Photonics Dictionary

An embossed or marked disk, constructed out of a transparent material and used with a camera system to soften an image.

The central peak (including everything interior to the first zero or dark ring) of the focal diffraction pattern of a uniformly irradiated, aberration-free circular optical element or system.

Method of disk rotation used for optical disk drives, in which the spindle motor decreases the speed of the disk's rotation as the head moves from the inner tracks to the outer, so that the radial...

A telescope in which a mask occults the solar disk, generating an artificial eclipse and allowing observation and recording of the sun's corona.

The concave portion of a surface, formed on a blank, on which the disk of higher refractive glass will be fused to form a multifocal spectacle lens.

The hardware for reading (and writing in devices so equipped) an optical mass data storage disk.

A gyroscope is a mechanical device consisting of a spinning disk or wheel mounted on a spinning axis in such a way that its orientation remains fixed regardless of any movement of its mounting...

Production of a repeated image of a transmitted beam through a diffractive optical element such as a holographic card or component disk. Creating moving or stationary optical designs via a system of...

Latency is the time interval between the stimulation or input of a system and the response or output. It is a measure of the time delay experienced in a system, network, or process. Latency can occur...

A lens blank is a piece of optical material in a raw, unfinished state, typically in the form of a disk or block, from which lenses are eventually fabricated. Lens blanks are made from various...

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...

Also referred to as fundus photography, ophthalmoscopy is the dioptrical study of the various interior components of the eye such as the macula, fovea, and opticdisk, and is overall essential in...

Optical manufacturing tools and machinery encompass a wide range of equipment, instruments, and systems used in the fabrication, shaping, finishing, and testing of optical components and systems....

A method of producing disks for erasable optical data storage. Information is recorded by a laser beam that generates pits on the surface of the disk while it is being cryogenically cooled. Erasure...

A solid-state drive (SSD) is a storage device that stores data electronically using solid-state memory chips. Unlike traditional hard disk drives (HDDs) that use spinning disks and mechanical...

A memory device consisting of thin disks of a magnetic substance deposited on a nonmagnetic substrate for use in a computer.

In the context of electronics and semiconductor manufacturing, a wafer refers to a thin, flat disk or substrate made of a semiconducting material, usually crystalline silicon. Wafers serve as the...