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Equilateral Dispersing Prisms The angles of the three corners are all 60 °, which can separate light of different wavelengths. For example, a dispersive prism can replace a diffraction grating to separate white light into the visible spectrum. Dispersive prisms are generally used with the minimum deflection angle. Under the condition of minimum deviation angle, the incident light of a certain wavelength passes through the prism parallel to the bottom surface, and when measured relative to the normal of the prism surface at each interface, the incident angle is equal to the refractive angle.
The definition of the minimum deflection angle is shown in the following figure. When α=β, the deflection of the incident and outgoing light is minimized when the refracted light inside the prism is parallel to the bottom surface. The formula in the following figure is only applicable to materials with a refractive index less than 2.
