Photonics Dictionary: C

A lamp whose output can be traced to a standard light source.

A light source that is capable of producing radiation with waves vibrating in phase. The laser is an example of a coherent light source.

An inorganic compound, yellow to orange in color, that fluoresces strongly enough when bombarded by a high-current-density electron beam to be used as a high-intensity light source.

The luminous intensity of a source of light expressed in candelas.

Chip-on-board (COB) lights refer to a type of LED lighting technology where multiple LED chips are directly mounted onto a substrate, typically a printed circuit board (PCB), without the need for...

Standard light source representative of the quality of specified natural or artificial illumination.

This type of miniaturized system, referred to as CMOS qPCR, combines microfluidic technology with an ultralow-light CMOS bio-optical sensor with LEDs as the optical excitation source to achieve...

An optical instrument consisting of a well- corrected objective lens or mirror with a light source and or object/image (i.e. illuminated slit or retical) at its focal plane. Collimators are used to...

A colorimeter is a device used to measure and quantify the color characteristics of an object or a light source. It provides objective and standardized color information, typically expressed in terms...

Transparent media which, when placed in front of a light source, change their color as a result of the selective absorption of some of the light.

A reference incandescent light source having a luminous intensity that is used in photometry for comparison of other light sources.

A single positive lens or group of lenses used in a projection system to collect light from a source and cause it to illuminate evenly the object to be projected.

A microscope design that involves apertures inserted in conjugate plane positions inside the microscope, with one aperture in front of the illumination source and the other at the focal position in...

Also known as real holographic image. The indistinct, highly distorted image produced on the side of the hologram closest to the observer, in addition to the primary image. When the location of the...

An early type of nonvacuum photocell consisting of a layer of copper oxide on a metallic substrate, with a thin transparent layer of a conductor over the oxide. When light falls on the cell, a small...

A corner cube, also known as a corner reflector or retroreflector prism, is a type of optical device used to reflect light or electromagnetic waves back towards their source with minimal deviation in...

Relative to a light source, the frequency at which the source appears to fluctuate in light intensity half the time and remains constant during the other half.

Illumination in which the light source is imaged at the object.

An instrument designed to measure the proportion of light emitted by a source in the blue region of the spectrum.