Lanterna Rally

Author: Yardley Beers

Publisher:

Published: 1974

Total Pages: 36

ISBN-13:

An optical wedge beam splitter consists of a prism of transparent material with a very small apex angle, usually about one degree. If a pencil beam of radiation is incident upon it, a portion enters the material and undergoes a series of reflections at the surfaces. At each reflection a refracted beam emerges from the material. This paper gives the basic theory for computing the ratio of the intensity of the incident beam to the intensity of any selected emerging beam and also for computing the direction of the emerging beam, assuming that the wedge angle, index of refraction, angle of incidence, and number of reflections are known. The paper also gives the results of numerical calculations based upon this theory for sample situations which are of interest. (Modified author abstract).