photon Definition
☆ pho·ton (fō′tän′)
noun
- Particle Physics a subatomic particle, having energy and momentum but no mass or electric charge, that is the quantum unit of electromagnetic radiation, including light
- a unit of retinal illumination equal to the illumination from a surface having a brightness of one candle per sq meter seen through a pupil area of one sq millimeter
Etymology: phot(o)- + (electr)on
photon Related Forms
pho·ton′ic adjective
photon Telecom Definition
- A quantum of electromagnetic energy, a photon is a subatomic particle that has energy and momentum, but no mass or electric charge. A photon demonstrates wave and particle properties when in motion, but demonstrates no physical properties when at rest. See also electromagnetic spectrum and wave.
- A unit of light intensity at the retina equal to the illumination of one candle per square meter received through a pupil area of one square millimeter. See also candle and light.
photon Usage Examples
Converse of object
- emit: What causes an excited atom or molecule to emit a photon?
- polarize: I discovered and documented locations for apparent underground transmitters of polarized magnetic photon beams out into space.
- absorb: Instead, they absorb ultraviolet photons from hot stars which are near or embedded in the nebula.
- polarize: On beamline 5D circularly polarized photons are selected by means of a defining aperture, or chopper.
- radiate: The associated energy balance imposes an upper limit on the energy of the radiated photons, well below the TeV range.
Adjective modifier
- entangled: Then like the entangled photons you simply recreate an exact replica of yourself from the surrounding matter!
- incoming: Four incoming photons are required to complete the process.
- cosmic: Cosmic microwave background photons interact very weakly with neutral hydrogen.
- virtual: Dissociation of virtual photons in events with a leading proton at HERA.
Modifies a noun
- virtuality: These can be obtained in a continuous range of photon virtuality.
- pile-up: Therefore, photon pile-up in RGS will be negligible.
- flux: This is achieved by simulating the photon flux with a pixel array.
- counting: Given this, the scheme is deterministic and requires only simple linear optics and photon counting.
- tomography: Radionuclide imaging including positron emission tomography ( PET ) and single photon emission tomography.
- torpedo: Photon torpedoes - what have explosive coffins got to do with photons?
Noun used with modifier
- gamma-ray: Secondly, a spectrometer will measure the energies of incoming gamma-ray photons.
- high-energy: Each group will be given one day's collection of high-energy photons, which they will enter into a 6 X 5 matrix.
- X-ray: These mirrors were able to focus X-ray photons with energies in the range 0.1 - 10 KeV.
- gamma: What begins as a single gamma ray photon in the sun's core emerges at the surface as thousands of visible-light photons.
- x-ray: The conversion of electron energy into x-ray photons is also more efficient with fast rather than slow electrons.
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