Photonics Dictionary

Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and its manifestation as both particle and wave phenomena. It encompasses the...

Optoacoustic, or photoacoustic, refers to a phenomenon and related techniques that involve the generation of acoustic waves in a material induced by the absorption of light. The term "optoacoustic"...

Optoelectronics is a branch of electronics that focuses on the study and application of devices and systems that use light and its interactions with different materials. The term "optoelectronics" is...

Optofluidics is an interdisciplinary field that combines principles from optics and fluidics to create devices and systems that integrate the manipulation of light and fluids. This field focuses on...

A discipline that combines optics and genetics to enable the use of light to stimulate and control cells in living tissue, typically neurons, which have been genetically modified to respond to light....

An optical coupling device that uses light to bridge the gap between incompatible wire communications systems. It contains an input amplifier, a light-emitting diode, a photodiode and an output...

Optomechanical refers to the integration of optical and mechanical systems or components. In optomechanical systems, optics (related to the manipulation of light) and mechanics (related to the...

The ray that has an isotropic speed and maintains a uniform polarization in all propagation directions when traveling in a doubly refracting (birefringent) crystal. It obeys Snell's law upon...

An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) is a type of light-emitting diode (LED) technology that utilizes organic compounds to produce light. OLEDs are commonly used in display technologies, such as...

A crystal having the axes of its grains aligned so that they have directional magnetic characteristics.

A camera designed with a telecentric optical system and a narrow field of view; the telecentric optical system (placement of the system's stop at its focal point) ensures that the principal image...

Point at which a laser's material gain is equal to, or greater than, the circuit losses.

An instrument used to record rapidly varying currents or voltages. An oscillograph may consist of a cathode-ray tube oscilloscope with a camera attachment, or a mirror galvanometer with a lamp and...

Opsins are a group of light-sensitive proteins found primarily in the retinas of vertebrate and invertebrate eyes, as well as in other light-sensitive tissues. These proteins play a crucial role in...

An otoscope is a medical device used by healthcare professionals, particularly ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialists, primary care physicians, and pediatricians, to examine the ear canal and...

The partially reflective mirror at the end of the laser cavity that is the source of the beam. It controls the coupling percentage for high output power and maintains correct mode structure in the...

The direct computation of the Fourier transform of the space variant system output of an optical processor with a single spherical lens. The one-dimensional output spectrum appears along a 45°...

A projector used to project transparencies. A horizontal 8 x 10-in. stage for writing or laying down preformed transparencies is provided with either an elliptical mirror or a plastic Fresnel lens...

Color sensitivity extended to cover the entire visible spectrum out to the red.

A camera designed to form a continuous record of an expansive section of the horizon. The typical panoramic camera is mounted to rotate about a vertical axis. A slit opening in the film plane and the...

The image distortion produced by a panoramic camera with a swinging lens or a swinging mirror in front of a fixed lens. The magnification is greatest in the center and diminishes to each side in the...

A telescope so manufactured that the image remains erect and the position of the eyepiece is unchanged as the line of sight is pointed in any horizontal direction.

The angular difference in the direction of an object as seen from two points of observation. The angle subtended at the object by the base length of a rangefinder.

Parallel scanning refers to a method of acquiring data or images simultaneously from multiple sources or in parallel, rather than sequentially scanning each source one after another. This approach is...

A pair of waveguides with axes normal to the plane and that guide uniform cylindrical waves.

Characteristic of optical analyses that are limited to infinitesimally small apertures. Also called first-order or Gaussian optics.

One eyepiece of a set having equal distances from their mounting interface to their image plane, permitting freedom to interchange eyepieces without the need to refocus.

Particle acceleration refers to the process by which charged particles, such as electrons or protons, gain kinetic energy and increase their velocity. This acceleration can occur in various natural...

An array of lines in the infrared region of the emission spectrum of atomic hydrogen. Their wave numbers are expressed by the equation: where represents the wave number in the reciprocal centimeters,...

A mounting used for large concave gratings, whereby the slit, grating and plate holder lie in the Rowland circle, and the photographic plates lie along a large portion of the circle. In this way, a...

Passive optical components are devices or elements used in optical systems that do not require external power or active control to perform their function. These components manipulate light signals...

An OLED display formed by creating an array of OLED pixels connected by intersecting anode and cathode conductors arranged in rows and columns. Electrical power is passed through selected pixels by...

The criterion maintaining that if light follows a specific path through an optical system, it will, if reversed, traverse that same path in the opposite direction.

A pathogen is a biological agent, such as a virus, bacterium, fungus, protozoan, or parasite, that causes disease in its host organism. Pathogens have the capability to invade host tissues,...

Pathogenesis refers to the process by which a disease develops and progresses within an organism. It encompasses the sequence of events and mechanisms that lead to the onset, progression, and...

A prism made up of two air-spaced components. It has the ability to revert, and not invert, an image, and can be used in convergent, divergent and parallel light. May be rotated to compensate for...

A Peltier cooler, also known as a thermoelectric cooler (TEC) or thermoelectric module, is a solid-state device that uses the Peltier effect to transfer heat between two electrical junctions. It can...

In astronomy, the main lobe of an antenna pattern that has a small angular extent in two mutually perpendicular directions. Invisible in space, it would resemble a searchlight beam.

A five-sided prism containing two reflecting surfaces at 45° to each other, and two refracting faces perpendicular to the entering and emerging beams. The deviation angle of 90° is...

A pentaprism is a five-sided glass prism used in optical devices, particularly in SLR cameras, to deviate the path of light by 90 degrees and ensure that the image seen through the viewfinder is...

An optical instrument designed to displace the line of sight in a vertical direction. For submarines and other military uses the periscope is a long tube containing prisms at both ends and...

The term perovskite refers to a specific crystal structure commonly found in various materials. Perovskite structures have a cubic arrangement of oxygen ions, forming a framework within which other...

A phage, short for bacteriophage, is a type of virus that infects and replicates within bacteria. Phages are composed of genetic material (either DNA or RNA) surrounded by a protein coat. They are...

In optics and photonics, "phase" refers to a property of electromagnetic waves, such as light, that describes the position of a wave at a given point in time within its oscillation cycle. More...