Photonics Dictionary

Ablative photodecomposition refers to a process where a material is broken down or decomposed due to exposure to intense light, typically laser light. In this process, the photons from the laser...

Acrylic refers to a type of synthetic polymer material known for its versatility, clarity, and durability. It is commonly used in a wide range of applications due to its beneficial properties. Here...

An active-matrix display is a type of flat-panel display technology where each pixel is actively controlled by one or more thin-film transistors (TFTs). This technology is commonly used in liquid...

Anisotropic is a term used to describe a material or substance that exhibits different properties or behaviors in different directions. In other words, the physical or mechanical characteristics of...

Automated optical inspection (AOI) is a technology used in manufacturing processes, particularly in electronics, to automatically inspect and detect defects or anomalies in products. AOI systems use...

A vapor-phase oxidation process for fabricating graded-index optical fibers. It differs from outside vapor phase deposition in that the preform is developed radially rather than longitudinally. An...

In the fabrication of an optical fiber, a layer that can be used to create a boundary against OH-ion diffusion into the core.

Chalcogenide refers to a class of compounds containing elements from group 16 of the periodic table, which includes sulfur (S), selenium (Se), and tellurium (Te). These elements are known as...

A colorimeter is a device used to measure and quantify the color characteristics of an object or a light source. It provides objective and standardized color information, typically expressed in terms...

Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) refers to a technology used in the fabrication of integrated circuits, particularly semiconductor devices like microprocessors, memory chips, and image...

A large-scale, precise drawing of the contours of a perfect mechanical part, often with plus and minus tolerances drawn or indicated. For quality control decisions, enlarged images of mechanically...

A cylindrical lens is an optical component that has different curvatures along its two orthogonal axes, resulting in a shape resembling a cylinder. Unlike spherical lenses, which have the same...

Diamond turning refers to a precision machining process used to produce complex optical components, particularly lenses and mirrors, from materials such as metals, plastics, and crystalline materials...

Optical elements that use diffraction to control wavefronts. Diffractive optical elements include diffraction gratings, surface-relief diffractive lenses, holographic optical elements and...

A device similar to distributed feedback lasers in construction and operation, but in which the period grating that produces feedback is removed from the gain region to simplify fabrication. The...

In the context of materials science and semiconductor physics, doping refers to the intentional introduction of impurities into a semiconductor material in order to alter its electrical properties....

A method of fabricating an optical waveguide by melting the core and clad glasses in two suitably joined concentric crucibles and then drawing a fiber from the combined melted glass.

A system for fabricating optical fiber, consisting of a furnace that heats the materials, a polymer coating stage, a capstan-pulling apparatus that free-draws the preform into a fiber and a drum on...

A grating that serves to provide higher resolution and dispersion than the average grating, and still has a greater free spectral range than either the Fabry-Perot etalon or the reflection echelon.

The spectroscopic analysis of interference patterns using an electronic imaging tube with a Fabry-Perot interferometer to record the fringes.

An electrochemical process of metal fabrication using an electrolyte, an anode to supply the metal, and a control of the electrical current and of the deposit of metal on the matrix of a reflector.

An electron-beam lithography (EBL) system is a sophisticated nanofabrication tool used in the semiconductor industry and research laboratories to pattern extremely fine features with sub-micrometer...

Epitaxial deposition is a process used in semiconductor manufacturing and materials science to grow a thin crystalline layer, known as an epitaxial layer, on a substrate. The term epitaxial refers to...

Epitaxial equipment refers to a set of specialized tools and systems used in the process of epitaxy, which is the growth of crystalline layers on a substrate material. Epitaxial growth is a critical...

An etalon is an optical device that consists of two parallel reflecting surfaces separated by a precise and known distance. It operates based on the principle of optical interference and is used to...

An optical resonator in which feedback is accomplished by two parallel planes. In diode lasers, the planes are obtained by cleaving, polishing, etching, etc.

A nonabsorbing, multireflecting device, similar in design to the Fabry-Perot interferometer, that serves as a multilayer, narrow-bandpass filter.

The series of rings when monochromatic light passes through a Fabry-Perot interferometer.

A multiple-beam interferometer, usually consisting of two flat plates, with high reflective ability. The plates are set parallel to one another by spacers so that lightwaves may bounce back and forth...

A laser oscillator in which two mirrors are separated by an amplifying medium with an inverted population, making a Fabry-Perot cavity. Standard diode lasers are Fabry-Perot lasers.

A means of determining a prism's index of refraction by placing the prism so that its emergent face is perpendicular to the incident beam. This arrangement permits the determination of the prism's...

A highly reflective mirror that is usually flat on one surface and curved on the other, and that has silver, gold or aluminum deposited on glass, providing about 99 percent reflection.

The spectroscopic analysis of interference patterns using a monochannel spectrometer, spectrograph or multichannel spectrometer with a Fabry-Perot interferometer to record the fringes.

A fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is a type of optical filter that is inscribed or "written" into the core of an optical fiber. It consists of a periodic modulation of the refractive index along the length...

A fiber laser is a type of laser in which the active gain medium is an optical fiber doped with rare-earth ions such as erbium, ytterbium, or neodymium. Fiber lasers generate coherent light through...

For a Fabry-Perot interferometer or etalon, a value for the transmission bandwidth which can be calculated as the ratio of the free spectral range to the full width half maximum of the transmission...

A Fizeau interferometer is an interferometric device that uses the principle of interference to measure the surface flatness and quality of optical components. It consists of a light source,...

In various fields such as fluid dynamics, microfluidics, and biotechnology, a flow channel refers to a defined pathway through which a fluid (liquid or gas) flows. The channel can be of various...

Fluoride fibers are optical fibers made from fluoride-based materials, typically fluoride glasses or crystalline fluoride compounds. These fibers are characterized by their unique optical properties,...

The frequency space between consecutive transmission peaks in the transmission spectrum of a Fabry-Perot interferometer or etalon. The free-spectral range is inversely proportional to the distance...

Freeform mirrors refer to reflective optical components that deviate from traditional symmetric or rotationally symmetric shapes, such as spheres or paraboloids. Unlike conventional mirrors, which...

Freeform optics refers to the design and fabrication of optical surfaces that do not follow traditional symmetric shapes, such as spheres or aspheres. Unlike standard optical components with...