Photonics Dictionary

A 3D profile sensor, also known as a 3D profiling sensor or 3D depth sensor, is a technology that is used to capture and measure the three-dimensional shape or profile of an object or a scene. These...

An ablative wall flashlamp typically refers to a type of flashlamp used in certain high-energy laser systems. Components include: Flashlamp: This is a device that produces an intense pulse...

Acousto-optics is a branch of physics that deals with the interaction of sound waves (acoustic waves) and light waves (optical waves) within a medium. It primarily focuses on phenomena where acoustic...

A host crystal for chromium that emits pulsed or continuous-wave laser light, tunable from about 720 to 790 nm.

An alexandrite laser is a solid-state laser that utilizes a synthetic crystal made from the rare earth element alexandrite (BeAl2O4:Cr3+). This crystal is capable of emitting laser light in 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...

Attosecond photonics sources refer to devices or systems that generate extremely short pulses of light on the order of attoseconds (1 attosecond = 10-18 seconds). These ultrafast light pulses are in...

Attosecond-pump attosecond-probe spectroscopy (APAP) is an advanced technique in ultrafast spectroscopy that allows scientists to study the dynamics of electronic processes occurring on extremely...

In a pulsed laser, the pulse energy in joules times the repetition rate in hertz.

Bathymetric lidar is a remote sensing technique used to measure the depth of water bodies and map underwater terrain features. It employs lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) technology, which uses...

A high-frequency pulse-rate laser with an output limited by the heat capacity of the laser medium. Instead of having continuous cooling, the laser operates until the medium reaches a maximum...

A laser that relies on chemical activity instead of electrical energy to produce the pumping action necessary to form pulses of light.

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...

A laser whose pulses are expanded, using gratings and optical fibers, before amplification and compressed to increase beam intensity without damage to the optical train.

Chirped pulse amplification (CPA) is a technique used in laser physics to amplify ultrashort laser pulses to high energies without causing damage to the amplifying medium. The method was first...

A ring dye laser that uses prisms and a saturable absorber within the laser cavity to shape and shorten the pulses generated. Counterpropagating modes oscillating simultaneously in the ring...

Certain color centers in the alkali halides have been optically pumped to produce efficient tunable pulsed and continuous-wave (CW) lasers emitting in the range of 0.8 to 3.3 µm.

A laser warning and countermeasure system containing a sensor that indicates the direction of a laser beam, and analytical instruments to determine pulse code, repetition frequency and wavelength.

Continuous wave (CW) refers to a type of signal or transmission where the signal is constant and does not vary with time. In various contexts, the term is used to describe continuous, uninterrupted...

A laser that emits radiation continuously rather than in short bursts, as in a pulsed laser.

Also called DLIP, a high-speed, high-resolution processing technique that uses high-power, pulsed laser systems to directly ablate micro- and nanoperiodic structures with different features on large...

Direct time-of-flight (dTOF) is a technique used in 3D imaging and depth sensing to measure the time taken for light or electromagnetic waves to travel from a source to a target object and back to a...

Interferometric measurement of the interference pattern recorded when a complex object is illuminated by two laser pulses that interfere and form the pattern to be evaluated.

Holographic recording whereby the object is illuminated by two pulses, separated by a time interval, from a Q-switched laser source. Each pulse is divided into reference and object beams, and...

Dual-chirped optical parametric amplification (DC-OPA) is an advanced technique in ultrafast laser technology used to amplify femtosecond laser pulses to extremely high energies while maintaining...

A laser using a dye solution as its active medium. Its output is a short pulse of broad spectral content and its achievable gain is high. Dye lasers function at room temperature. Synchronous pumping...

A type of laser pulsing with high laser power at the beginning of the pulse.

An excimer laser is a type of ultraviolet laser that emits short pulses of light in the ultraviolet spectrum. The term excimer is derived from excited dimer, reflecting the nature of the gain medium...

Excimer laser coronary angioplasty (ELCA) refers to a medical procedure used in the treatment of coronary artery disease. This technique involves the use of an excimer laser to perform angioplasty, a...

A femtosecond laser is a type of laser that emits ultrashort pulses of light with durations on the order of femtoseconds, where one femtosecond is equal to 10-15 seconds. These lasers are capable of...

A pulsed dye laser in which the excitation is provided by means of a flashlamp. Output is tunable from 335 to 850 nm, with peak power up to 7000 kW.

A device, also called a fluorescence lifetime instrument, that measures decay curves of fluorescing samples. It generally consists of a gated pulsed flashlamp or a cavity dumped dye laser...

Fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) is an advanced imaging technique that provides information about the lifetime of fluorescence emissions from fluorophores within a sample. Unlike traditional...

Time elapsed during the radiant output change from 10 to 90 percent of maximum in a light-emitting diode or laser. Usually expressed in nanoseconds and measured from the moment of onset of the...

FMCW lidar stands for frequency-modulated continuous wave lidar. It is a type of lidar (light detection and ranging) technology used for remote sensing, distance measurement, and 3D mapping. FMCW...

A single-particle scattering technique in which an incident laser beam is tightly focused by means of lenses to yield a focal spot in the scattering material with a diameter on the order of the...

A frequency comb is a precise and regular series of equally spaced spectral lines, or frequencies, that are generated with great accuracy. The term "frequency comb" is often associated with the Nobel...

Gain-switching is a technique used in lasers to generate short pulses of light by modulating the gain of the laser medium. This method is distinct from Q-switching and mode-locking, two other common...

A discontinuous burst of laser light generated by timing or "gating'' a continuous-wave laser.

The global ecosystem dynamics investigation (GEDI) lidar is a state-of-the-art spaceborne instrument designed to study Earth's forests and ecosystems in three dimensions. Developed by NASA, GEDI is...

1. The value on either the leading or the trailing edge of a laser pulse at which the power is one-half of its maximum value. 2. The wavelength at which a filter is transmitting one-half of its peak...

Harmonic generation refers to a nonlinear optical process in which incoming photons interact with a material and produce new photons at integer multiples of the frequency of the incoming photons....

High harmonic generation (HHG) refers to a nonlinear optical process in which intense laser light interacts with a gaseous medium, typically an atom or a molecule, to produce harmonics of the...

A camera system used to form a high-precision hologram of the subject on a photographic plate. It contains a high-power pulsed laser as the illuminating source.

A method of measuring flow velocity by seeding the flow with neutrally buoyant particles and using a pulsed laser to holographically record particle displacement during a short time period. An...

Indirect time-of-flight (iTOF) is a method used in 3D imaging and depth sensing to measure the distance to an object based on the time delay between the emission of a light pulse and the detection of...

Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is a method of achieving nuclear fusion, a process where two atomic nuclei combine to release energy. In the case of inertial confinement fusion, the fusion reaction...