beam splitter

noun

Definition of beam splitter

: a mirror or prism or a combination of the two that is used to divide a beam of radiation into two or more parts

Examples of beam splitter in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

After going through the beam splitter, the particle enters into a superposition of two states: taking the left and right paths. — Anil Ananthaswamy, Scientific American, "Spin-Swapping Particles Could Be “Quantum Cheshire Cats”," 6 May 2019 The pulses go through a beam splitter, which sends half of each pulse toward Alice and half toward Bob. — Kevin Hartnett, WIRED, "It's Not a Myth: Quantum Messages Really Can Travel Faster," 23 Dec. 2018 The two waves come back together at the second beam splitter. — Quanta Magazine, "Closed Loophole Confirms the Unreality of the Quantum World," 25 July 2018 The thought experiment involves putting two interferometers side by side, such that each particle first encounters a beam splitter. — Anil Ananthaswamy, Scientific American, "Spin-Swapping Particles Could Be “Quantum Cheshire Cats”," 6 May 2019 Then the two outputs from each interferometer encounter a series of beam splitters and detectors. — Anil Ananthaswamy, Scientific American, "Spin-Swapping Particles Could Be “Quantum Cheshire Cats”," 6 May 2019 Remove the second beam splitter and interference becomes impossible. — Adrian Cho, Science | AAAS, "Quantum experiment in space confirms that reality is what you make it," 27 Oct. 2017 Instead, the first beam splitter sends the photon down one path or the other, like a particle. — Adrian Cho, Science | AAAS, "Quantum experiment in space confirms that reality is what you make it," 27 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'beam splitter.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.