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film Dictionary Terms

spectrograph
An optical instrument for forming the spectrum of a light source and recording it on a film. The dispersing medium may be a...
sensitometer
An instrument for determining the sensitivity of a photographic film to light. The film is given either a stepped exposure...
thin-film memory
A memory device consisting of thin disks of a magnetic substance deposited on a nonmagnetic substrate for use in a computer.
synthetic interferometric image
An imaging technique in which an object moving through an interference field formed in space scatters light and is spatially...
image enhancing equipment
Complex devices, often involving a computer, in which a photograph is scanned by a point of light, the amplitude of the...
Newton's rings
The series of rings or bands formed when light beams reflected from two polished, adjacent surfaces, placed together with a...
illuminated table
A desklike apparatus with an opal glass surface illuminated from beneath by fluorescent tubes. It is equipped with roll...
multiband camera
A group of four cameras loaded with different combinations of filters and film (one is usually an infrared color film) to...
covered groove
A technique used in integrated optics where a groove is cut on a substrate surface and covered by a thin film to facilitate...
v-coat
A multilayer antireflective thin-film coating, so called because its reflectance rises steeply at wavelengths above and...
holography
Holography is a technique used to capture and reconstruct three-dimensional images using the principles of interference and...
microscope
An instrument consisting essentially of a tube 160 mm long, with an objective lens at the distant end and an eyepiece at the...
Foucault prism
A polarizing prism formed from calcite that is like the Nicol prism but has the two parts divided by a thin air-film and cut...
epitaxial
Epitaxial refers to the growth of a crystalline layer on a crystalline substrate in such a way that the orientation of the...
single-defect model
A model that predicts laser-induced damage to thin films caused by irradiation of identical, randomly distributed film...
exposure index
A measure of film speed sensitivity to light.
microfilm reader
A device used to view microfilmed documents where the image on film is projected, in magnified form, onto a rear projection...
plasmon ion assisted deposition
Plasmon ion assisted deposition (PIAD) is a technique used in thin film deposition processes, particularly in the production...
epitaxy
A well controlled thin films technique for growing films with good crystal structure in ultra high vacuum environments at...
reflective coating
Thin-film coating, single or multilayer, that is applied to a substrate to increase its reflectance over a specified range...
retina camera
A special-purpose camera used by ophthalmologists to photograph the retina of the eye. The optical system operates through...
Weissenberg method
The Weissenberg method, named after the German physicist Karl Weissenberg, is a technique used in x-ray crystallography for...
cinemicrography
Cinematography performed with the use of a microscope to film the actions of microscopic specimens.
optical filter
An optical filter is a device that selectively transmits or blocks specific wavelengths, or colors, of light. Optical...
diffuser
An optical diffuser is an optical component or material designed to scatter or diffuse light that passes through it. It is...
infrared detector
A device used to detect radiation from the infrared region. It may be a thermal detector, such as a bolometer, thermocouple...
dielectric coating
A high-reflectance coating consisting of alternating layers of quarter-wave film of a higher refractive index and lower...
camera shutter
An apparatus, designed for use with a camera, that is used to rapidly open the path from lens to film, to maintain the...
digital photography
A form of photography in which an electronic camera converts an image to an electronic signal that is stored in digital...
residual absorption and scattering
Loss mechanisms that degrade the performance of all thin-film optical devices by removing radiant flux out of the specular...
piezo-optical transducer
A structure consisting of a thin film of liquid crystal sandwiched between light-polarizing filters that have received a...
birefringent filter
A filter that transmits light in a series of sharp, widely spaced wavelength bands by its sandwich construction of...
chalcogenide
Chalcogenide refers to a class of compounds containing elements from group 16 of the periodic table, which includes sulfur...
photographic resolution
A measure of the ability of a photographic system to record fine detail. Usually stated in terms of cycles per millimeter on...
ion-assisted deposition
A technique for improving the structure density of thin-film coatings by bombarding the growing film with accelerated ions...
fluorographic camera
A camera with a very high aperture lens or mirror system for photographing x-ray fluorescent screen images, mainly to save...
acetate film
Also cellulose acetate film. The emulsion layer applied to the substrate of a photographic surface. The emulsion layer is...
dichroic mirror
A dichroic mirror, also known as a dichroic beamsplitter or interference filter beamsplitter, is an optical device that...
photoconductive film
A film of material that exhibits varying conductivity based upon its absorption of varying amounts of photon radiation.
thin film
A thin layer of a substance deposited on an insulating base in a vacuum by a microelectronic process. Thin films are most...
x-ray diffraction
The bending of x-rays by the regular layers of molecules in a crystal acting like a very small diffraction grating. The...
orthochromatic film
Black and white film that is sensitive to green, blue and violet light but not to red light.
quantizer
A device with a limited number of possible output values (sometimes able to be selected) that can translate an incoming...
protective coating
A film applied to a coated or uncoated optical surface primarily for protecting this surface from mechanical abrasion, from...
laser trimming
The use of lasers in tailoring of such components as thin-film resistors. The process improves speed and accuracy.
translucent screen
A screen composed of a sheet of diffusing plastic material that reveals excellent image detail for close viewing. It is...
panchromatic photographic film
Black and white film that has a wavelength sensitivity similar to that of the eye.
lead selenide cell
A thin-film photoconductive cell that is sensitive to the infrared region. The photosensitive material of the cell is...
step-and-repeat camera
A type of camera that has scales or other arrangements by which successive exposures can be lined up and equally spaced on a...
radiation-monitoring film
The film used in photographic dosimetry to record the types and amounts of ionizing radiation, such as x-rays and gamma...
image orthicon
A camera tube widely used in television broadcasting. It consists of three sections within a single vacuum envelope. 1. A...
magnetic bubble film
An amorphous film in which cylindrical bubbles of reverse magnetization can be formed to follow circuit paths usually made...
evaporagraph
A sensor generally used for infrared imaging. It consists of two chambers separated by a thin, blackened membrane. An...
powder camera
A camera system that uses a fine powder to diffract x-rays from the specimen. A beam of monochromatic x-rays passes through...
rotating prism camera
A camera, with a rotating prism, that is capable of forming multiple exposures on a constantly moving strip of film.
photoconductor
A light-sensitive resistor in which resistance decreases with increase in light intensity when illuminated. The device...
x-ray film
A film or plate that is usually coated on both sides with a very fast emulsion that is sensitive to x-rays, and used to...
darkening
The formation of a dark-colored film on a metal surface by chemical activity.
lithium niobate
A crystalline ferroelectric material used primarily as a substrate and an active medium for thin-film optical modulators and...
microphotometer
An instrument capable of measuring the transmitted or reflected luminance from a very small area seen under a microscope....
thin-film semiconductor
A semiconductor formed by applying a particular single-crystal layer to the specific insulator.
motion picture camera
A camera equipped with a lens and a long length of perforated film, the latter being moved intermittently between exposures...
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...
ferroelectric film
Film in which electric polarization is reversible when influenced by an electric field.
xenon arc
The arc formed when the rare gas xenon is excited electrically and emits a brilliant white light. Xenon is used to fill...
thick-film circuit
A microcircuit whose passive components consist of a ceramic-metal combination deposited on a given substrate by screening...
sensitometry
Primarily the measurement of photographic sensitivity of certain materials such as photographic film. It refers to the...
safelight
Filtered light to which photographic or other photosensitive materials are not responsive; used to illuminate darkrooms when...
direct screen focusing
In a camera, the focusing of an image on the screen located at the camera's film plane. Once the image is in complete focus,...
color photographic film
Film that produces color negatives or transparencies by the use of three emulsions, one coated over the other, that are each...
halation
1. In a cathode-ray tube, the glow surrounding a bright spot that appears on the fluorescent screen as the result of the...
electron diffraction camera
A special evacuated camera equipped with means for holding a specimen and bombarding it with a sharply focused beam of...
reflection reduction coating
The thin, transparent film made up of specific substances applied to glass-air surfaces for the purpose of decreasing the...
optical ceramics
Transparent glassy and or crystalline structured materials engineered from inorganic, non-metallic materials via various...
thermal recording
A term referring to various processes for forming visible images outside of a camera to be photographed on ordinary film....
cinesextant
An optical instrument used to track and image a test vehicle (target) throughout its flight. The cinesextant frequently...
cineradiography
The photographic filming of the action of x-ray images recorded on a fluorescent screen by means of large lens apertures and...
viewing filter
A filter, pale purple in color, used in black and white photography to display the brightness values of a subject being...
diazo film
A type of photographic film, often used in microfilming, that is processed by heat treatment, needing no liquid application.
focal length
The focal length of a lens is the distance between the lens's optical center (or principal point) and the image sensor or...
microphotograph
A photograph reduced to the microscopic scale and stored on a microfilm as seen with microfiches for the purpose of storing...
lenticular stereo photography
A type of stereoscopic photography in which a pair of lenses focuses a pair of images, relative to the positions of the two...
micro-optic gyroscope
A thin-film device that integrates optics and electronics on a single chip to provide a passive-ring resonator gyroscope...
focus
1. The focal point. 2. To adjust the eyepiece or objective of a telescope so that the image is clearly seen by the observer....
pinhole camera
A lensless photographic camera that uses a small sharp-edged hole as its aperture. The light passed by this aperture onto...
tunnel luminescence
Light that is emitted from a phosphor film applied to the surface of a three-layer thin film, respectively metal, oxide and...
metallic mesh filter
An interference filter in which a very thin metal foil with a periodic array of square holes (inductive mesh) or a thin...
orthographic camera
A camera designed with a telecentric optical system and a narrow field of view; the telecentric optical system (placement of...
technicolor
The color process that is used to form positive color cine films by dye transfer or imbibition, based on the use of separate...
high-speed movie camera
A camera designed to record at rates exceeding 50 fps. For frame rates up to about 500 fps, an ordinary pull-down mechanism...
ellipsometer
A spectrometer equipped with polarizing prisms and retardation plates that is used in the analysis of elliptically polarized...
magnetic enhancement
Plasma-enriched deposition or planar magnetic sputtering that offers increased deposition rates in optical thin-film...
type standards
A set of samples used in the analysis of multielement thin films.
photographic sound recorder
A system in which the electrical signal embedded within an audio input signal is converted to a modulated light pattern and...
microfiche
A small card (10 x 15 cm) that has been treated with a photographic emulsion to record and store the microimages of...
film thickness gauge
An interferometer spectrometer designed to measure thicknesses of thin films or layers by recording the interferogram and by...
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,...
exciter lamp
A small incandescent lamp whose intense beam is focused on the optical soundtrack of a motion picture film. The soundtrack...
variable-speed scanning
A scanning technique in which the optical density of the film being scanned controls the speed of deflection of the scanning...
recording camera
A type of camera that incorporates a tiny mirror that oscillates in accordance with incoming signals. An illuminated slit is...
aluminized cathode-ray tube
A cathode-ray tube having a screen that is coated on the back with a thin film of aluminum, which serves to intensify the...
film recorder
An instrument designed to place nongraphic information, usually generated by a computer, onto photographic film. The...
neutron radiography
The nondestructive analysis and recording of industrial components based on the absorption of relatively low-energy neutrons...
film scanning
The process by which the light from the images of photographic film is encoded into electrical signals for video...
Mylar
E.I. duPont's trade name for a polyester film. The most practical beamsplitter for use beyond the 15-µm wavelength...
frames per second
The number of separate images exposed by a cine camera in a second or the number illuminated by a cine projector in a...
Matrix optics
The linear relationship between input and output optical fields for a given optical system or application that allows the...
metric photography
The photographic recording of objects or events in a manner that allows quantitative information to be derived from the...
flash photographic density filter
A filter, partially opaque to near-ultraviolet, visible and infrared radiation, that may be made by exposing and processing...
short-arc lamp
A compact high-pressure light source in which an electrical discharge between electrodes spaced no more than 12 mm apart...
high contrast
A term used to describe a photograph, film or television picture where the values for black and white areas are at or near...
ion-beam sputtering
Ion beam sputtering (IBS) is a physical vapor deposition (PVD) technique used for depositing thin films onto substrates. It...
developer
A chemical solution that changes the silver salts (latent image) of exposed photographic film into black metallic silver...
vacuum ultraviolet detector
A device that serves to detect the presence of vacuum ultraviolet radiation. It may be photographic film, a thermopile, ion...
resistance heater
A crucible made of electrically resistive material through which a current is passed to heat the material inside, which then...
box camera
The simplest, most inexpensive type of camera, which is shaped as an oblong or square box, containing the simplest lens,...
image-enhancing equipment
Complex devices, often involving a computer, in which a photograph is scanned by a point of light, the amplitude of the...
thick-film deposition
Successive layering of resistive, dielectric and conductive inks on a substrate by a type of screening process.
rotary camera
A camera system used for microphotography that has a structure, such as a cylinder or surveyor belt, to rotate the documents...
carbon film
In analysis, the carbon layer that is evaporation-deposited on a specimen to protect and ready it for study by electron...
mirror coating
One or more thin-film layers of optical material deposited on a mirror blank/substrate in order to enhance the way that...
aperture card
A combination 80-column computer card containing a 35-mm microfilm frame. Reference data can be punched onto the card to...
film weld
The butt (edge to edge) splice of two pieces of film produced by a heat splicer that melts the edges together; used in...
microfilm system
A camera copying system that can reduce originals onto 35- or 16-mm film for easy storage.
aluminizing
The process of applying a film of aluminum to a surface, usually by evaporation in a vacuum.
glass film plates
An early form of photographic media consisting of glass plates coated with an emulsion.
poling
The process of aligning the crystallites in a piezoelectric material by placing a large DC field across the element at an...
characteristic curve
A graph used in photography to portray the increase of a film's density as its time of exposure increases.
metallic coating
A thin layer of metal deposited on the surface of a substrate. The film may serve as a reflector, beamsplitter, neutral...
Glan-Thompson prism
A prism resembling a Nicol prism but having faces normal to the axis and the two parts divided by a glycerine film. Also...
densitometer
1. An instrument used to measure the opacity or density of dyes, pigments or dispersed particles that form an image in or on...
spectral integral density
With respect to color photography, the measurement, at a given wavelength, of the way the color film modulates the radiant...
electrostatic tape camera
A camera that records its images electrostatically on plastic tape; used in situations where radiation would have an adverse...
rolling shutter artifacts
Rolling shutter artifacts are distortions or visual anomalies that can occur in images or videos captured by cameras with...
x-ray detector
One of various types of fluorescent screens used to detect x-ray radiation. Photographic film is mildly sensitive to x-rays,...
frame rate
Frame rate refers to the frequency at which consecutive images, or frames, are displayed in a video sequence. It is...
emulsion
In photography, the layer of light-sensitive material (usually a suspension of silver halide crystals) that coats the film...
thermomagnetic imaging
The production of an image on a magnetic film that is exposed to infrared radiation and heated to a point above Curie...
optical modulator
A multilayered thin-film device used to modulate transmitted light in integrated photonic circuits.
photogrammetric equipment
The special cameras, film and other means for forming maps by aerial photography.
edge-defined film-fed growth
Process for growth of solar cells that results in rectangular shapes consisting of many interconnected cells in a series or...
film reader
A device used to scan images or information on photographic film for the subsequent relay of information.
drum camera
A type of streak camera that uses film wrapped around a drum, which moves at a constant speed to record the changing shape...
thin-film circuit
A circuit whose passive components are deposited on a given substrate by sputtering or vacuum processes.
residual gas analysis
A measurement in optical thin-film coating processes whereby the gases remaining in the vacuum chamber after coating are...
multiple lens camera
A camera that uses a rotating mirror to project sequential images onto lenses that are arranged in an arc. The reflected...
patina
A thin film or coating that forms on various finished surfaces. On optical surfaces it usually denotes aging.
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 mapping
The process of mapping the infrared emittance of an area through the use of an infrared detector and related scanning...
sol-gel
A gelatinous fluid that can be used as a porous thin-film coating for optical components, including laser beam collimators,...
field emission microscope
An image-forming instrument in which a strong electrostatic field causes cold emission of electrons from a sharply rounded...
liquid coating
A self-healing, index-matching, nonporous coating for optical components that can eliminate production difficulties and...
electron speckle pattern interferometry
A method for detecting vibration amplitudes analogous to image holography, except that the film emulsion is replaced by a...
process camera
A photographic camera designed to produce reproduction film of visual information (pictures, line drawings, graphs) for...
homogeneous multilayer coating
A thin film of absorbing or nonabsorbing layers in which the absorption of radiation at any point is directly proportional...
momentum transfer
In physics, momentum transfer is the amount of momentum transferred from one particle to another during particle collision...
spectrometer
A kind of spectrograph in which some form of detector, other than a photographic film, is used to measure the distribution...
transparent electrophotographic films
Imaging materials that generally consist of a polyester base, a transparent electrically conductive layer and an organic...
panoramic camera
A camera designed to form a continuous record of an expansive section of the horizon. The typical panoramic camera is...
microfilm equipment
Two essential pieces of equipment used in connection with the microfilming process: a camera capable of producing, on film,...
photronic cell
A photovoltaic cell usually sensitive to infrared radiation. It may have a copper base and a film of cuprous oxide. When it...
definition test object
A chart, either printed on paper or prepared photographically on glass plates or film, that consists of 3-bar resolution...
frame
1. To center an image or place it in any part of the television screen desired. Also applies to stills. 2. A single image of...
beam-addressable technology
The application of reversible writing with a laser beam on particular storage materials. In one method, an amorphous film is...
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...
microfilm camera
A camera used to reduce originals onto film for easy storage. There are two basic types: one in which the film is fixed...
laser annealing
Laser annealing is a process that involves using a laser beam to heat and modify the microstructure of a material, typically...
phototheodolite
A camera equipped with angular scales in altitude and azimuth. The scale readings are imprinted on the film when an exposure...
aerial film
Film designed especially for the needs and conditions encountered in aerial photography. It is produced in a variety of...
magnetic disc
A plastic disc coated with ferric oxide or other films on which data can be stored by selectively magnetizing areas of the...
adhesion
The intermolecular attraction between two surfaces, as between a substrate and a coating; it is an important factor in the...
substrate blank
A substrate refers to a material or surface upon which another material or process is applied or deposited. In various...
active-matrix OLED display
An OLED display that has an integrated electronic backplane as its substrate. Active-matrix OLED displays use at least two...
deformable mirror device
A spatial light modulator consisting of a metallized polymer film stretched over an array of metal-oxide semiconductor...
panoramic lens
A lens system that is capable of producing a 360° image, or one that is very close to that. In recording, the image may...
blur circle
A blur circle refers to the out-of-focus region in an image captured by an optical system. When an object in a scene is not...
streak camera
A high-speed cine camera used to record, on a continuously moving film, very brief events such as a flash of light. The...
emulsion speed
The sensitivity of a photographic emulsion when exposed to light, provided that the film is developed through a standard...
cine camera
A camera capable of making successive exposures on a continuous film driven by accurately spaced sprocket holes (a motion...
mosaic detector array
A group of photosensors arranged in a grid-like pattern covering the entire field of view, enabling them to record it all at...
infrared photomicrography
Photographic recording that uses infrared radiation as the light source to form an image of a microscopic object and a...
film plane
The site behind the lens system in a camera where photographic media are positioned for exposure.
active-matrix display
A type of liquid-crystal display in which each display element contains an active component, such as a thin-film transistor,...
dewetting
Dewetting is a phenomenon in materials science and physics where a thin film or coating spontaneously undergoes a process of...
beamsplitter
An optical device for dividing a beam into two or more separate beams. A simple beamsplitter may be a very thin sheet of...
jig allowance
Also called coating jig allowance. That margin on an optical component that is outside the clear aperture for use in holding...
reactive evaporation
Reactive evaporation refers to a process in thin-film deposition where a material is deposited onto a substrate through...
microdensitometer
The fundamental tool of microdensitometry, the microdensitometer is an instrument used for the precise measurement of...
digital radiography
Medical diagnostic (x-ray) imaging using laser printers to produce high-resolution digital hard copy instead of film exposed...
prism coupler
An instrument that measures the angle at which a prism can couple laser light into an optical waveguide; used to determine...
spectrogrammetric reading equipment
Spectra can be conveniently recorded on photographic film or plates. The portions that are occupied by regions of the...
thin-film solar cell
A solar cell that is lightweight and flexible because of its construction by vacuum deposition of a semiconductor material...
Langmuir-Blodgett technique
A method of depositing crystalline films one molecular layer at a time, by dipping the substrate into water containing a...
transparency illuminator
A metal box with an opal glass front enclosing a lamp, used for viewing color transparencies or x-ray films.
thin-film waveguide
A transparent dielectric film, bounded by material of a lower index of refraction, capable of guiding light.
thermoplastic film
A type of holographic film widely used for industrial applications because it is inexpensive and erasable.
transparency
An image affixed to a transparent photographic film or plate by photographic, printing or chemical methods. It may be viewed...
photographic field
The maximum angle of view that can be recorded by a camera. Field is a function of lens focal length and film format.
sequence camera
A type of motion-picture camera in which single frames are photographed either automatically at a predetermined rate (as...
optical power spectrum
Also known as the Wiener spectrum or the noise power spectrum, the optical power spectrum is a fundamental quantity in...
interferometric modulator display
Interferometric modulator display (IMOD) is a type of display technology used in electronic devices, known for its energy...
bellows
In optics, a collapsible structure situated between the lens and film of a camera to allow variation of the distance between...
elaterite
The organic inclusion in quartz crystal that forms delicate films and microspheres and that shows a maximum absorption at...
electrophoretic display
An electrophoretic display, often referred to as an electronic paper display or e-paper display, is a type of electronic...
epitaxial deposition
Epitaxial deposition is a process used in semiconductor manufacturing and materials science to grow a thin crystalline...
cassette
A container designed to hold recording material (film, video- and audiotape) so that when it is loaded into a recording...
diamondlike carbon film
A very hard, highly transparent coating based on forms of carbon, used to protect optical components from abrasion and...
Littrow prism
A 30-60-90° spectrograph prism that is coated on the surface opposite the 60° angle with a reflecting film.
thermoplastic recording device
A display device having a thermoplastic film as the control layer medium. The film, moving from a playoff reel, is scanned...
integral density
With respect to color photography, the measurement of the way the color film modulates the radiant flux in the optical...
active-matrix
An OLED display that has an integrated electronic backplane as its substrate. Active-matrix OLED displays use at least two...
lenticular color photography
A type of additive color photography using a lenticular structure impressed on a film base and a camera lens with a filter...
integrated optics
A thin-film device containing miniature optical components connected via optical waveguides on a transparent dielectric...
film platen
A mechanism in a camera designed to position the film in the focal plane for exposure.
computer-output microfilm system
A camera system capable of producing microfilm copies of computerized data presented on a screen.
attenuated total reflectance spectroscopy
Attenuated total reflectance (ATR) spectroscopy is a technique used in analytical chemistry to obtain infrared (IR) spectra...
flow camera
An automatic camera that can record reduced images of documents at a rate of up to 30,000 documents per hour by having the...
exposure meter
An instrument used to measure the light from a scene to be photographed and to indicate the camera lens and shutter settings...
photographic thermometry
The photographic recording of the heat radiation emitted from various points on the object as corresponding density...
half silvered
Describing a surface that is coated with a film of metal of such thickness that it transmits about one-half of the incident...

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