotopes by observing sudden bursts of fluorescence resulting from...
laser velocimeter
A system that uses a continuous-wave laser to measure the velocity of an object by focusing the laser beam on the object,...
laser medium
dichroic mirror
A dichroic mirror, also known as a dichroic beamsplitter or interference filter beamsplitter, is an optical device that...
multi-axis alignment
Multi-axis alignment refers to the process of aligning or adjusting components or systems in multiple spatial dimensions or...
phase-change optical disc
An erasable data recording and storage medium that uses a laser to heat the crystalline surface of the disc to a certain...
bore
The central hole running the full length of a laser capillary tube, in which electrical discharge and laser action take...
aspheric mirror
An aspheric mirror is an optical mirror surface that deviates from the shape of a perfect sphere, having a non-spherical...
stacked-diode laser
A type of laser used when a great amount of power is required. Avoiding the bulk of large numbers of optical lenses, this...
rare gas halide laser
 index-guided laser
A laser diode with an output beam contained in the active layer by means of a built-in refractive index profile formed in...
Brewster angle window
A parallel plate of glass in such a position that the refracted and reflected rays of incident parallel light are mutually...
nitric oxide detector
A pollution-measuring device used to detect the presence of nitric oxide regardless of other gases present. It utilizes the...
crystal laser
 picosecond spectroscopy
A method of measuring complex sequential photosynthetic reactions by varying the pulse time and wavelength of light...
holmium
A soft, malleable, stable rare-earth element. Holmium laser systems are used in surgical procedures involving the cutting...
Brillouin scattering
Brillouin scattering is a phenomenon in physics where an incident electromagnetic wave (usually light) interacts with...
static beam alignment
The degree to which a laser beam is aligned parallel to the housing axis.
laser-induced damage
starting voltage
In a laser, the voltage necessary to initiate electrical discharge, somewhat higher than that needed to sustain it.
electroluminescence
The nonthermal conversion of electrical energy into light in a liquid or solid substance. The photon emission resulting from...
far-infrared laser
A laser with output over a wide range of wavelengths spanning the far-infrared region of the spectrum (30 to 1000 µm);...
output coupler
The partially reflective mirror at the end of the laser cavity that is the source of the beam. It controls the coupling...
videodisc
A disc whose surface contains recorded digital data at high-packing densities arranged in concentric rings. The data,...
laser triangulation
A technique that uses a solid-state laser and a detector to determine an object's relative distance to the system. The laser...
Q-switch
A device used to rapidly change the Q of an optical resonator. It is used in the optical resonator of a laser to prevent...
unstable resonator
A resonator often used for mode control in Fresnel number laser cavities that is highly vulnerable to extremely weak...
fusion ignition
Fusion ignition refers to the point in a controlled nuclear fusion reaction where the energy released by the fusion...
undulator magnet
A device used in a free-electron laser to convert the electron-beam's energy into microwave laser radiation by creating a...
far-field diffraction pattern
The diffraction pattern of a source such as a light-emitting diode, injection laser diode or the output end of an optical...
remote active spectrometer
A device employed to identify toxic agents lingering on the ground or in the air from up to three miles away, by using laser...
linewidth
1. The range of frequencies or wavelengths over which radiations are absorbed or emitted in a transition between a specific...
stereolithography
A method of creating real three-dimensional models by using lasers driven by CAD software. In contrast to the normal...
laser-triggered switching
A process by which the ionizing capabilities of a laser beam are used to break initiate conduction between pairs of...
continuous wave
Continuous wave (CW) refers to a type of signal or transmission where the signal is constant and does not vary with time. In...
beryllium oxide
A dielectric ceramic material used in laser capillary tubes because of its high electrical resistivity and high thermal...
saturable absorber
A laser dye whose absorption coefficient drops at high levels of incident radiation. The phenomenon is often called...
optical isolator
Also known as an optical diode, an optical isolator is a device that utilizes the Faraday effect to suppress or redirect...
photonic crystal surface-emitting laser
A photonic crystal surface-emitting laser (PCSEL) refers to a type of laser diode that emits light from its surface rather...
fiber-based confocal luminescence microscope
A microscope in which laser light is delivered through single-mode fibers that replace the pinhole usually used in confocal...
resonance ionization spectroscopy
A type of ultrasensitive laser spectroscopy that can detect quantities as small as a single atom of some substances and that...
average power
In a pulsed laser, the pulse energy in joules times the repetition rate in hertz.
micro-optics
Micro-optics refers to the design, fabrication, and application of optical components and systems at a microscale level....
optical memory
1. The direct storage of data as bits in memory using optical systems and properties. The memory makes use of a laser beam...
laser probe
Coherent source used for analysis of excited state species.
microscopy
Microscopy is a scientific technique that involves the use of microscopes to observe and study objects that are too small to...
adiabatic laser colorimetry
Method for studying absorption coefficients of low-loss materials, in which a sample is allowed to come to thermal...
single-molecule FRET
Single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer (smFRET) is a specialized technique in biophysics and molecular...
optical pumping
The process whereby the number of atoms or atomic systems in a set of energy levels is changed by the absorption of light...
argon-ion laser
gas laser using ionized argon as the active medium and applying electronic excitation in order to produce the laser light
stable resonator
A laser resonator in which a mode oscillating between the mirrors will converge upon the laser's longitudinal axis.
lasercaving
A machining process that uses a laser to cut three-dimensional molds or models.
laser Q-spoiler
A fast-action shutter inserted between one end of a laser rod and the end mirror; when inserted to prevent emission and then...
laser diode array
A group of single emitter laser diodes, usually arranged vertically or horizontally with respect to each other. The power...
diamond-turned optic
Diamond turning refers to a precision machining process used to produce complex optical components, particularly lenses and...
retroreflector
A retroreflector is an optical device or structure that reflects incident light or electromagnetic waves back to their...
alpha laser
A 2-million W, 2.7-µm-wavelength hydrogen-fluoride laser used as a directed energy weapon.
transversely excited atmosphere carbon dioxide laser
Abbreviated TEA CO2 laser. A gas laser that provides shorter pulses and higher peak powers than conventional CO2 lasers. The...
fluorescence decay system
A device, also called a fluorescence lifetime instrument, that measures decay curves of fluorescing samples. It generally...
spatial light modulator
A spatial light modulator (SLM) is an optical device that modulates or manipulates the amplitude, phase, or polarization of...
optical barcode reader
An optical barcode reader, commonly known as a barcode scanner, is a device that uses optical technology to capture and...
masks for evaporation/deposition
In the context of thin film deposition processes such as evaporation or sputtering, masks are used to selectively deposit...
laser tube
The device, usually made of glass or a similar material, that contains the resonant cavity and optics of a gas laser.
flow cytometry
Flow cytometry is a powerful technique used in biology and medicine for the quantitative analysis of the physical and...
optical materials
Optical materials refer to substances or compounds specifically chosen for their optical properties and used in the...
radio-frequency discharge laser
A gas laser in which the electrodes are mounted perpendicular to the optical resonator.
laser photochemistry
The study concerned with the stimulation of chemical activity by laser light as a result of the absorption of photons by a...
intrabeam viewing
With respect to laser radiation, the subjection of the human eye to all or a portion of the laser beam.
vertical external cavity surface-emitting laser
A laser that has a surface-emitting semiconductor gain element coupled to an external mirror designed to complete the laser...
population inversion
The condition in which there are more atomic systems in the upper of two energy levels than in the lower, so stimulated...
laser powder bed fusion
Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is a type of additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing technology that uses a high-power...
holographic memory
The storage of data as bits in memory by holographic processes. The laser beam is divided into reference and object beams,...
sol-gel
A gelatinous fluid that can be used as a porous thin-film coating for optical components, including laser beam collimators,...
high-density storage
Extensive data storage in the form of bits, with the use of high-resolution photographic materials and optics, and generally...
vertical-cavity laser diode
A type of surface-emitting laser diode that uses dielectric mirrors to produce surface emission. The laser cavity is...
photonic computer
A type of computer in which the electronic circuits, which process data serially, are replaced by photonic circuits capable...
lidar
Lidar, short for light detection and ranging, is a remote sensing technology that uses laser light to measure distances and...
alexandrite lasers
An alexandrite laser is a solid-state laser that utilizes a synthetic crystal made from the rare earth element alexandrite...
atom optics
The area of optics in which the wave nature of a particle is exploited to carry out very accurate interferometry and other...
Er:YAG laser
An Er:YAG laser is a type of solid-state laser that uses a crystal made of erbium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet...
ammonia pellets
Charged frozen pellets that are rapidly bombarded with a focused high-power laser to form a dense plasma that can be heated...
mask
1. A framelike structure that serves to restrict the viewing area of the screen when placed before a television picture...
time-to-amplitude converter
A time-to-amplitude converter (TAC) is an electronic circuit that converts a time interval between two events into an...
Raman effect
When light is transmitted through matter, part of the light is scattered in random directions. A small part of the scattered...
beam bender
A mirror used to manipulate the beam in a laser system.
laser ablation
Laser ablation is a process that involves the removal or erosion of material from a target surface using laser energy. This...
nonlinear optics
Nonlinear optics is a branch of optics that studies the optical phenomena that occur when intense light interacts with a...
mutual coherent function
A function that quantifies the performance degradation of coherent communications systems, imaging systems and all systems...
edge sensing, second derivative
Technique for the precision evaluation of coincidence of a laser beam's center with the edge of the object under study and...
laser annealing
Laser annealing is a process that involves using a laser beam to heat and modify the microstructure of a material, typically...
laser trapping
A technique for confining atoms, molecules or small particles within one or more laser beams. This can be accomplished...
ion laser
A laser in which the transition involved in stimulated emission of radiation takes place between two levels of an ionized...
ultraviolet molecular nitrogen laser
A pulsed laser having molecular nitrogen as laser material and a wavelength output of 337 nm in the ultraviolet region. It...
holographic interferometry
The interferometric analysis of a complex object by utilizing the three-dimensional hologram. By causing a laser beam to...
holographic particle velocimetry
A method of measuring flow velocity by seeding the flow with neutrally buoyant particles and using a pulsed laser to...
nonlinear optical materials
Nonlinear optical materials are substances that exhibit optical properties that are not linearly proportional to the...
atomic clock
An atomic clock is a highly precise timekeeping device that uses the vibrations or oscillations of atoms as a reference for...
neutral density wedge
A strip or annulus of glass coated with a semitransparent material such as inconel. The coating thickness, and as a result...
maximum permissable exposure
The maximum level of laser radiation that a person may be exposed to without adverse biological effects.
photostore
The photographic recording of data, in binary form, for storage in memory. Exposure is achieved by a cathode-ray tube or by...
fiber optic spectrometer
A fiber optic spectrometer is a device used for measuring the spectral content of light. It utilizes optical fibers to...
stimulated thermal scattering
Light from a pulsed laser focused into nonsaturable absorbing fluid that generates a strongly backscattered light beam with...
micropit
A laser-induced scar on experimental bare glass surfaces usually attributable to threshold damage and indicative of isolated...
optical bottle
A term referring to an optical force field used to trap and stabilize particles acted upon by a force such as laser light.
laser confocal microscope
STED microscopy
STED microscopy, or stimulated emission depletion microscopy, is a superresolution imaging technique in fluorescence...
beam table
Laser light show effects equipment including optics and mechanical devices that reflect, position or distort the laser beam,...
laser-induced fluorescence
Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) is a spectroscopic technique that involves using a laser to excite molecules or atoms,...
induction linear accelerator
A device used to accelerate the electrons in a free-electron laser by supplying electrical energy to the electron beam...
3D laser triangulation
3D Laser Triangulation - A technology that allows sensors to probe the surroundings. Laser triangulation systems have an...
Nd:YAG laser
Nd:YAG laser refers to a solid-state laser that utilizes neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:Y3Al5O12) as the gain...
graser
An acronym of gamma ray amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. It is a gamma ray laser that operates between...
slicing and cutting machines - for crystals, quartz, glass, etc.
A crystal, glass, or quartz slicing and cutting machine is a specialized piece of equipment used in the manufacturing...
pulsed laser
A laser that emits energy in a series of short bursts or pulses and that remains inactive between each burst or pulse. The...
photochemical hole burning
A method of producing disks for erasable optical data storage. Information is recorded by a laser beam that generates pits...
reconstructed image
An image that appears when a hologram is illuminated by a suitable light source, generally a laser beam.
Faraday rotation
The effect discovered by Faraday in 1845 whereby nonoptically active materials or substances become capable of rotating the...
quantum wire
A narrow channel created by cleaving a crystal made of alternating layers of gallium arsenide and aluminum gallium arsenide,...
Raman laser
flashlamp-pumped dye laser
A pulsed dye laser in which the excitation is provided by means of a flashlamp. Output is tunable from 335 to 850 nm, with...
thin-film coating
Thin-film coatings are layers of material applied to the surface of an object or substrate, typically to modify its optical,...
femtosecond laser
A femtosecond laser is a type of laser that emits ultrashort pulses of light with durations on the order of femtoseconds,...
chirped-pulse amplification laser
A laser whose pulses are expanded, using gratings and optical fibers, before amplification and compressed to increase beam...
sapphire crystal
Sapphire crystal refers to a transparent, single-crystal form of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) known as corundum. It is one of the...
xenon flashtube
A high-intensity source of incoherent white light in which a capacitor is discharged through a tube of xenon gas; often used...
photosensitizer
A substance that increases a material's sensitivity to electromagnetic irradiation. In photodynamic therapy, a drug used to...
kerf
The material lost during a laser cutting or machining operation.
gallium antimonide
A binary semiconductor compound used as a substrate or active layer for diode lasers.
aberration sensor (wavefront sensor)
Designed for the function of optical wavefront analysis. Shack-Hartmann camera aberration sensors use a lens array to image...
line-narrowed laser
A semiconductor laser in which the naturally occurring broad linewidth has been narrowed by incorporating the laser diode...
spatial coherence
The maintenance of a fixed-phase relationship across the full diameter of a cross section of a laser beam.
vibronic transition
A type of change in the energy levels of molecules in a laser that results in lasing action. Vibronic transitions are those...
pulsed sandwich holography
Separation of incident laser pulses by several seconds so holographic plates can be changed and sandwiched between the...
minimum spot size
The smallest linear diameter to which a laser or other beam of radiant energy is capable of being focused, depending on the...
optical autocorrelator
An instrument used to test lenses by utilizing the optical transfer function. It consists of a HeNe laser, a beamsplitter...
pulse amplification
The compression and intensification of a laser pulse of a specific width into a smaller pulse width. A spherical cavity, in...
holocamera
A camera system used to form a high-precision hologram of the subject on a photographic plate. It contains a high-power...
surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy
Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is an analytical technique that combines the principles of Raman spectroscopy...
longitudinal mode
A waveform that can oscillate along the length of the laser cavity.
spheric lens
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...
light source
The generic term applied to all sources of visible radiation from burning matter to ionized vapors and lasers, regardless of...
antireflection coating
An antireflection coating (AR coating) is a thin film or coating applied to optical surfaces, such as lenses or windows, to...
Raman spectroscopy
Raman spectroscopy is a technique used in analytical chemistry and physics to study vibrational, rotational, and other...
laser lithotripter
A laser device intended for crushing urinary tract stones so they can be flushed from the body. Light is introduced via...
laser anemometry
The process by which laser emission is used in measuring fluid velocity and, more specifically, the detection of air and...
Dammann grating
A Dammann grating is a type of diffractive optical element (DOE) used to create an array of equally spaced,...
ultrashort-pulse laser
A laser capable of generating light pulses that last only a few femtoseconds. This can be achieved by nonlinear filtering to...
nanophotonics
Nanophotonics is a branch of science and technology that explores the behavior of light on the nanometer scale, typically at...
laser-light-scattering photometer
A scattering photometer using scattered light in the solid angle 4.51+0 19° with respect to the forward direction, and...
facet
1. One of the plane-reflecting surfaces on a multisurfaced polygon. 2. The cleaved end mirror of a laser diode's active...
soliton
Any isolated wave that propagates without dispersion of energy. Specifically to photonics, an ultrashort pulse of laser...
photocoagulator
An optical medical instrument that uses an intense, precisely focused beam of light to stop weakened blood vessels from...
laser cavity
A laser cavity, also known as an optical cavity or resonator, is a fundamental component of a laser system. It is a confined...
multiline
Describing a laser that emits simultaneously at more than one wavelength.
optical tweezers
Optical tweezers refer to a scientific instrument that uses the pressure of laser light to trap and manipulate microscopic...
optical lattice
A periodic structure formed by intersecting or superimposed laser beams. These beams can trap atoms in low-potential...
injection locking
The use of two lasers as a master-slave pair in order to control frequency and prevent chirp. When light from the master is...
laser spectroscopy
That part of the science involved in the study of the theory and interpretation of spectra that uses the unique...
paraffin oil
A saturated compound of carbon and hydrogen used as a liquid coating material for optical components in high-power laser...
integrated laser
A type of laser for which a large number of the components can be fabricated in or upon a single substrate.
underillumination
Illumination of hologram facets with a beam that covers only a small portion of the hologram in order to optimize laser...
laser Doppler velocimeter
Device which determines particle velocity through the measurement of scattered interference of a beam pair from a single...
fiber optic transceiver
A fiber optic transceiver, often simply referred to as an "optical transceiver," is a device used in fiber optic...
color center laser
Certain color centers in the alkali halides have been optically pumped to produce efficient tunable pulsed and...
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...
laser lithotripsy
Laser lithotripsy is a medical procedure that uses laser energy to break down or fragment stones in various parts of the...
rare earth dopants
Rare earth dopants refer to elements from the lanthanide series, also known as rare earth elements, that are intentionally...
plasma noise
Introduced into the laser beam from localized fluctuations in current density within the plasma itself. These fluctuations...
isotopically selected laser spectroscopy
A spectroscopic technique in which an excitation band absorbs laser energy resulting in an electronic transition. The...
laser head
Contains elements which produce lasing., e.g. gain medium, oscillator mirrors as well as housing.
probe
Acronym for profile resolution obtained by excitation. In its simplest form, probe involves the overlap of two...
white-light continuum
An extremely wide emission spectrum generated by the nonlinear effects created when a high peak power from a short-pulse...
break current
The point at which decreasing current supplied to a laser results in the extinguishing of the laser discharge.
ellipticity
The quality of asymmetrical intensity distribution in a laser beam, as opposed to a circular distribution.
two-photon polymerization
Two-photon polymerization (TPP) is a technique used in additive manufacturing, specifically in the field of 3D printing. It...
single-defect model
A model that predicts laser-induced damage to thin films caused by irradiation of identical, randomly distributed film...
mode selectivity
A multimode laser characteristic defined as the ratio of power loss for the second mode to that of the lowest mode.
single-line laser
A laser whose output is limited to a single wavelength.
phosphor thermometry
A method for remote measurement of the temperature of moving surfaces in harsh environments by using a laser to stimulate...
tissue optics
The study of the optical properties of living tissue. Increased understanding of the behavior of light in this varied,...
laser texturing
Laser texturing is a manufacturing process that involves using a laser beam to selectively modify the surface of a material,...
chalcogenide
Chalcogenide refers to a class of compounds containing elements from group 16 of the periodic table, which includes sulfur...
quencher molecule
In the dye laser, the molecule that takes out energy from the triplet state during collisions between the dye and quencher...
excimer laser
An excimer laser is a type of ultraviolet laser that emits short pulses of light in the ultraviolet spectrum. The term...
single-photon avalanche diode
A single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) is a specialized type of photodetector designed to detect extremely weak optical...
monolithic lenslet module
An array of refractive microlenses that are round, square and hexagonal and as small as 15 µm. They are used for...
Matrix optics
The linear relationship between input and output optical fields for a given optical system or application that allows the...
YAG laser
A solid-state laser using yttrium aluminum garnet as the matrix material, doped with neodymium (Nd:YAG).
coherent optical adaptive technique
The use of phase conjugation or other methods to increase the power density of a laser beam under adverse atmospheric...
surveying instruments
Instruments used for measuring angles and occasionally lengths on the ground. The principal surveying instruments are the...
optical testing instrument
An optical testing instrument is a device or system used to evaluate and measure the performance, quality, and...
infrared light source
An infrared light source is a device that emits light in the infrared spectrum, which lies beyond the visible spectrum of...
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...
acousto-optic modulators and deflectors
An acousto-optic modulator (AOM) is a device that utilizes the interaction between sound waves and light waves to modulate...
GRIN lens
A GRIN (gradient index) lens is a type of optical lens that utilizes a gradient in refractive index across its volume rather...
3D laser line profile sensor
A 3D profile sensor, also known as a 3D profiling sensor or 3D depth sensor, is a technology that is used to capture and...
mode beating
In optics, "mode beating" refers to an interference phenomenon that can occur in laser systems with multiple longitudinal...
leading edge spike
In a sequence of laser pulse emissions, the intitial pulse that often helps initiate a reaction at the target surface,...
laser pointer
Handheld optical laser device containing a semiconductor or DPSS source. The output is corrected via internal collimating...
surface analysis by laser ionization
(SALI) A type of spectroscopy in which neutral atoms or molecules are ionized by an excimer laser beam and then measured by...
conduction welding
A type of laser welding of thin materials using a defocused or low-power carbon dioxide laser beam. The energy is absorbed...
speckle metrology
Refers to the variety of techniques that use the interference pattern produced by laser light diffusely reflected by an...
coherence length
That length over which energy in two separate waves remains constant. With respect to a laser, the greatest distance between...
edge-emitting LED
An edge-emitting light-emitting diode is a type of LED structure where light emission occurs primarily along the edge of the...
catastrophic optical damage
The darkening of the laser facet of a semiconductor laser diode. It can be prevented by placing the component in a...
lasing threshold
The lowest excitation power level at which a laser's output is mainly the result of stimulated emission rather than...
Gaussian beam optics
The area of optics that deals with the propagation of Gaussian laser beams in free space, or any general medium - i.e....
laser strainmeter
An instrument usually consisting of a very long interferometer, 3 to 800 m, and a laser light source for the study and...
transverse pumping
The laser pumping that exhibits an advantage over longitudinal pumping in that the threshold pump power density can be...
double-raster format
A mode of laser printing in which each pixel is printed four times, providing sharper lines and a continuous tone from...
plume
A mixture of ionized gas and metal vapor generated by impingement of the laser beam onto a material being welded or a weld...
optoacoustic
Optoacoustic, or photoacoustic, refers to a phenomenon and related techniques that involve the generation of acoustic waves...
accessible emission
The present radiation level within a laser or electromagnetic radiation operating area.
cold atom
Cold atoms refer to atoms that have been cooled to extremely low temperatures, typically in the microkelvin (µK) to...
fluence
Fluence is a term used in various scientific and technical disciplines to describe the amount of something per unit area....
optical disc
A rigid medium, generally a polycarbonate substrate coated with a reflective aluminum layer, that stores information (such...
laser spark spectroscopy
A method of analysis in which a pulsed laser beam is used to heat a particle, producing a plasma, or laser spark. As the...
speckle effect
In laser systems, the granular effect that is noted when observing the expanded cross section of a laser beam.
gold vapor laser
laser pump
A source of energy that produces needed excitation for population inversion in laser operation. The excitation source that...
Murty interferometer
A form of shearing interferometer that contains a simple wedged (plane-parallel) glass plate with a nonzero optical path...
laser pen
Device consisting of a laser diode, beam-correcting optics and collimating optics in a single housing. Also called a...
amplitude shift keying
In digital data transmission, the representation of a bit by change in amplitude of the outgoing signal. Amplitude shift...
burst mode laser
A high-frequency pulse-rate laser with an output limited by the heat capacity of the laser medium. Instead of having...
face-pumped laser
A device in which slab geometry internally compensates for thermal-optic distortion; the solid host material -- glass or...
superresolution
Superresolution refers to the enhancement or improvement of the spatial resolution beyond the conventional limits imposed by...
plasma accelerator
A plasma accelerator is a type of particle accelerator that uses electric fields and magnetic fields to accelerate charged...
sustaining voltage
In a laser, the voltage necessary to sustain a constant operating current, somewhat less than that needed for start-up.
holographic optical element
A component used to modify light rays by diffraction; the HOE is produced by recording the interference pattern of two laser...
attosecond-pump attosecond-probe spectroscopy
Attosecond-pump attosecond-probe spectroscopy (APAP) is an advanced technique in ultrafast spectroscopy that allows...
channel substrate planar growth
The creation of a diode laser structure by liquid-phase epitaxy over a grooved substrate.
azimuthal polarization
Azimuthal polarization refers to a specific polarization state of light where the electric field vector of the...
microchannel spatial light modulator
A device to modulate spatially a collimated coherent beam of light with input data in optical data processing. It uses a...
coherent light source
A light source that is capable of producing radiation with waves vibrating in phase. The laser is an example of a coherent...
hydrogen cyanide laser
A gas laser having a mixture of gases that makes it useful in the lab. The mixture of gases flows through a pressure and...
eye-safe laser operation
Wavelengths between 400 and 1400 nm (VIS to NIR) are focused onto the retina by the cornea. Because the retina is sensitive...
linear accelerator
A device used to accelerate the electrons in a free-electron laser. There are several types, including the induction linear...
Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor
The Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor is an optical device used for measuring the wavefront aberrations of an optical system....
diffraction grating
A diffraction grating is an optical component consisting of a surface with a periodic structure of equally spaced, parallel...
longitudinal pumping
A dye laser cell configuration in which the dye flows in the direction of the axis of the laser, yielding symmetrical energy...
photorefractive keratectomy
A surgical procedure for correcting vision by reshaping the outer surface of the cornea through the use of a laser system.
optical nonlinearity
The phenomenon that makes nonlinear the mathematical expression for the electrical polarization of a medium through which...
volumetric imaging
Volumetric imaging refers to the capture, visualization, and analysis of three-dimensional (3D) information from a volume of...
photon correlation spectroscopy
Spectroscopy used to study the concentration, diffusion and Brownian motion of small particles suspended in a fluid by...
optical head
In compact disc and CD-ROM technology, the portion of the drive that projects the laser light onto the surface of the media...
laser welder
A system that uses the heat from a pulsed laser to weld metals. Because of the rapidity and localization in which the...
magnetic rotation spectroscopy
Technique in which the polarization rotation of light, and its relationship to the magnetic field strength can be analyzed...
laser microscopy
Technique using functional optical microscope with the addition of a coherent source collinear with the image path. The...
magnetorheological finishing
Magnetorheological finishing (MRF) is a precision optics polishing technique used for shaping and finishing optical surfaces...
quantum cascade laser
A quantum cascade laser (QCL) is a type of semiconductor laser that operates based on the principles of quantum mechanics....
dye laser
A laser using a dye solution as its active medium. Its output is a short pulse of broad spectral content and its achievable...
aiming beam
A visible laser beam generated coaxially with an infrared or other invisible laser beam to aid in its positioning.
laser optics
Laser optics refers to a broad category of optical components and systems designed for manipulating and controlling laser...
YAG crystal
A YAG crystal refers to a solid-state crystal made of yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG), which is a synthetic crystalline...
broadband dielectric mirrors
Broadband dielectric mirrors, also known as broadband mirrors, are optical coatings designed to efficiently reflect or...
power average
For a pulsed laser, the product of the energy per pulse (joule) and the pulse frequency (hertz); expressed in watts.
phase matching
Phase matching is a crucial concept in the field of optics, particularly in nonlinear optics and the generation of coherent...
digital radiography
Medical diagnostic (x-ray) imaging using laser printers to produce high-resolution digital hard copy instead of film exposed...
gallium arsenide injection laser
A laser system consisting of a planar PN junction within a single crystal of gallium arsenide. The pair of parallel,...
photonics
The technology of generating and harnessing light and other forms of radiant energy whose quantum unit is the photon. The...
hologram
An interference pattern that is recorded on a high-resolution plate, the two interfering beams formed by a coherent beam...
freeform mirrors
Freeform mirrors refer to reflective optical components that deviate from traditional symmetric or rotationally symmetric...
enclosed laser device
A laser or laser system positioned within an enclosure to prevent dangerous optical radiation from leaving the enclosure.
laserblade scalpel
A contact tip made of artificial sapphire (AlO2) that allows surgeons to use laser power to cut and coagulate tissue...
laser isotope separation
A process of isolation of various atom vapor ions by means of tuning a laser source. For example, laser enrichment is...
tunable laser
Any form of laser; e.g., a dye laser, having an output that can be adjusted over a wide range of wavelengths. Normally the...
Kerr effect
The Kerr effect, named after the physicist John Kerr who first observed it in 1875, is a nonlinear optical phenomenon where...
laser output
The laser output refers to the generated and emitted light produced by a laser system. This output is characterized by...
aversion response
Eye blink or head movement in response to bright light. Aversion responses such as blinking are sufficient protection from...
picosecond pulse
A pulse having extremely short duration, about 10-13 to 10-10 s, that is produced by mode locking of wide-bandwidth lasers,...
laser eyewear
Usually consists of a set of filters that attenuate specific wavelengths but transmit as much visible radiation as possible.
active region
The layer of material in a laser diode from which the optical radiation is emitted; light producing region
soliton laser
A color center laser whose output is coupled to an external control laser cavity and then fed back to the main laser cavity...
synchronous pumping
The technique of generating ultrashort -- down to subpicosecond -- pulses by pumping a dye laser with mode-locked laser...
optical coatings
Optical coatings are thin layers of materials applied to optical components, such as lenses, mirrors, filters, and prisms,...
overfill
The condition of the numerical aperture or beam diameter of the laser, LED, or other optical source being larger than the...
sealed-off
Describing a laser in which the gas is permanently sealed within the tube.
laser line filter
A narrow linewidth optically transmissive or reflective component intended for use with a highly monochromatic or single...
zero phase shift mirror
A mirror that supplies equal reflectance for both the S-polarization and the P-polarization of a laser for a defined angle...
impurity level
In the context of optical materials, the term "impurity level" refers to the presence of foreign atoms or molecules within...
laser painting
Extended period exposure photographs of a laser light created with various patterns within full image (laser graffiti).
Raman fiber probe
A flexible fiber cable with a small diameter that transports light from the excitation laser to the target. Used in Raman...
optically pumped laser
A laser in which stimulated emission is triggered by the absorption by electrons of light from an auxiliary source such as a...
laser crystal
A laser crystal, also known as an active medium or gain medium, is a solid-state material used in the construction of...
photobiomodulation
A light therapy that utilizes nonionizing light sources, including lasers, LEDs, and broadband light, in the visible and...
neodymium glass
Glass containing small quantities of neodymium oxide that is used as a filter plate in color television or as a lasing...
spectrophone technique
Gas detection measurement technique that uses a built-in capacitative microphone to calculate the amount of absorbed laser...
chirped-pulse amplification
Chirped pulse amplification (CPA) is a technique used in laser physics to amplify ultrashort laser pulses to high energies...
image enhancement laser
A semiconductor platelet laser that emits a coherent image by means of plane optical pumping over the platelet surface, and...
lumia
A laser effect used especially for laser light shows. Lumia are created by placing a distorting medium such as rippled glass...
spatial filter
1. Generally, an emulsion mask having a clean annular region in an otherwise opaque region. It is designed to eliminate...
erythema
Localized redness of skin due to congestion of capillaries; a common result of overexposure to laser radiation.
gated pulse
A discontinuous burst of laser light generated by timing or "gating'' a continuous-wave laser.
q-switched operation
Q-switched operation, or q-switching, is a technique used in lasers to produce short and intense pulses of light. The term...
photonic cavity
A photonic cavity, also known as an optical cavity, is a structure that confines electromagnetic radiation within a certain...
collisional excitation
A method of lasing in which free electrons in a laser-produced plasma collide with neonlike ions to excite electrons to...
off-axis paraboloid and ellipsoid mirror
Off-axis paraboloid and ellipsoid mirrors are specialized optical components used in various optical systems, particularly...
indium phosphide
Indium phosphide (InP) is a compound semiconductor material composed of indium (In) and phosphorus (P). It belongs to the...
retroreflection
Retroreflection is a phenomenon in optics where light is reflected back toward its source, typically in a direction nearly...
fluorophosphate glass
A special laser glass made primarily of fluoride compounds that exhibits extremely low refractive index and allows greater...
laser, gas
surface-emitting laser diode
A semiconductor laser diode that emits light perpendicular to the active region. The output radiation is taken through the...
neodymium:YAG
Literally, neodymium:yttrium-aluminum-garnet. A cylindrical rod of yttrium-aluminum-garnet doped with neodymium that is the...
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...
jet-streamed dye laser
A continuous-wave dye laser that uses a circulation pump and nozzle to provide an optically flat stream of dye across the...
microwave phototube
A device designed to detect microwave modulation and to mix modulated and unmodulated laser beams. It consists of a...
ring-laser gyroscope
A ring laser gyroscope (RLG) is a type of gyroscope that uses laser light to detect and measure changes in orientation. It...
hair-trigger operation
Triggering a laser at a predetermined time by pumping it to a level just below its threshold and then using an auxiliary...
collinear pumping
A method of exciting a laser by coupling it directly to another laser.
Q-switched pulse
A laser output that occurs when the cavity resonator Q is first kept very low, using rotating mirrors or saturable...
gain-guided laser
A laser diode in which the beam is confined to the region of the active layer with gain high enough to accomplish such...
TEA laser
 conversion efficiency
In a pumped laser system, the ratio of output energy to pump energy.
alignment laser
A laser, usually employing helium-neon or other gases as the active medium, used for alignment in industrial applications.
parametric oscillator
A device using a parametric amplifier inside a resonant optical cavity to generate a frequency-tunable coherent beam of...
glass laser
An optically pumped solid-state laser in which the active medium is a neodymium ion in a glass rod host. Abbreviated...
laser resistor trimming
In hybrid or monolithic integrated circuits, the laser ablation of a portion of resistor material to achieve the design...
holographic camera
A holographic camera, also known as a holographic imaging system or holographic recorder, is a specialized device used to...
selective laser melting
Selective laser melting (SLM) is an additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing technology that belongs to the powder bed...
double-clad fiber
Double-clad fiber (DCF) is a specialized optical fiber that features two concentric cladding layers surrounding a core. The...
modulation bandwidth
The highest frequency at which a laser diode can be driven and still be modulated acceptably that further results in the...
gas-transport laser
A gas laser wherein the gas mixture is not exhausted into the atmosphere but is continually recycled. It is excited in the...
injection seeding
The use of a small ultrastable master oscillator (a diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser) to achieve single-frequency operation of a...
galvo-directing mirrors
A system of mirrors that can be used to direct light from a single laser source into any one of a number of separate optical...
time-averaged holography
Although low in sensitivity (approximately 10-7 m for helium-neon lasers), this holographic technique permits quantitative...
superelastic collision
Observed phenomenon in laser pulses in which a large number of excited electrons are created and in which multiphoton...
stroboscopic interferometry
A pulsed interferometer that permits the continuous quantitative mapping of the surface deformation of an adaptive optical...
holmium laser
Holmium lasers are a type of medical laser that utilizes holmium-doped crystals as the gain medium. The term holmium laser...
nonlinear optical phase conjugation
The coupling of laser or light beams via nonlinear optical techniques such as four-wave mixing to achieve spatial variation...
nanostructured glass
A unique glass made up of nano-structured materials to create millimeter sized monolithic glass space-variant polarization...
acousto-optic deflector
A system designed with a laser as a light source and a means for producing sound waves extending beyond 100 MHz to deflect...
free-electron laser
A free-electron laser (FEL) is a type of laser that generates coherent, high-intensity electromagnetic radiation by using a...
ballast resistance
In a laser, the series resistance necessary for a stable electrical discharge.
carbon dioxide laser
A gas laser in which the energy-state transitions between vibrational and rotational states of CO2 molecules give emission...
isolator
In the context of electronics and optics, an isolator refers to a device that allows the transmission of signals in one...
active medium
A material that produces stimulated emission during the process of amplification with a laser system.
photothermal effect
The cause of some forms of laser injury in which tissue absorbs incident laser light and experiences a damaging rise in...
photoconductive antenna
Photoconductive antenna (PCA) is a semiconductor element that generates or detects high-frequency electromagnetic signals....
nonlinear optical effect
A class of optical phenomena that can be viewed only with nearly monochromatic, directional beams of light, such as those...
coumarin 314T
An efficient, readily soluble blue-green laser dye.
quantum well
A quantum well is a structure in quantum mechanics that confines particles, such as electrons or holes, in one spatial...
inertial fusion energy
Inertial fusion energy (IFE) refers to a proposed method of generating electricity by harnessing the energy released from...
downstream laser
A laser that sends data from the source to the distribution node.
laser designator
A laser device used to establish a location or target usually for detection by an impact source e.g. missiles and guided...
extreme ultraviolet
Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) refers to a specific range of electromagnetic radiation in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum....
Fabry-Perot cavity
An optical resonator in which feedback is accomplished by two parallel planes. In diode lasers, the planes are obtained by...
stimulated Brillouin scattering
In Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS), an incident photon (usually laser light) interacts with acoustic phonons in a...
half-power point
1. The value on either the leading or the trailing edge of a laser pulse at which the power is one-half of its maximum...
v-coat
A multilayer antireflective thin-film coating, so called because its reflectance rises steeply at wavelengths above and...
lateral shearing interferometer
A lateral shearing interferometer is an optical device used in interferometry to measure phase differences between two beams...
ruby laser
The optically pumped, solid-state laser that uses sapphire as the host lattice and chromium as the active ion. The emission...
density matrix formulation
The exact mathematical description of the interactions of matter and intense electromagnetic fields, such as those that...
temporal coherence
A characteristic of laser output, calculated by dividing the speed of light by the linewidth of the laser beam. The temporal...
holographic grating
A holographic grating is a type of diffraction grating that is produced using holographic recording techniques. It consists...
optical ceramics
Transparent glassy and or crystalline structured materials engineered from inorganic, non-metallic materials via various...
quasi-CW laser
A laser that generates a succession of pulses at a high enough repetition rate to appear continuous. The pump source is...
stibine gas
The purest gas source of antimony, which is used in the manufacture of compound semiconductors for IR sensors and...
photonic crystals
Photonic crystals are artificial structures or materials designed to manipulate and control the flow of light in a manner...
integrated photonics
Integrated photonics is a field of study and technology that involves the integration of optical components, such as lasers,...
dye-polymer optical disc
A type of erasable data storage device that uses a medium deposited on the disc in two layers, each dyed to absorb a...
laserstrobe
A stroboscopelike apparatus that uses a copper vapor laser to illuminate an object for very short time periods (about 30 ns).
laser shock adhesion test
A nondestructive test, also referred to as LASAT, that uses a high-energy laser pulse that is targeted on an adhesively...
laser communications
additive manufacturing
Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, is a manufacturing process that involves creating three-dimensional...
second-harmonic generation microscopy
A nonlinear label-free imaging technique commonly used during surgical procedures for the visualization of collagen fibers...
plasma shield
Plasma's ability to stop the transmission of laser light.
laser footprint
Base area of a laser unit.
coaxial gas
A jet of inert gas along a laser welding beam's axis that cools, protects or cleans the work surface.
b integral
Calculates the exponential growth of the least stable spatial frequency in a laser beam, and is the numerical equivalent of...
swept-source laser
A swept-source laser, also known as a wavelength-swept laser, is a type of laser that rapidly and continuously changes its...
photonic integrated circuit
A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) is a compact and integrated device that incorporates multiple photonic components and...
blue diode laser
A blue diode laser is a type of semiconductor laser that emits light in the blue wavelength range of the electromagnetic...
thermal blooming
The effect that characterizes an intense laser beam that is passed through an absorbing medium, causing the absorbed energy...
liquid laser
A laser that uses a substance in the liquid state, such as an organic dye, as the active lasing medium.
sapphire window
A sapphire window refers to a transparent optical component made from sapphire crystal. Sapphire is a single-crystal form of...
gas discharge laser
 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...
laser rod
In a solid-state laser, the material (Nd:YAG, Nd:glass, ruby) in which lasing action takes place.
radio-frequency linear accelerator
A device used to accelerate the electrons in a free-electron laser by channeling microwave energy into waveguide cavity...
laser plasma
A plasma produced by the interaction of an intense laser pulse with a material surface. Production of ionized particle with...
time-correlated single photon counting
Time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) is a technique used in photon counting applications, particularly in the...
rear facet monitor
A photodetector mounted in the same package as a laser diode that is positioned to monitor the output from the rear facet of...
trepanner
A tool used in cutting circular holes around a center. Also, a laser cutter in which the beam moves in relation to the cut...
transversely excited atmosphere laser
Also known as TEA laser. A coherent optical source with a wide wavelength range in the infrared, visible and ultraviolet...
divergence
1. In optics, the bending of rays away from each other. 2. In lasers, the spreading of a laser beam with increased distance...
modulated zone plate
A zone plate produced by a computer and having a binary structure that can be etched into a chromium or quartz layer. It...
laser tweezers
A technique based on the principles of laser trapping and used to manipulate the position of small particles by gradually...
axial gradient technology
A method of designing lasers whereby the laser rod is cut into elliptical discs and cooled by running water over the disc...
hemispherical cavity
Laser cavity bounded by a plane mirror and a concave spherical mirror with the plane mirror located at the center of...
inertial confinement fusion
Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is a method of achieving nuclear fusion, a process where two atomic nuclei combine to...
hydrogenated amorphous silicon
A photoreceptor material used in solar cells and in drums for laser printers and high-speed copiers because of its high...
second-order nonlinear optical properties
Second-order nonlinear optical properties refer to a class of phenomena exhibited by certain materials in response to...
prelasing
When uncontrolled laser energy leaks from a laser cavity prematurely, it causes serious damage to optical components and...
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...
gallium aluminum arsenide
A crystalline semiconductor alloy used as the light confinement layer in both single- and double-heterostructure diode...
beam shuttle
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...
electro-optic modulator
An electro-optic modulator (EOM) is a device used to modulate the amplitude, phase, or polarization of light waves using an...
core-coupled lens
A semispherical or conical lens created directly on the core of an optical fiber to focus light from a laser into the fiber...
disc calorimeter
A device that provides simple and reliable laser power and energy measurement. Essentially a heat flux sensor producing an...
rotational transition
One of the types of change in the energy levels of molecules or atoms in a laser that can result in lasing action. Because...
indium
Metal used in components of the crystalline semiconductor alloys indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs), indium gallium arsenide...
dBm
Decibels referenced to one milliwatt; often used to specify power ratings for semiconductor diode lasers.
Pockels
In optics, the Pockels effect refers to the phenomenon where the refractive index of a material changes in response to an...
scintillation
1. The variation in intensity of a light beam as it travels through the atmosphere. 2. In radiation physics, a light flash...
mode filling factor
In a laser, the fraction of plasma volume used by a particular transverse mode of oscillation, a determinant of the gain...
fractional photothermolysis
A laser skin-resurfacing method that creates microscopic thermal wounds referred to as microscopic treatment zones (MTZs),...
vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser
laser peening
Laser peening is a surface enhancement technique used to improve the mechanical properties of materials, particularly...
thermal resistance
In a laser, a measure of the device's ability to dissipate internally generated heat.
mode sweeping
A form of laser output noise that is caused by thermal, mechanical, or acoustical disturbances of the cavity length. Mode...
confocal resonator
A confocal resonator, also known as a confocal cavity or confocal laser resonator, is a type of optical resonator...
2D profile sensor
A 2D profile sensor is a type of sensor used in various industrial and technological applications to measure and capture...
glass
A noncrystalline, inorganic mixture of various metallic oxides fused by heating with glassifiers such as silica, or boric or...
optical coherence tomography
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive imaging technique used in medical and scientific fields to capture...
aspheric lens
An aspheric lens is a type of lens whose surface profiles deviate from the traditional spherical shape. Unlike spherical...
waveguide laser
Gas laser in which the tube acts as a channel for the laser beam.
facet erosion
The degradation of the facets in a laser diode due to the intensity of radiation.
fiber optic preform
A fiber optic preform is a cylindrical glass rod or tube used as the starting material for manufacturing optical fibers. It...
laser contact tip
A surgical device used to deliver laser light. Specifically,contact tips are made with artificially grown sapphire which is...
organic dye laser
A laser having a lasing material that is a fluorescing organic dye. Depending on the dye used, it can produce emission in...
laser damage
A natural or mechanical system adversely affected by the influence of laser radiation. During laser damage the common effect...
three-level laser
A laser having a material, such as ruby, that has an energy state structure of three levels: the ground state (1) wherein...
threshold test
In laser damage testing, the exposure of many sites of a sample to different intensities of laser irradiation to discover...
optical table
An optical table, also known as an optical bench or an optical breadboard, is a specialized platform used in optics...
FMCW lidar
FMCW lidar stands for frequency-modulated continuous wave lidar. It is a type of lidar (light detection and ranging)...
galvanometric scanner
A galvanometric scanner, also known as a galvanometer scanner or galvo scanner, is a type of optical scanning device used to...
cylindrical lens
A cylindrical lens is an optical component that has different curvatures along its two orthogonal axes, resulting in a shape...
diamond turning
Diamond turning, also known as diamond machining or diamond cutting, is a precision machining process used to produce...
laser ceilometer
A device used for measuring the height of clouds from a position on the ground. Measurement technique uses a vertically...
electric CO laser
An electrically excited laser having carbon monoxide as the lasing material and in which lasing occurs in a partial...
velocimeter
See laser Doppler velocimeter; laser velocimeter.
laser active elements
Laser active elements typically refers to the substances or materials within a laser system that play a critical role in the...
mode partitioning
The pulse-to-pulse fluctuations in power distribution among modes of a Fabry-Perot laser, which can result in...
amplified spontaneous emission
Broadband radiation emitted by a laser that does not transmit through the optical element. It can be removed by filtering.
swept source optical coherence tomography
Swept-source optical coherence tomography is an imaging technique used in medical diagnostics, particularly in...
multiple-beam laser
A laser having a Q-switching method that allows separate parallel volumes of the lasing material to act independently of...
assist gas
A gas, such as oxygen, that improves the speed and efficiency of a laser cutter or welder when applied to the work surface,...
dual laser
A gas laser equipped with Brewster windows and concave mirrors (having unlike reflective properties) at each end of the tube...
directed energy
Directed energy refers to a type of energy that is emitted and transferred in a controlled direction. The term is often...
polygonal mirror
A polygonal mirror, also known as a multifaceted mirror or facet mirror, is a type of optical component used in various...
copper vapor laser
inhomogeneous broadening
Broadening of a laser's spectral linewidth when the resonance frequencies of the atoms (or molecules) of the medium are not...
sapphire optical fiber
Sapphire optical fiber is a type of optical fiber made from single-crystal sapphire, which is a form of aluminum oxide...
rotary laser
A structured light device using a rapidly rotating laser to project a beam of light that appears to the human eye as a...
modulated transmission ellipsometry
A method used to detect internal or residual microstresses in a material by using a laser beam to locate changes in...
slab laser
Solid-state laser geometry in which the standard rod is replaced by a slab of laser material. Often called...
autocollimator
An autocollimator is an optical instrument used for measuring small angular deviations with high precision. It operates on...
double-discharge laser
A type of transversely excited laser with a uniform arc-free discharge of large cross-sectional area that can be scaled to...
beam profiling
Beam profiling is a technique used to characterize and analyze the spatial intensity distribution of a laser beam. It...
biostimulation
The action of a biological system responding to a single or multiple coherent particles of light produced from a laser...
holography
Holography is a technique used to capture and reconstruct three-dimensional images using the principles of interference and...
continuous-wave laser
A laser that emits radiation continuously rather than in short bursts, as in a pulsed laser.
laser surgery
Laser surgery refers to a medical procedure in which a laser, or focused beam of light, is used as a precision tool to cut,...
Secondary Speckle Pattern
A self-interference effect that generates random patterns; secondary speckle pattern (SSP) typically occurs in diffuse...
microprobe
An instrument that produces an intense, tightly focused beam of ions to stimulate emissions from a minute section of a...
Doppler-spread imaging
An imaging process, similar to specific Doppler mapping radar techniques, that utilizes a laser, an optical imaging system,...
photon drag effect
The induction of an electric field in a semiconductor by an incident laser beam. The technique has rapid response time at...
excitation
1. The process by which an atom acquires energy sufficient to raise it to a quantum state higher than its ground state. 2....
antiguide
A waveguide that has a core with a lower refractive index than the refractive index of the cladding. This structure can...
image photocounting distribution
Photon flow created by imaging of light into a detector array; IPD is the electrical signal used by the image processor in a...
pumping band
A group of energy levels to which ions in the ground state are initially excited when pumping radiation is applied to a...
pulse slicer
An instrument designed for laser technology that is used to extract single pulses from the laser and transmit a portion of...
point light source
1. With respect to angular subtense, a source of light, such as a star, that is very small. In a lab, a point source may be...
hollow waveguide
An infrared-transmitting optical fiber with a hollow core; it can be square, round or rectangular in cross section. Capable...
harmonic generation
Harmonic generation refers to a nonlinear optical process in which incoming photons interact with a material and produce new...
power scanning laws
Laws that predict the maximum power output as a function of tube diameter for a hydrogen cyanide laser of a given discharge...
organic dye
Any organic substance, that when dissolved in appropriate liquid based solvents will absorb and emit electromagnetic...
fiber laser
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...
pumping radiation
Radiation used to excite an optical or laser material to a higher energy level. See optical pumping.
electric dichroism spectroscopy
The use of a krypton laser system for the measurement of small molecules aligned by an electric field, by analyzing the...
gas laser
One of the first lasers to find practical application. Generally, the pumping mechanism is an electric discharge, although...
spin-flip Raman laser
A semiconductor laser that operates in the infrared and that is pumped with strong pulses of radiation from a second laser....
laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy
A pump-probe technique whereby a single wavelength source may be used in order to excite a given sample to determine...
optical cements and adhesive
Optical cements and adhesives are specialized materials used in the assembly and bonding of optical components in optical...
optoelectronics
Optoelectronics is a branch of electronics that focuses on the study and application of devices and systems that use light...
whispering gallery mode
Whispering gallery mode (WGM) refers to a phenomenon in wave physics, particularly in optics, where waves, such as light or...
pulsed laser deposition
A technique for depositing a material coating on metal, ceramic, semiconductor or polymer substrates. The interaction of...
terahertz spectrometer
A terahertz spectrometer is a scientific instrument used to measure and analyze the properties of materials in the terahertz...
laser interferometer
An interferometer that uses a laser as its light source. The purely monochromatic nature of the laser results in improved...
heat treating
The process of subjecting glass to temperature cycling to produce physico-chemical reactions that alter its properties....
pyroelectric infrared detector
Unlike the thermocouple or bolometer, the pyroelectric infrared detector is a current source with an output proportional to...
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...
laser hammering
Means of correcting laser postweld shift. The correction procedure is applied to optoelectronic systems such as laser diode...
laser dazzle system
Visible laser radiation, often optically expanded and collimated, used to induced temporary blindness from within a walking...
homogeneous broadening
The broadening of a laser's line width in a way that affects every atom (or molecule), and thus the whole system, in the...
nanopositioning
Nanopositioning refers to the precise and controlled movement or manipulation of objects or components at the nanometer...
laser-induced cut and patch
A process used in the design, repair and customization of integrated circuits. A low-power laser etches a silicon wafer...
solar laser
A laser pumped by solar radiation focused by mirrors.
adaptive optics
Adaptive optics (AO) is a technology used to improve the performance of optical systems by reducing the effects of...
chemical laser
A laser that relies on chemical activity instead of electrical energy to produce the pumping action necessary to form pulses...
atmospheric refraction correlation
Formulaic compensation to correct laser ranging data for the effects of horizontal refractivity gradients; it requires the...
visioceilometer
An instrument that uses an erbium:glass laser to determine cloud height from the ground.
laser gyroscope
Counter propagating beams imaged along the same path in order to detect rotation. Precise rotation is measured through...
moving aperture technique
Method for reducing laser speckle in which the object field comes from a real diffuse object or the reconstructed object...
coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering
A technique whereby two laser beams, one at an excitation wavelength and the second at a wavelength that produces Stokes...
angular tracking
A laser radar application in which a sequence of direct measurements of target position is fed into a tracking filter to...
vanadate laser
Lasers based on neodymium-doped yttrium or gadolinium vanadate crystals. These include yttrium vanadate (Nd:YVO4),...
collateral radiation
Category inclusive of all radiation that is incited electronically, except laser radiation, as a function of the application...
frequency comb
A frequency comb is a precise and regular series of equally spaced spectral lines, or frequencies, that are generated with...
laser reflow soldering
Use of a laser to solder joints by melting the solder coatings on the mating components.
laser speckle
Sparkling granular pattern that is observed when an object diffusely reflects coincident laser light. Speckle appears as an...
mirror mount
A mirror mount is a mechanical device used to secure and precisely position mirrors in optical systems. Mirrors are...
nominal hazard zone
Zone of laser operation in which the direct, reflected or scattered light exceeds the laser's MPE and (by ANSI standards)...
fluoro-immunosensor
A fiber optic device that uses a HeNe laser, beamsplitter, monochromator and photomultiplier to detect trace levels of...
double-pulsed holography
Holographic recording whereby the object is illuminated by two pulses, separated by a time interval, from a Q-switched laser...
precision aperture
An accurately produced hole of any size and shape that is used as a masking device in an optical system. Pinhole apertures...
optical coherence tomography imaging system
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an imaging technique used in medical diagnostics and biomedical research to obtain...
tip-enhanced Raman scattering
Tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS) is a powerful technique that combines Raman spectroscopy with the enhanced spatial...
beam matrix
1. A geometrical arrangement of two or more light beams for use in laser shows, object detection or other applications...
local oscillator laser
In coherent optical communications systems, a laser used at the receiving end to produce a steady wave that is combined with...
beam-addressable technology
The application of reversible writing with a laser beam on particular storage materials. In one method, an amorphous film is...
lattice
In photonics, a lattice refers to a periodic arrangement of optical elements or structures, often on a microscopic or...
uniformly redundant array
Array used in coded-aperture imaging experiments with two-beam CO2 lasers that provide an artifact-free process, faithful...
ablation threshold
The minimum energy required to induce atomic and molecular separation or displacement due to incident intense laser...
frequency summing
A technique used in holography that involves the mixing of lasers of different wavelengths to produce a beam of shorter...
pyroelectric pulse detector
A current-source thermal detector used to detect and study the pulses obtained from particular lasers.
Risley prism
A Risley prism, also known as a Risley prism pair or Risley rotating prism, is an optical device used for controlling the...
pulse repetition frequency
Number of pulses emitted per unit of time by a pulsed laser.
Bose-Einstein condensate
A Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter that forms at temperatures close to absolute zero. It is named after...
oscillation threshold
Point at which a laser's material gain is equal to, or greater than, the circuit losses.
classification duration
For a laser, the maximum exposure time that the laser design allows; 0.25 seconds for a Class 2 laser.
diode laser
A diode laser is a type of laser that uses a semiconductor diode as the active medium to generate coherent light....
computer-generated hologram
A computer-generated hologram (CGH) is a holographic image produced using computational methods and algorithms, rather than...
holographic cinematography
A technique used to create a series of interrelated holographic images that give an appearance of motion when projected in...
Arrhenius plot
The plot that expresses a reaction rate vs. the reciprocal of absolute temperature. Often used to describe the thermal...
laser dye
Class of organic dyes that emit coherent radiation over a wide spectral range.
stripe laser
In rudimentary form, this technology consists of diffusion of a PN junction through a mask of silica, over which a contact...
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...
chelate laser
A laser having a rare-earth chelate within a plastic host as the lasing material. The chelate laser is easily pumped and has...
rangefinder
1. An optical distance finder that depends on triangulation of two convergent beams on an object from disparate view points....
high-speed holography
The holographic recording of sequences of high-speed phenomena. With a multiple beam laser, multiple holograms that depict...
laser spark
Breakdown of a gas produced by the attenuation of an intense pulse of focused laser light.
relative intensity noise
The inherent laser amplitude noise relative to the average optical power produced by the laser; the RIN decreases rapidly as...
laser pattern generation
Production of a repeated image of a transmitted beam through a diffractive optical element such as a holographic card or...
alexandrite
A host crystal for chromium that emits pulsed or continuous-wave laser light, tunable from about 720 to 790 nm.
GaAlAs laser
A GaAlAs laser is a type of semiconductor laser diode that emits light in the near-infrared region of the electromagnetic...
beam shaper
A beam shaper is an optical device or system designed to modify the spatial profile or intensity distribution of a laser or...
mode-locked lasers
Mode-locking is a technique used in lasers to produce ultrashort pulses of light with durations on the order of picoseconds,...
fluorescence lifetime imaging
Fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) is an advanced imaging technique that provides information about the lifetime of...
Fabry-Perot laser
A laser oscillator in which two mirrors are separated by an amplifying medium with an inverted population, making a...
prism coupler
An instrument that measures the angle at which a prism can couple laser light into an optical waveguide; used to determine...
laser diode module
A laser diode module is a compact device that incorporates a laser diode, optics, and often other components into a single...
monitor current
In a laser diode, the photocurrent produced by a photodiode that detects the emission from the rear facet of the...
matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization
Process of analysis in which the analyte substance is distributed in a matrix before laser desorption. This method avoids...
free-space optics
Free-space optics (FSO), also known as optical wireless communication or optical wireless networking, refers to the...
near-field walk
In a laser diode, lateral motion of the beam center at the facet when the drive current is changed.
laser desorption
A process of forming ions within a given molecular species by incident laser light. The molecular species may remain intact,...
stacked optical memory
A memory system composed of a stack of holographic plates, a mode-locked laser and a rapid detector array. Ultrashort laser...
spectral flow cytometry
Spectral flow cytometry is an advanced flow cytometry technique that expands the capabilities of traditional flow cytometry...
flame spectroscopy
The study of flames by means of a laser emitting blue light and a spectrometer to measure the green fluorescence created by...
laser damage threshold
The laser damage threshold refers to the maximum level of laser intensity that a material can withstand without experiencing...
repetitively pulsed laser
A pulsed laser that emits a recurring pulsed output. Frequency of the pulses emitted is known as pulsed recurrence frequency...
smart pixel array
An array of active optical devices (modulators, laser diodes and/or detectors), each of whose electrical inputs or outputs...
laser frequency measurement
Mod Method of obtaining precise temporal mode characteristics.
lasing medium
The material that produces stimulated emission from within a laser oscillator. Laser gain media may vary from...
chromophore
A naturally occurring pigment in tissue that may selectively absorb certain wavelengths and can be used to aid in targeting...
split-beam laser interferometer
An instrument that divides a single laser beam in two and uses one half as a sensing beam and the other as a reference beam,...
scanning acoustic microscope
Also called scanning laser acoustic microscope. A device that uses high-frequency ultrasound waves to penetrate surfaces. A...
microphonic noise
Output noise in a laser beam resulting from acoustic disturbances of mirror separation or orientation. Such disturbances may...
excited-state absorption
In laser pumping, parasitic absorption that occurs at certain wavelengths, decreasing pump efficiency and gain.
potassium titanyl phosphate
A crystalline material with a high electro-optic coefficient, capable of operating at short wavelengths, with applications...
pulse duration
The lifetime of a laser pulse, generally defined as the time interval between the halfpower points on the leading and...
colliding pulse modelocked ring laser
A ring dye laser that uses prisms and a saturable absorber within the laser cavity to shape and shorten the pulses...
exciton
An exciton is a quasiparticle that represents the bound state of an electron and a hole in a solid-state material, typically...
laser rangefinder
A laser rangefinder is a device that uses laser technology to measure the distance between the device and a target. It...
etalon
An etalon is an optical device that consists of two parallel reflecting surfaces separated by a precise and known distance....
maser
An acronym for microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. Predecessor to the laser, the maser or...
optical tape recorder
An instrument used for video or computer data storage in which a laser optical head is used to write digital information...
laser biostimulation
hard seal
The process of sealing laser components by means of frit seals, welding or bonding rather than using epoxy.
isosorbs
Lines of equal atmospheric attenuation in a laser beam.
photodynamic therapy
A medical technology that uses lasers or other light sources in combination with photosensitizing drugs to treat cancerous...
current saturation
A condition during laser operation when laser output can no longer be increased by additional electric current.
computer-generated holographic scanner
A phase reflection scanner that eliminates the need for a complex translation device while maintaining a high-energy-density...
laser-excited Shpol'skii spectroscopy
A type of fluorescence spectroscopy in which an excimer laser, a dye laser and a frequency-doubling device are used to...
corner cube
A corner cube, also known as a corner reflector or retroreflector prism, is a type of optical device used to reflect light...
deformable mirror device
A spatial light modulator consisting of a metallized polymer film stretched over an array of metal-oxide semiconductor...
isodivs
A graphic depiction of the loci of all points in space relative to a laser transmitter at a specific altitude.
common optoelectronics laser detection system
A laser warning and countermeasure system containing a sensor that indicates the direction of a laser beam, and analytical...
rotational power stability
Ability of a laser to resist variations in output power caused when it is slowly rotated about its optical or symmetrical...
polychromatic acousto-optic modulator
A crystal-based device that combines and adjusts the intensities of multiple wavelengths of laser light in order to obtain...
sonoradiography
The diagnostic procedure that uses ultrasonic energy to probe the body and, with the help of laser beams, a reflecting...
self-phase modulation
Self-phase modulation (SPM) is a nonlinear optical phenomenon that occurs when an intense laser beam passes through a...
tissue welding
The use of a surgical laser instead of sutures or staples to close a wound or rejoin severed blood vessels.
diffraction efficiency
Diffraction efficiency is a measure of how effectively a diffractive optical element (DOE) or diffraction grating directs...
active layer
That layer in a semiconductor injection laser or light-emitting diode that provides optical gain.
laser drill
High power laser ablation device that by pulsed operation produces holes of controllable dimension on the scale of microns....
remote laser welding
A robotic process commonly employed by automakers that enables high-speed and flexible production throughput by using...
laser photocoagulator
Optical source intended to reduce bleeding as well as to abet wound or vessel healing through cauterization, used in eye...
motion controller
In optics, a motion controller refers to a device or system that precisely controls the movement of optical components, such...
laser cooling
A process and method by which manipulation and orientation of a given number of directed laser beams decreases the motion of...

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