Importance

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Abstract

A laser beamsplitter for generating a plurality of parallel beams comprises a first beamsplitter and a second beamsplitter. The first and second beamsplitters are manufactured from glass flats having precisely parallel faces, wherein the front surface is coated with a reflective coating and the back surface is coated with a beamsplitter coating such that an initial laser beam passing through the first beamsplitter at a preferred angle of incidence is split into a first beam and a second beam. The second beamsplitter is positioned relative to the first beamsplitter such that the first beam passes through the second beamsplitter and is split into a third beam and a fourth beam. The parallelism of the output beams are determined by the parallelism of the glass flats, and no manual adjustments need to be made. The second, third, and fourth beams, if shone onto a surface orthogonal to the path of the initial beam, display three points that define a triangle, and preferably an equilateral triangle. The coatings on the surfaces of the first and second beamsplitters are chosen to provide three output beams having substantially the same intensity.

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First Claim