Influence of interference fringes of equal inclination on the reflection of laser beams from plane parallel plates.
The coefficient of reflection of plane parallel plate beam splitters is very often taken as twice that of a single surface reflection. It is shown that this introduces appreciable errors in the majority of cases, because of the interference fringes of equal inclination. Formulas are derived for the angular dependence of the coefficient of reflection as well as for its average value. The angular distance between adjacent fringes has been evaluated and represented graphically. It is finally demonstrated that the influence of incomplete interference due to the lateral displacement of the reflected beam can be neglected if the beam splitter is followed by an integrating sphere or a similar element.
Hillenkamp
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