Abbreviations/Acronyms

absolute (kelvin degrees), absorption, acoustic, alpha particle, analog, anode, ampere, amplitude, area, atomic, atomic mass, Helmholtz free energy, mass number, nucleon number

analog to analog, anti-aliasing (AA optical filter e.g. low pass filter), approximate absolute temperature, atomic absorption

differential absorption scattering; detector angular subtense; dual attachment station

differential absorption lidar

electro-absorption modulator

electro-absorption avalanche photodiode

extramural absorption

European Space Agency; excited state absorption

extended x-ray absorption edge fine structure

laser absorption spectrometer; light-activated switch; local alignment system

mercury cadmium telluride — Mercury cadmium teluride (HgCdTe) is a specific alloy combination that allows one to obtain any optical absorption bandgap of the material between 0 and 1.5 electron volts (eV) making it completely transparent at photon energies and wavelengths below the energy gap in the infrared.

many-element laser; maximum excess loss (MEL) — the many element laser is a laser unit that consists of N like elements of active materials for support with the mode selection of the laser output. The mode selection properties of a many element laser have been experimentally exploited with as many as 10 like elements. Maximum excess loss is the maximum power lost within a give system (typically a fiber optic communication system) including scattering, dispersion, absorption and coupling loss.

separate absorption and multiplication region avalanche photodiode