The author wishes to express his thanks to Eric Johnson for aid in computer programming, especially modifying the original program written by the author to print out the graphs which are contained in figures 5 14. The author wishes to thank his colleagues, Bruce L. Danielson, E. D. West, T. W. Russell, G. E. Chamberlin, W. E. Case. L. B. Schmidt, D. A. Jennings, and Carla Selby for helpful discussions and for correcting errors in portions of the manuscript. This work was supported in part by the Department of Defense, Calibration Coordination Group 74-92, U. S. Army Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Alabama 35809. 8. REFERENCES 1. Yu A. Kurchatov and I. A. Malinov, Opt. Spektrosk, 31 283 (1971); [Opt. Spectroc. 31, 151 (1971)]. 2. A. M. Belskii and A. P. Khapalyuk, Opt. Spektrosk. 35, 117 (1973) [Opt. Spectrosc. 35, 67, 1973)]. 3. 4. P. T. Gates, U.S. Patent 3,463,575, "Light Beam Sampling Apparatus", August 26, 1969. See for example, M. Born and E. Wolf, "Principles of Optics", Sec. 1.5.3 3d. Ed., 12. Sponsoring Organization Name and Complete Address (Street, City, State, ZIP) Same as #9 5. Publication Date October 1974 6. Performing Organization Code 271.00 8. Performing Organ. Report No. 10. Project/Task/Work Unit No. 2712122 11. Contract/Grant No. 13. Type of Report & Period Covered Final 14. Sponsoring Agency Code 15. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 74-19135 16. ABSTRACT (A 200-word or less factual summary of most significant information. If document includes a significant bibliography or literature survey, mention it here.) 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. It is shown that polarization effects can be minimized by the use of a small wedge angle and be the proper selection of the angle of incidence. In particular, it is shown that it is possible by the use of four reflections and a wedge angle of one degree to obtain attenuation factors of about 400,000 (56 db), and that the effect of changes in polarization on the attenuation factor can be held down to about one percent. 17. KEY WORDS (six to twelve entries; alphabetical order; capitalize only the first letter of the first key word unless a proper name; separated by semicolons) U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1974-583-012:19 |