Patent ID: 11906770
Assignee: KLA CORPORAL
Field: Optics (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. A monolithic optical retarder comprising:
a monolithic prism comprising:
an input face for receiving a light beam;
an output face aligned with an optical axis of the light beam prior to entering the input face; and
three or more reflection faces, wherein the three or more reflection faces are oriented to provide an optical path for the light beam from the input face to the output face via reflection by the three or more reflection faces, wherein the monolithic optical retarder imparts a total optical retardation on the light beam upon propagation along the optical path based on total internal reflection on at least one of the three or more reflection faces, wherein the input face, the output face, and the three or more reflection faces are oriented to provide that an optical axis of the light beam exiting the output face is aligned with the optical axis of the light beam entering the input face, wherein the three or more reflection faces comprise one or more retarding faces, wherein incident angles of the light beam on the one or more retarding faces are greater than a critical angle for total internal reflection, wherein the total optical retardation on the light beam upon propagation along the optical path corresponds to cumulative optical retardations on the light beam imparted by the one or more retarding faces.