Interferometric Optics


Multiple-Prism Beam Expanders


Multiple-prism beam expanders are unique beam magnification means which expand a light beam without focusing it and... with the added option of achromaticity. Our experience with these wondrous prismatic arrays began in 1980 (F. J. Duarte and J. A. Piper, A double-prism beam expander for pulsed dye lasers, Opt. Commun. 35, 100-104 (1980)) and has continued to expand ever since. Applications are found in:

  • Astronomy
  • Interferometry
  • Intracavity beam expansion
  • Extracavity beam expansion
  • Microscopy

    Multiple-prism beam expanders designed either in additive or compensating dispersive configuration. Beam expansion factors greater than 200 (M > 200) are feasible depending on the input aperture. Input parameters include: laser wavelength, input aperture, beam expansion factor, transmission efficiency, required physical length of the multiple-prism array. Option 1: design only. Option 2: design plus US made multiple-prism array. Representative multiple-prism beam expander specifications are provided in PDF form. Specialized designs for the ultraviolet and the infrared regions of the spectrum are also available on request.


    Figure 1. Multiple-prism arrays in compensating configurations

    Note: the principles of the multiple-prism beam expanders mentioned here are described in F. J. Duarte, Tunable Laser Optics (Elsevier-Academic, New York, 2003) (see Chapters 4 and 6). These particular multiple-prism beam expanders are depicted in Fig. 6.15 which includes various architectures in additive and compensating configurations.


    Figure 2. Photograph of a multiple-prism beam expander showing the last prism in the array and the magnified laser beam in the far field.

    References
    1. F. J. Duarte and J. A. Piper, A double-prism beam expander for pulsed dye lasers, Opt. Commun. 35, 100-104 (1980).
    2. F. J. Duarte and J. A. Piper, A prism preexpanded grazing incidence pulsed dye laser, Appl. Opt. 20, 2113-2116 (1981).
    3. F. J. Duarte and J. A. Piper, Comparison of prism preexpanded and grazing incidence grating cavities for copper laser pumped dye lasers, Appl. Opt. 21, 2782-2786 (1982).
    4. F. J. Duarte and J. A. Piper, Dispersion theory of multiple-prism beam expander for pulsed dye lasers, Opt. Commun. 43, 303-307 (1982).
    5. F. J. Duarte and J. A. Piper, Generalized prism dispersion theory, Am. J. Phys. 51, 1132-1134 (1983).
    6. F. J. Duarte and J. A. Piper, Narrow linewidth high prf copper laser-pumped dye-laser oscillators, Appl. Opt. 23, 1391-1394 (1984).
    7. F. J. Duarte and J. A. Piper, Multi-pass dispersion theory of prismatic pulsed dye lasers, Optica Acta 31, 331-335 (1984).
    8. F. J. Duarte, Note on achromatic multiple-prism beam expanders, Opt. Commun. 53, 259-262 (1985).
    9. F. J. Duarte, Variable linewidth high power TEA CO2 laser, Appl. Opt. 24, 34-37 (1985).
    10. F. J. Duarte, Multiple-prism Littrow and grazing incidence pulsed CO2 lasers, Appl. Opt. 24, 1244-1245 (1985).
    11. F. J. Duarte, Generalized multiple-prism dispersion theory for pulse compression in ultrafast dye lasers, Opt. Quantum Electron. 19, 223-229 (1987).
    12. F. J. Duarte, Ray transfer matrix analysis of multiple-prism dye laser oscillators, Opt. Quantum. Electron. 21, 47-54 (1989).
    13. F. J. Duarte, Transmission efficiency in achromatic nonorthogonal multiple-prism laser beam expanders, Opt. Commun. 71, 1-5 (1989).
    14. F. J. Duarte, Prismatic pulse compression: beam deviations and geometrical perturbations, Opt. Quantum Electron. 22, 467-471 (1990).
    15. F. J. Duarte, Multiple-prism dispersion and 4x4 ray transfer matrices, Opt. Quantum Electron. 24, 49-53 (1992).
    16. F. J. Duarte, Multiple-prism arrays in laser optics, Am. J. Phys. 68, 162-166 (2000).
    17. F. J. Duarte, Newton, prisms, and the opticks of tunable lasers, Optics & Photonics News 11 (5), 24-28 (2000).
    18. F. J. Duarte, Multiple-return-pass beam divergence and the linewidth equation, Appl. Opt. 40, 3038 - 3041 (2001).
    19. F. J. Duarte, Dirac optics, in Tunable Laser Optics (Elsevier Academic, New York, 2003) Chapter 2.
    20. F. J. Duarte, The uncertainty principle in optics, in Tunable Laser Optics (Elsevier Academic, New York, 2003) Chapter 3.
    21. F. J. Duarte, The physics of multiple-prism optics, in Tunable Laser Optics (Elsevier Academic, New York, 2003) Chapter 4.
    22. F. J. Duarte, Laser beam propagation matrices, in Tunable Laser Optics (Elsevier Academic, New York, 2003) Chapter 6.
    23. F. J. Duarte, Multiple-prism dispersion equations for positive and negative refraction, Appl. Phys. B 82, 35-38 (2006).
    24. F. J. Duarte, Multiple-prism arrays and multiple-prism beam expanders: laser optics and scientific applications, in Tunable Laser Applications, 2nd Ed. (CRC, New York, 2009) Chapter 13.
    25. F. J. Duarte, Generalized multiple-prism dispersion theory for laser pulse compression: higher order phase derivatives, Appl. Phys. B 96, 809-814 (2009).

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      Published on the 15th of June, 2006; updated on the 27th of March, 2013.