ABSTRACT
This chapter describes prisms made out of isotropic materials, such as glass or plastic. There are two kinds of prisms: prisms that produce chromatic dispersion of the light beam and prisms that only deflect the light beam, changing its traveling direction and image orientation. A deflecting prism or system of plane mirrors does not only deflect the light beam but also changes the image orientation. Prisms and mirror systems with arbitrary orientations have many effects that must be taken into account when designing an optical system. Inverting-reversing equilateral triangle prisms can be used in converging or diverging beams of light. The refractive index is a function of the light wavelength and, hence, of the light color. A gradient index optical component is one where the refractive index is not constant but varies within the transparent material. Optical fibers with gradient indices have been made by a chemical vapor deposition process.
