Latest Articles

RSS

What is a Pinhole Camera?

A pinhole camera, also known as camera obscura or "dark chamber", is a simple camera that has a single small aperture called pinhole instead of a lens. The concept of pinhole camera was published in the Book of Optics in 1021 AD by Persian scientist Ibn al-Haytham.

24 Oct 2014

What is Magnification Power?

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.

24 Oct 2014

What is a CCD Sensor?

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.

23 Oct 2014

What is an Optical Fiber Isolator?

Optical isolators are optical elements which allow light to propagate in only one direction. The propagation of light in one single direction is required in order to prevent optical back scattering or feedback which often leads to noise in many applications.

22 Oct 2014

What is Unpolarized Light?

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.

14 Oct 2014

What is a Lambertian Surface?

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.

8 Oct 2014

What is an Aperture?

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.

6 Oct 2014

What is Four-Wave Mixing?

Four-wave mixing (FWM) is a non-linear optical process where two other waves are produced by the interaction of two wavelengths. Four-wave mixing can take place in any kind of material.

1 Oct 2014

Primary and Secondary Principal Planes

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

29 Sep 2014

What is Radiation?

Radiation is a phenomenon wherein energy is propagated and emitted in the form of electromagnetic waves. Radiation consists of different types of waves - water waves, sound waves, light waves, and heat waves.

25 Sep 2014