Pencil beam
Encyclopedia
Optics
Optics is the branch of physics which involves the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behavior of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light...
, a pencil or pencil of rays is a geometric construct used to describe a beam
Light beam
A light beam or beam of light is a narrow projection of light energy radiating from a source into a beam. Sunlight is a natural example of a light beam when filtered through various mediums...
or portion of a beam of electromagnetic radiation
Electromagnetic radiation
Electromagnetic radiation is a form of energy that exhibits wave-like behavior as it travels through space...
or charged particle
Subatomic particle
In physics or chemistry, subatomic particles are the smaller particles composing nucleons and atoms. There are two types of subatomic particles: elementary particles, which are not made of other particles, and composite particles...
s, typically in the form of a narrow cone
Cone (geometry)
A cone is an n-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a base to a point called the apex or vertex. Formally, it is the solid figure formed by the locus of all straight line segments that join the apex to the base...
or cylinder
Cylinder (geometry)
A cylinder is one of the most basic curvilinear geometric shapes, the surface formed by the points at a fixed distance from a given line segment, the axis of the cylinder. The solid enclosed by this surface and by two planes perpendicular to the axis is also called a cylinder...
.
Antennas which strongly bundle in azimuth and elevation
Elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....
are often described as "pencil-beam" antennas. For example a phased array antenna can send out a beam that is extremely thin. Such antennas are used for tracking radar.
In optics
Optics
Optics is the branch of physics which involves the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behavior of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light...
, the focusing
Focus (optics)
In geometrical optics, a focus, also called an image point, is the point where light rays originating from a point on the object converge. Although the focus is conceptually a point, physically the focus has a spatial extent, called the blur circle. This non-ideal focusing may be caused by...
action of a lens
Lens (optics)
A lens is an optical device with perfect or approximate axial symmetry which transmits and refracts light, converging or diverging the beam. A simple lens consists of a single optical element...
is often described in terms of pencils of ray
Ray (optics)
In optics, a ray is an idealized narrow beam of light. Rays are used to model the propagation of light through an optical system, by dividing the real light field up into discrete rays that can be computationally propagated through the system by the techniques of ray tracing. This allows even very...
s. In addition to conical and cylindrical pencils, optics deals with astigmatic
Astigmatism
An optical system with astigmatism is one where rays that propagate in two perpendicular planes have different foci. If an optical system with astigmatism is used to form an image of a cross, the vertical and horizontal lines will be in sharp focus at two different distances...
pencils as well.
In electron optics
Electron optics
Electron optics deals with the focusing and deflection of electrons using magnetic and/or electrostatic fields.- Electron properties :Electrons are charged particles . The electron also has an associated spin of + 1/2...
, scanning electron microscopes use narrow pencil beams to achieve a deep depth of field
Depth of field
In optics, particularly as it relates to film and photography, depth of field is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image...
.
Ionizing radiation
Ionizing radiation
Ionizing radiation is radiation composed of particles that individually have sufficient energy to remove an electron from an atom or molecule. This ionization produces free radicals, which are atoms or molecules containing unpaired electrons...
used in radiation therapy
Radiation therapy
Radiation therapy , radiation oncology, or radiotherapy , sometimes abbreviated to XRT or DXT, is the medical use of ionizing radiation, generally as part of cancer treatment to control malignant cells.Radiation therapy is commonly applied to the cancerous tumor because of its ability to control...
, whether photon
Photon
In physics, a photon is an elementary particle, the quantum of the electromagnetic interaction and the basic unit of light and all other forms of electromagnetic radiation. It is also the force carrier for the electromagnetic force...
s or charged particle
Charged particle
In physics, a charged particle is a particle with an electric charge. It may be either a subatomic particle or an ion. A collection of charged particles, or even a gas containing a proportion of charged particles, is called a plasma, which is called the fourth state of matter because its...
s, such as proton therapy
Proton therapy
Proton therapy is a type of particle therapy which uses a beam of protons to irradiate diseased tissue, most often in the treatment of cancer. The chief advantage of proton therapy is the ability to more precisely localize the radiation dosage when compared with other types of external beam...
and electron therapy
Electron therapy
Electron therapy or Electron Beam Therapy is a kind of external beam radiotherapy where electrons are directed to a tumor site.-Equipment:...
machines, is sometimes delivered through the use of pencil beam scanning.
See also
- Pencil (mathematics)Pencil (mathematics)A pencil in projective geometry is a family of geometric objects with a common property, for example the set of lines that pass through a given point in a projective plane....
, a family of geometric objects having a common property such as passage through a given point. - Fan beam
- Pencil beam scanning (Medical physics)Pencil beam scanning (Medical physics)-Ionizing radiation:Ionizing radiation photons or x-rays use pencil beam scanning to precisely target a tumor. Bone scan densitometry uses a fan scan system that replaces a pencil beam system. Radiation treatment planning has pencil beam scanning as one of its modalities. mean free path is...