For beam splitters with two incoming beams, using a classical, lossless beam splitter with Ea and Eb each incident at one of the inputs, the two output fields Ec and Ed are linearly related to the inputs through where the 2×2 element is the beam-splitter transfer matrix and r and t are the and along a particular path through the beam splitter, that path being indicated by the subsc. Both 1XN and 2XN splitters can be constructed in this fashion with as many as eight or more outputs, with both low return losses and low insertion losses. It is a crucial part of many optical experimental and measurement systems, such as interferometers, also finding widespread application in fibre optic telecommunications. A beam splitter (or beamsplitter, power splitter) is an optical device which can split an incident light beam (e. a laser beam) into two (or sometimes more) beams, which may or may not have the same optical power (radiant flux). Light from an input fiber is first collimated, then sent through a beam splitting optic to divide it into two.
Read More