User:Paul Pot/Reflective prism
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Reflective prisms are a type of prisms in which a light beam traveling through the prism is reflected on at least one surface in the prism. The reflection can be either through total internal reflection or a mirrorized surface, with total internal reflection minimizing reflection losses.
A typical usage for reflective prisms is to erect the image in optical systems such as binoculars or single-lens reflex cameras – without the prisms the image would be upside down for the user.
Depending on the number of reflective surfaces, their location to each other and to the beam a reflective prism does one or more of the following: It flips, inverts, rotates, deviates or displaces the beam traveling through it. Furthermore some reflective prisms change the handedness of the beam. With the dove prism being the notable exception, reflective prism are usually constructed so that the beam enters and leaves the prism at an 90° angle in order to avoid the dispersion of light. This is in contrast to dispersive prisms which are used to break light up into its constituent spectral colors – dispersive prisms usually work without reflection on an face of the prism. Another type of prism that does not take advantage of reflections are deflecting prisms (such as wedge prisms), which are used to deflect or shape a beam of light for applications such as beam steering[1] and beam shaping[2].