Interference wedge properties relevant to laser applications: transmission and reflection of restricted light beams

The optical properties of the interference wedge are analysed for the case of restricted laser beam illumination. By further development of Brossel's method, equations describing this case are derived and used to calculate the reflected and transmitted beam profiles for typical intracavity laser beam diameters (0.2–0.6 mm) for Gaussian and uniform intensity distributions. In particular, the experimentally observed formation of bright fringes outside the beam impact area at resonant wavelengths is explained. some useful dependencies concerning the wedge reflection and transmission for laser applications are obtained and experimentally demonstrated.