What is this?

[xoxoxoBruce]

I thought a dichroic mirror passed, and reflected, half the light... but not so.

A dichroic filter or thin-film filter is a very accurate color filter used to selectively pass light of a small range of colors while reflecting other colors. By comparison, Dichroic mirrors and dichroic reflectors tend to be characterized by the color(s) of light that they reflect, rather than the color(s) they pass.

Thanks for the edumacation, Beau.

[beauregaardhooligan]

Thanks, xoB!
I got a chance to ask our service tech, and he said that it *does* break the light down into RGB for the LCDs, and the prisms put it back together.

glatt, you were right, there *are* two seams.
The cube is made from 4 prisms.
Then I got to thinking about the dichroic coating and if it's just on the internal faces or all sides of the prisms.
{I think it's just internal}
...then I wondered which faces are tinted for which colors.
...then I tried to imagine assembling one and keeping the colors straight
,,,then I boggled at the tolerances required to make such a seam optically perfect.
...then my brain turned into a torus.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by beauregaardhooligan

Thanks, xoB!
I got a chance to ask our service tech, and he said that it *does* break the light down into RGB for the LCDs, and the prisms put it back together.

glatt, you were right, there *are* two seams.
The cube is made from 4 prisms.
Then I got to thinking about the dichroic coating and if it's just on the internal faces or all sides of the prisms.
{I think it's just internal}
...then I wondered which faces are tinted for which colors.
...then I tried to imagine assembling one and keeping the colors straight
,,,then I boggled at the tolerances required to make such a seam optically perfect.
...then my brain turned into a torus.

I doubt the prisms have a Dichroic coating. They are recombining the three colors

But anyway, that's the coolest paperweight ever.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

But anyway, that's the coolest paperweight ever.

Absolutely! If I had one, I'd play around with it using a laser pointer. I think the laser would bounce through in some directions but not in others. Fun to try it out.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

I thought a dichroic mirror passed, and reflected, half the light... but not so.



Thanks for the edumacation, Beau.

And I am wondering under what conditions one would use these mirrors. Anyone know?

[xoxoxoBruce]

They separate colors by reflecting one and letting everything else pass through, but except for applications like the projector, I can't think of a use other than jewelry.

[ZenGum]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

They separate colors by reflecting one and letting everything else pass through, but except for applications like the projector, I can't think of a use other than jewelry.

Border security?