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light beam Dictionary Terms

light pattern
In optics, a pattern, such as the Buchmann-Meyer pattern, that may be viewed when the record surface is illuminated by a light beam having parallel rays.
phototelegraphy
A document-transmitting process that uses a cylinder that rotates the document to be scanned and detected by a photoelectric...
nonlinear optical phase conjugation
The coupling of laser or light beams via nonlinear optical techniques such as four-wave mixing to achieve spatial variation...
ultrasonic light diffraction
The optical diffraction spectra formed, or the method that produces them, when a light beam is transmitted through a...
nonlinear optical detector
A type of radiation detector designed to recognize nonlinear optical effects, such as the Raman effect, by means of a...
footprint
1. The sector of the Earth's surface registered upon a remote sensing device in a satellite. 2. The amount of space occupied...
photoacoustic calorimetry
Periodic interruptions of a light beam incident on an absorbing medium that produce heat, expansion and acoustic wave...
Porro prism
A 45-90-45° reflecting prism whose surfaces form the 90° angle reflecting the light beam through a total angle of 180°. The...
Fresnel lens
A Fresnel lens is a type of optical lens that consists of a series of concentric grooves or steps carved into a flat, thin...
pencil beam
In astronomy, the main lobe of an antenna pattern that has a small angular extent in two mutually perpendicular directions....
microwave phototube
A device designed to detect microwave modulation and to mix modulated and unmodulated laser beams. It consists of a...
flying spot microscope
A microscope that uses a flying spot scanner, directed through the eyepiece, as a light source to determine the features of...
polygonal mirror
A polygonal mirror, also known as a multifaceted mirror or facet mirror, is a type of optical component used in various...
reflecting galvanometer
A galvanometer having a small mirror that is mounted on a moving element and that reflects a light beam onto a scale.
photosensitive recording
The recording achieved when a surface, illuminated by a signal-controlled light beam, emits electrons or reacts in some...
galvanometric scanner
A galvanometric scanner, also known as a galvanometer scanner or galvo scanner, is a type of optical scanning device used to...
beam-addressable technology
The application of reversible writing with a laser beam on particular storage materials. In one method, an amorphous film is...
diffraction angle
The angle that lies between the direction of an incident light beam and any resulting diffracted beam.
differential absorption lidar
A lidar (light detection and ranging) technique used in pollution monitoring. Two light beams are emitted simultaneously,...
beamsplitting block
A glass block that produces stationary fringes in the region crossed by incident light beams.
scintillation
1. The variation in intensity of a light beam as it travels through the atmosphere. 2. In radiation physics, a light flash...
interference color
Color resulting from the interference between two light beams.
fiber optic gyroscope
A fiber optic gyroscope (FOG) is a type of gyroscope that uses the interference of light waves to detect changes in...
Nichols radiometer
An instrument devised by Nichols and Hull for use in the measurement of radiation pressure. The device has two small...
Newton's rings
The series of rings or bands formed when light beams reflected from two polished, adjacent surfaces, placed together with a...
electro-optic deflection
The effect whereby a light beam is deflected by a birefringent prism when its polarization is changed by voltage applied to...
beam matrix
1. A geometrical arrangement of two or more light beams for use in laser shows, object detection or other applications...
spatial light interference microscopy
Spatial light interference microscopy (SLIM) is an optical microscopy technique that belongs to the category of quantitative...
optoelectronic shutter
A device used to control or block a light beam by means of the Kerr electro-optical effect, and other electro-optic devices...
geometric phase shifting
A technique used to create an achromatic phase shift based on the principle of geometric phase. The phase shift is...
Hubner rhomb
A glass rhomb that is used in photometry to compare two illuminated surfaces. This is accomplished by the rhomb's angles,...
half-wave plate
A plate of electro-optical material that serves to rotate the plane of polarization of a light beam.
magneto-optic readout device
A device using the Kerr effect to read back the signals from mechanically recorded tapes and discs. It consists of a light...
contour analysis
A method in optical character recognition in which a mobile light beam scans the outlines of characters for subsequent...
ultrasonic stroboscope
A light-interference device whose excitation is determined by the modulation of a light beam by an ultrasonic field.
Stokes parameters
The parameters, relative to polarized light and the Poincaré sphere, that are usually represented as: I, the intensity of...
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...
micro-optics
Micro-optics refers to the design, fabrication, and application of optical components and systems at a microscale level....
plane-polarized light
A light beam whose electric vectors all vibrate in a single fixed plane.
high-gain screen
A screen with a reflected or transmitted light beam that is confined to a much smaller bundle than was received by the...
phase shifting
A technique used to generate a phase shift between reference and sample light beams. The phase shift can be performed...
Debye-Sears ultrasonic cell
A device used in ultrasonic imaging to measure the velocity and attenuation of compressional waves in a transparent liquid...
dextrogyrate
Able to rotate the plane of polarization of a transmitted, plane-polarized light beam clockwise as seen by a viewer looking...
electrostatic lens
The electrical distribution that serves to influence an electron beam in the same way that an optical lens affects a light...
stimulated thermal scattering
Light from a pulsed laser focused into nonsaturable absorbing fluid that generates a strongly backscattered light beam with...
electro-optic shutter
A device used to control or block a light beam by means of the Kerr electro-optical effect.
Cotton-Mouton effect
The ability of particular pure liquids to doubly refract when influenced by a magnetic field with a direction that is...
autocollimator
An autocollimator is an optical instrument used for measuring small angular deviations with high precision. It operates on...
beam shaper
A beam shaper is an optical device or system designed to modify the spatial profile or intensity distribution of a laser or...
neutral density wedge
A strip or annulus of glass coated with a semitransparent material such as inconel. The coating thickness, and as a result...
Mach-Zehnder interferometer
A Mach-Zehnder interferometer is an optical device used to measure the phase difference between two collimated beams of...
acousto-optic diffraction
Light diffracted by a solid (usually quartz in crystal or fused form) traversed by acoustic waves. If the ultrasonic...
differential interference contrast microscopy
Differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy, also known as Nomarski interference contrast microscopy, is an optical...
entrance slit
The entrance slit, also known simply as the slit, is an essential component in optical instruments such as spectrometers and...
magneto-optic storage
A specific type of storage in which the material to be written on is heated above its transition temperature and switched in...
Kerr cell
A cell filled with a transparent material that, when placed in a strong electrical field, exhibits double refraction. Since...
beam attenuator
A device designed to decrease flux density or power per unit area of a light beam through absorption and scattering of the...
equivalency width
Calculation of the amount of energy extracted from a light beam regardless of its wide range resolution.
elliptically polarized light
A light beam whose electric vectors are broken into two elements of unlike amplitudes that are perpendicular to each other...
lenticular screen
A rear or front projection screen composed of minute optical surfaces that introduce a spread to the light beam that...
mixing
Combining light beams, usually of unlike frequencies, to form a single beam with a frequency that is equal to the frequency...
circularly polarized light
A light beam whose electric vectors can be broken into two perpendicular elements that have equal amplitudes and that differ...
Malus's law
A law that uses the square of the cosine between the plane of polarization of a beam of plane-polarized light and the plane...
low-coherence interference microscope
An interference microscope that uses a light beam originating from a low-coherence light source. The sample is placed in one...
holographic camera
A holographic camera, also known as a holographic imaging system or holographic recorder, is a specialized device used to...
prism
A prism is a geometric optical element with flat, polished surfaces that refract light. It is typically a solid, transparent...
ultrasonic light modulator
An instrument with a fluid that modulates a light beam traversing it because of the effect of ultrasonic waves passing...
transverse field modulator
A Pockels cell in which electrical current is applied in a direction orthogonally to that of the light beam.
etendue
A product of the area of a light beam (normal to its direction of propagation) and the solid angle that the beam includes;...
electron lens
An electric field produced to influence an electron stream much in the same manner that a lens affects a light beam.
atmospheric attenuation
The reduction in luminance of a light beam due to absorption and scattering as it passes through the atmosphere.
acoustical holography
The optical reconstruction of image information contained in a sound field. First the diffraction pattern, formed by an...
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...
grating beamsplitter
A grating beamsplitter is an optical device that utilizes the principles of diffraction to split a beam of light into...
light dispersion
The process whereby white light is separated into its component wavelengths. Light beams of different wavelengths are...

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