Products

Dove Prisms
Designed for rotation and inversion of image or retroreflecting lights
  • Used in astronomical  and interferometrical applications
  • Coating options: uncoated, AR coated on diagonal faces, or aluminum coatings on diagonal faces Inquire Us  
  • Spcifications:

    Material N-BK7 Dimension Tolerance ±0.2mm
    Surface Quality 60/40 S/D Clear Aperture >90%
    Flatness <λ/4@632.8nm Angle Tolerance <3 arc minutes
    Chamfer Protective<0.5mmx45° Coating None/Custom

    A Dove prism is a kind of reflective prism, shaped from a truncated right-angle prism, the fundamental functions of a dove prism are inverting, and rotating images or it can also be used as a retroreflector contingent on the rotation angle of the prism the propagation path of light. It can be viewed as a right-angle prism with its pinnacle cut, contributing to the benefits of the removal of excessive weight and deviated internal reflection.

    Shanghai North Optics offers custom dove prisms made of  N-BK7 optical glass, which is ROHs-compliant material in SCHOTT's catalog, with optical excellence and good comprehensive properties. Coating options include uncoated, anti-reflection coatings on diagonal faces, aluminized diagonal faces are also optional. Our dove prism serve as capable componnets in astronomical  and interferometrical applications. Note that when utilized for converging light, refraction at the entrance and exit surfaces results in substantial image astigmatism, so we recommend using them with collimated light.


    The major functions of our dove prisms are:

    1. Image Inversion/Rotation

    When a dove prism is used for image inversion or rotation, a light beam entering the slope of the prism, propagating in a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis of the prism, experiences one total internal reflection (TIR), and emerges from another slope. The image traveling through the prism is flipped upside down. If one rotates the prism around the longitudinal axis, then the image will be rotated at twice the rate (e.g. A rotation angle of θ for the prism will call forth a rotation angle of 2θ for the image). As shown in the diagram below, the left section shows how light propagates when a dove prism is used for inverting/rotating images.

    2. Retroreflection:

    A dove prism can also be used for retroreflection, in this context, light enters the base of the dove prism (which is the longest side of the dove prism,  the light undergoes twice TIR at the the boundaries of air and the slopes, and the emergent light is parallel to the entering light, redirecting light by 180°. are often used in the fields of astronomical and interferometrical applications. As shown in the diagram below, the right section shows how light propagates when a dove prism is used for retroreflecting.