Speaker
Description
Laser beamsplitters are widespread in present day experiments. Yet, they offer fixed, discrete values of the splitting ratio. A tunable, continuously variable ratio of the transmitted to reflected power would be a helpful addition. One way to achieve this is by adding a polarizing component after a waveplate that controls the polarization components of the beam. In this study, however, we investigate an alternative approach based on Frustrated Total Internal Reflection using two prisms. We model the beam splitting ratio using a matrix propagation formalism, implemented in a programming code, to calculate the reflection and transmission coefficients for the proposed system. The addition of a thin layer TiO2 coating on one of the prisms improves the dynamic range from 7.2 (13.1 – 97 % tunable range for reflectivity) to 14 (6.5 – 95.2 % tunable range).
