Optical Components: Finding Your Way Through the Maze
May 12, 2006 — Optical components fall into two basic groups: transmissives and reflectives. Transmissives include lenses, filters, windows, optical flats, prisms, polarizers, beamsplitters, wave plates, and fiber optics; reflectives include mirrors and retroreflectors. The performance of all may be enhanced with certain substrates and thin film coatings. Lenses come in a variety of shapes, sizes and materials. They can be made of a single piece of glass or have multiple elements; their surfaces can be