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glossary
- Lens: optical component with two refractive surfaces axially symmetrical for redirecting the light in a controlled manner
- Object: element (point, line, plane, or whatever,…) of the space linked to another element called image in a way that rays coming from the object and transmitted by an optical system focus on the image ; object and image are said to be conjugate by the optical system
- Image: conjugate of an object by an optical system (see object)
- Effective focal length: algebraic distance from the primary/secondary principal plane of an optical system to its front/back focal plane
- Back focal point: conjugate by an optical system of the on-axis point located at infinity
- Constringence: parameter characterizing the chromatic dispersion of a material - the higher the constringence, the lower the dispersion
- Chromatism: aberration occurring in optical systems with refractive surfaces and caused by the dependence of the refractive index on the wavelength
- Axial chromatism: wavelength dependance of the position of the paraxial image by an optical system caused by the chromatic aberration for an on-axis object
- Height chromatism: for an off-axis object, wavelength dependance of the height of the paraxial image by an optical system caused by the chromatic aberration
- Wavelength ( of a light wave ): distance between two consecutive identical states of the electric ( or magnetic ) field