PURPOSE: To provide a splitter which is small in size and is light in weight by providing a wedgelike element formed of a unidirectionally oriented polymer material composed of a setting liquid crystal monomer composition.
CONSTITUTION: The beam splitter is formed of the wedgelike element 1 composed of the unidirectionally oriented polymer material. Namely, the orientation of molecules of the wedgelike element 1 in a direction 2 is so selected that it is perpendicular to the optical axis of the element and parallel to the narrow end of the wedge, and an incident unpolarized beam 3 is split into an extraordinary light beam 4 and an ordinary light beam 5 which have mutually different polarizing directions. The angle value between the two output beams is proportional to the wedge angle and its birefringence value. Since the birefringence of the polymer material in use is relatively large, a relatively small wedge angle may be selected so as to actualize a given output beam angle. The wedge angle is determinative to the thickness of the beam splitter, so this beam splitter can be made thinner than a quartz beam splitter.
OPHEY WILLEM GERARD (NL)
BRAAT JOSEPHUS JOHANNES MARIA (NL)
