- collimator
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/kol"euh may'teuhr/, n.1. Optics.a. a fixed telescope for use in collimating other instruments.b. an optical system that transmits parallel rays of light, as the receiving lens or telescope of a spectroscope.2. Physics. a device for producing a beam of particles in which the paths of all the particles are parallel.[1815-25; COLLIMATE + -OR2]
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device for changing the diverging light or other radiation from a point source to a parallel beam. This collimation of the light is required to make specialized measurements in spectroscopy and in geometric and physical optics.An optical collimator consists of a tube containing a convex lens at one end and an adjustable slit at the other, the slit being in the focal plane of the lens. Radiation entering the slit leaves the collimator as a parallel beam, so that the image can be viewed without parallax.The collimator may be a telescope with a slit at the principal focal length of the lens. Light from the luminous source is focused on this slit by a lens of similar focal length, and the slit then serves as the luminous object of the optical system.In radiology, a collimator is an arrangement of absorbers for limiting a beam of X rays, gamma rays, or nuclear particles to the dimensions and angular spread required for the specific application.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
