Optical color separation system utilizing dichroic mirrors

Abstract

An optical color separation system which separates light incident thereupon into at least two color components. The optical color separation system includes a plurality of dichroic mirrors that are arranged nonparallel to one another and along an optical axis of the incident light to reflect different color components. The dichroic mirrors are disposed at predetermined positions so that the respective color components of the incident light are reflected toward different relay positions corresponding to the respective color components. The incident light contains at least one color component, and is incident upon and reflected by one or more subsequent dichroic mirrors behind a frontmost dichroic mirror. The incident light is also transmitted through preceding dichroic mirrors including the frontmost dichroic mirror in accordance with at least one color component. The optical color separation system also includes a plurality of reflection mirrors corresponding to the dichroic mirrors, provided at the relay positions. The reflection mirrors are disposed at predetermined positions such that the different color components reflected by the dichroic mirrors are reflected by the reflection mirrors in a manner that optical paths of the reflected lights from the respective reflection mirrors are substantially parallel.