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AdTech Ceramics - Ceramic Packages 1-24 LB
material Dictionary Terms

x-ray absorbing filter
A window made of glass containing a high percentage of lead or other dense material known to absorb x-rays readily.
incoherent bundle
A bundle of filaments of optical glass or other transparent materials that transmit only light, not optical images. The...
Descartes ray
The ray refracted by a sphere of transparent material that travels back as closely as possible to the original path formed...
ablative wall flashlamp
A high-brightness, short-duration source in which low-pressure gas initiates the discharge to vaporize material from the...
infrared lens
An infrared lens is an optical component specifically designed and optimized for transmitting, focusing, or manipulating...
Kerr soliton
A Kerr soliton refers to a specific type of soliton, a self-reinforcing wave packet, that arises in nonlinear optical...
cathode-ray tube envelope
Envelopes for cathode-ray tubes are made by blowing glass in the same manner as light bulbs. They have a fairly flat end...
diffusion disk
An embossed or marked disk, constructed out of a transparent material and used with a camera system to soften an image.
fiber optic window
The face of a cathode-ray tube (CRT) that has a fiber optic sheet attached to its surface. The sheet's fibers are at right...
Faraday rotation
The effect discovered by Faraday in 1845 whereby nonoptically active materials or substances become capable of rotating the...
integrated photonics
Integrated photonics is a field of study and technology that involves the integration of optical components, such as lasers,...
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...
fiber optic preform
A fiber optic preform is a cylindrical glass rod or tube used as the starting material for manufacturing optical fibers. It...
thin-film deposition equipment
Thin-film deposition equipment refers to machinery and tools used in the process of depositing thin layers of material onto...
3D printing
3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing (AM), is a manufacturing process that builds three-dimensional objects...
cold flow
Deformation of a material caused by mechanical factors, especially constant pressure, and not attributable to thermal...
piezoelectric motion systems
Piezoelectric motion systems are mechanical systems that utilize piezoelectric materials to generate controlled motion or...
mesoscope
In the field of optics and imaging, a mesoscope refers to an optical instrument that is designed to observe and capture...
microphotonics
The technology of manipulating light on a micro scale. In optical communications, this is usually accomplished using two or...
cerium oxide
A polishing material that has a quicker polishing action than rouge (ferric oxide) and that is cleaner to handle.
multilayer coating
A coating made up of many layers of material having alternating high and low refractive index. In this way, it is possible...
ground state
Also known as ground level. The lowest energy level of an atom or atomic system. A material in the ground state is not...
photoelasticity
The process of determining, with the aid of plane-polarized light, the stress distribution in materials under complex...
surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy
Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is an analytical technique that combines the principles of Raman spectroscopy...
magnetorheological finishing
Magnetorheological finishing (MRF) is a precision optics polishing technique used for shaping and finishing optical surfaces...
electro-optic effect
The change in the refractive index of a material under the influence of an electrical field.
nanoLED
An LED (light-emitting diode) is a semiconductor device that emits light when an electric current passes through it. LEDs...
germanium crystal
Germanium crystal refers to a crystalline form of the element germanium (Ge), which is a metalloid and semiconductor...
mechanical splice
A fiber splice accomplished by fixtures or materials, rather than by thermal fusion. Index matching material may be applied...
luminescence
Luminescence is the emission of light that occurs without the involved substance undergoing a significant increase in...
guided wave
A wave in which energy is focused near a boundary separating materials having different properties. Propagation of the wave...
short wavelength infrared
Short wavelength infrared (SWIR) refers to the portion of the infrared spectrum that encompasses wavelengths roughly between...
x-ray source
A material or system that emits x-rays.
lattice
In photonics, a lattice refers to a periodic arrangement of optical elements or structures, often on a microscopic or...
attosecond-pump attosecond-probe spectroscopy
Attosecond-pump attosecond-probe spectroscopy (APAP) is an advanced technique in ultrafast spectroscopy that allows...
graphene
Graphene is a two-dimensional allotrope of carbon consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal...
Grittington test
A method of determining the abrasion resistance of very hard materials by passing a weighted wiper blade across them in a...
bipolar
Refers to transistors in which the working current flows through two types of semiconductor material: N- and P-type. In...
melting point
The temperature at which the solid phase of a material is in equilibrium with the liquid phase, or when the material changes...
lab-on-a-chip
A lab-on-a-chip (LOC) is a miniaturized device that integrates various laboratory functions and capabilities onto a single,...
Nd:YAG laser
Nd:YAG laser refers to a solid-state laser that utilizes neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:Y3Al5O12) as the gain...
particle acceleration
Particle acceleration refers to the process by which charged particles, such as electrons or protons, gain kinetic energy...
near-infrared camera
A near-infrared (NIR) camera is an imaging device designed to capture images in the near-infrared region of the...
astronomical mirror
An astronomical mirror, also known as a telescope mirror or primary mirror, is a key component of a reflecting telescope. It...
spectral signature
A spectral signature, in the context of remote sensing and spectroscopy, refers to the unique pattern or characteristic...
APD detector
An APD detector, or avalanche photodiode detector, is a type of photodetector used to detect light or optical signals by...
waveguide scattering
Scattering (other than material scattering) that is attributable to variations of geometry and index profile of the...
resorption
The absorption of a material by a medium or system that has formerly been released from absorption by that same medium or...
stereolithography
A method of creating real three-dimensional models by using lasers driven by CAD software. In contrast to the normal...
Hypalon
E.I. duPont's trade name for a material used in the jacket of fiber optic cables. It is flame-retardant, thermally stable...
photochromic
Photochromic refers to a property exhibited by certain materials, typically organic compounds or dyes, which undergo...
acetone
Optic surface cleaning liquid that may be applied to glass, crystal, dielectric and metal surfaces; however, may not be...
sputtering
A vacuum deposition method in which the coating material (target) is removed from the surface of the coating source...
scanning tunneling microscope
A high-resolution imaging instrument that can detect and measure the positions of individual atoms on the surface of a...
laser damage
A natural or mechanical system adversely affected by the influence of laser radiation. During laser damage the common effect...
surface reflection
Also known as Fresnel reflection. That portion of the incident radiation that is reflected from the surface of a refractive...
thermochromic material
A material that changes color as it is heated or cooled.
electrodeless discharge tube
A device consisting of an airtight quartz tube that holds the material to be analyzed. When a high-frequency electrostatic...
GaN-based LEDs
Gallium nitride-based light-emitting diodes (GaN-based LEDs) are semiconductor devices that emit light when an electric...
microdensitometer
The fundamental tool of microdensitometry, the microdensitometer is an instrument used for the precise measurement of...
nuclear magnetic resonance
A phenomenon, exploited for medical imaging, in which the nuclei of material placed in a strong magnetic field will absorb...
planform bonding
A manufacturing process used to construct substrates for large optical components. Used with IR materials, planform bonding...
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...
laser lithotripter
A laser device intended for crushing urinary tract stones so they can be flushed from the body. Light is introduced via...
antihalation backing
Light-absorbing material that is applied to the back support of any bright image under inspection to prevent the formation...
nonlinear optics
Nonlinear optics is a branch of optics that studies the optical phenomena that occur when intense light interacts with a...
attenuated total reflectance spectroscopy
Attenuated total reflectance (ATR) spectroscopy is a technique used in analytical chemistry to obtain IR spectra of samples....
microheterogeneous systems
Extremely small organic and inorganic systems of molecules within a substance. In general, systems are colloidal size in...
electron-beam film scanning
The method by which photographic film is scanned by an electron beam. One technique uses the uniform light of a television...
surface-enhanced Raman scattering
Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a powerful analytical technique that enhances the Raman scattering signal of...
potassium titanyl phosphate
A crystalline material with a high electro-optic coefficient, capable of operating at short wavelengths, with applications...
indium tin oxide
A material widely used as a transparent conductive coating.
opaque projector
An opaque projector is a device used for enlarging and projecting images from opaque objects such as printed pages,...
pointing interferometer
A device attached to the end of an alignment telescope that detects and calculates a plane mirror's rotation axis that is...
endoscope
An endoscope is a medical device used for visualizing and examining the interior of hollow organs, body cavities, or...
spectral repeatability
Spectral repeatability refers to the consistency and reproducibility of spectral measurements across multiple trials or...
swarf
The material removed during diamond machining of glass components.
halation
1. In a cathode-ray tube, the glow surrounding a bright spot that appears on the fluorescent screen as the result of the...
tellurium
The material favored for study of interaction of high-acoustic intensities with free carriers. Tellurium is the...
self-phase modulation
Self-phase modulation (SPM) is a nonlinear optical phenomenon that occurs when an intense laser beam passes through a...
supercontinuum
Supercontinuum refers to a broad spectrum of light that spans a wide range of wavelengths, typically from the visible to the...
silicon carbide light-emitting diodes
Silicon carbide (SiC) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are semiconductor devices that emit light when an electric current is...
kerf
The material lost during a laser cutting or machining operation.
flexible display
A flexible display refers to a type of electronic visual display that is designed to be bendable, foldable, or rollable,...
excimer laser coronary angioplasty
Excimer laser coronary angioplasty (ELCA) refers to a medical procedure used in the treatment of coronary artery disease....
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...
ellipsometry
Ellipsometry is an optical technique used to characterize the properties of thin films and surfaces. It is based on the...
fluorescence lifetime imaging
Fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) is an advanced imaging technique that provides information about the lifetime of...
pulse spreading
Variations in a signal passing through an optical fiber caused by the effect on the pulse of the fiber's material and mode...
oil-on plate
A polished plano-parallel plate that is contacted to an unpolished glass surface to permit see-through analysis of the...
fiber-coupled photoconductive antenna
A fiber-coupled photoconductive antenna (FCPA) is a type of optoelectronic device that combines a photoconductive antenna...
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...
photomagnetic effect
The direct influence of light on the magnetic susceptibility of particular materials.
electron-beam recording
The recording of the information contained in a modulated electron beam onto photographic or silicon resin-coated materials....
optoelectronics
Optoelectronics is a branch of electronics that focuses on the study and application of devices and systems that use light...
lapping
1. The process of wearing down the surface of a softer material by rubbing it under pressure against the surface of a harder...
lithography
Lithography is a key process used in microfabrication and semiconductor manufacturing to create intricate patterns on the...
quantum dots
A quantum dot is a nanoscale semiconductor structure, typically composed of materials like cadmium selenide or indium...
GRIN lens
A GRIN (gradient index) lens is a type of optical lens that utilizes a gradient in refractive index across its volume rather...
epitaxial equipment
Epitaxial equipment refers to a set of specialized tools and systems used in the process of epitaxy, which is the growth of...
magneto-optical photonic crystal
A photonic crystal that comprises magneto-optical material such that the optical response of the device depends on the...
radioactivity detector
An instrument used to detect radioactive materials: alpha particles or helium nuclei; beta particles or free electrons; and...
sol-gel
A gelatinous fluid that can be used as a porous thin-film coating for optical components, including laser beam collimators,...
metamaterial
Metamaterials are artificial materials engineered to have properties not found in naturally occurring substances. These...
beam shaper
A beam shaper is an optical device or system designed to modify the spatial profile or intensity distribution of a laser or...
cathode radiant sensitivity
Cathode radiant sensitivity refers to the ability of a photocathode to convert incident radiant energy, typically in the...
triboluminescence
Luminescence that arises from friction and that usually occurs in crystalline materials.
ray tracing
Ray tracing is a rendering technique used in computer graphics to simulate the way light interacts with objects in a scene....
lensless microscopy
Lensless microscopy, also known as computational or holographic microscopy, is an imaging technique that captures and...
sensitometry
Primarily the measurement of photographic sensitivity of certain materials such as photographic film. It refers to the...
beryllium oxide
A dielectric ceramic material used in laser capillary tubes because of its high electrical resistivity and high thermal...
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...
soft radiation
Term applied to radiation composed of particles or photons that will not easily penetrate a material because of their low...
Silsbee effect
The ability of an electrical current to destroy superconductivity by means of the magnetic field generated by the current....
photodielectric effect
The effect, present in particular phosphors, that is defined as a transformation in the dielectric constant of a material...
Kubelka-Munk theory
A two-flux theory in which the radiation is assumed to be composed of two oppositely directed radiation fluxes through a...
Kerr cell
A cell filled with a transparent material that, when placed in a strong electrical field, exhibits double refraction. Since...
microscopy
Microscopy is a scientific technique that involves the use of microscopes to observe and study objects that are too small to...
inclusion
The presence, within the body of the glass, of extraneous or alien material. See seed; striae.
photoluminescence mapping
A technique used for noncontact inspection of semiconductor wafers. The material is illuminated by an excitation source that...
cesium chloride
Colorless crystals used in photoelectric cells and for photosensitive material in cathodes.
planar access coupler
Low-insertion-loss fiber coupler fabricated from a sheet of light-sensitive material laminated onto a fused quartz substrate...
monochromator
A monochromator is an optical instrument used to isolate and select a narrow range of wavelengths from a broader spectrum of...
P-type material
A semiconductor material in which the dopants create holes as the majority charge carrier. It is formed by doping with...
ambrotype
The underexposed collodion that is present on a glass negative as a positive when backed with material.
einstein
A unit of energy equal to the amount of energy absorbed by one molecule of material undergoing a photochemical reaction, as...
scientific CMOS camera
A scientific CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) camera is a type of digital camera specifically designed for...
terahertz
Terahertz (THz) refers to a unit of frequency in the electromagnetic spectrum, denoting waves with frequencies between 0.1...
zirconium fluoride
An infrared transmitting material used in the production of fluoride glasses for optical fibers.
organic light-emitting diode
An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) is a type of light-emitting diode (LED) technology that utilizes organic compounds to...
reflector
A type of conducting surface or material used to reflect radiant energy.
photonic cavity
A photonic cavity, also known as an optical cavity, is a structure that confines electromagnetic radiation within a certain...
scanning head
A device composed of a light source and phototube used to scan a moving strip of material in photoelectric side-register...
indium phosphide
Indium phosphide (InP) is a compound semiconductor material composed of indium (In) and phosphorus (P). It belongs to the...
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...
lens
A lens is a transparent optical device that focuses or diverges light, allowing it to pass through and form an image. Lenses...
image iconoscope
A camera tube similar in design to the iconoscope. However, the image formed in the image iconoscope is projected on a...
Verdet constant
A factor of an equation of the Faraday effect, which is the rotation of the plane of light polarization by transparent...
microcomb
A microcomb, short for microresonator frequency comb, is a novel photonic device that generates a precise series of evenly...
Brillouin scattering
Brillouin scattering is a phenomenon in physics where an incident electromagnetic wave (usually light) interacts with...
long-pass filter
A long-pass filter is an optical filter that allows longer wavelengths of light to pass through while blocking or...
metalens
A metalens, short for "metasurface lens," is a type of optical lens that uses nanostructured materials to manipulate light...
fatigue
The decrease of a component's efficiency, or a reduction in a material's light sensitivity, as the result of accumulated...
nanoparticle photonic resonator absorption microscopy
Nanoparticle photonic resonator absorption microscopy is a microscopy technique that combines the principles of photonic...
face-pumped laser
A device in which slab geometry internally compensates for thermal-optic distortion; the solid host material -- glass or...
radiation trapping
That process by which radiation spontaneously emitted by a volume of optical materials is resonantly reabsorbed within the...
adiabatic laser colorimetry
Method for studying absorption coefficients of low-loss materials, in which a sample is allowed to come to thermal...
cathode-ray tube faceplate
A fiber optic end plate constructed by drawing a bundle of parallel fibers embedded in glass and cutting it into thin...
emissometry
The use of a material's emissivity to measure absorption. It is useful as an absorption loss measurement technique, since at...
stress birefringence
Birefringence of materials that is induced or altered by stress fields.
thermistor
A solid-state semiconducting structure (basically one of the bolometers) that changes electrical resistance with...
electron-beam evaporation
A method of thin-film deposition in which electrons boiled off a heated cathode are used to melt the coating material. If a...
scanning electron microscope
A scanning electron microscope (SEM) is a powerful imaging instrument used in scientific research, materials...
scanner
1. A device used to trace out an object and build up an image. One of the most common of these types is video scanning. The...
reactive evaporation
Reactive evaporation refers to a process in thin-film deposition where a material is deposited onto a substrate through...
pulsed laser deposition
A technique for depositing a material coating on metal, ceramic, semiconductor or polymer substrates. The interaction of...
thin-film waveguide
A transparent dielectric film, bounded by material of a lower index of refraction, capable of guiding light.
excitation
1. The process by which an atom acquires energy sufficient to raise it to a quantum state higher than its ground state. 2....
thermophotovoltaic
Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) refers to a technology that converts heat energy into electricity using the principles of...
quantum sensing
Quantum sensing refers to a class of sensing technologies that leverage principles from quantum mechanics to enhance the...
hydrogenated amorphous silicon
A photoreceptor material used in solar cells and in drums for laser printers and high-speed copiers because of its high...
exciton
An exciton is a quasiparticle that represents the bound state of an electron and a hole in a solid-state material, typically...
optically active material
A material that can rotate the polarization of light that passes through it. An optically active material exhibits different...
acoustophotorefractive effect
The change in refractive index that occurs as acoustic vibrations are transmitted through an optical material.The index...
ion emission
The ejecting of ions from the surface of a material.
FTIR spectrometer
FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) spectrometer is a powerful analytical instrument used to obtain an infrared spectrum of...
sapphire crystal
Sapphire crystal refers to a transparent, single-crystal form of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) known as corundum. It is one of the...
Curie temperature
The temperature above which a ferromagnetic material becomes only paramagnetic.
creep
The deformation of a material at high levels of stress, often associated with elevated temperatures.
electrowetting display
An electrowetting display (EWD) is a type of electronic display technology that utilizes the principles of electrowetting to...
second-harmonic generation
Second-harmonic generation (SHG) is a nonlinear optical process that occurs when two photons with the same frequency combine...
photomultiplier tube
A photomultiplier tube (PMT) is a highly sensitive vacuum tube that detects and amplifies low levels of light. It is widely...
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...
solar black
A material, such as gold black and carbon black, that is used as a solar absorber because of its high absorptance and low...
blue diode laser
A blue diode laser is a type of semiconductor laser that emits light in the blue wavelength range of the electromagnetic...
material scattering
The total scattering attributable to the intrinsic properties of the materials through which an optical wave is propagating.
photodiode
A two-electrode, radiation-sensitive junction formed in a semiconductor material in which the reverse current varies with...
prism
A prism is a geometric optical element with flat, polished surfaces that refract light. It is typically a solid, transparent...
dichroism
Dichroism refers to the property of certain materials to exhibit different colors or absorbance of light depending on the...
dichroic mirror
A dichroic mirror, also known as a dichroic beamsplitter or interference filter beamsplitter, is an optical device that...
hyperspectral imaging camera
A hyperspectral imaging camera is a sophisticated imaging device capable of capturing and processing data across a wide...
electric CO laser
An electrically excited laser having carbon monoxide as the lasing material and in which lasing occurs in a partial...
diffuser
An optical diffuser is an optical component or material designed to scatter or diffuse light that passes through it. It is...
reflectance spectrophotometer
An instrument that spectrally analyzes the flux reflected from a material. The reflected flux may be total, diffuse or...
phase hologram
A hologram that is formed on a recording medium by changing the phase of the illuminating wave in correspondence with the...
depletion region
The region at the PN junction in a semiconductor radiation detector where the potential energies of the two materials create...
sapphire window
A sapphire window refers to a transparent optical component made from sapphire crystal. Sapphire is a single-crystal form of...
lasing medium
The material that produces stimulated emission from within a laser oscillator. Laser gain media may vary from...
femtosecond laser
A femtosecond laser is a type of laser that emits ultrashort pulses of light with durations on the order of femtoseconds,...
oscillation threshold
Point at which a laser's material gain is equal to, or greater than, the circuit losses.
phage
A phage, short for bacteriophage, is a type of virus that infects and replicates within bacteria. Phages are composed of...
hybrid optical integrated circuit
Device in which the various circuit elements are fabricated in different substrate materials and then appropriately joined...
fluorescence microscopy
Fluorescence microscopy is a specialized optical imaging technique used in biology, chemistry, and materials science to...
detector array
A detector array refers to a collection of individual detector elements arranged in a two-dimensional grid or matrix format....
gradient-index profile
The term gradient-index profile refers to a specific type of refractive index distribution within an optical material. In...
mid-infrared camera
A mid-infrared camera is a type of imaging device designed to capture images in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectral range,...
polariton
A polariton is a quasiparticle resulting from the strong coupling between photons (light particles) and certain types of...
reflective
The term reflective is an adjective that describes the ability of a surface or material to reflect light or other forms of...
evaporation coating
Coating carried out in a sealed chamber evacuated by a mechanical pump in series with an oil diffusion pump to a pressure...
PP junction
A transition boundary between two regions having different properties in a P-type semiconducting material.
optical emission spectroscopy
In dry etching, a method of characterizing the composition of solid materials such as metal. Atoms in the OES technique are...
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...
material dispersion
The dispersion attributable to the wavelength dependence of the refractive index of the material used in any optical...
Zerodur
Schott Glass Technologies' trade name for a glass-ceramic material with a very low coefficient of thermal expansion.
scintillation spectrometry
The method of determining the energy distribution of high-speed charged particles by the luminous effect formed when the...
unimorph
A piezoelectric transducer made of a thin strip of piezoelectric material bonded to a strip of metal.
electron-gun system
An electron-gun system is an assembly used to generate and control a focused beam of electrons. Electron guns find...
lithium niobate
A crystalline ferroelectric material used primarily as a substrate and an active medium for thin-film optical modulators and...
isochromatic lines
1. Lines of the same color. 2. A term used in photoelastic stress analysis to refer to the interference fringes produced in...
cassette
A container designed to hold recording material (film, video- and audiotape) so that when it is loaded into a recording...
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...
electrostatic process
A process used in document copying and printing that involves the visible rendering of an invisible electrostatic image on a...
coated optics
Optical elements that have been coated with one or more layers of dielectric, or metallic material. These coatings serve to...
overcoat
A layer of material applied to a coated surface to protect it from physical or chemical action.
constrigence
Reciprocal of the dispersive power of an optical material. See Abbe constant.
etching liquid
An acid used to etch the surfaces of particular materials. For glass, hydrofluoric acid is used either as a liquid or a...
extrinsic detector
A photodetector composed of a semiconductor material whose responsive properties can be altered by the addition of...
liquid crystal display
An alphanumeric display formed by a layer of liquid crystal material sandwiched between two sheets of glass; a transparent...
selective laser melting
Selective laser melting (SLM) is an additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing technology that belongs to the powder bed...
glass-melting furnace
A furnace used to heat glass materials. It may be a small laboratory-type furnace for small-scale experiments or large...
beta fluorography
The use of a short-duration electron beam to record high-speed events that occur in microscopic objects made of materials...
opal glass
A material consisting of very small colorless particles imbedded in a clear glass matrix. It is available in two forms:...
polarization
Polarization refers to the orientation of oscillations in a transverse wave, such as light waves, radio waves, or other...
hyperspectral resolution
Hyperspectral resolution refers to the level of detail or granularity in the spectral information captured by a...
nanophotonics
Nanophotonics is a branch of science and technology that explores the behavior of light on the nanometer scale, typically at...
reagent
A reagent is a substance or compound that is used in a chemical reaction to bring about a specific transformation or to...
cadmium sulfide cell
A photoconductive cell having cadmium sulfide as its photoconducting material for the production of a very high dark-light...
Mohs hardness
Material hardness scale that is used to characterize the scratch resistance of various materials. This surface hardness...
functional material
Functional materials refer to materials that possess specific properties or functionalities that make them suitable for...
index of refraction
The ratio of the velocity of light in a vacuum to the velocity of light in a refractive material for a given wavelength.
Nernst glower
A Nernst glower, also known simply as a Nernst lamp or Nernst filament, is a type of incandescent lamp or radiant heater...
matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization
Process of analysis in which the analyte substance is distributed in a matrix before laser desorption. This method avoids...
infrared spectrophotometer
A spectrophotometer having a prism or, more frequently, a grating for the study and recording of infrared spectra. It...
computer polarization holography
A technique used to store wavefront information on thin polarization information-recordable materials by controlling the...
levorotary
Characterizes a substance whose plane of polarization is rotated counterclockwise as the observer looks through the material...
drawing tower
A system for fabricating optical fiber, consisting of a furnace that heats the materials, a polymer coating stage, a...
photonic integrated circuit
A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) is a compact and integrated device that incorporates multiple photonic components and...
color sensitometry
The detection and analysis of the relative response of a material to light over the range of wavelengths.
laser annealing
Laser annealing is a process that involves using a laser beam to heat and modify the microstructure of a material, typically...
metallographic polishing machine
A small optical polishing machine intended for polishing the surface of a metal specimen before etching for examination...
III-V material
In semiconductor physics and materials science, the term "III-V materials" refers to compounds composed of elements from...
polyethylene
A material used to jacket fiber optic cables. It is chemical- and moisture-resistant, but not fire-resistant.
lead zirconate titanate
A ferroelectric polycrystalline ceramic material used in optical memories for computers and as a piezoelectric transducer.
crystallized glass
Glass of special composition that is melted, formed into desired shapes, and subjected to a high-temperature treatment in...
sclerometer
An instrument used to test the hardness of various materials. It measures the pressure on a standard point that is necessary...
magneto-optic shutter
A type of high-speed photographic shutter that uses Faraday rotation to produce exposure times as fast as 1 microsecond. It...
substrate
A substrate refers to a material or surface upon which another material or process is applied or deposited. In various...
grain boundary
In a multicrystalline material, the meeting point between crystallites.
deliquescent
Description of a material, such as a water-soluble salt, that will continue absorbing moisture from the surrounding...
Rockwell hardness
Rockwell hardness (Rc) refers to a method for measuring the hardness of a material, primarily metals, using an indentation...
beta radiation
The high-speed electrons and positrons emitted by radioactive materials.
phase contrast microscopy
Phase contrast microscopy is an optical microscopy technique that enhances the contrast of transparent and colorless...
Raman spectroscopy
Raman spectroscopy is a technique used in analytical chemistry and physics to study vibrational, rotational, and other...
bimorph
A type of piezoelectric translator that uses two thin strips of piezoelectric material, one expanding while the other...
topological photonics
Topological photonics is a branch of physics and optics that explores the application of topological concepts to the...
high-speed motion camera
A high-speed motion camera, also known as a high-speed camera or slow-motion camera, is a specialized imaging device...
ferroelectric materials
Ferroelectric materials are a type of dielectric materials that exhibit spontaneous electric polarization, meaning they...
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...
photoemulsion
In photolithography, an opaque material used in masks that has a lower optical density and grainier composition than chrome.
drum scanner
An image-processing device that scans in a straight line parallel to the axis of a rotating cylinder to which the material...
photorefractive material
A material in which the refractive index varies according to changes in the light to which it is exposed. Lithium niobate is...
pulse video thermography
A noncontact, nondestructive method of measuring defects in thin composite materials, using a xenon flashtube to generate...
laser optics
Laser optics refers to a broad category of optical components and systems designed for manipulating and controlling laser...
computer-generated holographic scanner
A phase reflection scanner that eliminates the need for a complex translation device while maintaining a high-energy-density...
deep ultraviolet
Deep ultraviolet (DUV or deep-UV) refers to a specific range of ultraviolet light with shorter wavelengths than those in the...
glass spectrograph
A spectrograph having glass as its refracting component and used in cases where speed and high dispersion are not required....
milling
An automatic surface-generating process involving the removal of a material from a given surface. Optical milling typically...
dark box
A lightproof box used for storing photosensitive materials.
light sectioning
Technique for measuring the volume bulk of materials as they move along a conveyor with an accuracy of better than 1...
YAG laser
A solid-state laser using yttrium aluminum garnet as the matrix material, doped with neodymium (Nd:YAG).
volumetric imaging
Volumetric imaging refers to the capture, visualization, and analysis of three-dimensional (3D) information from a volume of...
zero halogen thermoplastic
A highly flame-retardant material used to jacket fiber optic cables, especially on shipboard applications.
microfluidics
Microfluidics is a multidisciplinary field that involves the manipulation and control of very small fluid volumes, typically...
grinding and polishing machinery
Machinery used to grind and finish a component, such as a lens or prism, to a desired precision. Usually such machines carry...
biophotonics
The technology that deals with the interaction of organic materials with light and other forms of radiant energy whose...
tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy
A spectroscopic technique that combines the high chemical specificity of Raman scattering and signal sensitivity provided by...
birefringence
Birefringence is an optical property of certain materials that causes them to exhibit different refractive indices for light...
Fick's law
Relation between a material's transport rate and the material's concentration gradient and the diffusion coefficient.
molecular motor
A molecular motor refers to a nano-sized device composed of organic molecules or other small-scale components that can...
quantum well
A quantum well is a structure in quantum mechanics that confines particles, such as electrons or holes, in one spatial...
pitch polishing compound
Pitch for polishing mixed with other materials to give it the right viscosity so that it will follow the fine-ground lens...
hermetic bonding
The total fusion and sealing of materials, or usually an enclosure, to ensure that they are airtight.
hematoporphyrin derivative
A material used in photodynamic therapy that is retained selectively by tumor tissue when injected into the body; it then...
laser damage threshold
The laser damage threshold refers to the maximum level of laser intensity that a material can withstand without experiencing...
laser texturing
Laser texturing is a manufacturing process that involves using a laser beam to selectively modify the surface of a material,...
flash photographic density filter
A filter, partially opaque to near-ultraviolet, visible and infrared radiation, that may be made by exposing and processing...
translucent
Pertaining to materials having the property of reflecting a part and transmitting a part of the incident radiation.
polarimeter
A polariscope with a half-shade device and an angular scale generally attached to the analyzer. It is used to measure the...
Vickers microhardness test
A test similar to the Knoop hardness test, but used for fractured material. The indenter is a square-based pyramid-shaped...
differential interference contrast microscopy
Differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy, also known as Nomarski interference contrast microscopy, is an optical...
scintillation crystal
A scintillation crystal, also known simply as a scintillator, is a material that emits light when it interacts with ionizing...
resonance absorption (light)
The re-emission of absorbed energy, having the same wavelength as the incident energy, in an arbitrary direction from a...
ultraviolet reflectance
Ultraviolet reflectance refers to the ability of a material or surface to reflect UV light. Ultraviolet light is...
semiconductor
A semiconductor is a type of material that has electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. In...
gallium arsenide phosphide
Gallium arsenide phosphide (GaAsP) is a semiconductor alloy composed of gallium (Ga), arsenic (As), and phosphorus (P). It...
sapphire optical fiber
Sapphire optical fiber is a type of optical fiber made from single-crystal sapphire, which is a form of aluminum oxide...
primary coating
In a waveguide, the material in intimate contact with the cladding surface, applied to preserve the integrity of that...
plastic optical fiber
Plastic optical fiber (POF) is a type of optical fiber made from transparent plastic, typically polymethylmethacrylate...
image intensifier
An image intensifier, also known as an image intensification tube or image intensification device, is a specialized...
diode laser
A diode laser is a type of laser that uses a semiconductor diode as the active medium to generate coherent light....
indium gallium arsenide camera
An InGaAs (indium gallium arsenide) camera is a type of imaging device that utilizes InGaAs sensors to capture images in the...
fluorescent screen
A fluorescent screen refers to a phosphorescent or fluorescent-coated surface that emits visible light when exposed to other...
calorimetry
Calorimetry is a branch of science that involves the measurement of heat flow in physical or chemical processes. It...
excimer laser
An excimer laser is a type of ultraviolet laser that emits short pulses of light in the ultraviolet spectrum. The term...
bandgap
In semiconductor physics, the term bandgap refers to the energy range in a material where no electronic states are allowed....
lead selenide cell
A thin-film photoconductive cell that is sensitive to the infrared region. The photosensitive material of the cell is...
twisted nematic phase
A form of liquid crystal widely used in displays, achieved by sandwiching a liquid crystal material between two substrates...
modulated transmission ellipsometry
A method used to detect internal or residual microstresses in a material by using a laser beam to locate changes in...
isotropic
That property of a material that determines that velocity of propagation within the material is the same for all directions.
stone
An opaque inclusion in glass that contains undissolved or crystalline material. Also known as a seed.
aspheric lens
An aspheric lens is a type of lens whose surface profiles deviate from the traditional spherical shape. Unlike spherical...
long-wave infrared
Long-wave infrared (LWIR) refers to a specific range of the infrared spectrum. Infrared radiation is divided into three main...
striae
An imperfection in optical glass consisting of a distinct streak of transparent material having a slightly different...
Peltier cooler
A Peltier cooler, also known as a thermoelectric cooler (TEC) or thermoelectric module, is a solid-state device that uses...
acousto-optic tunable filter
A bulk crystalline optic which permits the propagation of light through a volume of index altered material. The variation in...
color aging test
A test used to measure the degree of fading of different colored materials, especially those involving organic dyes, which...
amphoteric materials
Substances that exhibit the characteristics of both acids and bases and are capable of both P- and N-type conductivity.
polarizing coating
A coating made up of particular birefringent materials having polarizing properties. It may be used, in some cases, to...
button blocking
The production of a block by attaching the optical elements to a plate by means of individual buttons of pitch or other...
eutectic
The material that has the lowest possible constant melting point of any possible combination of the same components.
laser sintering
Laser sintering is an additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing technology that involves using a laser to selectively fuse...
distributed feedback laser
A distributed feedback laser (DFB laser) is a type of semiconductor laser diode designed to emit coherent, narrow-bandwidth...
Raman effect
When light is transmitted through matter, part of the light is scattered in random directions. A small part of the scattered...
poling
The process of aligning the crystallites in a piezoelectric material by placing a large DC field across the element at an...
reflective spectroscopy
Reflectance spectroscopy is a technique used to analyze the reflective properties of materials across various wavelengths of...
laser rod
In a solid-state laser, the material (Nd:YAG, Nd:glass, ruby) in which lasing action takes place.
linear plastic
A term for thermoplastic optical materials; that is, those in which the polymer chains remain linear after heating and...
multispectral imaging
Multispectral imaging is a technique that involves capturing and analyzing images at multiple discrete spectral bands within...
photolithography
Photolithography is a key process in the manufacturing of semiconductor devices, integrated circuits, and...
sputtering target
A sputtering target is a solid material used in the process of physical vapor deposition (PVD), specifically sputtering....
corner cube
A corner cube, also known as a corner reflector or retroreflector prism, is a type of optical device used to reflect light...
scattering coefficient
The portion of light scattered when traveling through a unit thickness of material.
threshold test
In laser damage testing, the exposure of many sites of a sample to different intensities of laser irradiation to discover...
loose-tube buffering
In fiber optic cable, containment of the fiber or fibers within an outer protective tube in which they can move to some...
well plate
A well plate, also known as a microplate or microtiter plate, is a flat plate with multiple small wells or depressions...
hyperspectral imaging
Hyperspectral imaging is an advanced imaging technique that captures and processes information from across the...
holographic camera
A holographic camera, also known as a holographic imaging system or holographic recorder, is a specialized device used to...
CCD image sensor
A CCD image sensor, or charge-coupled device image sensor, is a type of electronic device used to convert optical images...
paraffin oil
A saturated compound of carbon and hydrogen used as a liquid coating material for optical components in high-power laser...
transient calorimetric technique
A method of measuring total hemispherical emissivity of the plane surface of a solid that consists of thermally isolating a...
photomask
A photomask, also known simply as a mask or reticle, is a key component in the photolithography process used in...
half-wave plate
A plate of electro-optical material that serves to rotate the plane of polarization of a light beam.
neutral density wedge
A strip or annulus of glass coated with a semitransparent material such as inconel. The coating thickness, and as a result...
silicon dioxide
An abundant material found in the form of quartz and agate and as one of the major constituents of sand. The silicates of...
fast axis
In a birefringent material, the index of refraction varies with the direction of vibration of a lightwave. That direction...
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...
extreme ultraviolet
Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) refers to a specific range of electromagnetic radiation in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum....
refractive index contrast
A measure of the relative difference in refractive index between two optical materials. Most commonly used in fiber optics...
laser ablation
Laser ablation is a process that involves the removal or erosion of material from a target surface using laser energy. This...
second-order nonlinear optical properties
Second-order nonlinear optical properties refer to a class of phenomena exhibited by certain materials in response to...
charge-injection device
A charge-injection device (CID) refers to a class of devices that manipulate and detect electrical charge within a...
harmonic generation
Harmonic generation refers to a nonlinear optical process in which incoming photons interact with a material and produce new...
polishing and abrasive material
Any of the numerous powders used for grinding and polishing glass, crystal or metal, the chief material being emery and...
petrographic microscope
A microscope equipped with a polarizer, an analyzer and a Bertrand lens to focus on the upper focal plane of the objective....
quantum dot light-emitting diode
Quantum dot light-emitting diode (QLED) is a display technology that utilizes quantum dots, which are semiconductor...
electro-optics
1. The branch of physics that deals with the use of electrical energy to create or manipulate light waves, generally by...
mirror coating
One or more thin-film layers of optical material deposited on a mirror blank/substrate in order to enhance the way that...
optical phase distortion
Optical phase distortion refers to a phenomenon where the phase of an optical wavefront is altered as it propagates through...
cladding
The low-refractive-index material that surrounds the core of an optical fiber to contain core light while protecting against...
ultrasonic
Ultrasonic refers to sound waves with frequencies higher than the upper audible limit of human hearing, typically above...
scintillation phosphor
A phosphor that has the ability to convert into light emission a portion of energy lost by ionization when a charged...
photoelectron microscopy
Surface analysis by means of photon induced electron emission. PEM methods provide high lateral resolution of the observed...
point-contact crystal diode
A crystal diode whose rectifying activity is determined by the touching of the crystal to a finely pointed wire surrounded...
laser crystal
A laser crystal, also known as an active medium or gain medium, is a solid-state material used in the construction of...
adhesive
An intermolecular substance that serves to hold materials together. Two types are used in the optical industry: one, which...
electron-beam lithography system
An electron-beam lithography (EBL) system is a sophisticated nanofabrication tool used in the semiconductor industry and...
photoconductive film
A film of material that exhibits varying conductivity based upon its absorption of varying amounts of photon radiation.
gain-switching
Gain-switching is a technique used in lasers to generate short pulses of light by modulating the gain of the laser medium....
photodetector
A photodetector, also known as a photosensor or photodiode, is a device that detects and converts light into an electrical...
Weissenberg method
The Weissenberg method, named after the German physicist Karl Weissenberg, is a technique used in x-ray crystallography for...
optical table
An optical table, also known as an optical bench or an optical breadboard, is a specialized platform used in optics...
thermal dissociation
A technique for detecting free radicals by their electronic spectra. The material to be studied is placed in a...
optical bistability
The phenomenon that can render an optical resonator the equivalent of a semiconductor flip-flop. A bistable device will...
die bonding
Die bonding is a critical process in semiconductor manufacturing and microelectronics assembly, where a semiconductor die or...
molded lens
A molded lens is an optical lens manufactured using a molding process, typically involving the shaping of a material, such...
stacked hologram
The superimposing of holographic pages in a thick, erasable storage material by changing the reference and object beams....
precision aperture
An accurately produced hole of any size and shape that is used as a masking device in an optical system. Pinhole apertures...
transmission electron microscope
A transmission electron microscope (TEM) is a powerful microscopy technique that uses a beam of electrons to create...
focused laser scattering
A single-particle scattering technique in which an incident laser beam is tightly focused by means of lenses to yield a...
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...
glass
A noncrystalline, inorganic mixture of various metallic oxides fused by heating with glassifiers such as silica, or boric or...
dichroic polarizer
A polarizer that consists of dichroic polarizing material embedded in a plastic sheet, and that transmits light that is...
infrared detector
An infrared detector is a device that is used to detect and measure infrared radiation, which lies beyond the visible...
lead sulfide cell
A photoconductive cell having greatest sensitivity in the infrared region. The photosensitive material of the cell is lead...
Kerr effect
The Kerr effect, named after the physicist John Kerr who first observed it in 1875, is a nonlinear optical phenomenon where...
arc flash
An arc flash is a sudden release of electrical energy due to an electric arc — a continuous, high-current discharge of...
free-electron laser
A free-electron laser (FEL) is a type of laser that generates coherent, high-intensity electromagnetic radiation by using a...
Z-scan
A technique for determining the nonlinear optical properties of a sample material by moving the sample through a focused...
atomic force microscope
An atomic force microscope (AFM) is a high-resolution imaging and measurement instrument used in nanotechnology, materials...
annealing
The process of heating and slowly cooling a solid material, like glass or metal, to stabilize its thermal, electrical or...
optofluidics
Optofluidics is an interdisciplinary field that combines principles from optics and fluidics to create devices and systems...
laser plasma
A plasma produced by the interaction of an intense laser pulse with a material surface. Production of ionized particle with...
ferromagnetism
The properties of certain materials that cause them to have relative permeabilities that exceed unity. This permeability...
corrected lens
A compound lens, the dimensions and materials of which have been so chosen that the lens is appreciably free of aberrations.
epitaxial
Epitaxial refers to the growth of a crystalline layer on a crystalline substrate in such a way that the orientation of the...
optical camouflage
The use of retroreflective projection technology (RPT) to project a background image onto a masked object, such as a vehicle...
flow chemistry
Flow chemistry, also known as continuous-flow chemistry, is a chemical manufacturing process where reactions take place in a...
Czochralski technique
Popular process for silicon and polycrystalline production that consists of an alteration of the original state of a...
radiation length
The average length in a specific material in which a relativistic charged particle will lose 67 percent of its energy by...
etalon
An etalon is an optical device that consists of two parallel reflecting surfaces separated by a precise and known distance....
nanotube
A nanotube, also known as a nanotubule or simply a tube-like structure, is a nanoscale cylindrical structure composed of...
focal plane shutter
A shutter having one or more roller blinds of material with a variable slit that moves across the back of the camera when...
silicon monoxide
A material used as a protective layer on an aluminized or silvered mirror. It is evaporated on the mirror as a thin layer,...
transmissivity
The internal transmittance per unit thickness of a nondiffusing material.
spatially offset Raman spectroscopy
Spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS) is a technique that extends traditional Raman spectroscopy by incorporating...
thermal radiation
The emission of radiant energy in which the energy emitted originates in the thermal motion of the atoms or molecules of the...
superresolution
Superresolution refers to the enhancement or improvement of the spatial resolution beyond the conventional limits imposed by...
thermoplastic material
electro-optic modulator
An electro-optic modulator (EOM) is a device used to modulate the amplitude, phase, or polarization of light waves using an...
radiography
A photographic process using x-ray radiation or the g-rays of radioactive materials.
microchannel plate
A microchannel plate (MCP) is a specialized electron multiplier device used in various applications such as particle...
hydrophobic
Hydrophobic is a term used to describe substances or materials that repel or do not readily interact with water. The word...
diamond turning
Diamond turning, also known as diamond machining or diamond cutting, is a precision machining process used to produce...
laser diode module
A laser diode module is a compact device that incorporates a laser diode, optics, and often other components into a single...
laser peening
Laser peening is a surface enhancement technique used to improve the mechanical properties of materials, particularly...
nanostructured glass
A unique glass made up of nano-structured materials to create millimeter sized monolithic glass space-variant polarization...
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...
gallium nitride
Gallium nitride (GaN) is a compound made up of gallium (Ga) and nitrogen (N). It is a wide-bandgap semiconductor material...
dielectric cylindrical waveguide
A waveguide made up of a dielectric material, such as plastic or mica, in a cylindrical form, through which the waves travel.
cylindrical lens
A cylindrical lens is an optical component that has different curvatures along its two orthogonal axes, resulting in a shape...
plastic lens
A lens made from transparent plastic material. Lenses over 31/2 in. in diameter are usually machined, ground and polished....
Mie scattering
Mie scattering, named after the German physicist Gustav Mie, refers to the scattering of electromagnetic radiation (such as...
indium antimonide
A semiconductor material that is used as an infrared detector for light up to 5 µm in wavelength.
dispersion
Dispersion refers to the phenomenon where different wavelengths (colors) of light travel at different speeds when passing...
momentum transfer
In physics, momentum transfer is the amount of momentum transferred from one particle to another during particle collision...
chalcogenide
Chalcogenide refers to a class of compounds containing elements from group 16 of the periodic table, which includes sulfur...
separate absorption and multiplication region avalanche photodiode
An avalanche photodiode in which the light-absorbing area is a low-bandgap material and the PN junction is placed in an area...
liquid crystal on silicon
Liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) is a display technology that combines liquid crystal materials with silicon-based...
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...
electron-beam gun
1. A device generally used in a cathode-ray or camera tube to emit a stream of electrons moving at uniform velocity in a...
imbedding material
A thermoplastic or thermosetting material used to hold an object fixed and keep it from deterioration. In microcircuitry,...
bismuth silicon oxide
A photorefractive material used in image processing, holography and optical switching.
quantum confinement
Quantum confinement refers to the phenomenon in quantum mechanics where the motion of charge carriers, such as electrons or...
slurry
The name of the mixture of liquid and grinding or polishing compounds used in processing optical materials.
photoelectric sensitivity
That property of a material that determines its ability to release electrons when absorbing photons.
safelight
Filtered light to which photographic or other photosensitive materials are not responsive; used to illuminate darkrooms when...
conduction band
A partially filled or empty energy band through which electrons can move easily. The material can therefore carry an...
colorimeter
A colorimeter is a device used to measure and quantify the color characteristics of an object or a light source. It provides...
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...
anisotropic
Anisotropic is a term used to describe a material or substance that exhibits different properties or behaviors in different...
GaN distributed feedback lasers
GaN (gallium nitride) distributed feedback (DFB) lasers refer to a specific type of semiconductor laser based on Gallium...
light diffusion
Light diffusion refers to the process by which light is scattered or spread out in various directions as it interacts with a...
terahertz spectrometer
A terahertz spectrometer is a scientific instrument used to measure and analyze the properties of materials in the terahertz...
electromagnon
An electromagnon is a quasiparticle excitation that combines aspects of both magnetism and electric polarization in a...
parametric oscillator
A device using a parametric amplifier inside a resonant optical cavity to generate a frequency-tunable coherent beam of...
microbubble resonator
A microbubble resonator is a device used in photonics and optical physics for the precise manipulation of light waves. It...
ultraviolet fiber optics
Ultraviolet (UV) fiber optics refers to optical fibers that are designed and optimized for the transmission of ultraviolet...
filovirus
Filoviruses are a family of viruses that are responsible for severe and often fatal hemorrhagic fevers in humans and...
spherical microintegrated lens
A tiny lens (as small as 100 µm in diameter) used to focus light on charge-coupled devices, formed by heating a...
nonlinear optical materials
Nonlinear optical materials are substances that exhibit optical properties that are not linearly proportional to the...
blank
A piece of glass, quartz or other transparent material formed roughly by molding or cutting into the approximate shape and...
plasmon ion-assisted deposition
Plasmon ion-assisted deposition (PIAD) is a technique used in thin-film deposition processes, particularly in the production...
backscatter
Backscatter refers to the phenomenon in which radiation or waves are scattered backward, opposite to the direction of the...
optical filter
An optical filter is a device that selectively transmits or blocks specific wavelengths, or colors, of light. Optical...
optical materials
Optical materials refer to substances or compounds specifically chosen for their optical properties and used in the...
hydrophilic
Hydrophilic is a term used to describe substances or materials that have an affinity for water. The word hydrophilic comes...
holographic tomography
Holographic tomography is an advanced imaging technique that combines holography and tomography to provide three-dimensional...
ablative photodecomposition
Ablation applied to polymers and chemical solids. Process of material removal that minimizes edge damage but will not heat...
multiple-beam laser
A laser having a Q-switching method that allows separate parallel volumes of the lasing material to act independently of...
photodiode detector
A photodiode detector is a semiconductor device that converts light into an electrical current. It operates based on the...
rheology
The characteristics of a material that determine its tendency to flow.
ultraviolet lens
A lens intended for use with wavelengths shorter than about 380 nm. It must be made of quartz, calcium fluoride, lithium...
didymium glass
Glass tinted with mixed oxides of neodymium and praseodymium that, unlike most solid materials, have absorption bands that...
camera
A light-tight box that receives light from an object or scene and focuses it to form an image on a light-sensitive material...
optical ceramics
Transparent glassy and or crystalline structured materials engineered from inorganic, non-metallic materials via various...
arsenic trisulfide
A dark red opaque material that is transparent to the infrared beyond 1 µm.
laser tube
The device, usually made of glass or a similar material, that contains the resonant cavity and optics of a gas laser.
silicon photodiode
A silicon photodiode is a semiconductor device that converts light into an electrical current. It is a type of photodetector...
calcium fluoride
An optical material used in place of crown glass to produce lenses with extraordinary correction of chromatic aberrations....
densitometer
1. An instrument used to measure the opacity or density of dyes, pigments or dispersed particles that form an image in or on...
Fresnel reflection
Fresnel reflection refers to the reflection of light at the interface between two different media with different refractive...
supertwisted birefringent effect display
A liquid crystal display using the material in its supertwisted nematic phase; the birefringence of the liquid crystal...
lock-in amplifier
A lock-in amplifier is a specialized electronic instrument used to extract and measure small signals embedded in noise or...
copying camera
A camera mounted on an optical bench with an easel to hold the material to be copied. Magnification can be varied over a...
nanoimprint lithography
Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is a nanolithography technique used for fabricating nanoscale patterns on a substrate. It is a...
wafer
In the context of electronics and semiconductor manufacturing, a wafer refers to a thin, flat disk or substrate made of a...
invar
A material often used in the construction of optical instruments because of its low coefficient of thermal expansion (0.9 x...
piezoelectric effect
The interaction between electrical and mechanical stress-strain factors in a material. When piezoelectric crystal is...
hydrogel
A hydrogel is a three-dimensional network of polymer chains that are hydrophilic, meaning they have a strong affinity for...
rad
A unit of energy absorbed from ionizing radiation, equal to 100 ergs per gram of irradiated material.
impurity level
In the context of optical materials, the term "impurity level" refers to the presence of foreign atoms or molecules within...
dispersive power
A measure of the dispersive properties of a glass. The relative dispersion is defined as: where C, D, and F refer to the...
zinc sulfide
A polycrystalline material that transmits in the infrared; it is used as a phosphor in x-ray and television screens.
gain
Also known as amplification. 1. The increase in a signal that is transmitted from one point to another through an amplifier....
liquid marble
Liquid marble refers to a unique form of microscale liquid encapsulation, where small droplets of liquid are coated with a...
optical manufacturing tools and machinery
Optical manufacturing tools and machinery encompass a wide range of equipment, instruments, and systems used in the...
Hall effect
The development of a transverse electric field in a solid material when it carries an electric current and is placed in a...
phase conjugation
The use of a reflective device, which can be fashioned from a variety of materials including gases, solids, dyes, aerosols,...
conduction welding
A type of laser welding of thin materials using a defocused or low-power carbon dioxide laser beam. The energy is absorbed...
brightfield
Brightfield refers to a type of microscopy and imaging technique in which the specimen is illuminated with a white light...
primary fluorescence
Fluorescence produced as a result of the intrinsic property of the material itself or the doping of the material with trace...
specific stiffness
The ratio of Young's modulus to density of a material.
ultrafast pulsed laser
An ultrafast pulsed laser is a type of laser that emits extremely short pulses of light with durations typically on the...
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...
quartz spectrograph
A spectrograph used to detect radiation in the range of the ultraviolet in the electromagnetic spectrum. It is made up of...
optics
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter...
structural color
Structural color refers to coloration in materials that is not caused by pigments or dyes but is instead a result of the...
custom lapping and polishing services
Custom lapping and polishing services involve specialized processes used to improve the surface finish and dimensional...
two-photon polymerization
Two-photon polymerization (TPP) is a technique used in additive manufacturing, specifically in the field of 3D printing. It...
fluorescence
Fluorescence is a type of luminescence, which is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other...
infrared window
1. A thin parallel plate of material that transmits in the infrared region. See infrared optical material. 2. A spectral...
photonic crystals
Photonic crystals are artificial structures or materials designed to manipulate and control the flow of light in a manner...
full wave compensator
A piece of uniform birefringent material placed at a 45° angle to the plane of polarization in a polarizing microscope...
carrier injection
Carrier injection refers to the process of introducing charge carriers (either electrons or holes) into a semiconductor...
dielectric
Exhibiting the characteristic of materials that are electrical insulators or in which an electric field can be sustained...
Laurent polarimeter
A Laurent polarimeter is an instrument used in optics for measuring the rotation of plane-polarized light caused by...
linear positioning stage
A linear positioning stage, also known as a linear stage or translation stage, is a precision mechanical device used to...
inductance heater
A device used in thin-film deposition; the material to be evaporated is placed in a crucible that is heated inductively by...
infrared camera
An infrared camera, also known as a thermal imaging camera or IR camera, is a device that captures and visualizes the...
three-five
Referring to compound semiconductor materials combining one element that has three valence electrons with one or more that...
germicidal UV
Germicidal ultraviolet (GUV) refers to a specific range of UV radiation that has disinfectant properties capable of killing...
holographic grating
A holographic grating is a type of diffraction grating that is produced using holographic recording techniques. It consists...
absorbance
The natural log of the ratio of absorbed intensity over the total intensity which gives a constant value assuming a stable...
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...
platinum silicide
A semiconductor material used in photodetectors, sensitive in the infrared up to 5 µm.
plume
A mixture of ionized gas and metal vapor generated by impingement of the laser beam onto a material being welded or a weld...
zero-dispersion wavelength
In a single-mode optical fiber, the wavelength that causes material dispersion and waveguide dispersion to cancel each...
etaloning
Etaloning is an optical phenomenon that occurs in imaging systems, particularly in devices such as spectrometers,...
x-ray spectrometer
An instrument designed to produce an x-ray spectrum of a material as an aid in identifying it. This technique is...
GaAlAs laser
A GaAlAs laser is a type of semiconductor laser diode that emits light in the near-infrared region of the electromagnetic...
flooding compound
A material that surrounds a fiber optic cable's buffer tubes to prevent moisture from entering if the jacket is breached.
polariscope
A combination of a polarizer and an analyzer that is used to detect birefringence or rotation of the plane of polarization...
polymer
Polymers are large molecules composed of repeating structural units called monomers. These monomers are chemically bonded...
photosensitizer
A substance that increases a material's sensitivity to electromagnetic irradiation. In photodynamic therapy, a drug used to...
low-loss fiber
Optical fiber that transmits a greater percentage of input light than does high-loss step-index fiber. Low-loss fiber...
plastic optics
Plastic optics refers to optical components or systems that are made from transparent plastic materials, as opposed to...
internal standard
A material that is present or added to a sample undergoing spectroscopic analysis, to serve as an intensity reference for...
phonon
A phonon is a quantum of vibrational energy associated with the periodic motion of atoms or molecules in a crystalline...
unipolar
Refers to the transistors in which the working current flows through only one type of semiconductor material, either P-type...
optical testing instrument
An optical testing instrument is a device or system used to evaluate and measure the performance, quality, and...
buffer
1. In fiber optics, a protective material applied as an optical fiber cover that has no optical function. 2. In image...
permeability
Typically represented by the Greek letter μ, magnetic permeability is the measure of a material's ability to generate and...
Astrosital
A glass-ceramic material developed in Russia. Astrosital resembles Zerodur in terms of its ultralow thermal expansion. Other...
micro-robotics
Micro-robotics refers to the field of robotics that involves the design, development, and application of miniature robotic...
time smear
The elongation of a transmitted data pulse through a fiber optic due to the chromatic dispersion of the fiber material.
Kynar
Pennwalt's trade name for polyvinylidene fluoride, a material used in the jacket of fiber optic cables where low smoke...
mosaic
One surface of a nonconducting plate that is coated with many minute particles of photoemissive material that are insulated...
PN junction
The transition boundary between P-type and N-type materials in a semiconductor.
epitaxial deposition
Epitaxial deposition is a process used in semiconductor manufacturing and materials science to grow a thin crystalline...
camera obscura
A forerunner of the modern camera, this instrument had a focusable lens that produced a sharp image on the enclosure...
grenz rays
The soft x-rays used in the industrial radiography of materials having too small a range of densities to produce an image...
stress-applying part
In polarization-preserving optical fibers, the element used to induce birefringence. The SAP is highly doped to provide a...
piezoresistance
Piezoresistance is a phenomenon in materials science and physics where the electrical resistance of a material changes in...
optical gate
An optical gate typically refers to a device or system that controls the transmission of light, allowing it to pass through...
idiochromatic
Pertaining to the possession of photoelectric characteristics as a result of the properties of the true crystal and not of...
electro-optic material
A material having refractive indices that can be altered by an applied electric field.
conductance
A material property that is the inverse of its resistance to the flow of electricity.
tight buffer
Protective material surrounding the cladding of an optical fiber that allows the fiber no play within it.
transistor
An electronic device consisting of a semiconductor material, generally germanium or silicon, and used for rectification,...
pumping radiation
Radiation used to excite an optical or laser material to a higher energy level. See optical pumping.
spatter
Of evaporative coatings, a condition resulting when small chunks of material fly from the hot crucible onto the substrate...
coring
A mass-relieving method whereby material is removed through the sides of a reflector in a direction parallel to the surface....
grown-junction photocell
A photodiode that has been designed so that the bar of semiconductor material has a PN junction perpendicular to its length...
spectrographic electrode
The hollow electrode used in emission spectroscopy to hold the material to be examined and, using an arc or spark source, to...
germanium
A crystalline semiconductor material that transmits in the infrared.
infrared optic
Infrared optics refer to optical components and systems designed to manipulate and control infrared (IR) light, which lies...
nonlinear optical crystal
An optical crystal that possesses a strong nonlinear dielectric response function to optical radiation. A material with a...
high-voltage electron microscope
An imaging device whose technology contributes three specific advantages: ability to study large solid specimens that...
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...
micro-ring resonator
A micro-ring resonator is a compact optical device that utilizes the resonant behavior of light within a small ring-shaped...
thermal interface materials
Thermal interface materials (TIMs) are substances or compounds used to enhance the thermal conductivity between two surfaces...
hard-clad silica fiber
A type of optical fiber in which a silica core is surrounded by a hard polymer or similar material much stronger than the...
Pockels
In optics, the Pockels effect refers to the phenomenon where the refractive index of a material changes in response to an...
two-six
Referring to compound semiconductor materials combining one element with two valence electrons and one or more with six....
band-to-band photoluminescence
The emission of a photon by the return of an excited carrier from the conduction band to the valence band of a semiconductor...
Meissner effect
The elimination of magnetic fields from within a material as that material makes the transition from the normal to...
terahertz radiation
Electromagnetic radiation with frequencies between 300 GHz and 10 THz, and existing between regions of the electromagnetic...
light-emitting diode
An LED, or light emitting diode, is a semiconductor device that emits light when an electric current passes through it. LEDs...
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...
infrared light-emitting diode
An infrared light-emitting diode (IR LED) is a semiconductor device that emits infrared light when an electric current...
solar simulation
The simulation of solar radiation in the infrared and ultraviolet spectrum for the analysis of extraterrestrial sunlight and...
infrared optical material
The range of materials that, unlike glass, may be used in the infrared. Water-soluble salts, such as cesium iodide, and...
stylus profilometer
A measuring instrument used for surface profiling and quantifying the roughness of a material. The stylus is placed on the...
computer numerically controlled grinding
Computer numerically controlled (CNC) grinding is a manufacturing process that utilizes computerized controls and precision...
diamond-turned optic
Diamond turning refers to a precision machining process used to produce complex optical components, particularly lenses and...
nanopositioning
Nanopositioning refers to the precise and controlled movement or manipulation of objects or components at the nanometer...
optical blacking
A light absorbing material applied to ground optical surfaces during the process of making that surface non reflective. Such...
whispering gallery mode
Whispering gallery mode (WGM) refers to a phenomenon in wave physics, particularly in optics, where waves, such as light or...
single-photon avalanche diode
A single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) is a specialized type of photodetector designed to detect extremely weak optical...
neutron radiography
The nondestructive analysis and recording of industrial components based on the absorption of relatively low-energy neutrons...
entrainment
The movement of particulate material by flowing gas or liquid.
telescope lens
A telescope lens is a primary optical component of a telescope system that gathers and focuses light to form an image. It is...
negative-refraction metamaterial
An artificial material, engineered to have a negative refractive index value, such that light or any other form of...
micro-optics
Micro-optics refers to the design, fabrication, and application of optical components and systems at a microscale level....
nanotechnology
The use of atoms, molecules and molecular-scale structures to enhance existing technology and develop new materials and...
synchrotron
A synchrotron is a type of particle accelerator that uses magnetic fields to steer charged particles, typically electrons or...
coefficient of thermal expansion
A numerical representation of the rate at which a material will exhibit dimensional changes as a direct result of changes in...
Photoelastic equipment and supplies
Photoelastic equipment and supplies refer to instruments and materials used in photoelasticity, a technique used to analyze...
broadband dielectric mirrors
Broadband dielectric mirrors, also known as broadband mirrors, are optical coatings designed to efficiently reflect or...
anisotropy
Anisotropy refers to the property of exhibiting different values or characteristics when measured in different directions....
slab laser
Solid-state laser geometry in which the standard rod is replaced by a slab of laser material. Often called...
PLZT
A transparent lead-lanthanum zirconate titanate ceramic with optical qualities that can be controlled by applying voltages...
sharp
A term used to describe a convex surface having too short a radius of curvature. To correct this condition, material is cut...
absorption peak
An absorption peak refers to a sharp increase or spike in the absorption of electromagnetic radiation at a particular...
optical density
A measure of the transmittance through an optical medium. Optical density equals the log to the base 10 of the reciprocal of...
sapphire
Sapphire refers to a crystalline form of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) that is used in various optical and photonic applications...
plate crystal
Any crystalline material whose length is much less than its measured diameter.
quantum efficiency
Quantum efficiency (QE) is a measure of the effectiveness with which a device or system, typically in the context of...
reflector lamp
A lamp used in projection that is made with a reflector built into the bulb, normally by coating a portion of its interior...
piezoelectric transducers and ceramic materials
Piezoelectric transducers are devices that utilize the piezoelectric effect to convert electrical energy into mechanical...
photoconductivity
The conductivity increase exhibited by some nonmetallic materials, resulting from the free carriers generated when photon...
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...
doping
In the context of materials science and semiconductor physics, doping refers to the intentional introduction of impurities...
jacket
The outer material that surrounds and protects the buffered and unbuffered fibers in an optical cable.
planar magnetron
A device used in the sputtering of thin films, in which a magnet system on the back of the cathode deflects the electrons,...
modified chemical vapor deposition
Modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) is a technique used in the fabrication of optical fibers. It is a specialized form...
electrochromic display
Type of solid-state display tube in which the readout surface is coated with a material that changes color when positively...
near-infrared spectrometer
A near-infrared (NIR) spectrometer is an analytical instrument used to measure the absorption, transmission, or reflection...
Knoop hardness
A measurement of the hardness of a material as determined by the penetration depth of a diamond stylus under a specified...
cleanroom
An area in which airborne particulates can be monitored and controlled so that given size particles do not exceed a...
Ultraviolet-C
Ultraviolet-C (UV-C) refers to a specific range of ultraviolet radiation with shorter wavelengths than those of visible...
autoluminescence
The luminescence of a substance that is produced by energy within it (e.g., radioactive material).
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...
beam-addressable technology
The application of reversible writing with a laser beam on particular storage materials. In one method, an amorphous film is...
cyanocrylate cement
Adhering material used to glue optical components that transmit in the infrared. It is easily dissolved by acetone.
high-density storage
Extensive data storage in the form of bits, with the use of high-resolution photographic materials and optics, and generally...
electrophotography
The photographic recording of an image formed by the alteration in electrical properties of the sensitive materials and...
optical blank
A casting consisting of an optical material molded into the desired geometry for grinding, polishing or, in the case of...
opacity
A measure of a material's inability to transmit light, equal to the reciprocal of its transmittance.
orange peel
In the context of imaging, particularly digital imaging and printing, "orange peel" refers to a texture or visual distortion...
oleophobic
Oleophobic is a term used to describe substances or materials that repel or resist oils. The word oleophobic comes from the...
additive manufacturing
Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, is a manufacturing process that involves creating three-dimensional...
YAG crystal
A YAG crystal refers to a solid-state crystal made of yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG), which is a synthetic crystalline...
liquid lightguide
An optical fiber with a hollow core filled with a liquid material that has a higher refractive index than the solid...
epitaxy
A well controlled thin films technique for growing films with good crystal structure in ultra high vacuum environments at...
laser active elements
Laser active elements typically refers to the substances or materials within a laser system that play a critical role in the...
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...
carbonization
Carbonization is a process in which organic materials are heated in the absence of air, leading to the decomposition of the...
mid-wave infrared
MWIR stands for mid-wave infrared, referring to a specific range of wavelengths within the infrared spectrum. Infrared...
dewetting
Dewetting is a phenomenon in materials science and physics where a thin film or coating spontaneously undergoes a process of...
bulk acoustic wave
A sound wave that travels through a piezoelectric material.
quantum cascade laser
A quantum cascade laser (QCL) is a type of semiconductor laser that operates based on the principles of quantum mechanics....
crystal
A solid with a structure that exhibits a basically symmetrical and geometrical arrangement. A crystal may already possess...
relative equilibrium
The steady state of temperature exhibited by a material that has absorbed and emitted radiation equally.
InGaAs photodiode
An InGaAs photodiode refers to a photodetector device that is constructed using a semiconductor material composed of a...
microphotofabrication
The formation of microimages for microreduction. The technique is used, for example, in the production of precision reticles...
junction diode
A semiconductor device with the property of conducting current more easily in one direction than the other. It has two...
phase matching
Phase matching is a crucial concept in the field of optics, particularly in nonlinear optics and the generation of coherent...
color center
A color center, in the context of materials science and condensed matter physics, refers to a specific type of...
quantum detector
A photodetector in which an electrical charge is produced when incident photons change electrons within the detecting...
photosensitivity
That property of a material indicating that it will react when exposed to light energy.
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...
intrinsic detector
A photodetector composed of a photoconductive material that, when exposed to radiation, conducts without the aid of added...
Lambert's cosine law
Flux per unit solid angle leaving a surface in any direction is proportional to the cosine of the angle between that...
integrating sphere
A hollow sphere coated internally with a white diffusing material and provided with openings for incident beam, specimen and...
spectroscopy
Spectroscopy is a technique used in the study of interactions between matter and electromagnetic radiation. It involves...
thermoplastic elastomer
A material used in the jacket of fiber optic cables.
shutter
A mechanical or electronic device used to control the amount of time that a light-sensitive material is exposed to radiation.
polymerization
Process of synthesizing long molecular chain materials (polymers) by reaction of many small molecules (usually thousands)...
polycrystal
A substance that transmits the infrared, but which is too delicate or fragile to be used in the form of a single crystal....
microdensitometry
The science that deals with the measurement of optical absorbance (i.e. optical densities) over microscopic areas of a given...
darkroom
A room that is light-tight, permitting total darkness or illumination with a safelight when working with photosensitive...
photovoltaic
Photovoltaic (PV) refers to a technology that converts sunlight directly into electricity using semiconductors. The term...
blackbody simulator
A source that attempts to create the characteristics of an ideal blackbody. It consists of a cavity, generally spherical,...
emulsion
In photography, the layer of light-sensitive material (usually a suspension of silver halide crystals) that coats the film...
slab-dielectric waveguide
A waveguide with a rectangular cross section that is composed entirely of dielectric materials.
fluorescence lifetime
Fluorescence lifetime refers to the average time it takes for a fluorophore, a molecule that absorbs light at one wavelength...
optical element
An optical part constructed of a single piece of optical material. It is usually a single lens, prism or mirror.
Lorentz oscillator model
The Lorentz oscillator model is a theoretical model used in physics to describe the response of a charged particle (such as...
cleaning equipment
In optics, degreasers or ultrasonic arrangements used for removing pitch, cement or polishing material from lenses during...
step-and-repeat printer
A projection printer that is capable of reproducing a multiplicity of images from a master transparency on a single support...
spatial light modulator
A spatial light modulator (SLM) is an optical device that modulates or manipulates the amplitude, phase, or polarization of...
thin-film solar cell
A solar cell that is lightweight and flexible because of its construction by vacuum deposition of a semiconductor material...
chemical vapor deposition equipment
Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) equipment refers to a class of specialized apparatus used in the process of chemical vapor...
retroreflection
Retroreflection is a phenomenon in optics where light is reflected back toward its source, typically in a direction nearly...
magneto-optics
Magneto-optics refers to the study and manipulation of the interaction between magnetic fields and light (electromagnetic...
optical noise
Optical noise refers to undesirable fluctuations or disturbances in an optical signal that can affect the quality or...
Becke line
A band of light that appears along the outer edge of a transparent material under microscopic investigation and that moves...
photovoltaic cell
A photovoltaic cell, commonly known as a solar cell, is a semiconductor device that directly converts light energy into...
donor
An impurity in a material that is capable of inducing electrical conduction in that material by transferring an electron to...
secondary fluorescence
Fluorescence produced by a material that has been treated with a dilute solution of fluorescing material.
vacuum chamber
A vacuum chamber is a sealed enclosure from which air and other gases are removed to create a low-pressure environment,...
photoelastic
In optics, the double refraction that is produced when stress is applied to a transparent material. Plastics, which are...
infrared reflector
An optical component coated to reflect infrared radiation. Gold, silver and aluminum are typical coating materials.
resistance heater
A crucible made of electrically resistive material through which a current is passed to heat the material inside, which then...
translucent screen
A screen composed of a sheet of diffusing plastic material that reveals excellent image detail for close viewing. It is...
heterostructures
A method used in integrated optics; formed by growing an epitaxial layer of active material, removing it from its base and...
masks for evaporation/deposition
In the context of thin film deposition processes such as evaporation or sputtering, masks are used to selectively deposit...
diffuse reflectance spectroscopy
Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) is a nondestructive analytical technique used to investigate the optical properties...
photopolymer hologram
A holographic plate coated by photopolymeric mixtures that are composed of one or more monomers and a photoredox catalyst...
plasmonics
Plasmonics is a field of science and technology that focuses on the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and free...
laser
A laser, which stands for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation," is a device that produces coherent and...
active region
The layer of material in a laser diode from which the optical radiation is emitted; light producing region
laser contact tip
A surgical device used to deliver laser light. Specifically,contact tips are made with artificially grown sapphire which is...
laser resistor trimming
In hybrid or monolithic integrated circuits, the laser ablation of a portion of resistor material to achieve the design...
mass relieving
The removal of material from an optical system to decrease the weight and sometimes the bulk of the system. See coring;...
channel electron multiplier
A photoelectric detector consisting of a glass tube internally coated with a low conductance material. Voltage applied along...
silver halide emulsion
An emulsion in which grains of the photosensitive material silver halide are deposited. Each grain, when exposed to light,...
spectrosensitometer
A sensitometer having a continuously controlled monochromator to measure spectral sensitivity and contrast of photographic...
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...
active medium
A material that produces stimulated emission during the process of amplification with a laser system.
Murty interferometer
A form of shearing interferometer that contains a simple wedged (plane-parallel) glass plate with a nonzero optical path...
dielectric lens
A lens made up of a dielectric material that is capable of influencing radio waves much in the same way an optical lens...
ring blocking
The formation of a block by attaching optical elements to a plate with a ring of pitch or other thermoplastic material.
Casimir force
The Casimir force is a quantum phenomenon that results in an attractive force between two closely spaced uncharged...
sputtering equipment
Sputtering equipment is machinery used in the process of physical vapor deposition (PVD), specifically sputtering....
candoluminescence
The luminescence of an incandescent material.
Pockels cell
A Pockels cell, also known as an electro-optic modulator, is an optical device used to control the polarization of light by...
N-type material
A quadrivalent semiconductor material, with electrons as the majority charge carriers, that is formed by doping with donor...
electron-beam drilling
The use of a tightly focused beam of electrons to drill minute holes in substances. The drilling is accomplished by the...
fiber optic cable assembly
A fiber optic cable assembly refers to a complete unit consisting of optical fibers, connectors, protective jackets, and...
circular dichroism
Circular dichroism (CD) is a spectroscopic technique used to study the structural characteristics of chiral (asymmetric)...
absorption index
The absorption index represents the imaginary component of the complex index of refraction, and not the real component. The...
optics of material
The area of optics that deals with the interaction of light with a given material. The optical properties of material are...
MSM photodiode
A metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodiode is a type of photodetector that consists of metal electrodes on a semiconductor...
optical coatings
Optical coatings are thin layers of materials applied to optical components, such as lenses, mirrors, filters, and prisms,...
barium titanate
A crystalline material used in piezoelectric devices.
sheet polarizer
A sheet of plastic material containing microscopic crystals of herapathite or some other similar substance that transmits...
solar simulator
A solar simulator is a device used to replicate the spectrum and intensity of sunlight in a controlled environment for...
deep
A concave surface that has too much negative power; i.e., its radius of curvature is too short. This condition can be...
tip-enhanced Raman scattering
Tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS) is a powerful technique that combines Raman spectroscopy with the enhanced spatial...
advanced photon source
An accelerator at the Argonne National Laboratory, providing powerful x-ray beams for materials research applications.
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...
fused quartz and silica
Fused quartz and silica are closely related materials, both composed primarily of silicon dioxide (SiO2), but they are...
laser absorption spectroscopy
An experimental research technique by which absorbed or unabsorbed radiation is analyzed in order to characterize and...
scanning electron microscopy
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is an advanced imaging technique used in microscopy to obtain high-resolution,...
hygroscopic
In fiber optics, a material whose properties, usually of transmission, are distinctly affected by the absorption of water...
egg-crating
A weight reducing method whereby material from the rear of a reflector is removed leaving a pattern of ribs normal to the...
dispersion-limited operation
Operation in which the dispersion of a pulse limits the distance between repeaters in optical systems. Waveguide and...
photoresist
Photoresist is a light-sensitive material used in photolithography processes, particularly in the fabrication of...
laser-mediated gene transfer
Laser-mediated gene transfer refers to a technique in molecular biology and genetic engineering that utilizes lasers to...
photoconductor contact
Material used to integrate photoconductors into electro-optical systems. It should provide low resistance to the flow of...
glass capacitor
A capacitor that uses glass as its dielectric material.
interferometric calorimetry
Heat measurement method in which the sample is made part of the interferometer and the temperature increase is determined by...
rare earth dopants
Rare earth dopants refer to elements from the lanthanide series, also known as rare earth elements, that are intentionally...
enhanced Faraday effect
The occurrence of very large rotations in transparent materials at weak magnetic fields as predicted in the classical...
chromatic aberration
Chromatic aberration is an optical phenomenon that occurs when different wavelengths (colors) of light are refracted by a...
fiber optic spectrometer
A fiber optic spectrometer is a device used for measuring the spectral content of light. It utilizes optical fibers to...
ion-beam sputtering
Ion-beam sputtering (IBS) is a physical vapor deposition (PVD) technique used for depositing thin films onto substrates. It...
nondestructive testing
Any testing method for materials and components that does not damage or destroy the test sample. Some of the methods used...
optical instrument dome
A dome-shaped structure used for some optical instruments in place of a flat window. The transparent material should be of...
self-luminous light source
Any material that derives its energy from chemically or electrically induced reactions; isotope or radium excitation is used...
phase mask
In optics and photolithography, a phase mask refers to a device that modifies the phase of light waves passing through it....
optical cements and adhesive
Optical cements and adhesives are specialized materials used in the assembly and bonding of optical components in optical...
optical character recognition
Optical character recognition (OCR) is a technology that is used to convert printed or handwritten text into...
reticle
A reticle, also known as a reticule or graticule, is a pattern or set of markings placed in the focal plane of an optical...
blocking material
Pitch, wax, resin or other cement suitable for holding optical parts to a spindle during grinding and polishing processes.
immersed detector
A radiation detector with its active medium mounted within a lens that focuses the radiation signal. The improvement in...
perovskite
The term perovskite refers to a specific crystal structure commonly found in various materials. Perovskite structures have a...
write once, read many (WORM)
An optical data storage device that permits the user to store data (write) and play it back (read), but not to erase or...
irradiated cross-linked polyolefin
A thermosetting material used in the jacket of fiber optic cables.
cord
A threadlike inclusion within a blank of optical glass. Rarely found in quality optical materials.
thick-phase material
A type of recording material, usually a photodielectric polymer, offering in situ development mechanisms because of its...
iridescence
The rainbow exhibition of colors, usually caused by interference of light of different wavelengths reflected from...
index-matching material
A material, often a liquid or cement, whose refractive index is nearly equal to the fiber's core index, used to reduce...
minimum angle of deviation
The smallest angle through which light is bent by an optical element or system. In a prism, the angle of deviation is a...
magnon
A magnon is a quasiparticle representing a quantized spin wave in a magnetic material. In other words, it is a collective...
optoacoustic
Optoacoustic, or photoacoustic, refers to a phenomenon and related techniques that involve the generation of acoustic waves...
tolerancing
The determination of the degree to which a manufactured component can deviate from its ideal specifications of material and...
transparent electrophotographic films
Imaging materials that generally consist of a polyester base, a transparent electrically conductive layer and an organic...
elastomer
Any material of a macromolecular nature that can stretch at room temperature to more than twice its length and return to...
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...
laser detector
Device that operates by interaction of incident radiation with semiconductor based material in order to produce an...
blackbody source
A blackbody source, often simply referred to as a blackbody, is a theoretical or practical physical object that absorbs all...
quantum-ehanced metrology
Quantum-enhanced metrology refers to the use of quantum mechanics principles and techniques to enhance the precision and...
crystal diode
A diode with a semiconducting material, such as germanium or silicon, for one electrode, and a fine wire "whisker''...
ductility
A material's ability to undergo plastic deformation, specifically elongation, without fracturing.
thin-film coating
Thin-film coatings are layers of material applied to the surface of an object or substrate, typically to modify its optical,...

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