Photonics Dictionary

Embedded vision refers to the integration of computer vision technologies into various embedded systems, devices, or machines. Computer vision involves teaching machines to interpret and understand...

Thermal emission caused by the unity in absorption bands that must be discriminated when calculating radiation intensity of any celestial object.

An emission spectrum is a graphical representation or a characteristic pattern of the wavelengths or frequencies of light emitted by a source, such as an atom, molecule, or celestial object. It shows...

The emissivity of a body times the emissive power of a blackbody at the same temperature. For a blackbody, it is the total radiation per unit area of radiating surface.

The use of a material's emissivity to measure absorption. It is useful as an absorption loss measurement technique, since at thermal equilibrium, emittance is equal to absorptance.

The normal condition of vision where an object at infinity is in sharp focus with the eye lens in a neutral or relaxed state.

In photography, the layer of light-sensitive material (usually a suspension of silver halide crystals) that coats the film or plate.

Enantiomers are a pair of molecules that are non-superimposable mirror images of each other, similar to left and right hands. They are stereoisomers, meaning they have the same molecular formula and...

End-fire coupling refers to a method of coupling energy into or out of a waveguide, transmission line, or antenna, where the electromagnetic waves are directed primarily along the axis or direction...

An endoscope is a medical device used for visualizing and examining the interior of hollow organs, body cavities, or confined spaces within the body. It consists of a flexible or rigid tube equipped...

The energy in a medium per unit volume.

An image processing device that displays pseudocolor images by assigning colors to the gray scales according to look-up tables defined by the user.

A type of laser pulsing with high laser power at the beginning of the pulse.

The entrance slit, also known simply as the slit, is an essential component in optical instruments such as spectrometers and monochromators. It is a narrow opening or aperture through which light...

Potential hazards to a system's application and installation, including temperature variations, chemical reactivity, mechanical stress and moisture.

The maximum to minimum range of temperature, pressure, humidity, vibration and biological conditions under which an optical component or system can function and be stored. The range required depends...

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is a laboratory technique used to detect and measure the presence of specific substances, such as antibodies, antigens, proteins, hormones, or other...

Uniform measure of time based on dynamics law and calculated according to planetary orbital paths; specifically, Earth's orbit about the sun.

Fluorescence imaging technique in which the excitation light from the objective is directed into the sample producing emission at all angles. Light emitted into the objective is measured allowing the...

Epitaxial refers to the growth of a crystalline layer on a crystalline substrate in such a way that the orientation of the crystal lattice of the growing layer is related to that of the substrate. In...

Epitaxial deposition is a process used in semiconductor manufacturing and materials science to grow a thin crystalline layer, known as an epitaxial layer, on a substrate. The term epitaxial refers to...

Epitaxial equipment refers to a set of specialized tools and systems used in the process of epitaxy, which is the growth of crystalline layers on a substrate material. Epitaxial growth is a critical...

A well controlled thin films technique for growing films with good crystal structure in ultra high vacuum environments at very low deposition rates. Epitaxy methods are well known for the growing of...

Common name for a variety of adhesives used for lens bonding, fiber optic splicing and other photonics applications. The term is actually a prefix denoting the presence of an epoxide group in a...

Spectrum characterized by equal energy (power, flux) per unit wavelength interval.

A telescope stand equipped with a polar axis that can be set parallel to the Earth's axis of rotation and a declination axis that is at right angles to the polar axis. If the telescope is turned at a...

1. The use of an electronic microdensitometer to measure points of equal density on a photographic deposit. 2. A technique that simplifies a picture's density pattern by making a single isodensity...

When a block of glass (prism, window, filter, etc.) is placed into a converging light bundle, it increases the physical distance to the point of focus. The equivalent air path for that block of glass...

An Er:YAG laser is a type of solid-state laser that uses a crystal made of erbium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Er:Y3Al5O12) as the gain medium. The erbium (Er) ions are introduced into the crystal...

An optical fiber that can be used to amplify an optical input. Erbium rare earth ions are added to the fiber core material as a dopant in typical levels of a few hundred parts per million. The fiber...

An erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) is a type of laser that uses an optical fiber doped with erbium ions (Er³?) as the gain medium. These lasers are widely used in telecommunications, medical...

In image processing, a morphology operator in which a structuring element or probe of a particular shape is moved over the input image. Where the probe fits completely within the boundaries of a...

The addition to the information signal in communications of redundant bits that enable the originally encoded message to be decoded without degradation of the data. In compact disc technology, the...

A single number, defined by the computer program or the user that expresses the performance of an optical system. Also known as merit function and defect function, the error function comprises...

An etalon is an optical device that consists of two parallel reflecting surfaces separated by a precise and known distance. It operates based on the principle of optical interference and is used to...

A product of the area of a light beam (normal to its direction of propagation) and the solid angle that the beam includes; flux per unit radiance or luminance. Alternative terms: geometric extent,...

A sensor generally used for infrared imaging. It consists of two chambers separated by a thin, blackened membrane. An infrared image is formed on the membrane by a lens or mirror and produces...

Coating carried out in a sealed chamber evacuated by a mechanical pump in series with an oil diffusion pump to a pressure less than 10-4 mm of mercury, measured by a vacuum gauge. At such a low...

A process, either naturally occurring or mechanically induced, whereby water is changed from its liquid state into a vapor.

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...