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.

Date Published: 28 June 2019
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 11171, Sixth European Seminar on Precision Optics Manufacturing, 1117105 (28 June 2019); doi: 10.1117/12.2526505

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 11171:
Sixth European Seminar on Precision Optics Manufacturing
Rolf Rascher; Christian Schopf, Editor(s)