Light wave splitting prism, a manufacturing method of a light wave splitting prism, and optical - optical switching device

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a beam splitting prism or the like in which a beam is split by employing simpler configuration while precision in position and parallelism are maintained high, optical path length is accurately controlled and outgoing positions of the divided outgoing light beams are arbitrarily set.;SOLUTION: An inputted parallel beam is split into two beams having mutually the same angles with respect to a half mirror 22 by the mirror 22. The beam reflected by the mirror 22 is reflected by a total reflection mirror 24₃, made parallel to the other beam that passes the mirror 22 and emitted from a light-emitting end face 16. The beam that is passed the mirror 22 is successively reflected by total reflection mirrors 24₁, 24₂, 24₄ and 24₅ and coaxially emitted from the face 16 with respect to the incident light beams. In the beam splitting prism 10, the mirrors 22, 24₁, 24₂, 24₃, 24₄ and 24₅ are precisely arranged by a 45°angle with respect to the incident end face. Thus, single beam being made incident is split into two parallel beams employing two blocks having simple configuration and the divided light waves are emitted from desired emitting positions.;COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO&NCIPI