Register
Sign In
Suppliers
Products
Categories
Handbook
Dictionary
Careers
Resources
Photonics Spectra
BioPhotonics
Vision Spectra
Virtual Events & Summits
Educational Institutions
Add/Update Your Listing
Exhibitor Listing Portal
Become an Exhibitor
Buyers' Guide Print Edition
Marketplace Help
Subscribe
Advertise
Suppliers
Products
Categories
Handbook
Dictionary
Careers
Resources
Photonics Spectra
BioPhotonics
Vision Spectra
Virtual Events & Summits
Educational Institutions
Add/Update Your Listing
Exhibitor Listing Portal
Become an Exhibitor
Buyers' Guide Print Edition
Marketplace Help
Register
Sign In
Photonics Marketplace
Suppliers
Products
Handbook
Institutions
Dictionary
Show Filters
Hide Filters
Type
Definitions
Abbreviations/Acronyms
Browse by Letter
#
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
5,268 terms
Photonics Dictionary
Clear All Filters x
ions x
Bohr's frequency relation
The law given by the formula: that is, the frequency of radiation emitted or absorbed by a system when E2 and E1 are the energies of the states among which transition takes place, and h is...
bolometer
A thermometric instrument used for the detection and measurement of radiant energy. Its essential component is a short narrow strip covered with a dead black absorbing coating and mounted at the...
bore
The central hole running the full length of a laser capillary tube, in which electrical discharge and laser action take place. Also a similar hole in a hollow waveguide or a microchannel plate.
borescope
A device for the internal inspection of hard-to-get-at mechanical parts, such as rifle barrels, sewer pipes, oil wells, or gas mains. The long narrow tube used contains a telescope system with as...
Bose-Einstein condensate
A Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter that forms at temperatures close to absolute zero. It is named after Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein, who independently predicted the...
boson
A boson is a type of fundamental particle that follows Bose-Einstein statistics, which dictate the statistical distribution of identical particles with integer spin. Bosons are one of the two main...
Bouguer's law
->
Lambert's absorption law
Transmittance of a solution, or internal transmittance of a transparent solid, is an exponential function of the thickness of the layer.
boule
1. A group of optical fibers that are fused and then treated to produce a vacuum-tight optical fiber cone or plate. 2. An artificial crystal in its raw state, after generation but prior to cutting or...
bound mode
->
guided mode
In an optical waveguide, a mode whose field decays monotonically in the transverse direction everywhere external to the core and which does not lose power to radiation. Also called bound mode.
boundary extraction
In optical character recognition, an intermediate step between character location and feature extraction.
BP
back projection; bandpass; boiling point; buff polish
bracketing
In photography, the technique of taking multiple pictures of the same subject at different exposures to compensate for exposure miscalculations. Automatic bracketing is a feature on some cameras.
Bragg angle
->
Bragg scattering
The scattering of x-rays by the regularly spaced atoms in a crystal. The angle at which the reflection occurs is known as the Bragg angle.
Bragg cell
->
acousto-optic modulator
An acousto-optic modulator (AOM) is a device that utilizes the acousto-optic effect to modulate the amplitude, phase, frequency, or polarization of a laser beam or other coherent light source. It...
Bragg grating
A filter that separates light into many colors via Bragg's law. Generally refers to a fiber Bragg grating used in optical communications to separate wavelengths.
Bragg method of crystal analysis
A technique in which a beam of x-rays is directed against a crystal, the atoms of which, because of their lattice arrangement, reflect the ray in the same way as a series of plane surfaces. If the...
Bragg scattering
The scattering of x-rays by the regularly spaced atoms in a crystal. The angle at which the reflection occurs is known as the Bragg angle.
Bragg spectrometer
->
ionization spectrometer
Also known as the Bragg spectrometer. A system used for the x-ray analysis of crystal structure. In the instrument, a homogeneous beam of x-rays is directed on the known face of a crystal and the...
Bragg's law
The law expressing the condition under which a crystal will reflect a beam of x-rays with the greatest amount of distinction or resolution and, at the same time, denoting the angle at which the...
BRDF
bidirectional reflectance distribution function
breakout cable
A breakout cable, also known as a fan-out cable or breakout assembly, is a type of cable that combines multiple individual cables into a single, larger cable. The breakout cable is designed to...
Breit-Wigner formula
Theoretical calculation of the cross section for a nuclear reaction given in the vicinity of a single resonance level in the compound nucleus.
bremsstrahlung
Electromagnetic radiation that is emitted by an electron as it is accelerated or decelerated while moving through the electric field of an ion.
Brewster angle window
A parallel plate of glass in such a position that the refracted and reflected rays of incident parallel light are mutually perpendicular. In this situation the reflected light is plane polarized, and...
Brewster's angle
For light incident on a plane boundary between two regions having different refractive indices, the angle of incidence at which the reflectance is zero for light that has its electrical field vector...
bright-field illumination
The illumination generally used in microscopy, whereby the specimen appears dark against a light background.
bright-line spectrum
An emission spectrum consisting of bright bands against a dark background.
brightfield
Brightfield refers to a type of microscopy and imaging technique in which the specimen is illuminated with a white light source, and the image is observed or captured against a bright background. In...
brightness
->
luminance
Luminous flux emitted from a surface per unit solid angle per unit of area, projected onto a plane normal to the direction of propagation. Also known as brightness and luminous sterance.
brightness resolution
The degree to which a pixel in a digital image represents the analog brightness of the corresponding point in the original image. It is dependent largely on the number of bits devoted to representing...
Brillouin microscopy
Brillouin microscopy is a non-invasive imaging technique that utilizes Brillouin scattering to measure the mechanical properties of materials at the microscale. This advanced optical technique...
Brillouin scattering
Brillouin scattering is a phenomenon in physics where an incident electromagnetic wave (usually light) interacts with acoustic phonons (quantized lattice vibrations) in a material, resulting in the...
bring-in
The final correction of a polished surface or of an angle to the specified precision.
broadband dielectric mirrors
Broadband dielectric mirrors, also known as broadband mirrors, are optical coatings designed to efficiently reflect or transmit light over a broad range of wavelengths. These mirrors are constructed...
broadband filter
A broadband filter is an electronic or electromagnetic device designed to pass a range of frequencies or signals within a specified bandwidth while attenuating or rejecting signals outside of that...
broadband incident radiation
->
white light
Light perceived as achromatic, that is, without hue.
broadside radiation
Radiation that occurs perpendicular to the plane of the radiation device.
bronchoscope
An optical instrument designed to permit the visual examination of the interior of the bronchi.
Brownian motion
The behavior of microscopic solid particles suspended in a fluid, first observed by botanist Robert Brown in 1827 as a continuous random motion.
BSDF
bidirectional scatter distribution function
BSTV
boresight television
BTDF
bidirectional transmission distribution function
bubble chamber optics
Specially designed optics for the observation and photographing of hydrogen in a bubble chamber.
bubble memory
->
magnetic bubble film
An amorphous film in which cylindrical bubbles of reverse magnetization can be formed to follow circuit paths usually made by depositing magnetic metal strips on the film surface. It is used in...
bubble writing
->
beam-addressable technology
The application of reversible writing with a laser beam on particular storage materials. In one method, an amorphous film is heated and then crystallized for writing. Bubble writing involves the...
buckyballs
->
fullerenes
Molecules composed entirely of carbon, in the form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid or tube. Also called buckyballs. Cylindrical fullerenes are called carbon nanotubes or buckytubes.
BUF
beam utilization factor
buffer
1. In fiber optics, a protective material applied as an optical fiber cover that has no optical function. 2. In image processing, a peripheral that stores data between two active processing stages.
bulk nonreciprocal device
A device that functions throughout the continuous radiation of a linearly polarized plane wave, and whose nonreciprocity arises from the Faraday rotation of linearly polarized radiation.
bump-forming optical disk
->
dye-polymer optical disc
A type of erasable data storage device that uses a medium deposited on the disc in two layers, each dyed to absorb a different wavelength of laser light. To record data, the lower layer is heated by...
<
1
2
3
...
10
11
12
13
14
...
104
105
106
>
Photonics Dictionary
Need Help?
Explore Our Content
News
Features
Latest Products
Webinars
White Papers
All Things Photonics Podcast
Videos
Our Summits & Conferences
Industry Events
Bookstore
Join Our Community
Subscribe
Advertise
Become a member
Sign in
Contribute a Feature
Suggest a Webinar
Submit a Press Release
Mobile Apps
About Us
Our Company
Our Publications
Contact Us
Career Opportunities
Teddi C. Laurin Scholarship
Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
©2024 Photonics Media
100 West St.
Pittsfield, MA, 01201 USA
[email protected]
We use cookies to improve user experience and analyze our website traffic as stated in our
Privacy Policy
. By using this website, you agree to the use of
cookies
unless you have disabled them.