In an optical waveguide, that dispersion attributable to the variation of refractive index profile with wavelength. The profile variation has two contributing factors: variation in refractive index contrast and variation in profile parameter.

A support for optical parts comprising a solid bed that permits precise longitudinal movement of one component relative to...

A scanning probe microscope that analyzes the surface of a specimen by recording the intensity of light as it is focused...

An apochromat, often referred to as an apochromatic lens or apochromatic objective, is a type of optical system designed to...

In an optical system, noise created by mode-dependent optical losses and variations in the distribution of radiant power...

One of the two principal types of optical glass, the other being flint glass. Crown glass is harder than flint glass, and...

A convention that defines specific dimensions of an optical system, such as the image distance or radius of curvature of a...

A liquid crystal light valve (LCLV), also known as a spatial light modulator (SLM), is an optical device that modulates the...

1. An optical device used for projection of enlarged images of transparencies or lantern slides on a screen. 2. A device...

Differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy, also known as Nomarski interference contrast microscopy, is an optical...

A grating beamsplitter is an optical device that utilizes the principles of diffraction to split a beam of light into...

A transducer is a device or component that converts one form of energy into another. It is commonly used in various fields,...

Optical fiber that transmits a greater percentage of input light than does high-loss step-index fiber. Low-loss fiber...

That characteristic which makes a weapon system less visible to radar, optical, acousto-optic, infrared and other military...

An optical crystal that possesses a strong nonlinear dielectric response function to optical radiation. A material with a...

The field of view (FOV) refers to the extent of the observable world or the visible area that can be seen at any given...

The process of heating and slowly cooling a solid material, like glass or metal, to stabilize its thermal, electrical or...

A long-pass filter is an optical filter that allows longer wavelengths of light to pass through while blocking or...

Diamond turning refers to a precision machining process used to produce complex optical components, particularly lenses and...

A photon sieve is an optical device used in the field of optics and imaging. It's designed to focus and shape light,...

The use of a reflective device, which can be fashioned from a variety of materials including gases, solids, dyes, aerosols,...

A device in which the functions of optical detector and emitter are combined.

A measure of the closeness with which an optical image is capable of resembling the original object. The factors that affect...

Optical character recognition (OCR) is a technology that is used to convert printed or handwritten text into...

A tough, durable, heat- and cold-resistant optical quality plastic used in injection-molded items such as streetlight...

A low-power telescope placed at the eyepiece of an optical system to increase overall magnification. Most often used to...

Rayleigh scattering is a phenomenon that occurs when light waves interact with particles or molecules that are much smaller...

Phase contrast microscopy is an optical microscopy technique that enhances the contrast of transparent and colorless...

The focal length of a lens is the distance between the lens's optical center (or principal point) and the image sensor or...

A thin film or coating that forms on various finished surfaces. On optical surfaces it usually denotes aging.

Pitch, wax, resin or other cement suitable for holding optical parts to a spindle during grinding and polishing processes.

A rigid or flexible, concentrated assembly of glass or plastic fibers used to transmit optical images or light. See aligned...

The process whereby optical elements are removed from a block.

An optical scanning device designed to read information printed in the form of bars of different size by detection and...

The angle between the light input propagation vector and the optical axis of an optical fiber or fiber bundle.

1. The process of aligning the optical axes of optical systems to the reference mechanical axes or surfaces of an...

Characteristic of optical correlators in which invariance to more than one distortion parameter per axis of the processor is...

The linear relationship between input and output optical fields for a given optical system or application that allows the...

An organizational method used in optical design computer programs. The technique produces one number (merit function) to...

The ray that passes through the center of the aperture stop in an optical system. It often is called the principal ray of an...

Plasmonics is a field of science and technology that focuses on the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and free...

1. In visual perception, the minimum value of stimulus that can be perceived on the average. 2. In optical detection...

A bundle of rays that originates from an object point on the optical axis of a lens system.

In the context of electronics and optics, an isolator refers to a device that allows the transmission of signals in one...

Transparent matter that usually is drawn into a cylindrical, pyramidical or conical shape through which light is channeled...

A single number, defined by the computer program or the user that expresses the performance of an optical system. Also known...

Describes incident radiation propagating parallel to an externally applied magnetic field in magneto-optical experimentation.

The total scattering attributable to the intrinsic properties of the materials through which an optical wave is propagating.

Superresolution refers to the enhancement or improvement of the spatial resolution beyond the conventional limits imposed by...

The lowest frequency at which the magnitude of the fiber transfer function decreases to a specified fraction of the zero...

An optical lens manufactured to control the transmission of light over a specified wavelength range. Low absorption lenses...

A structural method of optical character recognition, used where the input media are variable, as in hand-written or...

The process whereby the number of atoms or atomic systems in a set of energy levels is changed by the absorption of light...

The imaginary line passing through both the centers of curvatures of the optical surfaces of a lens or mirror; the optical...

The decrease in power that occurs when an optical beam or signal is transmitted through a system.

The optical energy transfer between ions of differing atoms.

A form of liquid crystal with an appearance of moving, threadlike structures, particularly visible when observed in thick...

The amount by which an optical surface deviates from its ideal design value, expressed in wavelengths of light. Optical...

A system of mirrors that can be used to direct light from a single laser source into any one of a number of separate optical...

An optical matrix that does not require perfection in both states of the crosspoint, so that all the optical switches can be...

The limited light-gathering area of an optical system. The area is normally restricted to an edge or outer surface of an...

The use of a specialized optical microscope designed to provide a more three-dimensional view of a sample. Stereomicroscopy...

Automated optical inspection (AOI) is a technology used in manufacturing processes, particularly in electronics, to...

Optical tweezers refer to a scientific instrument that uses the pressure of laser light to trap and manipulate microscopic...

The element that resembles a lightweight metal, but when very pure, has a very high electrical resistance and is transparent...

A theoretical analysis of radiation loss from planar optical waveguides due to scattering by surface irregularities/surface...

Optical glasses containing the oxides of rare earths such as lanthanum to impart a very high refractive index combined with...

Optical fibers fused together to form a solid, vacuum-tight assembly in the form of a slab or rod. Discs or rectangular...

A laser whose pulses are expanded, using gratings and optical fibers, before amplification and compressed to increase beam...

The effect whereby a light beam is deflected by a birefringent prism when its polarization is changed by voltage applied to...

An optical element having plane-inclined surfaces. Usually the faces are inclined toward one another at very small angles....

The process in which the normal rate of fluorescent emission from a substance is enhanced by virtue of the optical gain of...

A write-once optical disc storage system in which the optical head reads continuously while writing to check the accuracy of...

Also known as an optical diode, an optical isolator is a device that utilizes the Faraday effect to suppress or redirect...

The measurable leakage of optical energy from one optical conductor to another. Also known as optical coupling.

The angle at which a given mode propagates down an optical fiber.

Optical surface damage due to abrasive rubbing. Abrasion damage affects are less than the thickness of the optical coating...

A defect in the cleaved end face of an optical fiber in which a portion of the edge has broken away; the complement of lip.

The optical process, following grinding, that puts a highly finished, smooth and apparently amorphous surface on a lens or a...

One optical element of a multielement lens. See optical element.

A relatively hard crystal, highly resistant to excessive energy radiation, that is frequently used for optical windows,...

Also known as ocular. The lens system used between the final real image in a visual optical system and eye. It acts as an...

In an optical data storage system, denoting the optical head's ability both to record information and to detect it for...

The process of forming a polisher by pressing it with an optical surface.

Optical elements, often created by micromachining, lithography or vacuum deposition, that rely on diffraction of the...

A bundle of optical fibers arranged randomly for the purpose of transmitting energy, not an image.

In an optical waveguide,- typically a multimode fiber - the distortion resulting from differential mode delay, i.e. axial...

Optimization method used in optical design computer programs that employs a variable-by-variable approach to construct new...

The point of intersection of the optical axis with any centered optical surface.

The optically pumped, solid-state laser that uses sapphire as the host lattice and chromium as the active ion. The emission...

A microbubble resonator is a device used in photonics and optical physics for the precise manipulation of light waves. It...

A retroreflector is an optical device or structure that reflects incident light or electromagnetic waves back to their...

Ophthalmology is a branch of medicine that focuses on the anatomy, physiology, and diseases of the eyes and visual system....

A solid with a structure that exhibits a basically symmetrical and geometrical arrangement. A crystal may already possess...

The optical form of the crystal fluorspar, calcium fluoride, that is utilized for its low optical dispersion, its low...

1. A piece of glass with plane parallel surfaces used to admit light into an optical system and to exclude dirt and...

Directional and coherent radiation pulses that result from an ensemble of coherently prepared states in an optical medium.

An edge-emitting light-emitting diode is a type of LED structure where light emission occurs primarily along the edge of the...

The determination of the temperature of a source by the detection of its incandescent brightness.

A lens or lens system used to transfer a real image from one point within an optical system to another, with or without...

A technique in photometry that uses an oxyhydrogen or oxyacetylene flame to optically excite a solution containing the...

Modulation transfer function of an optical element when used for transporting images from a lambertian source such as...

Operation in which the dispersion of a pulse limits the distance between repeaters in optical systems. Waveguide and...

Direct conversion of a photon from one wavelength to a lower energy photon of another wavelength(s) due to inelastic...

Optical source intended to reduce bleeding as well as to abet wound or vessel healing through cauterization, used in eye...

A ghost image that has the reverse lightness relations of the original image. This phenomenon is a common optical illusion...

The transmittance of a point on a photographic negative equal to the log to the base 10 of the reciprocal of the...

An array or mosaic of optical surfaces. May be a number of lenses closely packed to form multiple images or many parallel...

An acousto-optic modulator (AOM) is a device that utilizes the interaction between sound waves and light waves to modulate...

The condition in which the index of refraction in an optical fiber varies as a parabolic function of the radius.

A measure of the optical path length for light traveling from the sun or other celestial source through Earth's atmosphere...

Optical glass containing zirconium fluoride that results in special characteristics such as improved transmission.

Optical elements that use diffraction to control wavefronts. Diffractive optical elements include diffraction gratings,...

A tool of cast iron or another suitable medium used with a slurry of silicon carbide, aluminum oxide or emery for grinding...

In photonics, a lattice refers to a periodic arrangement of optical elements or structures, often on a microscopic or...

The use of light to initiate the lasing process. See optical pumping.

Nonlinear optics is a branch of optics that studies the optical phenomena that occur when intense light interacts with a...

A common technique in microscopy, oblique illumination is one in which the object is illuminated by a light source that is...

A broadband continuum resonator that confines a wide range of wavelengths. From the optical confinement a single wavelength...

The measured planar or solid angle of related aspects of an optical system with respect to an optical axis.

A method of measuring microbending losses in optical fiber by sandwiching a length of fiber between two parallel plates,...

Dispersion refers to the phenomenon where different wavelengths (colors) of light travel at different speeds when passing...

The minimum amount of strength characteristic of an optical fiber, as determined by proof stressing; expressed in thousands...

A fiber optic connector or splice that mates two multifiber cables, optically aligning all of the individual fibers...

A blank area (caused by insufficient inking of the paper) that falls within the range of an intended character stroke in an...

An optical clock is a highly precise and advanced timekeeping device that relies on the oscillations of electromagnetic...

In rangefinders and height finders, a rotatable or sliding wedge-shaped element used to divert the line of sight precisely...

The name of the mixture of liquid and grinding or polishing compounds used in processing optical materials.

A camera mounted on an optical bench with an easel to hold the material to be copied. Magnification can be varied over a...

The length of optical waveguide needed to attain equilibrium mode distribution for a specified excitation condition.

The arrangement of two Porro prisms so that the inverted image formed by certain types of optical instruments is the same as...

A form of an element that cannot demonstrate optical activity as a result of dextrogyrate and levogyrate effects that are...

That property of certain optical devices, e.g., a penta prism, that maintains the angular relationship between the entering...

A device using the Kerr effect to read back the signals from mechanically recorded tapes and discs. It consists of a light...

A semitransparent mirror in an optical system that combines two or more output beams into a single coaxial beam.

Anisotropy refers to the property of exhibiting different values or characteristics when measured in different directions....

A filter that separates light into many colors via Bragg's law. Generally refers to a fiber Bragg grating used in optical...

An impurity-doped silicon detector array sensitive to long infrared wavelengths, installed in optical collecting systems...

The maximum variation in thickness of a lens as measured around a diameter centered on the optical axis. The ETD divided by...

An optical element located at an image plane, containing a pattern that assists in pointing an instrument or measuring...

Discipline within optical physics that addresses sound vibration, phonon effects and their influencing behavior within...

Minimum object distance, often abbreviated as MOD, refers to the closest distance at which a camera lens or optical system...

A lab-on-a-chip (LOC) is a miniaturized device that integrates various laboratory functions and capabilities onto a single,...

An ophthalmic instrument used to measure the magnitude and direction of the maximum and minimum powers of a spectacle lens,...

An image that is formed when rays emerging from an optical system all converge to a point on the optical axis. A real image...

The area of optics that deals with the interaction of light with a given material. The optical properties of material are...

A variable focal length lens system that retains the object in focus as one or more lenses move as a unit along its optical...

A type of optical fiber loss resulting from the misalignment of fibers in a splice or connector.

An equation that uses the wavelength of light passing through a medium, along with a set of coefficients, to calculate the...

See atomic force microscope; magnetic force microscope; near-field scanning optical microscope; scanning tunneling...

A galvanometric scanner, also known as a galvanometer scanner or galvo scanner, is a type of optical scanning device used to...

Laser optics refers to a broad category of optical components and systems designed for manipulating and controlling laser...

Retroreflection is a phenomenon in optics where light is reflected back toward its source, typically in a direction nearly...

A television camera tube in which a low-velocity electron beam scans a photoactive mosaic that has been created by an...

A device used in measuring attenuation in optical fiber. The loss caused by the bends in a short reference length of fiber...

A fiber optic communications system that works on the principles of homodyning or heterodyning. The transmitting laser...

In the tolerancing of optical elements, the displacement of the optical axis from the mechanical axis.

An infrared lens is an optical component specifically designed and optimized for transmitting, focusing, or manipulating...

A small incandescent lamp whose intense beam is focused on the optical soundtrack of a motion picture film. The soundtrack...

A device that holds a number of filters and allows the filter with the desired characteristics to be rotated into an optical...

A cable backbone used to interconnect local area networks at various sites (corporate offices and factories, for example) in...

An optical channel monitor (OCM) is a device used in optical communication systems to monitor and analyze the performance of...

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...

Optical design and engineering services involve the development, customization, and optimization of optical systems and...

A laser or laser system positioned within an enclosure to prevent dangerous optical radiation from leaving the enclosure.

The clarity of an optically reproduced image. Definition is produced by the combination of resolution and acutance.

A porous ceramic substance that is ground to a given optical form and on which a polished plate of glass is sagged by heat...

Stress applied to an optical fiber at a constant rate.

A photodetector, also known as a photosensor or photodiode, is a device that detects and converts light into an electrical...

A device for inducing mode coupling in an optical fiber. Also, a device composed of one or more optical fibers in which...

The number of bound modes that an optical waveguide is capable of supporting.

A scanning technique in which the optical density of the film being scanned controls the speed of deflection of the scanning...

An optical device that produces a line image lying along the axis from a point source of light; therefore, it has no...

A type of glass optical fiber that provides low pulse dispersion over a broad portion of the light spectrum and as a result...

A transparent lead-lanthanum zirconate titanate ceramic with optical qualities that can be controlled by applying voltages...

A lens is a transparent optical device that focuses or diverges light, allowing it to pass through and form an image. Lenses...

In a medium of constant refractive index, the product of the geometrical distance and the refractive index.

A near-infrared (NIR) camera is an imaging device designed to capture images in the near-infrared region of the...

1. The angular displacement of the plane of polarization of light passing through a medium. 2. The azimuthal displacement of...

A thin-film device containing miniature optical components connected via optical waveguides on a transparent dielectric...

The natural log of the ratio of absorbed intensity over the total intensity which gives a constant value assuming a stable...

Convex is an adjective used to describe a surface or shape that curves outward, bulges, or has a rounded and outwardly...

A form of roof prism used to invert an image. The prism has faces cut normal to the optical axis; therefore, the prism may...

A prism or prism assembly that serves to displace the instrument's optical axis.

A laser that has a surface-emitting semiconductor gain element coupled to an external mirror designed to complete the laser...

A spatial light modulator (SLM) is an optical device that modulates or manipulates the amplitude, phase, or polarization of...

Three-photon microscopy is an advanced imaging technique that belongs to the family of multi-photon microscopy methods. It...

An optical cable that is connector terminated. Generally, an optical cable that has been terminated by a manufacturer and is...

Heat measurement method in which the sample is made part of the interferometer and the temperature increase is determined by...

Aplanatic points refer to specific points in an optical system where certain aberrations, such as spherical aberration or...

1. The sorting of lenses by their color. 2. In an optical system, an irradiance or brightness gradient in the image that is...

Reflection losses incurred at input and output of optical elements because of the difference in refractive index between...

A saturated compound of carbon and hydrogen used as a liquid coating material for optical components in high-power laser...

MTF analysis/measurement equipment refers to instruments and tools used to measure and analyze the modulation transfer...

The active control of various aspects (optical element position, airspace thickness, etc.) of an optical system that...

An optical fiber that can be used to amplify an optical input. Erbium rare earth ions are added to the fiber core material...

A device used in measuring the attenuation of multimode optical fibers. A short reference length of fiber when combined with...

The inherent laser amplitude noise relative to the average optical power produced by the laser; the RIN decreases rapidly as...

A nitrogen vacancy (NV) refers to a specific type of defect or impurity in a crystal lattice where a nitrogen atom replaces...

The method for measuring the index profile of an optical fiber by preparing a thin sample that has its faces perpendicular...

The optical power loss caused by a space between axially aligned fibers.

Means of amplifying optical waves whereby an intense coherent pump wave is made to interact with a nonlinear optical crystal...

A prism is a transparent optical element with flat, polished surfaces that refract light. It usually has two parallel bases,...

An atomic clock is a highly precise timekeeping device that uses the vibrations or oscillations of atoms as a reference for...

A type of spectroscopy used extensively in the analysis of biological samples. Because most biologically synthesized...

Custom lapping and polishing services involve specialized processes used to improve the surface finish and dimensional...

The size of the field of view in the object space of an optical system as differentiated from that in the image space...

An optical instrument, generally a polarizing microscope, that is used to determine the interference figures and optical...

The area of optics in which the wave nature of a particle is exploited to carry out very accurate interferometry and other...

In optical character recognition, the mechanical or electronic transducer used to detect the level of illumination present...

The maximum to minimum range of temperature, pressure, humidity, vibration and biological conditions under which an optical...

A fiber optic gyroscope (FOG) is a type of gyroscope that uses the interference of light waves to detect changes in...

A reflecting prism that inverts the image. The image is reflected four times internally and emitted laterally. The prism is...

The analysis of metal structure using an optical or electron microscope, generally with a camera, to record observations.

The micrometer-size depressions that store data digitally in an optical data storage medium.

In a lens or other optical system, the image of the aperture stop as seen from image space.

A type of optical modulator with potential application in optical switching and displays, in which applied voltage causes a...

In optical emission spectroscopy, the reduction in radiant power in the central portion of spectral lines arising from the...

An optical time-domain reflectometer (OTDR) is a specialized instrument used in optical fiber communications to characterize...

A wide-field multiobject spectroscopy system used in astronomy, in which a bundle of low-loss optical fibers positioned on...

In an optical rangefinder, the system of wedges that rotate in opposite directions to aid in the detection of deviation in...

A term for thermoplastic optical materials; that is, those in which the polymer chains remain linear after heating and...

In a perfectly centered lens, the mechanical axis (defined by the ground outside the diameter of the lens) is made to be...

An optical testing instrument is a device or system used to evaluate and measure the performance, quality, and...

A high-intensity source of incoherent white light in which a capacitor is discharged through a tube of xenon gas; often used...

A laser device used to establish a location or target usually for detection by an impact source e.g. missiles and guided...

An optically pumped solid-state laser in which the active medium is a neodymium ion in a glass rod host. Abbreviated...

Optical manufacturing tools and machinery encompass a wide range of equipment, instruments, and systems used in the...

In an optical waveguide, the exchange of power/energy among modes.

Pockels cell or dynamic optical retarder in which the electrical field is applied in a direction parallel to that of light...

A Laurent polarimeter is an instrument used in optics for measuring the rotation of plane-polarized light caused by...

A measure of image quality produced by an optical system. May be specified in terms of cycles per millimeter, referencing a...

A diffraction grating is an optical component consisting of a surface with a periodic structure of equally spaced, parallel...

The surface of an optical fiber that is used as a reference when joining optical fibers. Although the outermost cladding is...

The central peak (including everything interior to the first zero or dark ring) of the focal diffraction pattern of a...

An optical compensator similar to the Babinet compensator, but which produces a phase-change consistent throughout its...

A device used to compare the luminous intensities of two sources by locating a point between the two light sources where the...

Photometry is the branch of science that deals with the measurement of light, particularly in terms of its intensity and the...

Freeform optics refers to the design and fabrication of optical surfaces that do not follow traditional symmetric shapes,...

The darkening of the laser facet of a semiconductor laser diode. It can be prevented by placing the component in a...

A fundamental law of wave scattering theory that connects the extinction cross section of a scatterer to the real part of...

A plate consisting of fused optical fibers with both surfaces ground and polished, and having the entrance surface curved to...

An optical illusion in which distant objects are lighter in tone and less distinct in outline than those closer to the...

A piece of glass, pyrex or quartz having one or both surfaces carefully ground and polished plano, generally flat to less...

A configuration or device mounted at the end of a fiber or cable that is intended to prevent reflection.

In an optical system with a series of lenses, images formed prior to the final focal plane.

See optical spectrum; visible spectrum.

A device, optical or electronic, that may be joined to a camera so that the operator may perceive the scene as the camera...

Also called color blocking. The formation of a block by making optical contact between a number of optical elements and a...

A type of radiation detector designed to recognize nonlinear optical effects, such as the Raman effect, by means of a...

An alteration in magnification from the center of the field to any point in the field, measured in a radial direction from...

A ray that is reflected into the core of an optical fiber from the outer surface of the cladding.

Descriptive of an optical fiber having a core refractive index that decreases almost parabolically and radially outward...

Adaptive optics (AO) is a technology used to improve the performance of optical systems by reducing the effects of...

The transparent component of an optical reader that transmits the image rays of the characters to be read.

A system for automatic industrial process control or measurement, consisting of an optical module for image acquisition, a...

Production of a repeated image of a transmitted beam through a diffractive optical element such as a holographic card or...

A method of analysis in which a pulsed laser beam is used to heat a particle, producing a plasma, or laser spark. As the...

Optical switching refers to the process of controlling the routing or transmission of optical signals within a network using...

An instrument that uses electromagnetic fields to sort out the relative masses of atoms and molecules.The same way an...

The masking of all openings of an optical transform -- except the hole at the symmetrical center -- with a thin wire gauze...

Two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) is a nonlinear optical method that allows imaging of biological cells and living...

A device that couples a light source to an optical fiber by projecting an image of the source and the fiber core onto a...

The term perovskite refers to a specific crystal structure commonly found in various materials. Perovskite structures have a...

The use of chemicals or radiation to induce a desired change in a substance; e.g., some optical adhesives are set by...

A thermoplastic or optically transmitting hard plastic produced by applying polymerization initiator and heat to a monomer.

Refers to a variety of methods and tools used to determine the surface contour and performance of optical components and...

1. A localized fracture at the end of a cleaved optical fiber or on a glass surface. 2. An integrated circuit.

A permanent joint whose purpose is to couple optical power among two or more ports. Also, a device whose purpose is to...

The standards of MIL-O-13830 set by the US government relative to tolerable surface scratches and other such defects in an...

Beam profiling is a technique used to characterize and analyze the spatial intensity distribution of a laser beam. It...

The optical phenomenon in which right circularly polarized light transmitted by an active medium travels at a different...

A device used to prepare optical fiber end faces; a scribe line made by the cleaver's blade propagates across the fiber,...

A gas laser in which the electrodes are mounted perpendicular to the optical resonator.

Sets of paired lines carefully designed to give the most accurate pointing possible for various lengths of sight.

An optical wedge of very small angles that admits light while sealing out moisture and dirt and that may be rotated to...

The total optical power loss in a system. The loss budget is often stated in terms of the transmitted power and the power...

A technique for confining atoms, molecules or small particles within one or more laser beams. This can be accomplished...

Single molecule localization microscopy (SMLM) is a group of super-resolution microscopy techniques that surpass the...

A reflection grating is an optical component that consists of a series of closely spaced, parallel reflecting surfaces or...

An electrical or optical device used to convert color coordinates.

In photolithography, an opaque material used in masks that has a lower optical density and grainier composition than chrome.

Device in which the various circuit elements are fabricated in different substrate materials and then appropriately joined...

An optical interference coating, vacuum-deposited on a circular substrate, whose transmission characteristics may be varied...

A cable assembly containing both optical fibers and copper electrical conductors in the same jacket.

In an interference pattern, that point where there is no difference between the optical paths of the interfacing wavefronts.

The metal tube that maintains the optical components of a lens in proper relationship. Some lenses are mounted in metal...

A device used to detect and measure small amounts of rotation. The rotating object contains a reflecting surface from which...

A system for fabricating optical fiber, consisting of a furnace that heats the materials, a polymer coating stage, a...

An instrument used for video or computer data storage in which a laser optical head is used to write digital information...

The mechanical centerline through the core of an optical fiber.

A monochromator is an optical instrument used to isolate and select a narrow range of wavelengths from a broader spectrum of...

Intensity distribution in the image of an edge. The gradient of the edge-response curve is a measure of the image quality of...

The radiography of small objects having detail too fine to be seen by the unaided eye. The resulting negative, when...

Multimode straight fiber capable of transporting linearly polarized light with any incident polarization angle, and in which...

Also known as the Wiener spectrum or the noise power spectrum, the optical power spectrum is a fundamental quantity in...

A transmission interference microscope that produces interference patterns of a sample by using birefringent plates that...

An etalon is an optical device that consists of two parallel reflecting surfaces separated by a precise and known distance....

Refers to micron-size complex machines that have physical dimensions suitable for the fabrication of optical switches for...

An opaque shielding device designed to reduce the effect of stray light on an optical system.

A photon jet is a narrow, highly collimated beam of light that is formed when light interacts with small dielectric...

Computerized lens design algorithm that permits the lens MTF characteristic to be included and controlled during the...

Any optical transmission channel used in telecommunications designed to connect two end terminals or to be connected in...

A process for the production of optical fibers. A glass bait is rotated in a traversing flame of a reaction burner....

One or more spots placed in the field of view of an optical system to provide a means of reference.

In a microscope, a space reserved to accommodate an optical filter or polarizer.

An optical system used to examine the pharynx.

A defect in the cleaved end face of an optical fiber, in the form of a sharp protrusion at the edge of the fiber.

A glass structure from which an optical fiber waveguide may be drawn.

A viewfinder whose optical system forms a direct image of a subject, as opposed to those systems that use reflectance in the...

A surveying device used to measure vertical displacement of target centers of scale lines from a horizontal plane generated...

The spectroscopic analysis of optical line shapes and frequency shifts, using the technique of light beating; i.e., the...

The outer material that surrounds and protects the buffered and unbuffered fibers in an optical cable.

An optical diffuser is an optical component or material designed to scatter or diffuse light that passes through it. It is...

In a microscope, the diaphragm located between the Bertrand lens and the eyepiece, which is closed during conoscopic viewing...

An erasable data recording and storage medium that uses a laser to heat the crystalline surface of the disc to a certain...

1. A geometrical arrangement of two or more light beams for use in laser shows, object detection or other applications...

Also known as a white-light interferometer. Measures surface texture and shape from nanometer-scale roughness to...

Linear optics refers to the study and manipulation of light in a linear and deterministic manner, where the response of...

Optical design software refers to specialized computer programs used by optical engineers, physicists, and designers to...

A coating that is capable of stopping the condensation of moisture on an optical surface.

The use of retroreflective projection technology (RPT) to project a background image onto a masked object, such as a vehicle...

Optical fiber in which the attenuation exceeds the normally acceptable level for long-haul or data communications use.

In optical character recognition systems, the identification of a character facilitated by means of known factors governing...

An optical grating, in the context of optics and physics, refers to a device with a periodic structure of closely spaced,...

Diffuse stray light at the image plane of an optical system that results in reduced contrast and resolution.

An imperfection in optical glass consisting of a distinct streak of transparent material having a slightly different...

The number of channels per unit bandwidth handled by a single optical fiber.

A gelatinous fluid that can be used as a porous thin-film coating for optical components, including laser beam collimators,...

A laser diode module is a compact device that incorporates a laser diode, optics, and often other components into a single...

The term delta error (delta-E) generally refers to the difference or change in error between two values or states. The word...

Photoplethysmography (PPG) is a non-invasive optical technique used to detect changes in blood volume in tissues. It...

A mechanical or electrical-electromagnetic device for periodically interrupting or blocking abeam of light for a brief known...

Optofluidics is an interdisciplinary field that combines principles from optics and fluidics to create devices and systems...

Measure of the interference fringe pattern produced by the forward scattering of light by an optical fiber; the fringe...

The fraction of incident light power in an optical modulator that is available to the output beam.

A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) is a compact and integrated device that incorporates multiple photonic components and...

A material that can rotate the polarization of light that passes through it. An optically active material exhibits different...

That point on the optical axis of a lens, to which an incident bundle of parallel light rays will converge.

Second-harmonic generation (SHG) is a nonlinear optical process that occurs when two photons with the same frequency combine...

A convex, concave or flat cast iron form that is used to shape a soft mold block of optical components.

A multilayered thin-film device used to modulate transmitted light in integrated photonic circuits.

When splitting the output of a single optical fiber into two or more fibers, the difference in the maximum loss between any...

A threadlike inclusion within a blank of optical glass. Rarely found in quality optical materials.

Signal used in optical transmission systems to generate currents in a detector that are decoded with reference to a...

The process in the manufacture of an optical system that gives it the required geometric shape.

The process whereby the shape of an optical surface is altered by polishing.

A custom optic refers to an optical component that is designed, manufactured, and tailored to meet specific requirements or...

For an optical table, the amount of displacement that occurs when a heavy load is placed or moved on the surface. To measure...

An optical element having two principal axes, slow and fast, that resolve an incident polarized beam into two mutually...

Any optical device that utilizes diffraction in an image-forming capability. Familiar diffractive lenses are zone plates,...

Designed for the function of optical wavefront analysis. Shack-Hartmann camera aberration sensors use a lens array to image...

A pulsed interferometer that permits the continuous quantitative mapping of the surface deformation of an adaptive optical...

A scale on an optical instrument that indicates the condition of focus. May indicate the distance to the object or diopter...

A molecule that is the mirror image of another molecule. The two mirror-image molecules have the same chemical properties;...

Blocking by means of a pitch ring, pitch button or a totally pitched block. Pitch, containing a soft filter, may be used...

A method for obtaining the optical absorption spectra of solids, semisolids, liquids and gases. PAS is inherently...

A measure of the transmittance through an optical medium. Optical density equals the log to the base 10 of the reciprocal of...

The process, used with a positive photoresist, in which the photoresist is immersed in developing chemicals while being...

A shaft, spindle or any object generally passed through a workpiece to hold, support or shape a particular piece during its...

Structural color refers to coloration in materials that is not caused by pigments or dyes but is instead a result of the...

A fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is a type of optical filter that is inscribed or "written" into the core of an optical fiber. It...

The lens thickness measured at the optical axis.

In an optical system, the gradual reduction of image illuminance as the off-axis angle increases, resulting from limitations...

Whispering gallery mode (WGM) refers to a phenomenon in wave physics, particularly in optics, where waves, such as light or...

Capability requirement for optical switches for transmission lines to process arbitrarily polarized light because of the...

In microscopy, the clear distance between the specimen being viewed and the first optical element of the objective lens.

In optics and photonics, "phase" refers to a property of electromagnetic waves, such as light, that describes the position...

A polariton is a quasiparticle resulting from the strong coupling between photons (light particles) and certain types of...

A technique of optical storage whereby information is encoded by molecular alterations in the interaction between the...

A MEMS fiber optic switch is a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) device designed to selectively route optical signals...

A confocal resonator, also known as a confocal cavity or confocal laser resonator, is a type of optical resonator...

Also known as OCT-A, optical coherence tomography angiography is an imaging technique that uses light waves to measure...

An astronomical telescope is a type of optical instrument designed to gather and magnify light from distant celestial...

A microscope that allows examination of a small crystal and conveniently provides linearly polarized object and reference...

A straight line connecting the curvature centers of the refracting lens surfaces. In a mechanical sense, a line joining the...

The Kerr effect, named after the physicist John Kerr who first observed it in 1875, is a nonlinear optical phenomenon where...

A bundle of filaments of optical glass or other transparent materials that transmit only light, not optical images. The...

An optical projection device designed to project positive color transparencies onto a screen for viewing.

An optical instrument consisting of an objective lens, a coherent (usually flexible) fiber bundle and an eyepiece to examine...

The optical diffraction spectra formed, or the method that produces them, when a light beam is transmitted through a...

The difference in angular bearing of an object as seen by the two eyes, due to the separation of the visual optical axes.

The removal of material from an optical system to decrease the weight and sometimes the bulk of the system. See coring;...

In coherent optical communications systems, a laser used at the receiving end to produce a steady wave that is combined with...

When a block of glass (prism, window, filter, etc.) is placed into a converging light bundle, it increases the physical...

An instrument usually consisting of a very long interferometer, 3 to 800 m, and a laser light source for the study and...

1. A generic term for detector. 2. A complete optical/mechanical/electronic system that contains some form of radiation...

An optical system in which the only image-forming elements are curved-surface mirrors; e.g., a Cassegrain lens system.

In gradient index optics, a gradient profile in which the refractive index varies along the direction of light propagation,...

That layer in a semiconductor injection laser or light-emitting diode that provides optical gain.

A photonic crystal that comprises magneto-optical material such that the optical response of the device depends on the...

The state of optically excited luminescence. Luminescence refers to the light emitted by excited atoms or ions as they decay...

A system of modular mechanical components for building precision optical systems. The basic equipment includes a variety of...

A receiver for optical communications systems consisting of a symmetric binary, pulse-code-modulated transmitter, a...

A fiber optic sensor is a device that uses optical fibers to detect and measure physical, chemical, biological, or...

A method of producing large volumes of plastic optical components in which powdered or sheet plastic is pressed between...

GaN (Gallium Nitride) distributed feedback (DFB) lasers refer to a specific type of semiconductor laser based on Gallium...

An electro-optic modulator (EOM) is a device used to modulate the amplitude, phase, or polarization of light waves using an...

The figure seen through or imaged by an optical system. It may contain structures, natural or artificial, or it may be the...

Nonlinear optical materials are substances that exhibit optical properties that are not linearly proportional to the...

A state in which an image is distorted by an optical system.

A two-electrode, radiation-sensitive junction formed in a semiconductor material in which the reverse current varies with...

An optical system with different focal lengths or magnification levels in perpendicular planes to the optical axis.

A device used to control or block a light beam by means of the Kerr electro-optical effect.

An optical data storage device that permits the user to store data (write) and play it back (read), but not to erase or...

A chart on paper or glass containing a series of sets of lines at progressively smaller spacing and used to ascertain the...

An optical system having one or more lens or mirror components that have nonspherical surfaces. These surfaces, whether...

A controlled random search process, such as generalized simulated annealing, that has been incorporated into many optical...

An optical storage product that can be used for playback only.

The area of optics in which the propagation of light is described by geometrical lines (or rays) governed by Fermat's...

In an optical waveguide, that loss attributable to macrobending. Macrobending usually causes little or no radiative loss.

The change in refractive index that occurs as acoustic vibrations are transmitted through an optical material.The index...

A technology that uses electrically activated holograms stored within specially developed crystals to route information in...

A material often used in the construction of optical instruments because of its low coefficient of thermal expansion (0.9 x...

An optical system of variable focal length, the focal plane remaining in a fixed position. This result is achieved by moving...

A fiber optic imaging bundle is a specialized optical device composed of multiple optical fibers bundled together. Each...

The recording of the information contained in a modulated electron beam onto photographic or silicon resin-coated materials....

A solid block of glass-ceramic material with holes drilled the length of all four sides, and mirrors attached to the corners...

Plasma-enriched deposition or planar magnetic sputtering that offers increased deposition rates in optical thin-film...

Laser active elements typically refers to the substances or materials within a laser system that play a critical role in the...

A flanged or plain ring with a restricted aperture, located in an optical system at any of several points, that cuts off...

A ray that lies in the meridional plane; a ray that lies in the plane that contains the optical axis. A tangential ray.

The range of angle or solid angle values by which light may enter an optical system.

A quantum cascade laser (QCL) is a type of semiconductor laser that operates based on the principles of quantum mechanics....

An interferometer that functions by first detecting the light striking each aperture and then combining the two detector...

A type of tubing used to protect optical fiber cables, consisting of a wire spiral of aluminum, galvanized steel or...

Mie scattering, named after the German physicist Gustav Mie, refers to the scattering of electromagnetic radiation (such as...

A small optical polishing machine intended for polishing the surface of a metal specimen before etching for examination...

A hole filled with dirt such as a polishing abrasive and located in an optical surface. See dig; scratch.

The determination of distance based upon the known size of an object and the size of its image at the image plane of an...

A photographic or electronic recording of an optical interference pattern.

Also referred to as image visibility, the contrast of an image is the variation in the intensity of an image formed by an...

A distributed feedback laser (DFB laser) is a type of semiconductor laser diode designed to emit coherent, narrow-bandwidth...

Infrared optics refer to optical components and systems designed to manipulate and control infrared (IR) light, which lies...

Metasurfaces are two-dimensional arrays of subwavelength-scale artificial structures, often referred to as meta-atoms or...

The image of a point source that appears as a circle of finite diameter because of defocusing or the aberrations inherent in...

An electron-beam lithography (EBL) system is a sophisticated nanofabrication tool used in the semiconductor industry and...

An adhesive used for bonding optical elements or for holding devices.

Adhering material used to glue optical components that transmit in the infrared. It is easily dissolved by acetone.

A process used to control thickness and parallelism precisely during the production of plane-parallel plates. Elements are...

1. A flaw in a blank caused by folding the blank's surface during its formation. 2. The change in the direction of a...

In optics, the geometrical form of an optical surface.

In fiber optic communications, a light source whose beam can be modulated and sent along an optical fiber, and the...

Brillouin scattering is a phenomenon in physics where an incident electromagnetic wave (usually light) interacts with...

A spectroscopic technique used to display the intensity of an optical pulse as functions of time and frequency...

The figure of merit of a resonator, defined as (2p) x (average energy stored in the resonator)/(energy dissipated per...

Fizeau fringes are interference fringes observed in an interferometer, specifically in a Fizeau interferometer. The Fizeau...

An instrument capable of measuring the transmitted or reflected luminance from a very small area seen under a microscope....

An optical instrument used to track and image a test vehicle (target) throughout its flight. The cinesextant frequently...

An optical instrument used to isolate a narrow bandwidth of optical radiation using a diffraction grating as the dispersive...

A mirror blank refers to the initial piece of material from which a mirror is made. It is typically a flat or slightly...

A photometric instrument having two prisms clamped in optical contact to produce a photometric field with an acute dividing...

An assembly of optical fibers that will not transmit coherent images or information because the relationship of the fibers...

The angle between a light ray emerging from an optical system and the optical axis of that system.

Equipment that supports microscopic live-cell imaging by managing the gas, media perfusion, temperature and other factors to...

Graphene is a two-dimensional allotrope of carbon consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal...

An optical table, also known as an optical bench or an optical breadboard, is a specialized platform used in optics...

A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance, which is a phenomenon that occurs when an external force or...

An arrangement of optical fibers in a bundle whereby the geometric configuration of the input end differs from that of the...

Nanoparticle photonic resonator absorption microscopy is a microscopy technique that combines the principles of photonic...

The holographic recording of a microscopic specimen whereby magnification is achieved by alteration in a wavelength or...

Broadband radiation emitted by a laser that does not transmit through the optical element. It can be removed by filtering.

Optical phase distortion refers to a phenomenon where the phase of an optical wavefront is altered as it propagates through...

A method of terminating optical fibers by forming a lens directly on the end of the fiber, eliminating the need for precise...

Technique using functional optical microscope with the addition of a coherent source collinear with the image path. The...

An APD detector, or avalanche photodiode detector, is a type of photodetector used to detect light or optical signals by...

A group of lenses, or any combination of lenses, mirrors and prisms, so constructed as to refract or reflect light to...

Nanopositioning refers to the precise and controlled movement or manipulation of objects or components at the nanometer...

Computer vision enables computers to interpret and make decisions based on visual data, such as images and videos. It...

Phase matching is a crucial concept in the field of optics, particularly in nonlinear optics and the generation of coherent...

A laser cavity, also known as an optical cavity or resonator, is a fundamental component of a laser system. It is a confined...

An array of refractive microlenses that are round, square and hexagonal and as small as 15 µm. They are used for...

A five-sided prism containing two reflecting surfaces at 45° to each other, and two refracting faces perpendicular to...

An afocal optical device made up of lenses or mirrors, usually with a magnification greater than unity, that renders distant...

An electric arc that is formed in mercury vapor through which an electric current flows. The intensity of the illumination...

A light-harvesting protein found in the purple membrane of a micro-organism called Halobacterium halobium. The protein...

A fiber-coupled photoconductive antenna (FCPA) is a type of optoelectronic device that combines a photoconductive antenna...

In the optical shop, the process of positioning and marking a blank or lens before surfacing, cutting and edging.

Indium phosphide (InP) is a compound semiconductor material composed of indium (In) and phosphorus (P). It belongs to the...

The smallest angle through which light is bent by an optical element or system. In a prism, the angle of deviation is a...

A photodiode having a conducting grid that covers the surface of the photodiode junction and intercepts and wastes some of...

A specific form of phase shifting interferometry - commonly referred to as multiple wavelength phase shifting interferometry...

A dispersion relation defined in order to value the reciprocal amount of dispersion. It is defined as the refractivity over...

A linear positioning stage, also known as a linear stage or translation stage, is a precision mechanical device used to...

A method of focusing an optical system by moving the front component (the lens closest to the subject) to change the...

The perceived brightness of an object being viewed at some distance, especially through an optical instrument.

A type of high-speed cine camera that uses different image paths and a Kerr cell to produce a series of successive images at...

In a microscope, the optical assembly that focuses light on the specimen and into the objective.

Not spherical; an optical element having one or more surfaces that are not spherical. The spherical surface of a lens may be...

Micro-optics refers to the design, fabrication, and application of optical components and systems at a microscale level....

A technique used to measure the mode-field diameter of an optical fiber by scanning one fiber past another at a distance of...

1. A mechanism that permits the focusing of an optical system.2. A means of obtaining the sharpest image from a cathode-ray...

The phenomenon that makes nonlinear the mathematical expression for the electrical polarization of a medium through which...

A technique for detecting and measuring atmospheric pollution, in which an oscillating mirror directs half the incoming...

An optical waveguide in which only the lowest order bound mode, which may consist of a pair of orthogonally polarized...

PCSEL stands for "photonic crystal surface-emitting laser." It refers to a type of laser diode that emits light from its...

A defect on a polished optical surface whose length is many times its width. Block reek is a chainlike scratch formed in...

In dry etching, a method of characterizing the composition of solid materials such as metal. Atoms in the OES technique are...

An optical filter is a device that selectively transmits or blocks specific wavelengths, or colors, of light. Optical...

Volumetric imaging refers to the capture, visualization, and analysis of three-dimensional (3D) information from a volume of...

A measure of the relative difference in refractive index between two optical materials. Most commonly used in fiber optics...

In an optical waveguide, a mode whose field decays monotonically for a finite distance in the transverse direction but which...

The point at which infrared transmission is cut off.

Observed lengthening in wavelengths of the optical absorption edge of a semiconductor with the application of an electric...

A metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodiode is a type of photodetector that consists of metal electrodes on a semiconductor...

1. In color development, the chemical that combines with certain by-products of the development procedure to form a dye. 2....

A scanning technique in optical character recognition in which an array of photocells is used to scan each character to...

A metalens, short for "metasurface lens," is a type of optical lens that uses nanostructured materials to manipulate light...

The optical phenomenon in which white light dispersed by small particles in suspension appears blue when viewed through a...

In semiconductor physics and materials science, the term "III-V materials" refers to compounds composed of elements from...

In optics, the mechanical tension, compression or shear in optical glass due to internal stress caused by improper cooling...

A standard for fiber optic telecommunications interfaces, with a 1300-nm data link operating over single-mode fiber at data...

A high-speed shutter, similar to a Kerr cell, that uses the birefringence produced in a liquid during the passage of an...

The capacity of a chiral substance such as a crystal or molecule to rotate the plane of polarized light that is transmitted...

Liquid crystals are a state of matter that exhibits properties intermediate between those of conventional liquids and solid...

An optical device that permits the alignment of a gun, cannon or rocket launcher system with its target.

An optical fiber in which ions of a rare-earth element, such as neodymium, erbium or holmium, have been incorporated into...

With respect to photography, the law stating that the optical density of an exposed emulsion with standard development is a...

In an optical system having astigmatism, the distance between the tangential and sagittal image planes.

A reflecting prism that is rhomboidal in shape. It has two parallel transmitting faces, and two parallel reflecting faces;...

An aerial photograph produced when the optical axis of the camera is perpendicular to the surface below.

A measurement in optical thin-film coating processes whereby the gases remaining in the vacuum chamber after coating are...

The combination of two or more signals for transmission along a single wire, path or carrier. In most optical communication...

An achromat, in the context of optics, refers to a type of lens or lens system designed to reduce chromatic aberration....

A technique for determining the nonlinear optical properties of a sample material by moving the sample through a focused...

Pertaining to a device that responds to optical power, emits or modifies optical radiation, or utilizes optical radiation...

A spectrograph in which the flux density transmitted through the entrance aperture is regulated by an optical wedge or...

Bearing alternate ridges and grooves; corrugated. Said of some optical surfaces.

The low-refractive-index material that surrounds the core of an optical fiber to contain core light while protecting against...

An adhesive used to affix optical elements to an approximately shaped body -- usually of cast iron.

An optical instrument used to determine the distance to a target being viewed. Two similar optical systems view the target...

See optical time-domain reflectometry (OTDR).

The range of materials that, unlike glass, may be used in the infrared. Water-soluble salts, such as cesium iodide, and...

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive imaging technique used in medical and scientific fields to capture...

A unit of metric measure equivalent to 1 thousandth (or 10-3 ) of the standard unit of optical power which is the diopter (1...

Nondestructive measurement of the delta and alpha of clad optical fibers that involves interferometry with the fiber...

An aspheric lens is a type of lens whose surface profiles deviate from the traditional spherical shape. Unlike spherical...

Quantum confinement refers to the phenomenon in quantum mechanics where the motion of charge carriers, such as electrons or...

Coating carried out in a sealed chamber evacuated by a mechanical pump in series with an oil diffusion pump to a pressure...

A measurement of the spatial resolution of a line or area array in an optical character recognition scanning device.

An optical switch that controls conduction paths into and out of a junction in fiber optic and integrated optical circuits.

A function that quantifies the performance degradation of coherent communications systems, imaging systems and all systems...

Also termed eye distance. The distance between the vertex of the last optical surface of a visual optical system and the...

In the optical field, a piece of glass to which a lens or prism is cemented. The unit is ground and polished as a whole to...

A ray that behaves according to paraxial equations; one that lies close to and almost parallel to the optical axis.

In optical character recognition, an intermediate step between character location and feature extraction.

A plate of electro-optical material that serves to rotate the plane of polarization of a light beam.

An optical system with object and image points at infinity. Literally, "without a focal length."

A phase-modulated sensor is a type of sensor that uses modulation of the phase of a signal to measure changes in a physical...

A tool made by imbedding small particles of diamond in the working edge. In the optical field, the most commonly used...

The light-conducting portion of an optical fiber, defined by the region of high refractive index.

An optical waveguide having a silica core and a plastic cladding.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an imaging technique used in medical diagnostics and biomedical research to obtain...

A polarizing beamsplitting prism similar in design to the Rochon prism. However, the Senarmont transmits the extraordinary...

The second adjustable iris diaphragm in an optical system. In the common microscope condenser system, it usually is located...

The removal of optical elements from a block.

The diffraction pattern of a source such as a light-emitting diode, injection laser diode or the output end of an optical...

Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) is a nondestructive analytical technique used to investigate the optical properties...

A mode in an optical waveguide whose fields are transversely oscillatory everywhere external to the waveguide. It exists...

Method of disk rotation used for optical disk drives, in which the spindle motor decreases the speed of the disk's rotation...

In optics, a motion controller refers to a device or system that precisely controls the movement of optical components, such...

A quantum well is a structure in quantum mechanics that confines particles, such as electrons or holes, in one spatial...

An optical device capable of transforming unpolarized or natural light into polarized light, usually by selective...

A protective jacket added to an optical fiber to facilitate use in harsh environments. Armor usually consists of steel or...

Optical elements arranged with no spaces between, so that the light travels only through glass, not air.

Seidel aberrations refer to a set of monochromatic aberrations in optical systems, named after the German mathematician and...

Also known as ground level. The lowest energy level of an atom or atomic system. A material in the ground state is not...

A photomask, also known simply as a mask or reticle, is a key component in the photolithography process used in...

Integrated photonics is a field of study and technology that involves the integration of optical components, such as lasers,...

An electro-optic system using, in general form, an evacuated glass envelope with a semitransparent photocathode at one end...

The laser damage threshold refers to the maximum level of laser intensity that a material can withstand without experiencing...

A bomb guided to its target by some form of electro-optical system.

One of the two major types of optical glass, the other being crown glass. Flint glass is softer than crown glass, has a...

A transparent crystalline substance in which the refractive index of the optic axis (extraordinary axis) is different from...

An infrared-transmitting optical fiber with a hollow core; it can be square, round or rectangular in cross section. Capable...

An instrument that measures several optical parameters, such as optical power and wavelength, with a single measurement...

Loss mechanisms that degrade the performance of all thin-film optical devices by removing radiant flux out of the specular...

The observation and measurement of the flatness of a mirror surface by contacting an optical flat with the mirror. The...

Optical components, usually reflectors, produced using proprietary techniques that transfer the precision of a master to a...

A device that responds to incident light but does not generate light.

The use of photonic devices rather than electronic devices to make connections within and between integrated circuits.

A photonic cavity, also known as an optical cavity, is a structure that confines electromagnetic radiation within a certain...

The transmission and reception of information by optical devices and sensors.

The radius of curvature that an optical fiber can bend without breaking.

The curved boundary between two optical media of different refractive indices, which causes convergence.

An optical part constructed of a single piece of optical material. It is usually a single lens, prism or mirror.

Optical fiber with a large core, often a step-index fiber; "large'' is at times defined as greater than 85 µm.

The distribution of energy about the image of a point source in the focal plane of an optical system.

Also called coating jig allowance. That margin on an optical component that is outside the clear aperture for use in holding...

That point in the electromagnetic spectrum at which an optical system focuses the most chemically effective rays.

An optical mounting device that permits adjustment around two perpendicular and intersecting axes of rotation.

A combination of a polarizer and an analyzer that is used to detect birefringence or rotation of the plane of polarization...

For each mode in an optical waveguide, the term used to describe the process by which an electromagnetic signal is distorted...

Blaze height typically refers to a parameter in the context of diffraction gratings, which are optical devices consisting of...

A periodic structure formed by intersecting or superimposed laser beams. These beams can trap atoms in low-potential...

The rate of diminution of average optical power and the sum of the scattering and absorption coefficients.

An optical tooling instrument consisting of an objective lens, a focusing lens, an optical micrometer, a reticle and an...

The ability of an optical system to make an object appear larger. An optical element or optical system causing an object to...

An optical material used in place of crown glass to produce lenses with extraordinary correction of chromatic aberrations....

1. The grinding or edging of a lens so that the geometrical center and optical center do not coincide. 2. The shifting of an...

A form of shearing interferometer that contains a simple wedged (plane-parallel) glass plate with a nonzero optical path...

A characteristic of optical fiber used to calculate the fiber's ability to maintain polarization. The beat length describes...

An optical element that measures the phase difference between two components of elliptically polarized light to correct for...

The use of a plasma to induce the formation of oxides in the production of graded-index optical fibers.

A femtosecond laser is a type of laser that emits ultrashort pulses of light with durations on the order of femtoseconds,...

Modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) is a technique used in the fabrication of optical fibers. It is a specialized form...

The fraction of available output from a radiant source that is coupled and transmitted by an optical fiber.

A microlens array is a grid-like structure composed of numerous small lenses, typically arranged in a regular pattern. Each...

Optoelectronics is a branch of electronics that focuses on the study and application of devices and systems that use light...

A swept-source laser, also known as a wavelength-swept laser, is a type of laser that rapidly and continuously changes its...

A dichroic coating, also known as a dichroic filter or dichroic mirror, is an optical coating designed to selectively...

An ultrafast laser is a type of laser that emits extremely short pulses of light with durations typically on the order of...

Azimuthal polarization refers to a specific polarization state of light where the electric field vector of the...

An infrared transmitting material used in the production of fluoride glasses for optical fibers.

Also known as TEA laser. A coherent optical source with a wide wavelength range in the infrared, visible and ultraviolet...

Rare earth dopants refer to elements from the lanthanide series, also known as rare earth elements, that are intentionally...

A method of producing high-quality plastic optics in large volumes by injecting the heated, liquified plastic at high...

Left- and right-hand circularly polarized beams that are produced at different velocities by passing plane-polarized light...

Injecting a gas (usually nitrogen) with a very low moisture content into the body of an optical instrument to create a...

An aberration occurring in a lens system when one or more of the centers of curvature of the optical surfaces do not...

A unique glass made up of nano-structured materials to create millimeter sized monolithic glass space-variant polarization...

A device used to rapidly change the Q of an optical resonator. It is used in the optical resonator of a laser to prevent...

A circular lamp or bundles of optical fibers placed around the perimeter of an objective lens to illuminate the object field...

A substance that transmits the infrared, but which is too delicate or fragile to be used in the form of a single crystal....

A continuous-wave dye laser that uses a circulation pump and nozzle to provide an optically flat stream of dye across the...

Any structure having the ability to guide the flow of radiant energy along a path parallel to its axis and to contain the...

A special form of microscope that utilizes interference for observing and measuring the phase and optical thickness in...

A technique based on the principles of laser trapping and used to manipulate the position of small particles by gradually...

The study and photographing of microscope specimens in ultraviolet light; using an optical microscope containing fluorite...

1. The sector of the Earth's surface registered upon a remote sensing device in a satellite. 2. The amount of space occupied...

The technique for measuring the index profile of an optical fiber by scanning the entrance face with the vertex of a high...

An optical assembly refers to a collection of optical components that are carefully arranged and aligned to perform a...

The science that deals with the measurement of optical absorbance (i.e. optical densities) over microscopic areas of a given...

A beamsplitter is an optical device for dividing a beam into two or more separate beams. A simple beamsplitter may be a very...

A Mach-Zehnder interferometer is an optical device used to measure the phase difference between two collimated beams of...

An autocollimator is an optical instrument used for measuring small angular deviations with high precision. It operates on...

The intermolecular attraction between two surfaces, as between a substrate and a coating; it is an important factor in the...

A support device in which a column or chamber of air permits the free travel of a mobile part. In optical mounting and...

In an optical waveguide, a ray for which geometric optics would predict total internal reflection at the core boundary, but...

A platform mount used to hold sensitive optical instruments immobile.

That process by which radiation spontaneously emitted by a volume of optical materials is resonantly reabsorbed within the...

A graphic reproduction of an object formed by a microscope or another optical system. Also an instrument used to make tiny...

The term light field refers to the spatial distribution of light rays traveling in all directions through a given space. It...

The ratio of the illuminance at the peak of the diffraction pattern of an aberrated point image to that at the peak of an...

The technology of manipulating light on a micro scale. In optical communications, this is usually accomplished using two or...

A Fresnel lens is a type of optical lens that consists of a series of concentric grooves or steps carved into a flat, thin...

An optical system that is corrected for distortion and spherical aberration and therefore forms the image of a straight line...

A type of optical microscope that allows the specimen being viewed to be irradiated by ultraviolet, violet and occasionally...

An interferometric method for describing the surface shape of large coated or uncoated optical flats. The procedure uses a...

A measure of an optical system's ability to produce an image which separates two points or parallel lines on the object. See...

Visible laser radiation, often optically expanded and collimated, used to induced temporary blindness from within a walking...

Optical fiber channel characterization scheme based on three assumptions; the discrete mode spectrum can be replaced by a...

In an optical system, the space between the object being viewed and the system entrance pupil.

Multi-axis alignment refers to the process of aligning or adjusting components or systems in multiple spatial dimensions or...

An optical pyrometer that is equipped with a narrow bandpass filter to transmit a limited number of wavelengths to the...

In Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS), an incident photon (usually laser light) interacts with acoustic phonons in a...

The rotation of an instrument (or the line of sight of an optical system) in a horizontal plane; transverse.

The determination of a substance's identity or quantity through the analysis of its optical rotation. For example, the...

Handheld optical laser device containing a semiconductor or DPSS source. The output is corrected via internal collimating...

In polarization-preserving optical fibers, the element used to induce birefringence. The SAP is highly doped to provide a...

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...

A semiconductor platelet laser that emits a coherent image by means of plane optical pumping over the platelet surface, and...

Inactive optically, but having the capacity for resolution into forms of opposed optical activity. The term is derived from...

An expression of the tolerance of decentration of a laser diode from the optical axis: the region around the axis in the...

A means of testing the strength of optical fibers to ensure reliability, by applying stress to the fiber so that any flaws...

An array of active optical devices (modulators, laser diodes and/or detectors), each of whose electrical inputs or outputs...

A lens used in the optical testing of an aspheric surface. It converts a spherical wavefront into one that precisely matches...

A device incorporating a spatial light modulator and a reference filter; used for matching an input optical waveform or...

A Dammann grating is a type of diffractive optical element (DOE) used to create an array of equally spaced,...

An astronomical mirror, also known as a telescope mirror or primary mirror, is a key component of a reflecting telescope. It...

The degree to which the surface of a lens causes an incident ray of light to bend, or the amount of convergence or...

A dispersion-shifted fiber (DSF) refers to a type of optical fiber designed to minimize the effects of chromatic dispersion,...

Variations in a signal passing through an optical fiber caused by the effect on the pulse of the fiber's material and mode...

The term "embedded laser" typically refers to a laser device that is integrated or embedded into a larger system or...

A laser-pumped crystal with nonlinear optical properties inside of an optical resonator in which the output generates...

Reactive evaporation refers to a process in thin-film deposition where a material is deposited onto a substrate through...

In the optical field, a tube to which a lens is fastened for centering.

The scanning of photographs or transparencies of images, either by a vidicon camera or flying spot scanner, for the...

The distance between the center of the two concentric circles of an optical fiber that designate the diameter of the...

A device to modulate spatially a collimated coherent beam of light with input data in optical data processing. It uses a...

The integration of plastic materials into optical applications. When the materials are refined into lenses, prisms and...

A profile of an optical component, usually a fiber, in which the core is of uniform refractive index and the cladding or...

1. That action occurring when light passes through an optical interface at other than normal incidence, i.e., refraction. 2....

A blue diode laser is a type of semiconductor laser that emits light in the blue wavelength range of the electromagnetic...

A geometric representation of a light path through an optical device; a line normal to the wavefront indicating the...

The condition of the numerical aperture or beam diameter of the laser, LED, or other optical source being larger than the...

Second-order nonlinear optical properties refer to a class of phenomena exhibited by certain materials in response to...

1. An optical distance finder that depends on triangulation of two convergent beams on an object from disparate view points....

Near the boundary or edge of the field of an optical system; the outer fringe.

Germanium crystal refers to a crystalline form of the element germanium (Ge), which is a metalloid and semiconductor...

The point spread function (PSF) is a fundamental concept in imaging that describes the response of an imaging system to a...

Time-lapse optical coherence tomography (OCT) refers to a medical imaging technique that captures a series of sequential OCT...

An optical instrument containing a gimballed sighting telescope, used to measure angular relationships in horizontal and...

A defect on or in an optical element that does not appreciably impair the function of the surface.

The use of computer analysis in the calculation of diffraction patterns for information on the design of optical systems. In...

The principle that states that optical instrumentation cannot increase the radiance of a source; the radiance of an image...

The ratio of the diameter of the entrance pupil in an optical system to the equivalent focal length of that system. The...

The angle subtended by two points or lines that are just far enough apart to be distinguished as separate. The ability of an...

A process that employs heat to remove polyimide plastic coatings from silica optical fibers and capillary tubing.

Optical fiber optic switches are devices used in optical fiber communication systems to selectively route optical signals...

A fiber optic preform is a cylindrical glass rod or tube used as the starting material for manufacturing optical fibers. It...

Calculation of peak and average transmission power at a given point along an optical fiber or cable.

Also referred to as physical optics - the area of optics in which the wave nature of light is essential when defining its...

The ratio of the size of the image of an object to that of the object. The ratio of the linear size of the image to that of...

The noise produced in a photodetector when the photocathode is shielded from all external optical radiation and operating...

1. The direct storage of data as bits in memory using optical systems and properties. The memory makes use of a laser beam...

The physical limit of an optical fiber or cable to withstand an applied force or weight perpendicular to the axis of the...

Transparent glassy and or crystalline structured materials engineered from inorganic, non-metallic materials via various...

The process whereby a rotating wheel carries grains of an abrasive, suspended in a vehicle, across the surface of the...

1. A group of optical fibers that are fused and then treated to produce a vacuum-tight optical fiber cone or plate. 2. An...

The optical element that receives light from the object and forms the first or primary image in telescopes and microscopes....

A technique developed by British Telecom in which the viscous drag of air is used to install optical fibers in narrow...

An endoscope is a medical device used for visualizing and examining the interior of hollow organs, body cavities, or...

Optical components exceeding 24 in. in diameter. The components are usually glass, acrylic or polystyrene and are used for...

A self-healing, index-matching, nonporous coating for optical components that can eliminate production difficulties and...

A wide-field camera based on the classic Schmidt optical system used to photograph Earth-orbiting satellites.

Spatial light interference microscopy (SLIM) is an optical microscopy technique that belongs to the category of quantitative...

Correction of an optical system at four separate wavelengths. This correction, longitudinal and lateral, is possible with...

Free-space optics (FSO), also known as optical wireless communication or optical wireless networking, refers to the...

The procedure by which the similarity of an optical signal or waveform to a reference-stored signal or waveform is...

Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter...

A GRIN (gradient index) lens is a type of optical lens that utilizes a gradient in refractive index across its volume rather...

The coupling of laser or light beams via nonlinear optical techniques such as four-wave mixing to achieve spatial variation...

An optical barcode reader, commonly known as a barcode scanner, is a device that uses optical technology to capture and...

In compact disc and CD-ROM technology, the portion of the drive that projects the laser light onto the surface of the media...

A fiber optic transceiver, often simply referred to as an "optical transceiver," is a device used in fiber optic...

The Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor is an optical device used for measuring the wavefront aberrations of an optical system....

Magneto-optics refers to the study and manipulation of the interaction between magnetic fields and light (electromagnetic...

A package for an optical fiber or fibers that may include cladding, buffering, strength members and an outer jacket.

A nonlinear crystal used to modulate a polarized beam of light by means of the Pockels effect. A Pockels cell is used as a...

Optical glass refers to a type of glass specifically engineered and manufactured for use in optical components and systems,...

The function that characterizes the quality of an optical system by denoting the modulation and spatial phase shift of the...

With respect to color photography, the measurement, at a given wavelength, of the way the color film modulates the radiant...

1. The photosensitive membrane on the inside of the human eye. 2. A scanning mechanism in optical character generation.

An infrared camera, also known as a thermal imaging camera or IR camera, is a device that captures and visualizes the...

The property of an optical system whereby only the effects of diffraction determine the quality of the image it produces.

1. A faint second image caused by reflection that is sometimes seen when observing through an optical instrument. 2. With...

A device, also called a fluorescence lifetime instrument, that measures decay curves of fluorescing samples. It generally...

An instrument used to support optical parts to be cemented, or to be mounted in plaster.

A homogeneous optical medium or coating that transmits only in particular regions of the spectrum. It is used to change or...

A type of matched filter that responds only to the phase of incoming light; the output has a much greater intensity than...

An optical wedge in which transmittance or density is a function of the location of the wedge, relative to a specific...

An optical combiner, in the context of optics and display technologies, refers to a device or component that combines...

An antireflection coating (AR coating) is a thin film or coating applied to optical surfaces, such as lenses or windows, to...

Any ray through an optical system that is not a meridional ray. The plane created by a refracted skew ray does not contain...

In a single element, any lack of coincidence between the optical and the mechanical axes. In a lens system, any lack of...

An optical interference technique widely utilized as a method of nondestructive testing when determining the ray deflection...

An optical recording technique that uses light source(s), a beamsplitting cube, light detector(s) and an optical fiber...

The angular spectrum approach is a mathematical and computational technique used in the field of optics to analyze and...

A copolymer of styrene and acrylic used in molded optical components; it has a high refractive index and a low coefficient...

A defect in the cleaved end face of an optical fiber in which the surface changes abruptly.

A frequency comb is a precise and regular series of equally spaced spectral lines, or frequencies, that are generated with...

A permanent, transparent, and highly transmissive adhesive capable of withstanding extreme temperatures that is applied to...

An optical system that is designed to produce a high temperature in a specified area by the optical direction and...

1. Mounting a lens or mirror so that its optical axis is coincident with the optical or mechanical axes of other portions of...

An optical gate typically refers to a device or system that controls the transmission of light, allowing it to pass through...

A GaAlAs laser is a type of semiconductor laser diode that emits light in the near-infrared region of the electromagnetic...

A rapid change, as opposed to a long-term drift, of the emission wavelength of an optical source. Chirping is most often...

The production of a block by attaching the optical elements to a plate by means of individual buttons of pitch or other...

An optical circuit, either monolithic or hybrid, composed of active and passive components, used for coupling between...

Linear receive optics typically refers to the optical components and systems used in the reception (detection) of linearly...

Energy loss encountered at connectors in optical fiber transmission systems. The major contributors are mutual core...

Rate at which optical radiation or a signal is varied through the use of a mechanical or electronic chopper. Also called...

1.) Generally, the electromagnetic spectrum within the wavelength region extending from the vacuum ultraviolet at 40 nm to...

A nonlinear optical process in which the frequency of an optical beam is doubled coherently.

Noise generated within an optical communications system link that has both internal (dark current) and external (background...

The effect discovered by Faraday in 1845 whereby nonoptically active materials or substances become capable of rotating the...

An optical waveguide that will allow more than one bound mode to propagate.

A type of erasable data storage device that uses a medium deposited on the disc in two layers, each dyed to absorb a...

Mode-locking is a technique used in lasers to produce ultrashort pulses of light with durations on the order of picoseconds,...

In an optical system, the aperture size at which the lens gives its best overall performance.

Spectral domain optical coherence tomography is an imaging technique used in medical diagnostics, particularly in...

A memory system composed of a stack of holographic plates, a mode-locked laser and a rapid detector array. Ultrashort laser...

Structured illumination microscopy (SIM) is an advanced optical imaging technique used in microscopy to enhance the...

Protective material surrounding the cladding of an optical fiber that allows the fiber no play within it.

A molecular motor refers to a nano-sized device composed of organic molecules or other small-scale components that can...

With respect to display systems, a device that uses an independent light source and a control-layer medium, the active...

A nonoptical surface, within lenses and lens mounts, that contributes largely to flare by reflecting light into the image...

A microcomb, short for microresonator frequency comb, is a novel photonic device that generates a precise series of evenly...

A furnace used to heat glass materials. It may be a small laboratory-type furnace for small-scale experiments or large...

Material used to integrate photoconductors into electro-optical systems. It should provide low resistance to the flow of...

A device used to delay transmission of a signal for functions such as memory loops, sequential processing or built-in...

Angular deviation from the optimum alignment of source to optical waveguide, waveguide to waveguide, or waveguide to...

A departure from ideal paraxial imaging behavior. The distortion of an optical field wavefront as it is propagated through...

An adhesive used to hold optical elements to blocking tools. It is usually a thermoplastic substance such as resin, beeswax,...

A type of laser used when a great amount of power is required. Avoiding the bulk of large numbers of optical lenses, this...

An optical experiment carried out conclusively in 1887 that demonstrated that the ether, a hypothetical medium postulated by...

An optical-quality polymer used in birefringent retarders.

Designation for the fundamental mode of an optical fiber.

A crystalline ferroelectric material used primarily as a substrate and an active medium for thin-film optical modulators and...

The optical phenomenon that causes relative motion between two objects when the eyepoint is moved laterally. When parallax...

An optical instrument designed to displace the line of sight in a vertical direction. For submarines and other military uses...

A type of interferometer noted for producing narrow multiple-beam interference fringes. As a result, when compared with the...

Extremely small organic and inorganic systems of molecules within a substance. In general, systems are colloidal size in...

An optical instrument designed for the visual examination of the inside of the stomach.

A method of producing disks for erasable optical data storage. Information is recorded by a laser beam that generates pits...

Property of a substance whose volume elements differ in composition and optical properties.

The maximum rate at which temporally disjunct optical signals can be produced or detected.

A straight line, real or imaginary, passing through a body and indicating its center; a line so positioned that various...

To control, by magnifying or reducing, the size of a televised image, either electronically or optically.

An optical system that is corrected chromatically for three colors simultaneously.

A cylindrical lens is an optical component that has different curvatures along its two orthogonal axes, resulting in a shape...

Dichroism refers to the property of certain materials to exhibit different colors or absorbance of light depending on the...

A system of optical components designed to increase the diameter of a radiation beam. Usually an afocal system.

The use of phase conjugation or other methods to increase the power density of a laser beam under adverse atmospheric...

Ultrasound used in the cleaning of metal and optical parts by virtue of its vibration rates. Large acoustic forces break off...

An array of optically distinct fibers that are fused into one strand. They are used to keep the resolution efficiency of the...

A component used to modify light rays by diffraction; the HOE is produced by recording the interference pattern of two laser...

Concave is an adjective used to describe a surface or shape that curves inward or has a hollow or recessed appearance. In...

Fine lines, wires or threads used in the focal plane of many optical instruments to point out and locate particular objects...

A device for measuring diffraction grating efficiency at any angle of incidence, consisting of a reflectometer wherein the...

A laser, which stands for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation," is a device that produces coherent and...

An optical fiber with a hollow core filled with a liquid material that has a higher refractive index than the solid...

In the fabrication of an optical fiber, a layer that can be used to create a boundary against OH-ion diffusion into the core.

An optical test table made up of two outer layers or "skins'' bonded to either side of a honeycomblike core, usually of...

A method that produces low-loss optical fibers. A glass tube rotates while reactants pass through the tube and heat is...

A laser crystal, also known as an active medium or gain medium, is a solid-state material used in the construction of...

The end of an optical fiber farthest from the source of illumination.

The direct computation of the Fourier transform of the space variant system output of an optical processor with a single...

A molded lens is an optical lens manufactured using a molding process, typically involving the shaping of a material, such...

An intermolecular substance that serves to hold materials together. Two types are used in the optical industry: one, which...

A property of optical fiber that results from thermal stresses during manufacturing and is defined as the amount of...

A strand of aramid yarn, steel or fiberglass in an optical cable intended to prevent bending or stretching that would damage...

A two-fiber optical cable containing two single-fiber cables that are connected by a strip of jacket and that can easily be...

A lateral shearing interferometer is an optical device used in interferometry to measure phase differences between two beams...

The process by which an atomic system changes from one energy level to another by either the emission or absorption of...

A semispherical or conical lens created directly on the core of an optical fiber to focus light from a laser into the fiber...

A unit of optical measurement that expresses the refractive power of a lens or prism. In a lens or lens system, it is the...

A beam shaper is an optical device or system designed to modify the spatial profile or intensity distribution of a laser or...

An instrument that employs the interference of lightwaves to measure the accuracy of optical surfaces; it can measure a...

An instrument used to determine the absolute or relative scatter levels of optical surfaces.

A CCD image sensor, or charge-coupled device image sensor, is a type of electronic device used to convert optical images...

1. A constituent part. It may consist of two or more parts cemented together, or with near and approximately matching...

A tool used to remove the outer cladding of an optical fiber without damaging the fiber core.

A method of predicting the nonlinear optical effects exhibited by different molecules without synthesizing the molecules...

The degree to which a predetermined or previous setting of a positioning device can be duplicated by observance of the...

Abbreviated PAI. An imaging modality with a hybrid technique based on the acoustic detection of optical absorption from...

An infrared light-emitting diode (IR LED) is a semiconductor device that emits infrared light when an electric current...

An optical system that uses refraction to form an image.

A method of cleaning and drying coated optical components. The cooled parts are placed in a container above a boiling...

In a lens or other optical system, the image of the aperture stop as seen from object space.

A device consisting of two optical systems in which two signals are simultaneously transformed to produce their spectra, and...

Pyramid error in optics refers to an aberration in the shape of an optical surface, particularly in the context of mirrors....

There are three types of telecentric lenses: -Image-space telecentric lenses are those in which the aperture stop is...

Optical materials refer to substances or compounds specifically chosen for their optical properties and used in the...

The disordered, glassy solid state of a substance, as distinguished from the highly ordered crystalline solid state....

Digital holographic microscopy (DHM) is an advanced imaging technique that combines holography and digital image processing...

Lens testing equipment refers to a range of specialized tools and instruments used to evaluate the optical performance,...

Characteristic of optical analyses that are limited to infinitesimally small apertures. Also called first-order or Gaussian...

A dome-shaped structure used for some optical instruments in place of a flat window. The transparent material should be of...

The layer of material in a laser diode from which the optical radiation is emitted; light producing region

Fresnel reflection refers to the reflection of light at the interface between two different media with different refractive...

A color center, in the context of materials science and condensed matter physics, refers to a specific type of...

A formulaic description of the linear change of the reciprocal optical dielectric tensor with either stress or strain.

Chalcogenide refers to a class of compounds containing elements from group 16 of the periodic table, which includes sulfur...

The variation of the electronically detected signal with respect to the scaled version of the classical optical signal...

The optical Fourier transform is a mathematical operation applied to optical signals that involves transforming a spatial...

Coded image obtained optically with a nonredundant pinhole array imaging aperture.

The dispersion attributable to the wavelength dependence of the refractive index of the material used in any optical...

In optical fiber, sharp but microscopic curvatures that create local axial displacements of a few microns and spatial...

A compact optical projection system, mounted on or built into a helmet, and used to project data or a scene directly into...

In optics, the term image jump refers to a displacement or shift in the apparent position of an image when a change occurs...

A laser system consisting of a planar PN junction within a single crystal of gallium arsenide. The pair of parallel,...

An imaging process in which the single opening of a simple pinhole camera is replaced with many openings called,...

A cathode-ray tube that increases the brightness or size of an image or forms a visible image from invisible radiation. The...

The numerical aperture of an optical system used to couple (launch) power into an optical waveguide.

High harmonic generation (HHG) refers to a nonlinear optical process in which intense laser light interacts with a gaseous...

A device used to scan, with a small, intensely bright spot, portions of a picture surface and to transform the original...

The criterion maintaining that if light follows a specific path through an optical system, it will, if reversed, traverse...

The apparent luminance of the image as seen through an optical system. This brightness of the image is determined by the...

A phase screen, in the context of optics and wave optics, refers to a surface or medium that introduces a phase delay to an...

In optical character recognition, the method of dividing a string of characters into separate, distinct characters.

In optics, an octave typically refers to a range of frequencies or wavelengths that spans a factor of 2. In other words,...

The physical distance, measured along the optical axis, from the object to the image. Also called overall length.

A camera designed with a telecentric optical system and a narrow field of view; the telecentric optical system (placement of...

1. A term used to describe the clouded appearance of an incompletely polished surface that scatters light. 2. The...

In optics, the Pockels effect refers to the phenomenon where the refractive index of a material changes in response to an...

A microring resonator is a compact optical device that utilizes the resonant behavior of light within a small ring-shaped...

A wave that is guided by the interface between two different media or by a refractive index gradient in the medium. The...

The electron beam tube of a television camera that converts an optical image into a pattern of electrostatic charges and...

In the context of optical materials, the term "impurity level" refers to the presence of foreign atoms or molecules within...

A V-shaped channel pressed or etched into a substrate, in which, for example, optical fibers may be placed to create an...

Having properties resembling those of light- waves; e.g., the propagation of waves in the television spectrum.

A holographic camera, also known as a holographic imaging system or holographic recorder, is a specialized device used to...

A method for measuring the index profile of an optical fiber by measuring the reflectance as a function of position on the...

A method of erasable optical data storage in which information is stored by visible light, then read by illumination with an...

A silicon photodiode is a semiconductor device that converts light into an electrical current. It is a type of photodetector...

A circular optical wedge (prism of small refracting angle) mounted to be rotated in the path of light rays to divert the...

An interface in an optical network that permits an optical signal to pass without changing the optical signal to an...

The finishing of the edge of an optical element by grinding.

Abbreviated TEA CO2 laser. A gas laser that provides shorter pulses and higher peak powers than conventional CO2 lasers. The...

A fiber optic cable assembly refers to a complete unit consisting of optical fibers, connectors, protective jackets, and...

With respect to color photography, the measurement of the way the color film modulates the radiant flux in the optical...

That property of a substance that determines that all components of volume are the same in composition and optical...

A shift in the apparent position of an object when an optical element is added or removed.

In a fiber optic transmission system, the conversion of received optical pulses directly to an electrical signal.

An instrument for determining the temperature of a hot object by examining the color spectrum of the visible light it gives...

Topological photonics is a branch of physics and optics that explores the application of topological concepts to the...

An optical instrument for forming the spectrum of a light source and recording it on a film. The dispersing medium may be a...

When uncontrolled laser energy leaks from a laser cavity prematurely, it causes serious damage to optical components and...

A nonmagnetic instrument utilizing an electrofocus and deflection tube with a photocathode for imaging purposes. The optical...

The effect that the optical losses in a medium can grow when the medium is irradiated with light at certain wavelengths.

Concave and convex spherical mirrors are types of curved mirrors that have surfaces shaped like segments of spheres. These...

Gallium nitride (GaN) is a compound made up of gallium (Ga) and nitrogen (N). It is a wide-bandgap semiconductor material...

Instantaneous field of view (iFOV) is a term commonly used in the context of remote sensing, imaging systems, and optical...

In an interlaced scanning electro-optical system such as television, the system resolution will be less than the number of...

A laser fitted with up to eight optical fibers that transmit the energy to different workstations in turn.

In a symmetrical optical system this is a measure of the influence of the system upon the focus of a pencil of rays passing...

An angle formed by the lines of sight of both eyes when focusing on an object. Also, the rate at which a ray approaches the...

A curve expressing an optical fiber's total transmitted power as a function of its launch angle at the input.

A type of multiple-pass amplifier in which no optical leakage is allowed until a finite number of passes has occurred; at...

A machine vision system is an integrated combination of hardware and software components designed to capture, process, and...

A fiber-coupled LED (light-emitting diode) refers to an LED device that is optically coupled to an optical fiber for the...

1. In optics, one of the exterior faces of an optical element. 2. The process of grinding or generating the face of an...

Ion-beam sputtering (IBS) is a physical vapor deposition (PVD) technique used for depositing thin films onto substrates. It...

A splice accomplished by the application of localized heat sufficient to fuse or melt the ends of two lengths of optical...

Nanophotonics is a branch of science and technology that explores the behavior of light on the nanometer scale, typically at...

A supporting member used to hold optical parts during grinding and polishing. It also describes the assemblage of optical...

A method of optical fiber coupling in which the fibers are ground down to expose their cores and placed together to allow...

An optical system having two sets of components separated by an air space, while successive lenses in each set are cemented...

In optical character recognition, a feature at the boundary of a character.

An optical fiber in which the core is of uniform refractive index.

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...

A very hard, highly transparent coating based on forms of carbon, used to protect optical components from abrasion and...

Transmission loss in optical fibers caused by packaging processes; it is considered a power-coupling effect from the guided...

Mode hopping in the context of lasers refers to a phenomenon where a laser system abruptly switches from one longitudinal...

Ultraviolet (UV) fiber optics refers to optical fibers that are designed and optimized for the transmission of ultraviolet...

A center-opening shutter made up of several identical leaves that are mounted symmetrically around the optical axis of the...

An instrument used to test lenses by utilizing the optical transfer function. It consists of a HeNe laser, a beamsplitter...

Any arrangement of a bundle of optical fibers that alters the shape of the image. For example, by systematic regulation of...

An accurately produced hole of any size and shape that is used as a masking device in an optical system. Pinhole apertures...

A Kerr soliton refers to a specific type of soliton, a self-reinforcing wave packet, that arises in nonlinear optical...

The hardware for reading (and writing in devices so equipped) an optical mass data storage disk.

Noise generated in the flow of current in the photomultiplier, produced by the intentional or controlled application of...

A method of fabricating an optical waveguide by melting the core and clad glasses in two suitably joined concentric...

Supercontinuum refers to a broad spectrum of light that spans a wide range of wavelengths, typically from the visible to the...

Mathematically defined as the product of etendue (or throughput) and the square of the refractive index, the optical extent...

The process of adjusting input pixel by pixel at the filter plane to adapt to nondeal phase behavior in an optical...

A type of glass used in near-infrared optical components, in which germanium is used as a cation instead of silicon.

An optical device, such as a Nicol prism, capable of producing plane-polarized light, and used for detecting the effect of...

Ray oriented and assumed to propagate orthogonal to the optical axis

Any form of lens, optical system (camera, telescope, microscope, etc.), or opto-electronics utilized for the purpose of...

Diamond turning, also known as diamond machining or diamond cutting, is a precision machining process used to produce...

The fluorographic method whereby the visible image (as opposed to the x-ray image) is photographed by mounting a camera in...

The ratio of emitted optical power of a source to the input electrical power.

The angular width of a radiation beam. With respect to a conical beam of light, it is the vertex angle of the cone. The...

In an optical waveguide, a mode whose field decays monotonically in the transverse direction everywhere external to the core...

A rigid medium, generally a polycarbonate substrate coated with a reflective aluminum layer, that stores information (such...

The production of holograms initially from either conventional photographs or incoherent optical equipment.

A wedge-shaped piece of quartz typically found in a polarimeter to monitor and rotate the plane of polarization of plane...

In optics and photolithography, a phase mask refers to a device that modifies the phase of light waves passing through it....

A method of manufacturing polycrystalline infrared-transmitting optical fiber by heating a single halide crystal billet and...

One or more optical elements – typically cemented together - in an optical system that are treated as a single group;...

The removal of a sharp edge on an optical element by grinding, to prevent accidental chipping of that edge during subsequent...

The formation of a block by attaching optical elements to a plate with a ring of pitch or other thermoplastic material.

An optical system used to collect infrared energy from a scene using scanning optics with a point or line detector, as...

A two-sided mirror suspended by a pendulum mechanism. An autocollimator set normal to such a mirror surface will, by...

A special-purpose camera used by ophthalmologists to photograph the retina of the eye. The optical system operates through...

A form of monochromator optical system consisting of two spherical concave mirrors used in conjunction with a movable...

A casting consisting of an optical material molded into the desired geometry for grinding, polishing or, in the case of...

Indication of emission brightness with degree of emission from an optical source.

An optical instrument designed to permit the visual examination of the interior of the bronchi.

In optics, an image is the reconstruction of light rays from a source or object when light from that source or object is...

Optoacoustic, or photoacoustic, refers to a phenomenon and related techniques that involve the generation of acoustic waves...

An optically bistable device used for photonic switching, constructed of a multiple quantum well biased by an external...

A power loss caused by transverse or lateral deviation from optimum alignment of source to optical waveguide, waveguide to...

The relative path difference (or phase shift) traveled between two rays that pass through different mediums from the same...

An optical system that records inhomogeneities within a medium by detecting the energy refracted by that portion of the...

A mechanism or device, especially a coating with a refractive index equal to or slightly greater than that of an optical...

A vapor-phase oxidation process for fabricating graded-index optical fibers. It differs from outside vapor phase deposition...

Optical noise refers to undesirable fluctuations or disturbances in an optical signal that can affect the quality or...

A method for characterizing a fiber wherein an optical pulse is transmitted through the fiber, and the resulting light...

A variation in propagation delay caused by differences in group velocity among modes of an optical fiber. Also called...

1. In fiber optics, a protective material applied as an optical fiber cover that has no optical function. 2. In image...

The method for measuring the index profile of an optical fiber or preform by illuminating it coherently and transversely to...

Conventional coordinates for optical system analysis, the X-axis being the horizontal, the Y-axis the vertical and the...

In passive optical components, loss that varies as the polarization state of the propagating wave changes. Expressed as the...

A means of testing optical fiber for macrobending losses by wrapping the fiber once at very low tension around a mandrel,...

A structure consisting of a thin film of liquid crystal sandwiched between light-polarizing filters that have received a...

The cutting of pitch tooling surfaces by an optical technician to permit polishing compounds to flow across the surface of...

Spherical aberration is an optical aberration that occurs when light rays passing through a lens or curved optical surface...

An imaging process, similar to specific Doppler mapping radar techniques, that utilizes a laser, an optical imaging system,...

A light absorbing material applied to ground optical surfaces during the process of making that surface non reflective. Such...

A defect of a binocular instrument causing two images to be seen separately instead of being fused. It is caused when the...

The technology of generating and harnessing light and other forms of radiant energy whose quantum unit is the photon. The...

Description of an optical system in which all the elements are aligned on the same axis.

An advanced technique that allows the detection of one molecule within a crystal or a cell through optical excitation....

In optical fiber, bends that are larger than microbends (see microbending), being visible. Generally they are caused by...

The condition in a multimode optical waveguide in which the relative power distribution among the propagating modes is...

A device that combines electronic and optical techniques to form a monitored infrared signal between 1 and 14 µm. It...

Derivative of the half-tone screen process involving the fabrication of a binary pulse-width modulated copy of the...

A specific type of filter designed to reduce the amount of light scattered by reflections from the edges of optical...

In a heterodyne optical receiver, the frequency that is the difference between that of an incoming laser signal and that of...

A term pertaining to devices (generally optical) designed for use with both eyes viewing through a single exit pupil. The...

An image, real or virtual, whose spatial orientation is identical to that of the object. The image obtained at the retina...

Reciprocal of the dispersive power of an optical material. See Abbe constant.

Optical coatings are thin layers of materials applied to optical components, such as lenses, mirrors, filters, and prisms,...

A small low-power microscope or magnifier with a scale that is used to measure the exit pupil diameter and eye relief on...

A disc composed of a series of holographic optical elements that diffract light at various angles. When spinning, a raster...

An optical coupling device that uses light to bridge the gap between incompatible wire communications systems. It contains...

An optical component coated to reflect infrared radiation. Gold, silver and aluminum are typical coating materials.

Photocells of various kinds used to measure photometric quantities; i.e., intensity, luminance and illuminance. Meter...

A ferroelectric polycrystalline ceramic material used in optical memories for computers and as a piezoelectric transducer.

The pattern of microwave field intensity that can be obtained by detecting the minute expansion of a microwave absorber slab...

The use of thin flexible glass or plastic fibers as wave guides — or "light pipes" — to channel light from one...

1. An instrument used to measure the opacity or density of dyes, pigments or dispersed particles that form an image in or on...

A cosmetic defect on the surface of an optical element. A dig is nearly equal in terms of its length and width. The size is...

STED microscopy, or stimulated emission depletion microscopy, is a superresolution imaging technique in fluorescence...

Quantitative phase imaging (QPI) is an advanced imaging technique used in microscopy to measure and analyze the optical...

Birefringence is an optical property of certain materials that causes them to exhibit different refractive indices for light...

The method used to measure the index profile of an optical fiber by placing it in an interferometer and illuminating the...

In a single-mode optical fiber, the wavelength that causes material dispersion and waveguide dispersion to cancel each...

Freeform mirrors refer to reflective optical components that deviate from traditional symmetric or rotationally symmetric...

An adaptation by Philips and Sony of their audio compact disc technology for optical disc data storage and retrieval....

A flexible fiber cable with a small diameter that transports light from the excitation laser to the target. Used in Raman...

An optical system that rapidly alternates two similar pictures or scenes to permit the detection of small dissimilarities...

Double-clad fiber (DCF) is a specialized optical fiber that features two concentric cladding layers surrounding a core. The...

The physical thickness times the refractive index.

Used in computer design for optical systems with common parts and different applications.

A paraxial light ray that extends from an object point on the optical axis.

An instrument used to measure backscatter as well as optical return loss and reflectance within an optical fiber system by...

An automatic surface-generating process involving the removal of a material from a given surface. Optical milling typically...

An optical source that has a luminous distribution that is uniform for all directions.

An instrument that measures the angle at which a prism can couple laser light into an optical waveguide; used to determine...

A rear or front projection screen composed of minute optical surfaces that introduce a spread to the light beam that...

A defect in the cleaved end face of an optical fiber, defined as multiple surface irregularities across the fiber surface. A...

The adhesion of two sufficiently clean and close-fitting surfaces without the use of cement or glue. The optically contacted...

An instrument that uses optical filtration in order to measure the transmittance for a discrete range or specific number of...

That part of a magnetic or optical tape or disc drive that retrieves data from or records data on the recording media.

In a laser, the optical resonator formed by two coaxial mirrors, one totally and one partially reflective, positioned so...

An immersion liquid used to treat polarizing filters to eliminate the effects of surface variations and to minimize the...

A coherent optical fiber bundle in which the configuration is flat rather than round, giving an output in a line.

Fused quartz and silica are closely related materials, both composed primarily of silicon dioxide (SiO2), but they are...

A composite derived from aluminum alloy powder and silicon carbide, used as an optical substrate in air- and spacecraft...

An instrument used to print an optical image on a specially treated paper. Light and dark portions of the original image are...

The optical reconstruction of image information contained in a sound field. First the diffraction pattern, formed by an...

Also known as single plane illumination microscopy (SPIM), this process was designed for imaging of sensitive samples and...

The entrance slit, also known simply as the slit, is an essential component in optical instruments such as spectrometers and...

A device using a parametric amplifier inside a resonant optical cavity to generate a frequency-tunable coherent beam of...

Irregularities and disturbances in the atmosphere that are of particular interest because they induce random temporal and...

An adhesive used to hold optical components in their mounts. It may be a thermoplastic or chemical-hardening substance.

An aspheric mirror is an optical mirror surface that deviates from the shape of a perfect sphere, having a non-spherical...

The variation in attenuation among the propagating modes of an optical fiber.

The use of optical or electronic recording systems to extract information from the terrain, while aloft, for reconnaissance...

A lens composed of two or more separate elements of optical glass that may or may not be cemented together. The surfaces of...

Diffraction efficiency is a measure of how effectively a diffractive optical element (DOE) or diffraction grating directs...

An optical instrument consisting of a well- corrected objective lens or mirror with a light source and or object/image (i.e....

Holography is a technique used to capture and reconstruct three-dimensional images using the principles of interference and...

Photonic crystals are artificial structures or materials designed to manipulate and control the flow of light in a manner...

An optical device used to monitor movement of the human eye.

The line of vision; the optical axis of a telescope or other observation system. The straight line connecting the object and...

An accurate metal prism or plane parallel plate that is cemented to an optical element and remains with it during a series...

A detector and signal demodulator used in optical communications systems to receive a signal and often to translate it into...

The study of the optical properties of living tissue. Increased understanding of the behavior of light in this varied,...

Directing an optical beam in varying directions by varying reflection, refraction, focusing and diffraction methods.

A coherent fiber bundle (CFB), also known as a coherent fiber optic bundle, is an assembly of multiple optical fibers...

A digital camera is a device that captures and records still images or video in digital format. Unlike traditional film...

A laser in which stimulated emission is triggered by the absorption by electrons of light from an auxiliary source such as a...

1. A thin parallel plate of material that transmits in the infrared region. See infrared optical material. 2. A spectral...

An instrument designed to analyze the optical effects of color.

A device that enlarges and strengthens a signal's output without significantly distorting its original waveshape. There are...

An optical fiber's absorption of electromagnetic waves due to hydroxyl ions remaining after contact with water.

A type of interferometer in which two coils of optical fiber are arranged so that light from a single source travels...

A dichroic mirror, also known as a dichroic beamsplitter or interference filter beamsplitter, is an optical device that...

Also known as light beating. The mixing of two narrowband optical components to produce an AC component in the photocurrent...

A microdisplay is a miniature electronic display technology that is designed to project visual information onto a small...

In optical communications, the translation of optical signals into radio signals, lowering their frequency in detection from...

In an optical waveguide, the refractive index as a function of radius.

The total optical power loss caused by the insertion of an optical component such as a connector, splice or coupler into a...

Stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) is a superresolution microscopy technique that enables imaging of...

A method of determining prism power at any point on a lens. Prism power equals the product of the dioptric power and the...

With respect to microscopy, also called dispersive staining, optical staining the projection of colors through areas of a...

In an optical waveguide, a ray that is completely confined to the core.

See Faraday rotation; optoisolator.

The Lorentz oscillator model is a theoretical model used in physics to describe the response of a charged particle (such as...

One or more thin-film layers of optical material deposited on a mirror blank/substrate in order to enhance the way that...

The term gradient-index profile refers to a specific type of refractive index distribution within an optical material. In...

An aplanatic surface is an optical surface that is specifically designed or shaped to minimize spherical aberration and...

In gradient index optics, a gradient profile in which the index varies in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis....

The modification of the spherical surfaces in an optical system to correct for spherical aberration.

The departure of an optical surface from its required tolerance or figure.

A holographic grating is a type of diffraction grating that is produced using holographic recording techniques. It consists...

The intersection of the principal plane and the optical axis of a lens.

Nd:YAG laser refers to a solid-state laser that utilizes neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:Y3Al5O12) as the gain...

Gallium arsenide phosphide (GaAsP) is a semiconductor alloy composed of gallium (Ga), arsenic (As), and phosphorus (P). It...

In an optical fiber or waveguide communications system, an optoelectronic device or module that receives an optical signal,...

Optical aberration such that image magnification varies with ray distance from the optical axis in a radial distortion.

A machine vision lens is a specialized optical lens designed for use in machine vision systems, which are used for automated...

A device for measuring linear dimensions. The optical caliper generally consists of two circularly mounted mirrors whose...

A wedge in a rangefinder or heightfinder used to displace the image produced by one telescope so that it coincides with that...

The point on the optical axis of a lens that is the image of the nodal points. For any bundle of rays passing through the...

Term used to describe an optical surface that contacts the test glass only at its edges.

An optical reflector with the reflective coating applied to the front surface of the substrate. This eliminates the ghost...

Etaloning is an optical phenomenon that occurs in imaging systems, particularly in devices such as spectrometers,...

In astronomy, the method of deliberately viewing objects with peripheral vision to take advantage of the eye's greater...

1. A lens formed to a desired curve and used to form a polisher. 2. A piece of glass included in a block to fill out the...

Swept-source optical coherence tomography is an imaging technique used in medical diagnostics, particularly in...

Optical cements and adhesives are specialized materials used in the assembly and bonding of optical components in optical...

In the spectral sense, an optical source that emits one or more spectrally narrow lines as opposed to a continuous spectrum....

A lens made up of a dielectric material that is capable of influencing radio waves much in the same way an optical lens...

The angle measured between the focal surface containing the image and a plane normal to the optical axis.

A change in the refractive index of an optical fiber caused by variation in the length of the fiber core in response to...

The storage of information via optical means, primarily employing a low-power laser to inscribe data on a photosensitive...

A class of optical phenomena that can be viewed only with nearly monochromatic, directional beams of light, such as those...

Also called sine wave response and contrast transfer function. The modulation transfer function is the ratio of the...

The mathematical evaluation of an optical system to determine and quantify its basic optical properties and image quality...

A lens that distorts an optical image.

Magnetorheological finishing (MRF) is a precision optics polishing technique used for shaping and finishing optical surfaces...

A type of optical fiber in which a silica core is surrounded by a hard polymer or similar material much stronger than the...

The phenomenon that can render an optical resonator the equivalent of a semiconductor flip-flop. A bistable device will...

A spectrometric instrument that detects radiation simultaneously in multiple channels, sorts it spectrally from the deep...

A diode laser is a type of laser that uses a semiconductor diode as the active medium to generate coherent light....

A method of fabricating a graded-index optical waveguide by means of an ion exchange process.

Polarization refers to the orientation of oscillations in a transverse wave, such as light waves, radio waves, or other...

An electro-optical infrared tracker consisting of a beamsplitter, an illuminating source, an image dissector tube and an...

Commonly performed in spectroscopy, the optical null process is a method for radiation detection whereby physical detectors...

A crystalline material with a high electro-optic coefficient, capable of operating at short wavelengths, with applications...

A phenomenon in which high optical power, encountering an imperfection in an optical fiber, destroys the fiber's core and...

An optical resonator in which feedback is accomplished by two parallel planes. In diode lasers, the planes are obtained by...

Certain color centers in the alkali halides have been optically pumped to produce efficient tunable pulsed and...

An image that is formed when rays emerging from an optical system are diverging from the optical axis. The virtual image is...

An InGaAs photodiode refers to a photodetector device that is constructed using a semiconductor material composed of a...

A device designed to measure linear or rotary motion by detection of the movement of markings on a transparent medium past a...

A single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) is a specialized type of photodetector designed to detect extremely weak optical...

A type of internal photonic connection in an integrated circuit in which a holographic grating is used to focus light at...

A method in optical character recognition in which a mobile light beam scans the outlines of characters for subsequent...

1. The process of following an object's movement; accomplished by focusing a radar beam on the reticle of an optical system...

Contains the light or beam path within a laser device. The oscillator uses reflective optical components that are oriented...

Anisotropic is a term used to describe a material or substance that exhibits different properties or behaviors in different...

An optical image having a brightly lit background.

The fundamental tool of microdensitometry, the microdensitometer is an instrument used for the precise measurement of...

A defect in an optical system that prevents rays from reaching their intended destination; it can be caused by an undersized...

In a visual optical system, the axial distance from the last mechanical surface of the eyepiece to the exit pupil.

An optical scanning system found in most computer scanners that can read documents, often in many type styles, and convert...

Distortion of an optical component as a result of heat, which can influence the divergence and the mode quality of a beam...

An optical instrument that uses a yellow light of varying intensity with red and blue lights of fixed intensity to test for...

Typically used for the examination of manufactured or engineered parts, an optical gauging device, in which a backlight is...

Optical fiber is a thin, flexible, transparent strand or filament made of glass or plastic used for transmitting light...

Laser-powered telephone device for analog communications that employs a vibrating plastic membrane as a transmitter to...

A photosensitive device used to optically scan and read character data (numbers, letters etc.) and input this data into a...

A PIN photodiode is a type of photodetector or semiconductor device used to convert light signals into electrical signals....

A device for extracting a portion of the optical signal from a fiber.

In optical communication systems, operations in which the amplitude of the pulses, as opposed to their width, determines the...

The current that flows in a photodetector when there is no optical radiation incident on the detector and operating voltages...

A device used to control or block a light beam by means of the Kerr electro-optical effect, and other electro-optic devices...

Broadband dielectric mirrors, also known as broadband mirrors, are optical coatings designed to efficiently reflect or...

A measurement technique used to determine the spatial distribution profile of an electrical or optical quantity of interest...

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...

The sine of the vertex angle of the largest cone of meridional rays that can enter or leave an optical system or element,...

Also known as amplification. 1. The increase in a signal that is transmitted from one point to another through an amplifier....

An optical medical instrument that uses an intense, precisely focused beam of light to stop weakened blood vessels from...

Generic term for read-only optical data storage, source of the Philips-Sony term CD-ROM.

Optical glass that possesses a refractive index equal to or less than 1.5, and an Abbe number that ranges from 62 to about...

The alignment process that makes the optical axes of two related systems parallel to each other. Also, making the optical...

A laser in which the transition involved in stimulated emission of radiation takes place between two levels of an ionized...

A transparent crystalline substance that displays the same optical properties (i.e. refractive index) in all directions such...

Chromatic aberration is an optical phenomenon that occurs when different wavelengths (colors) of light are refracted by a...

The alteration and reduction of color with the addition of white light. The perceived color shift that occurs as the...

Self-phase modulation (SPM) is a nonlinear optical phenomenon that occurs when an intense laser beam passes through a...

Radiation used to excite an optical or laser material to a higher energy level. See optical pumping.

Pertaining to optics and the phenomena of light.

The material favored for study of interaction of high-acoustic intensities with free carriers. Tellurium is the...

Ability of a laser to resist variations in output power caused when it is slowly rotated about its optical or symmetrical...

An erecting prism that inverts and reverses the image. It displaces the optical axis but does not deviate it.

One of a class of crystalline substances belonging to triclinic, monoclinic and orthorhombic systems that have two optic...

Off-axis paraboloid and ellipsoid mirrors are specialized optical components used in various optical systems, particularly...

The loss of optical power in an optical fiber because radiation escapes through its bends. The radiation loss caused by...

A reticle carrying patterns of various forms that can be rotated in an optical beam to cause variations in the intensity of...

The physical length of the light path in a substance divided by the refractive index of that substance. See also equivalent...

The application of a constant stress to an optical fiber.

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...

A system that uses a continuous-wave laser to measure the velocity of an object by focusing the laser beam on the object,...

This type of miniaturized system, referred to as CMOS qPCR, combines microfluidic technology with an ultralow-light CMOS...

The formation of transistors, diodes, capacitors, resistors and other electronic elements directly on a flake of silicon by...

Powder used to produce a smooth optical surface through abrasive polishing. Compounds may produce a surface finish specified...

A helium-neon (HeNe) laser is a type of gas laser that emits visible red light at a wavelength of 632.8 nm. It operates...

The electrical distribution that serves to influence an electron beam in the same way that an optical lens affects a light...

A computer-generated hologram (CGH) is a holographic image produced using computational methods and algorithms, rather than...

The process of linking optical fiber end to end.

An optical filter so constructed that the density increases progressively from one end to the other, or angularly around a...

A large tank filled with liquid hydrogen, with a flat window at one end and complex optical devices for observing and...

A corner cube, also known as a corner reflector or retroreflector prism, is a type of optical device used to reflect light...

A device used to measure the focal length of an optical system or lens.

Plasmon ion-assisted deposition (PIAD) is a technique used in thin-film deposition processes, particularly in the production...

Reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) is a non-invasive imaging technique that allows for high-resolution, in vivo imaging...

That plane in an optical system containing its optical axis and the chief ray. Also called the tangential plane.

An optical fiber, usually a single-mode fiber, that has an outer cladding with nearly the same index of refraction as the...

An approach to optical character recognition based on matching the input character against a set of stored prototypes.

An aperture located at an image plane of an optical system that determines the size and shape of the image.

A light ray that has had its direction altered because of its traversing an air-to-glass interface at some angle. In an...

Laser drift typically refers to a phenomenon where the frequency or wavelength of a laser source gradually changes over...

A term referring to an optical force field used to trap and stabilize particles acted upon by a force such as laser light.

A narrow linewidth optically transmissive or reflective component intended for use with a highly monochromatic or single...

Micro-optical coherence tomography (micro-OCT) is an imaging technique that is an adaptation of optical coherence tomography...

An optical element designed to correct each zone of a reflector or refractor for spherical aberration.

A plastic used in molded optical components. Styrene elements can be combined with acrylic elements to produce achromatic...

A fiber optic spectrometer is a device used for measuring the spectral content of light. It utilizes optical fibers to...

In the field of optics and imaging, a mesoscope refers to an optical instrument that is designed to observe and capture...

A modulator is a device or component that modifies a carrier signal in order to encode information for transmission over a...

In coherence theory, an optical law put forth by physicist Emil Wolf that explains the behavior of light as it travels away...

Sapphire can refer to either a gemstone or a specific type of crystalline material commonly used in various industrial...

In a fiber optic guided missile, the point at which the optical fiber pays out from the bobbin on which it is wound.

Ellipsometry is an optical technique used to characterize the properties of thin films and surfaces. It is based on the...

A short length of optical fiber permanently fixed to a component and used to couple power between it and the transmission...

A mirror mount is a mechanical device used to secure and precisely position mirrors in optical systems. Mirrors are...

Optical elements that have been coated with one or more layers of dielectric, or metallic material. These coatings serve to...

A manufacturing process used to construct substrates for large optical components. Used with IR materials, planform bonding...

Harmonic generation refers to a nonlinear optical process in which incoming photons interact with a material and produce new...

Calculates the exponential growth of the least stable spatial frequency in a laser beam, and is the numerical equivalent of...

An optical system that superimposes a synthetic display providing navigational or weapon-aiming information on a pilot's or...

A rangefinder used to determine the height or altitude of aerial targets by means of optical triangulation. The device...

A system of elements which rotates the optical image with respect to the optical axis by a factor of pi radians.

A mechanical, electrical, thermal or optical detector designed to identify and measure ultrasonic radiation.

A film applied to a coated or uncoated optical surface primarily for protecting this surface from mechanical abrasion, from...

Laser annealing is a process that involves using a laser beam to heat and modify the microstructure of a material, typically...

A laser that distributes its output power among two, three or four optical fibers simultaneously.

A type of fatigue found in optical fibers, caused by water or another corroding agent.

A flaw deliberately introduced into an optical fiber to prepare it for cleaving.

An oven or furnace that possesses the design requirements and heat control necessary to anneal glass for the optical...

An instrument used to record rapidly varying currents or voltages. An oscillograph may consist of a cathode-ray tube...

The distance between the object and the cornea, or the first surface of the objective in an optical device.

A photorefractive material used in image processing, holography and optical switching.

Optical fiber capable of operating at both a shorter and a longer wavelength.

Fluorescence microscopy is a specialized optical imaging technique used in biology, chemistry, and materials science to...

Meta-optics, also known as metasurface optics or flat optics, is a branch of optics that involves the design, fabrication,...

A reflecting or refracting surface contained within an optical system.

Optical confinement of matter with high field energies intended to induce a stable nuclear fusion interaction.

An optical correlator incorporating a binary phase-only spatial light modulator made from an iron garnet magneto-optic solid...

A laser with output over a wide range of wavelengths spanning the far-infrared region of the spectrum (30 to 1000 µm);...

Glass consisting of almost pure silicon dioxide (SiO2). Also called vitreous silica. Frequently used in optical fibers and...