English > optical device: 1 sense > noun 1, artifact| Meaning | A device for producing or controlling light. |
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| Narrower | Kerr cell | optical device consisting of a transparent cell with two electrodes between two polarizing media |
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| Nicol prism | optical device that produces plane-polarized light |
| Rochon prism, Wollaston prism | optical device that produces plane-polarized ultraviolet light |
| autofocus | An optical device for focussing a camera / camera or other instrument automatically |
| biprism | An optical device for obtaining interference fringes |
| camera lucida | An optical device consisting of an attachment that enables an observer to view simultaneously the image and a drawing surface for sketching it |
| coelostat | optical device used to follow the path of a celestial body and reflect its light into a telescope |
| collimator | optical device consisting of a tube containing a convex achromatic lens at one end and a slit at the other with the slit at the focus of the lens |
| diffraction grating, grating | optical device consisting of a surface with many parallel grooves in it |
| diffuser, diffusor | optical device that distributes the light of a lamp evenly |
| finder, viewfinder, view finder | optical device that helps a user to find the target of interest |
| laser, optical maser | An acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation |
| lens, lense, lens system | A transparent optical device used to converge or diverge transmitted light and to form images |
| planetarium | An optical device for projecting images of celestial bodies and other astronomical phenomena onto the inner surface of a hemispherical dome |
| polarimeter, polariscope | An optical device used to measure the rotation of the plane of vibration of polarized light |
| prism, optical prism | optical device having a triangular shape and made of glass or quartz |
| projector | An optical device for projecting a beam of light |
| stereoscope | An optical device for viewing stereoscopic photographs |
| viewer | An optical device for viewing photographic transparencies |
| Broader | device | An instrumentality invented for a particular purpose |
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