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8,726 terms

Photonics Dictionary

light balancing filter -> color conversion filter

A filter that serves to alter the color temperature and the mired value of the radiation emitted by a source.

light beating -> photoelectric mixing

Also known as light beating. The mixing of two narrowband optical components to produce an AC component in the photocurrent at the optical difference frequency.

light chopper -> optical chopper

A mechanical or electrical-electromagnetic device for periodically interrupting or blocking abeam of light for a brief known interval. The three most common chopper types include the tuning fork...

light chopping

light current -> photocurrent

The current that flows through a photosensitive device, such as a photodiode, as the result of exposure to radiant power.

light diffusion

Light diffusion refers to the process by which light is scattered or spread out in various directions as it interacts with a medium or material. Unlike direct transmission through a transparent...

light dispersion

The process whereby white light is separated into its component wavelengths. Light beams of different wavelengths are separated from each other by undergoing a different angular deviation. Prisms and...

light fidelity

LiFi, short for light fidelity, is a wireless communication technology that utilizes visible light or infrared light to transmit data. Developed as an alternative or complementary technology to...

light field

The term light field refers to the spatial distribution of light rays traveling in all directions through a given space. It includes information about the intensity and direction of light rays at...

light filament

Phenomenon caused by an ultrashort and ultra-intense light pulse propagating in a Kerr medium, such as air or water. When the pulse's power exceeds the critical power (approximately 3 GW in air),...

light filter

A homogeneous optical medium or coating that transmits only in particular regions of the spectrum. It is used to change or modify the total or relative energy distribution of a beam of light.

light frame

The term for an image captured by a detector and from which a dark frame, bias frame and/or flat-field frame can be subtracted during image processing.

light meter

Any device that is used to sense and measure light. See exposure meter; photoelectric exposure meter; photoelectric photometer; reflected light meter.

light modulator

A device that is designed to modulate a beam of light, usually from a laser source, by acting upon the beam directly. The three general types of devices operate in an acousto-optic, electro-optic or...

light negative

That property of a substance that determines that there will be a decrease in conductivity when exposed to light radiation.

light pattern

In optics, a pattern, such as the Buchmann-Meyer pattern, that may be viewed when the record surface is illuminated by a light beam having parallel rays.

light pen

A handheld, light-sensitive device that is used with a display console to directly change, measure or erase the visual information presented. Interfaced with the computer that is generating the...

light pencil

A narrow cone of light rays that diverge from a point source or converge to an image point.

light pipe

Transparent matter that usually is drawn into a cylindrical, pyramidical or conical shape through which light is channeled from one end to the other by total internal reflections. Optical fibers are...

light quantum

The individual coherent series of lightwaves that defines a quantum of radiant energy. Light quantum is equal to hv, h being Plank constant and v being the radiation frequency in herts.

light ray

The path of a given point on a wavefront. One of the radii of a wave of light that indicates the direction of light travel.

light sectioning

Technique for measuring the volume bulk of materials as they move along a conveyor with an accuracy of better than 1 percent. Based on the use of high-resolution arrays of solid-state detectors, the...

light sheet fluorescence microscopy

Also known as single plane illumination microscopy (SPIM), this process was designed for imaging of sensitive samples and fast biological processes in vivo. In this method, a light sheet illuminates...

light source

The generic term applied to all sources of visible radiation from burning matter to ionized vapors and lasers, regardless of the degree of excitation.

light source efficiency -> luminous efficacy

Quotient of total luminous flux divided by total radiant flux; lumens per watt. (For a source, quotient of total luminous flux divided by lamp power input.)

light source power

The electrical power used to stimulate any light source. Power supplies may be step-up or step-down transformers; rectifiers to convert AC to DC; ammeters and voltmeters to observe the input to the...

light throughput efficiency

The fraction of incident light power in an optical modulator that is available to the output beam.

light valve

With respect to display systems, a device that uses an independent light source and a control-layer medium, the active optical element, to convert an electrical charge image to an optical image....

light-activated silicon-controlled rectifier

A PN-PN device with incident light taking the place of gate current; three of the four semiconductor regions are available for circuit connections.

light-activated silicon-controlled switch

Similar to LASCR, except that all four regions are available.

light-beating spectroscopy

The spectroscopic analysis of optical line shapes and frequency shifts, using the technique of light beating; i.e., the mixing of two narrowband optical components to produce an AC component in the...

light-emitting diode

An LED, or light emitting diode, is a semiconductor device that emits light when an electric current passes through it. LEDs are widely used in various applications due to their energy efficiency,...

light-powered telephone

Technology that relies on a highly efficient photodetector that can detect incoming light signals at one frequency and transmit outgoing signals at another, thus permitting the sending and receiving...

lightguide -> fiber optic lightguide

A bundle of optical fibers arranged randomly for the purpose of transmitting energy, not an image.

LIGO

laser interferometer gravitational wave observatory

LIL

laser integration line

LIMA

laser-induced mass analysis

limiting angle of resolution

The angle subtended by two points or lines that are just far enough apart to be distinguished as separate. The ability of an optical device to resolve two points or lines is called resolving power...

limiting angular subtense (a_min)

The apparent visual angle that divides intrabeam viewing from extended-source viewing.

limiting aperture

The maximum circular area over which radiance and radiant exposure can be averaged.

LIMS

laser ionization mass spectrometry

lin

linear

linac

linear accelerator

linac -> linear accelerator

A device used to accelerate the electrons in a free-electron laser. There are several types, including the induction linear accelerator, the radio frequency linear accelerator and the superconducting...

linar

Celestial point sources that emit specific wavelengths of radiation that appear on spectral charts as narrow lines. The term linar is a contraction of line and star.

line of sight

The line of vision; the optical axis of a telescope or other observation system. The straight line connecting the object and the objective lens of the viewing device.

line scan

Line scan refers to a method of capturing images or data by scanning a single line at a time, as opposed to capturing the entire image simultaneously. This technique is commonly used in various...

line source

In the spectral sense, an optical source that emits one or more spectrally narrow lines as opposed to a continuous spectrum. In the geometric sense, an optical source whose active (emitting) area...

line spectra

Spectra that originate from atoms; they are composed of lines having irregular spacing and intensity.

line spectrum

A spectrum formed by radiation whose energy values of the property being measured cluster about at least one discrete value, as opposed to a continuous spectrum. The actual width of the spectral line...

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