Compact red-green-blue beam illuminator and expander.

A compact multicolor beam illuminator and a compact multicolor beam expander are presented. The illuminator performs the dual task of demultiplexing a narrow red-green-blue (RGB) input beam into three separate beams, each of a different color, and expanding them to yield three separate magnified plane waves. The beam expander expands a narrow RGB input beam into a single magnified RGB plane wave. The design and recording procedures, along with experimental results for a beam illuminator and a beam expander with a magnification of approximately 3, are presented.