The Rank Organisation Plc

John Anthony Fawcett

Robert George Neilson

Gordon Henry Cook

An optical element and a method of forming such an optical element are disclosed. The optical element comprises a base of optically transparent material, a layer or several layers of material having selected physical and optical properties, and a coating integrally formed to the substrate and having substantially the same optical properties as the substrate so that the said layer or layers is or are effectively embedded therein. The layer or layers may be discontinuous e.g. formed as stripes, or patterned and the optical properties may be reflective, transmissive, absorptive, spectrally selective, photo-sensitive, photo-emissive or any combination of these depending on the circumstances. If several layers are provided these may be all identical or one or more may be different, having different optical properties and/or different physical properties of size, shape and pattern.

Optical elements

A four-element composite prism assembly for splitting an incident beam into three colour components, the first and second pairs of elements being separated by respective air gaps, and colour separation occurring at respective spectrally selective dichroic coatings between the second and third and the third and fourth prism elements respectively, the separated colour components being directed in different directions by total internal reflection at the air gaps. To achieve the optimum separation upper and lower limits are defined in the claims for the apex angles of the three prism elements.

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Thrussington, United Kingdom

John Anthony Fawcett