Photonics Dictionary

An adhesive used for bonding optical elements or for holding devices.

The surface of an element of a compound lens that will produce the cemented interface. The curves of this interface are called inside curves. To facilitate cementing, the two inside curves should...

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an international non-profit organization dedicated to advancing science, engineering, and innovation for the benefit of all people....

Displacement in a direction perpendicular to that of the intended displacement, as in a translation stage with simple flexures that experiences vertical displacement during horizontal motion; it is...

An adhesive used to hold optical elements to blocking tools. It is usually a thermoplastic substance such as resin, beeswax, pitch or shellac.

Technique that uses high-pass filtering to reduce the local average to zero for all regions of the picture and then applies a gain factor equal to the reciprocal of the local standard deviation to...

Adhering material used to glue optical components that transmit in the infrared. It is easily dissolved by acetone.

In image processing, any operation that strengthens information about the edges of objects displayed. Three types of spatial filtering are used: shift and difference, gradient and Laplacian.

A cement used to reduce crosstalk in fiber optic bundles or plates.

Edge enhancement with a directional characteristic.

The digitization process by which an image is manipulated to increase the amount of information perceivable by the human eye.

A semiconductor platelet laser that emits a coherent image by means of plane optical pumping over the platelet surface, and that uses laser threshold characteristics to produce a pronounced threshold...

Edge enhancement technique that accentuates all edge details in an image without discriminating as to spatial orientation.

Plasma-enriched deposition or planar magnetic sputtering that offers increased deposition rates in optical thin-film production. This technology surpasses conventional and RF sputtering.

An adhesive used to hold optical components in their mounts. It may be a thermoplastic or chemical-hardening substance.

The movement of an object seen through a refracting prism toward the apex of a prism.

A permanent, transparent, and highly transmissive adhesive capable of withstanding extreme temperatures that is applied to optical surfaces for the purpose of cementing, or the sticking together of...

Optical cements and adhesives are specialized materials used in the assembly and bonding of optical components in optical systems. These materials are designed to provide secure and durable bonds...

An adhesive whose viscosity decreases as the temperature is increased to a limit. Canada balsam, resin and pitch are examples of thermoplastic cements.

An adhesive that permanently sets or hardens at a specified high temperature. Methacrylate is an example of a thermosetting cement.

The formula that gives the wavelength of maximum spectral radiant emittance of a perfect blackbody: λmax = 2898/T(µm) The radiation at this λmax can be calculated as follows:...

3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing (AM), is a manufacturing process that builds three-dimensional objects layer by layer from a digital model. This technology allows the creation of...

3D profiling, also known as three-dimensional profiling, refers to the process of capturing, analyzing, and visualizing the three-dimensional shape, geometry, and surface characteristics of objects...

An Abbe condenser is a type of optical component used in microscopy to enhance the illumination of the specimen. Named after the German physicist Ernst Abbe, who developed it in the 19th century, the...

An actuator is a mechanical or electromechanical device that is responsible for moving or controlling a mechanism or system. It converts various forms of energy (such as electrical, hydraulic,...

Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, is a manufacturing process that involves creating three-dimensional objects by adding material layer by layer. This is in contrast to...

An intermolecular substance that serves to hold materials together. Two types are used in the optical industry: one, which must be transparent and colorless, to cement lenses together; and a...

The advanced communication technology satellite (ACTS) was a program developed by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) in the United States to demonstrate and advance satellite...

An ammonia maser is a device that amplifies microwave radiation using ammonia gas molecules in a process analogous to how lasers amplify visible light through stimulated emission of radiation. The...

An argon-fluoride (ArF) excimer laser is a type of ultraviolet laser that operates using a mixture of argon and fluorine gases. Excimer lasers are a class of gas lasers that emit light in the UV...

Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that integrates digital information, typically in the form of computer-generated graphics, images, or data, with the real-world environment in real-time. AR...

An autocollimator is an optical instrument used for measuring small angular deviations with high precision. It operates on the principle of autocollimation, where a light source is directed onto a...

Automatic current control (ACC) refers to a system or mechanism designed to regulate and maintain a desired level of electric current in a circuit or device without manual intervention. This control...

A backside-illuminated (BSI) sensor is an image sensor technology where the light-sensitive elements (typically pixels) are positioned on the opposite side of the sensor substrate from where light...

A beamsplitter is an optical device used to divide a beam of light into two or more separate beams, typically by reflecting a portion of the incident light while transmitting the remainder....

Bin picking, also known as bin picking automation or bin picking robotics, refers to the automated process of selecting and retrieving individual objects or components from a bin, container, or bulk...

Pitch, wax, resin or other cement suitable for holding optical parts to a spindle during grinding and polishing processes.

An instrument used to support optical parts to be cemented, or to be mounted in plaster.

In the optical field, a piece of glass to which a lens or prism is cemented. The unit is ground and polished as a whole to obtain a sharp edge on the finished piece.

A compound prism composed of two 30° prisms, one of which is partially coated with a suitable opaque metal of high reflecting power. The prisms are cemented with Canada balsam so that the coated...

A resin obtained from the balsam fir, Abies balsamea, used as a lens cement.

Chirped mirrors are optical devices designed to manipulate the spectral properties of ultrashort laser pulses. They consist of multiple layers of dielectric coatings deposited on a substrate, where...

Circular-ranging optical coherence tomography (CR-OCT) is a specialized imaging technique used in medical diagnostics and research to obtain high-resolution cross-sectional images of biological...