In-depth articles written by our editorial team focusing on the latest developments in materials science and technology
Magnifying power is defined as the ratio between the dimensions of the image and the object. The process of magnification can occur in lenses, telescopes, microscopes and even in slide projectors. Simple magnifying lenses are biconvex - these lenses are thicker at the center than at the edges.
The CCD (charge coupled device) was first invented at the Bell laboratories in the 1960s. CCDs are thin wafers which consist of a number of buried electrodes that facilitate the movement of electrons from the device to a desired point.
Polarization of a light wave is defined as a type of orientation of oscillations of the wave with respect to the direction of propagation of the wave.
A Lambertian surface for reflection is a surface that appears uniformly bright from all directions of view and reflects the entire incident light. Lambertian reflectance is the property exhibited by an ideal matte or diffusely reflecting surface.
An aperture is an opening or a hole through which light passes by. In an optical system, the aperture is the opening that defines the cone angle of a set of light rays that converges at a focal point in an image plane.
The principal planes are two hypothetical planes found in a lens system at which all the refraction is deemed to occur. The position of the principal planes are fixed and do not depend upon the position of the object
Refraction is a phenomenon that happens when waves passing from one transparent medium to another bend at the boundary between the two mediums.
By Ben Arnold
19 Sep 2014
The axicon lens is a specialized lens that bears a conical surface. The axicon lens images a point source as a line along the optic axis.
Autocorrelator is a tool used for measuring the autocorrelation of spectral components and optical beam intensity by investigating the variable difference is an optical path of the beam.
Fluorescent lamps are essentially cylindrical glass tubes that are coated with phosphorus and filled with a noble gas. They also contain a small amount of mercury inside. Conventionally, these lamps are shaped as hollow cylinders.