Bauernfeind prism

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Reflections in a Bauernfeind prism for 60 deg beam deviation. Green side requires reflective coating.

A Bauernfeind prism is a type of reflecting prism used to deviate a beam of light by 45° to 60°, depending on its construction, while neither flipping nor rotating the image.[1] It is named for its inventor, the German expert of geodesy Karl Maximilian von Bauernfeind.[2]

The beam is reflected twice in the prism, with one reflection happening at less than the critical angle. Therefore, the prism requires a reflective coating for this surface to be usable in practice.

A Bauernfeind prism with 45° beam deviation is also known as a half-penta prism or semipentaprism.[3][4] A Bauernfeind prism is used together with a Schmidt roof prism to form a Schmidt–Pechan prism.

Applications

The Bauernfeind prism is commonly used in microscope tubes and in geodesy to deviate the path to the eyepiece in order make the device more ergonomic.[5]

More recent applications are glasses that deflect the viewing angle either downwards (for relaxed reading or watching TV[6]), or upwards (as in belay glasses for watching a climber while belaying).

References