beam splitter

American  

noun

Optics, Photography.

1. a mirror or prism that divides a beam of light into two parts by reflecting a part of the beam, used in camera range finders.

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beam splitter British  

noun

1. a system that divides a beam of light, electrons, etc, into two or more paths

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Etymology

Origin of beam splitter

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

They can be made to do so with a beam splitter, a half-silvered mirror set at an angle that will, with equal probability, transmit a photon or deflect it by 90°.

From Science Magazine

“You get the same information as if you had used a central beam splitter,” says Johannes Borregaard of the Delft University of Technology.

From Science Magazine

The first splits a laser beam in two by directing it through a beam splitter to both ends of the scale, where they are reflected by attached mirrors.

From Scientific American

“Where should which adjusting screw go? What does the ideal beam splitter look like, and where do you position it? It then took about a year for all the parts to arrive and for me to put it together.”

From Scientific American

Within it, a semireflective mirror, or beam splitter, sends half of a laser beam down each of the 600-meter-long arms of the L. After bouncing back and forth between mirrors at the ends of the arms, the light waves return to the beam splitter where they interfere.

From Science Magazine