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5,268 terms
Photonics Dictionary
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nonlinear optical crystal
An optical crystal that possesses a strong nonlinear dielectric response function to optical radiation. A material with a strong second-order nonlinearity must not possess a center of symmetry. See...
nonlinear optical detector
A type of radiation detector designed to recognize nonlinear optical effects, such as the Raman effect, by means of a directional, nearly monochromatic light beam; e.g., a laser beam.
nonlinear optical effect
A class of optical phenomena that can be viewed only with nearly monochromatic, directional beams of light, such as those produced by a laser. Harmonic generation and the stimulated Raman effect are...
nonlinear optical materials
Nonlinear optical materials are substances that exhibit optical properties that are not linearly proportional to the intensity of incident light. In other words, these materials produce optical...
nonlinear optical phase conjugation
The coupling of laser or light beams via nonlinear optical techniques such as four-wave mixing to achieve spatial variation of the electrical field of the target beam. This technique is also referred...
nonlinear optical processing
Derivative of the half-tone screen process involving the fabrication of a binary pulse-width modulated copy of the continuous-level input using a halftone screen and spatial-filtering single...
nonlinear optics
Nonlinear optics is a branch of optics that studies the optical phenomena that occur when intense light interacts with a material and induces nonlinear responses. In contrast to linear optics, where...
nonlinear polarization
Nonlinear polarization refers to the phenomenon where the polarization of a material responds nonlinearly to an applied electric field. In linear systems, the polarization of a material is directly...
nonlinear scattering
Direct conversion of a photon from one wavelength to a lower energy photon of another wavelength(s) due to inelastic scattering. In an optical waveguide, nonlinear scattering is usually not important...
nonperiodic radiation
Irregular waves; e.g., light waves, having little coherence and a broad spectrum of frequencies.
nonradiative transition
A nonradiative transition refers to a process in which an electron or an atom undergoes a change in its energy state without emitting a photon. In contrast to radiative transitions, where a photon is...
nonreturn to zero
A binary code with two information states (1 and 0) and no neutral state between bits.
nonselective sensor
A radiometric device or system having uniform responsivity relative to all of the radiation parameters, or relative to one or more specified parameters, throughout all parameter intervals in which...
nonspectral color
A color whose hue is not produced by a single wavelength in the visible spectrum, but is instead produced by mixing the longest (red) and shortest (blue) wavelengths of the spectrum such as any...
nonthermal radiation
The radiation emitted from a group of charged particles that does not depend on the temperature of the source in which those particles are generated.
nonvolatile memory express
Nonvolatile memory express (NVMe) is a high-performance, scalable host controller interface designed for accessing solid-state storage devices, such as solid-state drives (SSDs), to leverage the...
normal congruence
Condition in which a perpendicular surface can be discovered for every ray in a group. This condition is commonly observed when rays emerge from a point source or object that is placed at the center...
normal dispersion
Dispersion characterized by an increasing index of refraction in the medium as the frequency of the propagating light increases towards the resonant frequency of the medium. Normal dispersion occurs...
normalized frequency
Also referred to as the V number in fiber optics; the normalized frequency is a dimensionless quantity, denoted by the symbol V, given by: where a is waveguide core radius, l is wavelength in vacuum,...
notch filter
Also referred to as a band-stop or band rejection filter; a notch filter is a filter that is designed to screen out a very narrow band of radiation by transmitting most wavelengths with little...
novelty filter
A filtering device that detects what is new in a scene of interest. Often compared to that of a temporal high pass filter, these filters will remove elements that appear repeatedly throughout an...
nox
Equal to 10-3 lux; used in measuring low values of illumination and luminance.
NRC
National Research Council
NRMPI
nonresonant multiphoton ionization
NSF
National Science Foundation
NTIS
National Technical Information Service
NTSC
National Television Systems Committee
nu value
->
Abbe constant
A dispersion relation defined in order to value the reciprocal amount of dispersion. It is defined as the refractivity over the difference in index values of the shortest and longest visible...
nuclear fusion
In physics, nuclear fusion refers to the process in which two atomic nuclei come together to form a heavier nucleus, releasing a large amount of energy. This process powers the sun and other stars...
nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy
That branch of spectroscopy that applies to the study of interactions between energy and atomic nuclei. The simultaneous application of a strong magnetic field and the radiation from a...
nuclear magnetic resonance
A phenomenon, exploited for medical imaging, in which the nuclei of material placed in a strong magnetic field will absorb radio waves supplied by a transmitter at particular frequencies. The energy...
nuclear quadrupole resonance spectroscopy
A chemical detection technique used to measure molecules that have a magnetic dipole moment. The analysis is directed to nucleuses which have a quadrupole moment which leads to an asymmetric electric...
nuclear track emulsion
A photographic emulsion of the silver-halide type that is used to record the path of a charged traveling particle. The tracks recorded on these emulsions are typically observed under a microscope...
null process
Commonly performed in spectroscopy, the optical null process is a method for radiation detection whereby physical detectors are used to rapidly interchange the intensity between a reference beam and...
numerical aperture
The sine of the vertex angle of the largest cone of meridional rays that can enter or leave an optical system or element, multiplied by the refractive index of the medium in which the vertex of the...
Nusselt number
Expression of the nondimensional coefficient of the heat transfer in a convection process.
NVG
night-vision goggle
NVM
night-vision monocular
NVS
night-vision system
Nyquist criterion
In image acquisition (and sampling theory), the postulate that the pickup sampling frequency must be a minimum of twice as high as the Nyquist rate of brightness change of any detail to be resolved....
NZ-DFF
non-zero dispersion-shifted filter
OAET
Office of Aeronautics, Exploration and Technology
OAR
off-axis rejection; open area ratio
object
The figure seen through or imaged by an optical system. It may contain structures, natural or artificial, or it may be the real or virtual image of an object formed by another optical system. In...
objective grating
A coarse diffraction grating that is used to form a scale of intensities to determine the relative magnitudes of stars. The grating is placed over the objective of a telescope to form a diffraction...
oblate crystal
->
negative crystal
A uniaxial, birefringent crystal such as calcite or ruby in which the velocity of the extraordinary ray surpasses that of the ordinary ray. This can also be defined as the index of refraction of the...
oblique error
The image error that results from astigmatism, coma, oblique spherical aberration, lateral color and distortion.
oblique illumination
A common technique in microscopy, oblique illumination is one in which the object is illuminated by a light source that is at an oblique angle (on the side) to the optical axis. This technique is...
OCCR
optical Chinese character recognition
ocean color
Refers to the characteristic hue of the ocean according to the presence and concentration of specific minerals or substances, such as chlorophyll. Atmospheric aberrations of color must be corrected...
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Photonics Dictionary
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