NEW TYPES OF REFLECTING PRISMS AND REFLECTING PRISM ASSEMBLY

It is shown that a roof Dove prism is a typical circular beam deflecto r used in a transmitted parallel beam, Apparently, the importance of t his prism is for its multifunction. However, it is unfavorable because of its high value of length-aperture ratio, which imposes restriction s on extending its application to many cases, To overcome the difficul ty, a new type of roof Dove, i.e., a square-sectional roof Dove prism and its arrays are developed to reduce greatly the length-aperture rat io. In addition, Dove prisms are used in a certain kind of series of t wo to form a circular beam deflector, Arrays in the same kind of serie s also greatly reduce the length-aperture ratio. The potential of thes e new types of reflecting prisms and prism arrays will rely on the dev elopment of fabrication techniques as well as on further research. (C) 1996 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.