METHOD OF MANUFACTURING CUBE, CUBE, AND OPTICAL SYSTEM

• Main Authors: PETERSON DAVID H, EDLOU SAMAD M
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 22.04.2004
• Edition: 7
• Subjects: CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF GLASSES, GLAZES, OR VITREOUSENAMELS; CHEMISTRY; GLASS; JOINING GLASS TO GLASS OR OTHER MATERIALS; METALLURGY; MINERAL OR SLAG WOOL; OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS, OR APPARATUS; OPTICS; PHYSICS; SURFACE TREATMENT OF FIBRES OR FILAMENTS MADE FROM GLASS,MINERALS OR SLAGS; SURFACE TREATMENT OF GLASS

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method of manufacturing a cube that can be used with any wavelength of light in which bonded prisms come securely optically in contact and optically compatible, which substantially eliminates reflection of bonded surfaces and increases throughput of the light in a system using the cube. SOLUTION: A cube used to perform optical functions in a system, such as beam splitting or polarizing, or both, is manufactured by optically bringing a coated prism in contact with an uncoated prism. The coated prism includes a dielectric stack having alternating layer materials of high and low index of refraction. To ensure secure optical contact between the coated prism and uncoated prism, low interface reflection and good throughput, a contact layer is deposited on the dielectric stack. The contact layer can be fused silica or SiO2, which has natural compatibility with CaF2materials that make up the uncoated prism and the coating layers. COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO