Photonics Dictionary

A cylindrical lens is an optical component that has different curvatures along its two orthogonal axes, resulting in a shape resembling a cylinder. Unlike spherical lenses, which have the same...

A Dammann grating is a type of diffractive optical element (DOE) used to create an array of equally spaced, uniform-intensity spots or beams. It is named after its inventor, Dr. Herbert Dammann. The...

A precision-engineered microminiature light source that is safe for darkroom use, yet emits a beam of light bright enough to read by.

A condenser that forms a hollow cone-shaped beam of light with its focal point in the plane of the specimen. If it is used with an objective having a numerical aperture lower than the minimum...

A device used in ultrasonic imaging to measure the velocity and attenuation of compressional waves in a transparent liquid by virtue of acoustic waves set up in the liquid. The wavefronts serve as a...

The circuit that regulates an electron beam's deflection in a cathode-ray tube.

The progressive defocusing of a cathode-ray tube display image that occurs when the deflected electron beam impinges on the cathode-ray tube screen at a slant.

A metal coil or coils wrapped around the outside of the neck of a cathode-ray tube. Current passing through the coils produces a magnetic field, which can be used as an alternative to deflection...

A spatial light modulator consisting of a metallized polymer film stretched over an array of metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs). Each mirror element in the film can be...

A quantitative measurement of the coherence of a light source; equal to the visibility (V) of the fringes of a two-beam interference test: where Imax equals the intensity at a maximum of the...

A device that obliterates the polarization of a polarized beam by reflecting the beam in all directions at right angles to its axis.

Able to rotate the plane of polarization of a transmitted, plane-polarized light beam clockwise as seen by a viewer looking in the same direction as the traveling light. Also called dextrorotary; the...

A dichroic coating, also known as a dichroic filter or dichroic mirror, is an optical coating designed to selectively transmit or reflect certain wavelengths of light while simultaneously absorbing...

A dichroic mirror, also known as a dichroic beamsplitter or interference filter beamsplitter, is an optical device that selectively reflects or transmits light based on its wavelength. Dichroic...

A polarizer that consists of dichroic polarizing material embedded in a plastic sheet, and that transmits light that is almost completely plane polarized with an intensity that is half that of the...

A lidar (light detection and ranging) technique used in pollution monitoring. Two light beams are emitted simultaneously, one at a wavelength that will be absorbed by the target particles, and the...

Differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy, also known as Nomarski interference contrast microscopy, is an optical imaging technique used in microscopy to enhance the contrast of transparent...

The angle that lies between the direction of an incident light beam and any resulting diffracted beam.

The formation of a fan of light or energy rays in a beam as the beam passes through an extremely narrow aperture.

Elastic scattering that occurs when inelastic processes eliminate particles from the beam.

Optical elements that use diffraction to control wavefronts. Diffractive optical elements include diffraction gratings, surface-relief diffractive lenses, holographic optical elements and...

The study of the diffraction of beams of a wave by matter to ascertain the structure of the matter.

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...

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...

A laser having a rod that is a stacked array of discs immersed in a transparent flowing coolant fluid. In this way, the cooling rate is increased, the temperature gradients are basically parallel to...

A prism or series of prisms used to disperse a beam of radiant energy of mixed wavelengths into its spectral components.

1. In optics, the bending of rays away from each other. 2. In lasers, the spreading of a laser beam with increased distance from the exit aperture. Also called beam spread. 3. In a binocular...

Holographic recording whereby the object is illuminated by two pulses, separated by a time interval, from a Q-switched laser source. Each pulse is divided into reference and object beams, and...

A technique used in astronomy that requires a radio telescope to be directed at a point in the sky west of the object under observation. The Earth's rotation causes the object to drift through the...

Dual-axis laser is a laser device or system capable of emitting laser beams along two orthogonal axes (typically X and Y axes) concurrently. This allows for precise control and manipulation of the...

The superimposition of a pilot object on each hologram. The fixed relative position of the scanning and pilot beam during the recording process ensures that sensing and fixing the pilot beam position...

Technique for the precision evaluation of coincidence of a laser beam's center with the edge of the object under study and exact location of that edge by means of a double electronic differentiation...

An edge-emitting light-emitting diode is a type of LED structure where light emission occurs primarily along the edge of the semiconductor chip rather than from the surface. Edge-emitting LEDs are...

In photoelectric sensing, the portion of the transmitted beam that actually functions in the system; the diameter of the beam that determines the presence or absence of an object by being blocked or...

A device that uses four electrodes set in an alternating positive-negative polarity series to focus the beams of charged particles employed in electron microscopes and particle accelerators.

The effect whereby a light beam is deflected by a birefringent prism when its polarization is changed by voltage applied to an electro-optical crystal through which the beam passes. The deflection of...

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...

A device used to control or block a light beam by means of the Kerr electro-optical effect.

The study of the generation of electromagnetic power by radiation from high-energy beams.