Photonics Dictionary

A prism produced by severing a Nicol prism and reconstructing the polarization angles of the two halves so that they are slightly wedged toward each other.

A continuous-wave dye laser that uses a circulation pump and nozzle to provide an optically flat stream of dye across the laser's optical axis.

A device to hold and locate a workpiece as it guides, controls or limits a cutting tool.

Also called coating jig allowance. That margin on an optical component that is outside the clear aperture for use in holding the component in the optical thin-film coater tooling during the...

An optical instrument containing a gimballed sighting telescope, used to measure angular relationships in horizontal and vertical planes.

1. In relation to cathode-ray tube displays, errors in the signal's amplitude, phase or both that result in small, rapid aberrations in size or position of the image. 2. Errors of synchronization...

A design for bent crystal monochromators in which spacing is constant along any circular arc terminating at the two foci and with equally spaced Bragg planes curved about only one axis.

The graph of a curve describing the spectral irradiance of extraterrestrial sunlight.

A device consisting of two optical systems in which two signals are simultaneously transformed to produce their spectra, and these spectra are multiplied and inversely transformed to produce the...

Characteristic of radiation detectors that produce energy that is similar to the energy of superconductive gaps when interacting with photons.

A unit of energy or work in the MKS system of units. One joule is equal to 107 ergs.

A detector cooling device in which a gas under high pressure escapes through an expansion valve in the tank; as the escaped gas liquefies, it cools the site of the sensor.

A small defocused Galilean telescope mounted in a hole in a door. Viewed from inside through the positive lens, a wide-angle view of the outside is seen; viewed from outside through the negative...

A semiconductor device with the property of conducting current more easily in one direction than the other. It has two terminals containing a single crystal of semiconducting material that ranges...

A device designed to measure radiant energy, particularly in the thermal region.

The diffraction of a particle by a standing lightwave.

In an interlaced scanning electro-optical system such as television, the system resolution will be less than the number of active scan lines because of the random phase nature of the object being...

An eyepiece consisting of a planoconvex field lens and a cemented doublet as the eye lens.

The SI unit of temperature equal to 1°C. See absolute temperature scale.

A simple form of astronomical telescope that uses a fixed objective and a focusable eyepiece. The objective forms an intermediate image in the instrument, resulting in an image that appears upside...

See color perception test equipment; eye test apparatus.

The material lost during a laser cutting or machining operation.

A cell filled with a transparent material that, when placed in a strong electrical field, exhibits double refraction. Since the two polarized elements of an incident light beam travel at different...

The Kerr effect, named after the physicist John Kerr who first observed it in 1875, is a nonlinear optical phenomenon where the refractive index of a material changes in response to an applied...

A Kerr soliton refers to a specific type of soliton, a self-reinforcing wave packet, that arises in nonlinear optical systems due to the Kerr effect. The Kerr effect is the phenomenon where the...

E.I. duPont's trade name for an aramid yarn used as a strength member in the jacket of fiber optic cable.

The process of binding or attaching larger metal sheets by laser welding. The effect is generated by higher power densities which, while creating a larger weld, produce a vapor that is penetrated by...

A type of geometrical distortion that brings about a trapezoidal display of a nominally rectangular picture. Usually produced when a picture is projected abnormally to the screen.

A dark region created by spherical aberration of an eyepiece's exit pupil. Because of the aberration, an observer's eye must be at different distances from the eyepiece to view different regions of...

An array of spectral lines formed when a beam of electrons, striking a crystalline solid, is scattered. It is used in the analysis of the crystal structure.

In the SI system, prefix meaning one thousand, 103.

A unit of frequency that equals 1000 cps. Abbreviated kHz.

A unit of energy or work that is equal to 1000 (103) joules. Abbreviated kJ.