Development of adjustable multifunctional optical elements for deflection, splitting, and shaping of light beams

Abstract

In many optical applications plane optical elements are needed for deflection or splitting of light. The functionality of these parts is usually reduced to one certain task and manufacturing of them needs a big amount of effort to achieve high precision. A new optical element is presented, which can fulfill different optical functions simultaneously, is simply built and robust. It is based on glass cuboids joined together under a certain angle while introducing the possibility of fine adjusting the angle in the manufacturing process. The basic components can be modified to offer a lot of different applications. A technological process development is presented as well for more efficient machining of these new parts and existing part geometries. Novel manufacturing processes like ultrasonic grinding, ultrafine grinding and diffusion joining are experimentally investigated, since they promise significant improvements compared to conventional methods. Finally, an appropriate process chain is developed.