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waveguide

waveguide

7.9
A thin piece of material that carries light in a chip for circuits
  • noun
  • /ˈweɪvˌɡaɪd/
  • Specialized
translation icon : guía de ondas
  • Fiber optics uses light waveguides to transmit messages through hair-thin plastic or glass fibers.
  • optical waveguide
  • fiber waveguide
  • waveguide laser

Examples

  • You can create waveguides actually for VIS for visible light.

  • Fiber optics uses light waveguides to transmit messages through hair-thin plastic or glass fibers.

    Academic text (1990)
  • In a similar fashion, a line of defects can serve as a waveguide.

    Academic text (1999)
  • One possibility would be to use the cantilever itself as a waveguide to guide light to the tip.

    Academic text (1995)
  • When coupled into an optical waveguide, the familiar narrowband radiation from a laser can become spectrally broadened into the ultimate white light.

    Academic text (2012)
  • In a dielectric waveguide, a beam propagating in a high-index medium undergoes total internal reflection from boundaries with lower index media.

    Academic text (1998)
  • For in-phase beams, the intensity and hence the refractive index between the beams' induced waveguides are increased.

    Academic text (1998)
  • Thanks to the ability nowadays to readily engineer dispersion into optical fibers, it is possible to fabricate optical waveguides that can generate a supercontinuum from a wide range of pump-laser sources.

    Academic text (2012)
  • Some companies employ glass waveguides to shuttle light efficiently between components in their optical systems.

  • Researchers developed a new kind of waveguide that improves light transmission in photonic circuits.

Compounds

acoustic waveguide
  • Specialized
8.6

A structure that directs sound along a path, for example inside a speaker

Surface Forms

waveguide singular
waveguides plural

Morphology

waveguide = wave + guide (transparent) = wave + guide

The compound transparently denotes a structure that guides optical or infrared waves; the shift to light-specific materials is domain-specific but compositionally regular.

Etymology

The word waveguide is made of wave + guide, so think of it as a tiny road for light: 'wave' here means light or infrared energy and 'guide' means 'to lead', which is why a waveguide confines and carries light across a chip like a small light pipe.