Calcite, the most common form of natural calcium carbonate (CaCO3), a widely distributed mineral known for the beautiful development and great variety of its crystals.
A wavefront is a surface over which an optical wave has a constant phase. For example, a wavefront could be the surface over which the wave has a maximum (the crest of a water wave, for example) or a minimum (the trough of the same wave) value. The shape of a wavefront is usually determined by the geometry of the source.
A waveguide is a structure that guides waves, such as electromagnetic waves or sound, with minimal loss of energy by restricting expansion to one dimension or two. There is a similar effect in water waves constrained within a canal, or why guns have barrels that restrict hot gas expansion to maximize energy transfer to their bullets. Without the physical constraint of a waveguide, wave amplitudes decrease according to the inverse square law as they expand into three dimensional space. There are