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8,726 terms

Photonics Dictionary

cold shield

That part of an infrared detector-Dewar assembly that limits the solid angle viewed by the sensor; it is maintained at a uniformly cold temperature so that no thermal energy is emitted. Also known as...

cold sputtering

The application of coating without heating of the substrates.

cold-light illumination

A means of illumination from which the infrared component has been removed by absorption or reflection filters within the condenser system.

COLDS

common optoelectronics laser detection system

COLIDAR

coherent light detection and ranging

Collaborative Robot

Collaborative Robot (Cobot): Unlike traditional autonomous robots, which usually work by themselves, a collaborative robot is programmed to work with humans, such as a guide or an assistant. They can...

collateral radiation

Category inclusive of all radiation that is incited electronically, except laser radiation, as a function of the application of laser power to a system.

collection angle

The solid angle of a detector or system pupil as seen by the source.

collective lens

A convex or positive lens that serves to collect energy and direct it into subsequent system optics.

collector

A positive lens located at or close to an intermediate image plane. The collector refracts off-axis light bundles, directing them into the apertures of subsequent optics.

colliding pulse modelocked ring laser

A ring dye laser that uses prisms and a saturable absorber within the laser cavity to shape and shorten the pulses generated. Counterpropagating modes oscillating simultaneously in the ring...

collimated light -> collimated radiation

Radiation in which every ray from any given object point can be considered to be parallel to every other. This is never completely the case: The light from a star is really diverging, and all...

collimated radiation

Radiation in which every ray from any given object point can be considered to be parallel to every other. This is never completely the case: The light from a star is really diverging, and all...

collimating telescope -> collimator

An optical instrument consisting of a well- corrected objective lens or mirror with a light source and or object/image (i.e. illuminated slit or retical) at its focal plane. Collimators are used to...

collimation

1. The process of aligning the optical axes of optical systems to the reference mechanical axes or surfaces of an instrument. 2. The adjustment of two or more optical axes with respect to each other....

collimator

collimator pen -> laser pen

Device consisting of a laser diode, beam-correcting optics and collimating optics in a single housing. Also called a collimating pen.

collinear pumping

A method of exciting a laser by coupling it directly to another laser.

collision broadening

The broadening of spectral lines due to the collision of radiating particles with one another and the resulting interruption of the radiative process.

collisional excitation

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.

colloid

A colloid is a mixture in which one substance of microscopically dispersed insoluble particles is suspended throughout another substance. The particles in a colloid are larger than those in a...

colloidal quantum dots

Colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) are nanometer-sized semiconductor particles that are dispersed in a colloidal solution. These quantum dots have unique optical and electronic properties due to their...

colmascope

A polariscope used to demonstrate strain inherent in a piece of glass.

colog

cologarithm

color

The attribute of visual experience that can be described as having quantitatively specifiable dimensions of hue, saturation, and brightness or lightness. The visual experience, not including aspects...

color aging test

A test used to measure the degree of fading of different colored materials, especially those involving organic dyes, which tend to fade when exposed to bright sunlight, to a damp atmosphere or to...

color blindness -> color-defective vision

Situation in which the observer requires fewer than three independent stimuli to make color matches. Dichromats require only two stimuli and are classified as protanopes and deuteranopes (both...

color blocking -> contact blocking

Also called color blocking. The formation of a block by making optical contact between a number of optical elements and a large optical flat.

color center laser

Certain color centers in the alkali halides have been optically pumped to produce efficient tunable pulsed and continuous-wave (CW) lasers emitting in the range of 0.8 to 3.3 µm.

color center

A color center, in the context of materials science and condensed matter physics, refers to a specific type of crystallographic defect in a crystalline structure that introduces color to the...

color circle

An early graphic scheme of colors in which saturated spectral colors are plotted around the circumference of a circle. Complementary colors face each other across the circle's diameter.

color comparator

1. A device used in chemistry to compare the colors of solutions held in flat-bottomed tubes and viewed along the length of the tube. Often a solid glass plunger is moved along one of the tubes to...

color conversion filter

A filter that serves to alter the color temperature and the mired value of the radiation emitted by a source.

color correction

The reduction in longitudinal, lateral and secondary chromatic aberrations in a lens or lens system.

color facsimile transmission

The transmission of a color photograph by separating the colors into varying intensities of red, blue and green, and then sending separate transmissions of the three color signals to a receiving...

color filter -> optical filter

An optical filter is a device that selectively transmits or blocks specific wavelengths, or colors, of light. Optical filters are used to control the spectral content of light in various...

color graphics converter

A unit that converts images to the standard NTSC format for use with video recorders, projectors and discs.

color holography

The recording of three or more separate holograms having a different color on a medium, so that illumination with a tricolor beam yields three separate wavefronts, each representing one of the...

color match

Condition in which two stimuli appear to match in color to a specified observer, or in which two objects appear to match in color to a specified observer when illuminated by a specified source.

color monitoring instrument

An instrument providing a continuous measure of color.

color perception test equipment

Equipment for testing an observer's color vision. Some tests require the identification or ordering of colored samples. The commercially available examples include: the Ishihara plates, on which...

color photographic film

Film that produces color negatives or transparencies by the use of three emulsions, one coated over the other, that are each sensitive to one of the colors red, blue or green.

color rendering index

A CIE index describing the changes in color of standard test objects when the illumination is changed from a standard to a test illuminant.

color scanner

An instrument that uses a beam of light to scan a color transparency, and three differently filtered photosensors to record the transmitted beam, as a means of producing three exposed separation...

color sensitometry

The detection and analysis of the relative response of a material to light over the range of wavelengths.

color space

The entire range of colors a specific color model can produce, represented as a three-dimensional solid.

color television

A television system that is capable of producing an image whose colors approximate the colors of the original, by the use of additive color mixing of the three primary colors.

color temperature

A colorimetric concept related to the apparent visual color of a source (not its temperature). For a blackbody, the color temperature is equal to the temperature in kelvin.

color temperature meter

A device containing two photocells behind deep red and blue filters to measure color temperatures. The amplifier gain is adjusted to give a set reading of one photocell; the reading of the other is a...

color thermogram

A thermogram in which temperature values are displayed in discrete thermal bands, each band possessing a distinct color.

Photonics Dictionary

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