Abstract

The constraining of an optical beam within a glass block using total internal reflection (HR) offers a number of advantages for optical system construction: namely, compactness; mechanical stability; lack of turbulence; and no transmission through glass/air interfaces. The optical devices are placed on the surface of the block at the spots of TIR, and index-matched to the block. If the sources are similarly mounted, then there is the potential to define the whole arrangement of devices on one face of the block with microlithographic precision. Because of the power of this concept for optical computing, a special term has been coined "three-dimensional planar optics" [1].

© 1991 Optical Society of America