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PowerPhotonic Ltd. - Light Forge MR 7/24

5,268 terms

Photonics Dictionary

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dilatometer

An instrument used to measure expansion of solids, liquids and gases.

dilution

In chemistry, the addition of an inert substance to reduce the concentration of a species. In colorimetry, addition of white to a stimulus to reduce its saturation.

DIN system

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...

diode

A two-electrode device with an anode and a cathode that passes current in only one direction. It may be designed as an electron tube or as a semiconductor device.

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

diode-pumped solid-state laser

A diode-pumped solid-state laser (DPSSL) is a type of laser system that uses semiconductor diode lasers to pump energy into a solid gain medium, resulting in the generation of coherent light. This...

diopter movement

The adjustment of the eyepiece of an instrument to provide accommodation for the eyesight differences of individual observers. The axial distance through which the eyepiece must be moved, to provide...

dioptric system

An optical system that uses refraction to form an image.

dioptrics

The branch of optics that deals with the study of the refraction of light, particularly by the transmitting medium of the eye, and by lenses.

diplopia

A defect of vision where a single object appears as two. Also known as double vision.

dipole polarization

Electric polarization characterized by homogeneous polar dielectrics and ascribed to the position of the permanent molecular dipoles.

direct detection

In a fiber optic transmission system, the conversion of received optical pulses directly to an electrical signal.

direct illumination

Light produced by visible radiation that moves from the light source to the object without reflection. With respect to microscopy, this is the light that directly strikes the stage of the microscope...

direct laser interference patterning

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 radiative transition

An energy transition concerned with photons alone.

direct read after write

A write-once optical disc storage system in which the optical head reads continuously while writing to check the accuracy of the stored data. Data recorded erroneously are then rewritten at another...

direct scanning

A scanning technique in which the object is illuminated the entire time, and in which picture elements of the object are viewed singly by the television camera.

direct time-of-flight

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...

direct transmission

Light transmission involving no scatter.

direct viewfinder

A viewfinder whose optical system forms a direct image of a subject, as opposed to those systems that use reflectance in the image formation.

direct viewing

The observation of a reproduced television picture on the face of a cathode-ray tube.

direct-line fluorescence

With respect to atomic fluorescence spectroscopy, the fluorescence that is emitted by an atom at a spectral line of a wavelength that is longer than that of the stimulating radiation.

direct-view storage tube

A cathode-ray tube in which secondary emission electrons form a display of high intensity.

direct-vision pocket spectroscope

A small handheld instrument consisting of a slit and collimator that feeds light into a small direct-vision dispersing prism. The eye is placed behind the prism to observe the spectrum of a colored...

direct-vision prism

An assembly of multiple prisms that disperses incident light into its spectral components without deviating light at the central wavelength.

directed energy

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...

directional reflectance

Reflectance in a specified direction, for a specified direction of incident illumination.

disc calorimeter

A device that provides simple and reliable laser power and energy measurement. Essentially a heat flux sensor producing an output proportional to the power, rather than the energy input.

disc colorimeter

A colorimeter using a spinning disc made of different colored sections for colorimetric analysis.

disc telescope -> coronagraph

A telescope in which a mask occults the solar disk, generating an artificial eclipse and allowing observation and recording of the sun's corona.

discharge lamp -> electric-discharge lamp

A lamp that uses the transmission of an electric current through a gas or vapor to produce illumination. Neon, mercury and argon lamps are examples of electric-discharge lamps.

discontinuously reinforced aluminum

A composite derived from aluminum alloy powder and silicon carbide, used as an optical substrate in air- and spacecraft applications. It is as light as aluminum but exhibits greater strength and...

discrete cosine transform

A mathematical transformation used in image and video compression that changes two-dimensional representation of data into data defined by the frequency content. Adapted in JPEG and MPEG standards.

discrimination

The degree to which a vision system is capable of sensing differences in light intensity between two regions.

dislocation

The region of distorted atom configuration formed between the displaced and normal areas in a crystal when part of the crystal is displaced tangentially.

dispersion

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...

dispersion filter

A complex filter that uses polarization and interference to transmit light that is nearly monochromatic.

dispersion formula

All formulas that present the index of refraction as a function of a wavelength of electromagnetic radiation. Also called dispersion equation, Cauchy formula, Hartmann formula.

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-limited operation

Operation in which the dispersion of a pulse limits the distance between repeaters in optical systems. Waveguide and material dispersion can make recognition of a pulse impossible.

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...

dispersive correlation spectrometer -> mask spectrometer

Instrument that uses absorption spectroscopy to detect gases in planetary atmospheres. Dispersed incoming radiation is transmitted to one or more sampling elements, or masks, before reaching the...

dispersive lens -> diverging lens

A diverging lens is a type of lens that causes parallel rays of light to spread out or diverge. It is thinner in the center than at the edges and is commonly referred to as a concave lens. The most...

dispersive power

A measure of the dispersive properties of a glass. The relative dispersion is defined as: where C, D, and F refer to the material's index of refraction at the three chief Fraunhofer lines in the...

display

The observable illustration of an image, scene or data on a screen such as a console or cathode-ray tube, seen as a graph, report or drawing.

display console

A visual display used with a computer to give access to the many elements of data as an array of points. With the display console, an operator may check information in the computer and change it if...

display primaries -> receiver primaries

Also known as display primaries. Colors formed by a television receiver that are of constant chromaticity and variable luminance, and that, mixed in certain proportions, form other colors. Red, green...

dissector

In optical character recognition, the mechanical or electronic transducer used to detect the level of illumination present in the various portions of an illuminated sample region.

dissonance

In optics, the production of maxima and minima by the superimposition of two sets of interference fringes from light of two different wavelengths.

Photonics Dictionary

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