Photonics Dictionary

Circular-ranging optical coherence tomography (CR-OCT) is a specialized imaging technique used in medical diagnostics and research to obtain high-resolution cross-sectional images of biological...

A CMOS camera refers to an imaging device that employs a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor to capture digital images. CMOS cameras have become ubiquitous due to their low...

A CMOS image sensor, short for complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor image sensor, is a type of semiconductor device used to capture visual information and convert it into electrical signals for...

CoaXPress (CoaXPress or CXP) is a standardized digital interface and communication protocol used primarily in machine vision and industrial imaging applications. It enables high-speed data...

A method of lasing in which free electrons in a laser-produced plasma collide with neonlike ions to excite electrons to states that decay at different speeds, producing a population inversion.

Computer numerically controlled (CNC) grinding is a manufacturing process that utilizes computerized controls and precision machining tools to remove material from a workpiece. In CNC grinding, a...

Method of disk rotation used for optical disk drives, in which the spindle motor decreases the speed of the disk's rotation as the head moves from the inner tracks to the outer, so that the radial...

The maximum number of users who are using a given communication channel. Typically, the number of users at any given time is below this maximum, with the contention rate representing a worst case...

A continuous strobe, also known as a continuous light or constant light strobe, is a type of lighting device used in photography, videography, and various other applications where continuous...

Solar regions characterized by low density and open magnetic fields where high-speed solar wind streams originate. Originally believed to be "M'' regions, coronal holes are the precursors of the...

Dark current density refers to the electric current that flows through a semiconductor device in the absence of any external illumination. It is primarily caused by thermal generation of charge...

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...

A detector array refers to a collection of individual detector elements arranged in a two-dimensional grid or matrix format. Each element within the array is capable of detecting electromagnetic...

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...

Diffractive optical processors are optical devices that utilize diffractive optics principles to perform various computational tasks, such as image processing, pattern recognition, and optical...

A digital camera is a device that captures and records still images or video in digital format. Unlike traditional film cameras, which use photographic film to capture and store images, digital...

The logarithmic method of determining emulsion speeds developed by the German standards organization, Deutscher Normenausschuss, in which the speed of the emulsion is doubled for each increase of...

Also called DLIP, a high-speed, high-resolution processing technique that uses high-power, pulsed laser systems to directly ablate micro- and nanoperiodic structures with different features on large...

Direct time-of-flight (dTOF) is a technique used in 3D imaging and depth sensing to measure the time taken for light or electromagnetic waves to travel from a source to a target object and back to a...

Directed energy refers to a type of energy that is emitted and transferred in a controlled direction. The term is often associated with military and technological applications where energy, typically...

Dispersion refers to the phenomenon where different wavelengths (colors) of light travel at different speeds when passing through a medium. This variation in the speed of light for different colors...

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...

A type of asynchronous shutter device that is used particularly in CCD sensor applications to capture an image of a high-speed subject with no time delay. The word donpisha is taken from the Japanese...

The separation of unpolarized light into two plane-polarized elements by a doubly refracting crystal. When a crystal, such as calcite, is placed between the eye and a pinhole in a card, two bright...

A type of streak camera that uses film wrapped around a drum, which moves at a constant speed to record the changing shape of a short-lived event, such as a lightning flash.

An electro-optic deflector is a device that can change the direction of light beams using an electric field. It operates based on the electro-optic effect, which involves the modulation of the...

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

A high-speed shutter, similar to a Kerr cell, that uses the birefringence produced in a liquid during the passage of an electric current through it to change the liquid's optical transmission...

A stream of electrons emitted by a single source that move in the same direction and at the same speed.

An EMCCD (electron-multiplying charge-coupled device) camera is a type of scientific camera specifically designed for low-light imaging applications that require high sensitivity and fast readout...

A mechanical shutter that has had its timing escapement replaced with an electronic timing circuit. This circuit allows a wider range of exposure times, can be more accurate, and, placed in a circuit...

In target tracking, a technique for speeding up the image processing by removing bunches of pixels that are outside the area of interest.

An event-based image sensor, also known as a dynamic vision sensor (DVS), is a type of digital imaging device designed to capture visual information in a highly efficient and unique way compared to...

A measure of film speed sensitivity to light.

A ray that has a nonisotropic speed in a doubly refracting crystal. It does not necessarily obey Snell's law upon refraction at the crystal surface.

A femtosecond laser is a type of laser that emits ultrashort pulses of light with durations on the order of femtoseconds, where one femtosecond is equal to 10-15 seconds. These lasers are capable of...

A fiber optic cable assembly refers to a complete unit consisting of optical fibers, connectors, protective jackets, and other components that are assembled together to facilitate the transmission of...

A fiber optic transceiver, often simply referred to as an "optical transceiver," is a device used in fiber optic communications to transmit and receive data over optical fibers. It integrates both a...

A device used to measure the speed of light by adjusting the rotation of a toothed wheel so that light passing through one tooth opening is reflected through the next. This device has since been...

A polishing machine designed to permit adjustment of the polisher speed and motion for the control of flat surfaces.

An imaging device analogous to a drum scanner, but operating at greater speeds; it uses a row of sensors to traverse an image affixed to a flat surface.

FMCW lidar stands for frequency-modulated continuous wave lidar. It is a type of lidar (light detection and ranging) technology used for remote sensing, distance measurement, and 3D mapping. FMCW...

A high-speed cine camera that produces discrete frames of a continuous event as opposed to the flow photographic record of a streak camera.

A frame grabber is a hardware device or interface card that connects to a computer or imaging system and is designed to capture and digitize frames of video or images from a video source such as a...

The principle that electronic energy transitions occur at such speeds that the nuclei of the atoms in the molecular system remain stable during the transfers.

A type of internal photonic connection in an integrated circuit in which a holographic grating is used to focus light at points on a silicon chip, maximizing the speed of signal propagation.

Free-space optics (FSO), also known as optical wireless communication or optical wireless networking, refers to the transmission of data using modulated beams of light through free space (air or a...

Gallium arsenide (GaAs) is a compound semiconductor material composed of gallium (Ga) and arsenic (As). It belongs to the III-V group of semiconductors and has a zincblende crystal structure. GaAs is...

Gallium nitride (GaN) is a compound made up of gallium (Ga) and nitrogen (N). It is a wide-bandgap semiconductor material that exhibits unique electrical and optical properties. Gallium nitride is...