The design of a corner cube prism aims to reflect light rays or beams that reach its faces back to their original direction. The corner cube prism achieves this by retroreflecting the image or beam through three reflections. Even if the angle of incidence is not zero, the beam or image will be inverted and reflected by 180°. These corner cube prisms are not affected by alignment, making them highly suitable as retroreflective optical elements. Corner cube prisms are often used in collimation applications.
Features of Corner Cube Prism
Retroreflective Performance: Regardless of the point of perpendicular incidence on the base, the light will ultimately exit from the base, with the exiting light being parallel and opposite in direction to the incident light. This characteristic makes the corner cube prism an efficient retroreflector.
Constant Optical Path:The optical path of light within the corner cube prism is constant, equal to twice the height of the prism. This feature is particularly important in fields such as precise measurement and laser tracking.
Insensitive to Incident Angle:
The corner cube prism is insensitive to the angle of incidence of the incoming light. Within a certain range of incident angles, the exiting light or image will be reflected by 180°, making it an ideal reflective optical element.
Specifications of Corner Cube Prism
| Specifications | Commercial spec. | High precision spec. |
| Material | UV glass （Quartz, Fused silica） | |
| VIS glass （Schott, CDGM, HOYA, etc.) | ||
| IR material： （Sapphire, ZnSe, Silicon, etc.) | ||
| Special material: ( SiC) | ||
| Dimension | 5mm~350mm | |
| Dimension tolerance | ±0.1mm | ±0.05mm |
| Surface quality | 60/40 | 40/20 |
| Surface flatness | 1/4λ | 1/10λ |
| Clear aperture | >85% of dim | >90% of dim |
| Angle tolerance | 3 arc min | 5 arc sec. |
| Bevel | <0.2mm x 45deg | <0.1mm x 45deg |
| Coating | Up on clients’ request | |
Applications for Corner Cube Prism
Precision Measurement:
Corner cube prisms are commonly used in fields such as laser ranging and laser tracking for precise measurements. For example, during the Apollo missions, arrays of corner cube prisms placed on the lunar surface were used to accurately measure the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
Laser Tracking Systems: In industrial automation and robotic navigation, corner cube prisms are widely used in laser tracking systems. By emitting a laser beam towards the prism and receiving its retroreflected light, precise tracking and positioning of target objects can be achieved.
Optical Communication:Corner cube prisms can effectively reflect light signals back to the source or transmit them to the next receiving point, ensuring stable transmission of optical signals.
Scientific Research:
In various optical experiments and measurements, the high precision and stability of corner cube prisms allow scientists to more accurately observe and measure the behavior of light.
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