Singlebeam

Singlebeam is a generic term used in several technical fields to describe systems that transmit and receive using a single beam path or channel, as opposed to multiple beams or channels. The term is not tied to a single standard and may be spelled as single-beam or singlebeam in different contexts.

In optics and spectroscopy, a single-beam instrument measures the intensity of a sample beam directly, usually by comparing it to a baseline from the same light source without a separate reference path. This contrasts with double-beam instruments, which split the source into sample and reference paths to compensate for lamp fluctuations. Single-beam configurations are simpler and cheaper but more sensitive to source drift and alignment.

In hydrography and underwater surveying, single-beam sonar uses one transducer to emit and receive a signal. The resulting swath width is limited to a narrow footprint on the seabed, and data density is lower than with multibeam systems. Single-beam surveys are faster and cheaper to deploy and can provide useful bathymetric data in shallow-water contexts, but require careful motion compensation and post-processing to reconstruct bathymetry.

In radio astronomy, a single-beam telescope collects radiation with one feed. Multi-beam receivers increase survey speed by covering larger sky areas simultaneously. While single-beam systems are straightforward and reliable for targeted observations, they generally offer lower mapping speed and resolution over wide fields of view.

Applications and terminology vary by field; the expression singlebeam can denote a single optical, acoustic, or radio beam channel within a broader instrument, or the overall instrument type.