Photonics Dictionary

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...

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...

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.

A special evacuated camera equipped with means for holding a specimen and bombarding it with a sharply focused beam of electrons. A cylindrical film is placed around the specimen to record the...

An electric field produced to influence an electron stream much in the same manner that a lens affects a light beam.

The photographic recording of images produced by the electrons from an electron microscope. The electron beam carries the images through an array of three lenses, and an enlarged electron image is...

The photographic recording, and later enlarging, of very thin specimens, using an electron beam to form the image.

A device utilizing an electron beam for the observation and recording of submicroscopic samples with the aid of photographic emulsions or other short-wavelength sensors. With the electron microscope,...

An electron instrument used to reflect an electron beam totally.

An electron-beam tube with power-handling capability that is essentially based on controlled electron beams. Its control and screen grids are basically in alignment.

An analytical technique used to determine the nature of extremely small samples by forming the x-ray spectrum of the samples through excitation by a finely focused electron beam.

The deflection of a beam of electrons, at regular intervals, across a cathode-ray tube screen, according to a definite pattern.

An advanced magnetic device used in x-ray lithography to beam x-rays onto the surface of silicon wafers used for semiconductor circuits.

The deflection of an electron beam by the action of an electrostatic field that has a component perpendicular to the direction of the beam.

The use of an applied electrical field to focus a cathode-ray tube's electron beam.

The electrical distribution that serves to influence an electron beam in the same way that an optical lens affects a light beam.

A light beam whose electric vectors are broken into two elements of unlike amplitudes that are perpendicular to each other and that differ in phase by values other than 1, 3/4, 1/2, 1/4, etc.,...

The quality of asymmetrical intensity distribution in a laser beam, as opposed to a circular distribution.

A hologram produced by a pair of radiation beams, each carrying information.

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...

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...

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...

Calculation of the amount of energy extracted from a light beam regardless of its wide range resolution.

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...

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 small incandescent lamp whose intense beam is focused on the optical soundtrack of a motion picture film. The soundtrack modulates the beam, which in turn is detected by a photocell that produces...

1. The near total absorption of plane-polarized light by a polarizer that has an axis perpendicular to the plane of polarization. 2. The decrease in the intensity of a diffracted beam resulting from...

The ratio of the power of a plane-polarized beam that is transmitted through a polarizer placed in its path with its polarizing axis parallel to the beam's plane, as compared with the transmitted...

An f-theta lens, also known as an f-theta scan lens or simply an f-theta lens system, is a specialized optical component used in laser scanning systems, particularly in laser marking, engraving, and...