Photonics Dictionary

The process whereby sound waves are employed to form a three-dimensional image of an object. The process involves generally: the recording of the diffraction pattern of an object exposed to sound...

Device that uses a coherent reference wave to record the interference patterns produced by incident ultrasonic waves on an object.

A technique for obtaining improved resolution of images produced by large telescopes and distorted by the effects of atmospheric turbulence. Many individual exposures are recorded at high speeds by a...

Equipment used for chemical analysis by investigation of the spectra formed and observed in chemical activity. Of particular use are spectrographs for recording the emission spectra of substances...

A chart formed by a spectrograph; the record of the spectral range. See spectrograph.

Spectra can be conveniently recorded on photographic film or plates. The portions that are occupied by regions of the recorded developed images on the film or plate can be determined with some...

An optical instrument for forming the spectrum of a light source and recording it on a film. The dispersing medium may be a prism or a diffraction grating. A concave grating requires no other means...

The photographic recording of visible and ultraviolet spectra on an ordinary photograph.

A camera with two taking lenses and synchronized shutters. Two images are recorded simultaneously on separate frames, producing a three-dimensional image when viewed through the proper apparatus.

Stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) is a superresolution microscopy technique that enables imaging of biological specimens at resolutions beyond the diffraction limit of conventional...

A streak camera is a specialized instrument used to capture and analyze ultrafast phenomena, such as extremely short pulses of light or rapidly changing events. Unlike traditional cameras that...

A pulsed interferometer that permits the continuous quantitative mapping of the surface deformation of an adaptive optical element (e.g., a deformable mirror) and provides the capability for...

A measuring instrument used for surface profiling and quantifying the roughness of a material. The stylus is placed on the surface of the material at a given contact force, then is moved laterally...

swept-source Raman spectroscopy is an advanced analytical technique that combines the principles of Raman spectroscopy with a swept-source laser system. It enables rapid and sensitive chemical...

An imaging technique in which an object moving through an interference field formed in space scatters light and is spatially recorded on a photographic film as a hologram. If the interference field...

1. The term used to describe any of the many instruments used to remotely record physical dimensions, such as strain, temperature or pressure, and transmit this data to a receiving station. 2. A...

The science of sensing and measuring information at some remote location and transmitting the data to a convenient location for reading or recording.

A telescope lens is a primary optical component of a telescope system that gathers and focuses light to form an image. It is typically a curved, transparent piece of glass or other optical material...

An instrument used to record infrared images of large areas. The recorded data are used to produce maps in false color indicating particular themes such as vegetation, cloud cover, temperature...

A technique for detecting free radicals by their electronic spectra. The material to be studied is placed in a temperature-controlled furnace through which radiation is propagated onto a...

A type of recording material, usually a photodielectric polymer, offering in situ development mechanisms because of its density storage capabilities, high diffraction efficiencies and excellent noise...

Multiple exposures of holograms, one for each position of a vibrating image, that are used for vibration analysis and that yield a record of the time-averaged irradiance distribution at the hologram...

Time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) is a technique used in photon counting applications, particularly in the field of experimental physics, biophysics, and fluorescence lifetime imaging...

A cine camera that exposes a series of individual frames to record the changes in a subject that slowly alters with time. This results in the eventual showing of an event that happened over an...

A method of measuring total hemispherical emissivity of the plane surface of a solid that consists of thermally isolating a specimen of the material inside a vacuum, preheating it slightly above the...

A method of measuring distance by recording a single scene from two points of perspective. Surveying instruments can be used; in autofocus systems, rangefinders and three-dimensional imaging systems,...

Photographic recording of rapid events at a rate exceeding 106 frames per second.

The formation and display of three-dimensional images by ultrasonic energy. In one technique, the energy pulses from an ultrasonic transducer scan the object through a liquid medium and, receiving...

The photographic recording that uses ultraviolet radiation to irradiate the microscope sample being examined and to form an image of the object on a photographic medium. The components of the...

The field of photography concerned with the recording of subjects beneath the water with a watertight, water-resistant camera system.

A system by which consumer products are assigned a bar code that is read by a scanner at a cash register, enabling computerization of pricing and inventory records.

Short-distance scattering of light in holography caused by random index inhomogeneities and the developing index that interferes with the incident beam, thus recording a hologram of the scattered...

A disc whose surface contains recorded digital data at high-packing densities arranged in concentric rings. The data, representing video frames, are both recorded and read by a laser beam.

Videography refers to the process of capturing moving images and recording them in a digital format. It involves the use of video cameras, lighting equipment, and audio recording devices to create...

A filter, pale purple in color, used in black and white photography to display the brightness values of a subject being recorded on film.

1. An instrument used to determine the visual range in an environment. 2. A type of photometer that artificially reduces an object's visibility to threshold limits and records the quantity of...

The Weissenberg method, named after the German physicist Karl Weissenberg, is a technique used in x-ray crystallography for obtaining high-quality diffraction patterns from single crystals. This...

The theorem stating that, when the sampling period in a recorded sample hologram is matched to the object spectrum, the resulting image does not suffer any loss of information content.

Whole slide imaging (WSI), also known as virtual slide microscopy or digital pathology, is a technology that involves the digitalization of entire glass slides containing histological or cytological...

The bending of x-rays by the regular layers of molecules in a crystal acting like a very small diffraction grating. The diffraction pattern so obtained and recorded on film provides a means for...

A film or plate that is usually coated on both sides with a very fast emulsion that is sensitive to x-rays, and used to record x-ray diffraction patterns photographically.