Wedge prisms can be used individually to deviate a laser beam a set angle, or two wedge prisms can be used together for beam steering applications. A single wedge prism's ability to deviate the angle of an incident beam is measured in Diopters with 1 diopter deviating the beam 1cm at a 1m working distance. Two wedge prisms can be used as an anamorphic pair for beam shaping (to correct the elliptical shape of diode outputs). Or, a pair of wedge prisms can steer a beam anywhere within a circle described by the full angle 4θ, where θ is the deviation from a single prism. This beam steering is accomplished by rotating the two wedge prisms independently of each other, and is typically used to scan a beam to different locations in imaging applications.
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