Photonics Dictionary

The amount of spatial noise detected equivalent to the output emission location of the giving source.

Off-axis paraboloid and ellipsoid mirrors are specialized optical components used in various optical systems, particularly in applications requiring precise focusing, collimation, or imaging of...

A measure of the optical path length for light traveling from the sun or other celestial source through Earth's atmosphere to sea-level relative to the optical path length traveled by light from the...

A monolithic device containing both photonic and electronic sources, detectors, modulators, etc., on a single semiconductor substrate.

The production of a positron-electron pair by a photon having energy greater than one mega-electron-volt, whereby some of the photon energy is converted to the rest mass of the pair.

In interlaced television scanning, an effect in which the lines of one field fail to fall exactly within the lines of the following field, both fields comprising one frame of the picture. The lines...

A concave mirror that has the form of a paraboloid of revolution. The paraboloidal mirror may have only a portion of a paraboloidal surface through which the axis does not pass, and is known as an...

A thin, stretched plastic membrane cemented to a rigid supporting ring. It may be coated to act as a beamsplitter, for example, in a color camera; it is so thin that no perceptible image doubling...

A pentamirror is an optical component found in SLR cameras, composed of multiple flat mirrors arranged in a pentagonal configuration. Its primary function is to redirect light from the camera lens to...

A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) is a compact and integrated device that incorporates multiple photonic components and functions on a single chip, similar to the way electronic integrated circuits...

A vacuum gauge designed to measure very high degrees of vacuum by thermal conduction.

A polygonal mirror, also known as a multifaceted mirror or facet mirror, is a type of optical component used in various laser systems, optical scanners, and imaging devices. It consists of a flat or...

A contour mapping technique that involves projection of a grating onto an object to produce a shadow grating that is observed through another grating. Therefore, the size of the object to be measured...

A narrow channel created by cleaving a crystal made of alternating layers of gallium arsenide and aluminum gallium arsenide, and adding additional layers on the cleaved end face, at right angles to...

Developed for use in military reconnaissance systems, it consists of a polygonal mirror, drive motor, interface between motor and mirror, and control electronics. Also used in broadband video...

The circle that contains the slit, grating and primary astigmatic focus of a concave diffraction grating.

A device that acquires a signal and then stores it for a specified period of time before processing, and used, for example, to reduce noise as in correlated double sampling.

Sapphire crystal refers to a transparent, single-crystal form of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) known as corundum. It is one of the hardest known materials, second only to diamond on the Mohs scale of...

Sapphire optical fiber is a type of optical fiber made from single-crystal sapphire, which is a form of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) that is highly transparent in the infrared region of the electromagnetic...

A sapphire window refers to a transparent optical component made from sapphire crystal. Sapphire is a single-crystal form of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) that is highly prized for its exceptional optical...

Sapphire refers to a crystalline form of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) that is used in various optical and photonic applications due to its exceptional optical, mechanical, and thermal properties. Sapphire...

A contour mapping technique that uses electronic scanning and sampling techniques instead of a reference grating (see moire topography; projection moire topography) to obtain moire fringes, producing...

A form of infrared CCD that utilizes internal photoemission as a photodetection mechanism.

Irradiance per unit wavelength interval at a given wavelength, expressed in watts per unit area per unit wavelength interval.

A defect in the cleaved end face of an optical fiber in which the surface changes abruptly.

A scanning process in which the greatest amount of radiation determines part of a spiral motion rotating in one direction.

A cooling system used to attain and maintain desired low temperatures in infrared systems. The Stirling type is a mechanical refrigeration system capable of temperatures from 10 to 77 K.

Employ a Stirling engine for cryogenic cooling.

An engine in which work is performed by the expansion of a gas at high temperature; heat for the expansion is supplied through the wall of the piston cylinder.

Birefringence of materials that is induced or altered by stress fields.

A method of polishing an aspheric surface by mechanically distorting the optic while polishing the surface to a perfect sphere. When the stress is released, the substrate assumes the desired aspheric...

An image of an object that appears above the object's true position as the result of abnormal refraction of the image rays by the atmosphere.

A liquid crystal display using the material in its supertwisted nematic phase; the birefringence of the liquid crystal results in a characteristic yellow or blue color, unless corrected.

A microcircuit whose passive components consist of a ceramic-metal combination deposited on a given substrate by screening and firing processes.

A circuit whose passive components are deposited on a given substrate by sputtering or vacuum processes.