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388 terms
Photonics Dictionary
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fiber optic x
ball lens
A ball lens is a small, spherical optical component typically made of glass or other transparent materials. It is characterized by its spherical shape, with both its front and back surfaces forming...
bandwidth-limited operation
In fiber optics, the limitation on performance imposed by the system bandwidth rather than the amplitude of the signal.
barrel
->
adapter (optical adapter)
An optical adapter typically refers to a device or component used in optical systems to facilitate connections between different types of optical fibers, connectors, or interfaces. Here are a few...
barrier layer
In the fabrication of an optical fiber, a layer that can be used to create a boundary against OH-ion diffusion into the core.
beat length
A characteristic of optical fiber used to calculate the fiber's ability to maintain polarization. The beat length describes the length required for the polarization to rotate 360 degrees. For a given...
bend loss
The loss of optical power in an optical fiber because radiation escapes through its bends. The radiation loss caused by fiber bending is proportional to the bend radius.
bend radius
The radius of curvature that an optical fiber can bend without breaking.
biconic connector
A type of fiber optic connector consisting of two cone-shaped ferrules aligned by a mating sleeve.
bifurcated fiber
A branched fiber optic lightguide that performs both receiving and transmitting functions.
blown fiber
A technique developed by British Telecom in which the viscous drag of air is used to install optical fibers in narrow plastic tubes.
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...
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...
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.
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...
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...
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.
cathode-ray tube faceplate
A fiber optic end plate constructed by drawing a bundle of parallel fibers embedded in glass and cutting it into thin slices. These slices are assembled in a plane and heated to produce a...
ceramics
In optics and photonics, ceramics refer to advanced ceramic materials that possess unique optical properties, making them suitable for various applications involving the manipulation and control of...
chalcogenide
Chalcogenide refers to a class of compounds containing elements from group 16 of the periodic table, which includes sulfur (S), selenium (Se), and tellurium (Te). These elements are known as...
channel density
The number of channels per unit bandwidth handled by a single optical fiber.
characteristic angle
The angle at which a given mode propagates down an optical fiber.
chip
1. A localized fracture at the end of a cleaved optical fiber or on a glass surface. 2. An integrated circuit.
chirped-pulse amplification laser
A laser whose pulses are expanded, using gratings and optical fibers, before amplification and compressed to increase beam intensity without damage to the optical train.
choledochoscope
A small fiber optic endoscope used in laser surgery.
cladding
The low-refractive-index material that surrounds the core of an optical fiber to contain core light while protecting against surface contaminant scattering. In all-glass fibers, the cladding is...
cladding glass
In fiber optics, the glass that is found around the glass core of the fiber, and that has a lower refractive index than the fiber.
cladding mode stripper
A mechanism or device, especially a coating with a refractive index equal to or slightly greater than that of an optical fiber's cladding, that removes modes propagating through the cladding by...
cladding ray
A ray that is reflected into the core of an optical fiber from the outer surface of the cladding.
coherent communications
A fiber optic communications system that works on the principles of homodyning or heterodyning. The transmitting laser produces an optical wave that is modulated in amplitude, phase or frequency by...
concatenation
The process of linking optical fiber end to end.
concentricity error
The distance between the center of the two concentric circles of an optical fiber that designate the diameter of the cladding and the center of the two concentric circles that designate the diameter...
connector loss
Energy loss encountered at connectors in optical fiber transmission systems. The major contributors are mutual core displacement and fiber axis tilt. It is observed in both permanent splices and...
core
The light-conducting portion of an optical fiber, defined by the region of high refractive index.
core-coupled lens
A semispherical or conical lens created directly on the core of an optical fiber to focus light from a laser into the fiber core.
coupling efficiency
The fraction of available output from a radiant source that is coupled and transmitted by an optical fiber.
crush strength
The physical limit of an optical fiber or cable to withstand an applied force or weight perpendicular to the axis of the fiber.
cutoff wavelength
1. In detector technology, the long wavelength at which detector response falls to a set percentage (usually 20 or 50 percent). 2. In fiber optics, the shortest wavelength at which a fiber transmits...
data bus
A system incorporated into fiber optic data communications characterized by several spatially distributed terminals that are served with the same multiplexed signal.
deeply depressed cladding fiber
An optical fiber, usually a single-mode fiber, that has an outer cladding with nearly the same index of refraction as the core and an inner cladding with a very low index of refraction.
delay line
A device used to delay transmission of a signal for functions such as memory loops, sequential processing or built-in testing. The delay can be achieved by coiling long lengths of coaxial cable or...
dense wavelength division multiplexing
Dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) is an optical communication technique used to increase the data-carrying capacity of optical fiber networks by simultaneously transmitting multiple...
differential mode attenuation
The variation in attenuation among the propagating modes of an optical fiber.
differential mode delay
Differential mode delay (DMD) is a parameter used to characterize the propagation characteristics of optical fibers, particularly in multimode fiber optic systems. It refers to the difference in...
diffraction grating
A diffraction grating is an optical component consisting of a surface with a periodic structure of equally spaced, parallel grooves or rulings. These rulings act as an array of closely spaced slits...
diode laser
->
diode laser
A diode laser is a type of laser that uses a semiconductor diode as the active medium to generate coherent light. Semiconductor diodes are electronic devices that conduct electricity primarily in one...
diode laser
A diode laser is a type of laser that uses a semiconductor diode as the active medium to generate coherent light. Semiconductor diodes are electronic devices that conduct electricity primarily in one...
direct detection
In a fiber optic transmission system, the conversion of received optical pulses directly to an electrical signal.
dispersion-flattened single-mode fiber
A type of glass optical fiber that provides low pulse dispersion over a broad portion of the light spectrum and as a result can operate at 1300-nm and 1550-nm wavelengths simultaneously.
dispersion-shifted fiber
A dispersion-shifted fiber (DSF) refers to a type of optical fiber designed to minimize the effects of chromatic dispersion, which is the phenomenon where different wavelengths of light travel at...
distal end
The end of an optical fiber farthest from the source of illumination.
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Photonics Dictionary
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