Photonics Dictionary: R

A prism system designed to produce a very high dispersion of light.

A prism having several plane polished surfaces, some to transmit light, some to reflect light, and some to serve both functions in succession. It acts generally as a group of plane mirrors held in a...

A prism that often is used as a dispersing element in spectrographs and monochromators.

A prism made of two elements cemented together that, depending on its orientation, inverts or reverts an image. It may be used in converging or diverging light. Sometimes referred to as a K prism.

A reflecting prism that is rhomboidal in shape. It has two parallel transmitting faces, and two parallel reflecting faces; the latter are oblique to the former (usually but not necessarily at...

A type of 45-90-45° prism used to bend a beam of light through a right angle with the surfaces forming the 90° angle acting as transmitting faces.

A Risley prism, also known as a Risley prism pair or Risley rotating prism, is an optical device used for controlling the direction of a laser beam or other optical beam by independently rotating two...

A polarizing prism assembly made up of two cemented calcite halves. The prism transmits the ordinary ray without deviation, while the extraordinary ray is deviated to accomplish the polarization.

A camera, with a rotating prism, that is capable of forming multiple exposures on a constantly moving strip of film.

The restricting opening at the rear of a lens or prism that is commonly defined as the maximum diameter of the emergent cone for the specified field of view, at infinity focus.

The optical phenomenon in which white light dispersed by small particles in suspension appears blue when viewed through a suitable Nicol prism.

Retroreflection is a phenomenon in optics where light is reflected back toward its source, typically in a direction nearly parallel to the direction from which it originated. This occurs due to the...

A retroreflector is an optical device or structure that reflects incident light or electromagnetic waves back to their source, regardless of the direction from which the light approaches. Unlike...

Also known as a turned-down edge. A rapid change of curvature near the edge in a lens or prism surface.

A circular optical wedge (prism of small refracting angle) mounted to be rotated in the path of light rays to divert the line of sight to a restricted degree.