A retroreflector (sometimes called a retroflector or cataphote) is a device or surface that reflects light or other radiation back to its source with minimum scattering. This works at a wide range of angle of incidence, unlike a planar mirror, which does this only if the mirror is exactly perpendicular to the wave front, having a zero angle of incidence. Being directed, the retroflector's reflection is brighter than that of a diffuse reflector. Corner reflectors and cat's eye reflectors are the most used kinds.

Types

There are several ways to obtain retroreflection:

Because the back-side reflection for an uncoated sphere is imperfect, it is fairly common to add a metallic coating to the back half of retroreflective spheres to increase the reflectance, but this implies that the retroreflection only works when the sphere is oriented in a particular direction.

An alternative form of the cat's eye retroreflector uses a normal lens focused onto a curved mirror rather than a transparent sphere, though this type is much more limited in the range of incident angles that it retroreflects.

The term cat's eye derives from the resemblance of the cat's eye retroreflector to the optical system that produces the well-known phenomenon of "glowing eyes" or eyeshine in cats and other vertebrates (which are only reflecting light, rather than actually glowing). The combination of the eye's lens and the cornea form the refractive converging system, while the tapetum lucidum behind the retina forms the spherical concave mirror. Because the function of the eye is to form an image on the retina, an eye focused on a distant object has a focal surface that approximately follows the reflective tapetum lucidum structure, which is the condition required to form a good retroreflection.

This type of retroreflector can consist of many small versions of these structures incorporated in a thin sheet or in paint. In the case of paint containing glass beads, the paint adheres the beads to the surface where retroreflection is required and the beads protrude, their diameter being about twice the thickness of the paint.

Phase-conjugate mirror

A third, much less common way of producing a retroreflector is to use the nonlinear optical phenomenon of phase conjugation. This technique is used in advanced optical systems such as high-power lasers and optical transmission lines. Phase-conjugate mirrors reflect an incoming wave so that the reflected wave exactly follows the path it has previously taken, and require a comparatively expensive and complex apparatus, as well as large quantities of power (as nonlinear optical processes can be efficient only at high enough intensities). However, phase-conjugate mirrors have an inherently much greater accuracy in the direction of the retroreflection, which in passive elements is limited by the mechanical accuracy of the construction.

Operation

thumb|"Aura" around the shadow of a hot-air balloon, caused by retroreflection from dewdrops

Retroreflectors are devices that operate by returning light back to the light source along the same light direction. The coefficient of luminous intensity, R<sub>I</sub>, is the measure of a reflector performance, which is defined as the ratio of the strength of the reflected light (luminous intensity) to the amount of light that falls on the reflector (normal illuminance). A reflector appears brighter as its R<sub>I</sub> value increases.

The R<sub>I</sub> value of the reflector is a function of the color, size, and condition of the reflector. Clear or white reflectors are the most efficient, and appear brighter than other colors. The surface area of the reflector is proportional to the R<sub>I</sub> value, which increases as the reflective surface increases.

Ships, boats, emergency gear

Retroflective tape is recognized and recommended by the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) because of its high reflectivity of both light and radar signals. Application to life rafts, personal flotation devices, and other safety gear makes it easy to locate people and objects in the water at night. When applied to boat surfaces it creates a larger radar signature—particularly for fiberglass boats, which produce very little radar reflection on their own. It conforms to International Maritime Organization regulation, IMO Res. A.658 (16) and meets U.S. Coast Guard specification 46 CFR Part 164, Subpart 164.018/5/0. Examples of commercially available products are 3M part numbers 3150A and 6750I, and Orafol Oralite FD1403.

Surveying

thumb|upright=0.7|A typical surveying prism with back target

In surveying, a retroreflector—usually referred to as a prism—is normally attached on a surveying pole and is used as a target for distance measurement, for example, a total station. The instrument operator or robot aims a laser beam at the retroreflector. The instrument measures the propagation time of the light and converts it to a distance. Prisms are used with survey and 3D point monitoring systems to measure changes in horizontal and vertical position of a point.

Two prisms may also serve as targets for angle measurements, using total stations or simpler theodolites; this usage, reminiscent of the heliotrope, does not involve retroreflection per se, it only requires visibility by means of any source of illumination (such as the sun) for direct sighting to the center of the target prism as seen from the optical instrument.

In space

On the Moon

thumb|200px|The Apollo 11 Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment

Astronauts on the Apollo 11, 14, and 15 missions left retroreflectors on the Moon as part of the Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment. The Soviet Lunokhod 1 and Lunokhod 2 rovers also carried smaller arrays. Reflected signals were initially received from Lunokhod 1, but no return signals were detected from 1971 until 2010, at least in part due to some uncertainty in its location on the Moon. In 2010, it was found in Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photographs and the retroreflectors have been used again. Lunokhod 2's array continues to return signals to Earth. Even under good viewing conditions, only a single reflected photon is received every few seconds. This makes the job of filtering laser-generated photons from naturally occurring photons challenging.

Vikram lander of Chandrayaan-3 left Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) instrument supplied by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center as part of international collaboration with ISRO. On 12 December 2023, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was successfully able to detect transmitted laser pulses from Vikram lander.

On Mars

A similar device, the Laser Retroreflector Array (LaRA), has been incorporated in the Mars Perseverance rover. The retroreflector was designed by the National Institute for Nuclear Physics of Italy, which built the instrument on behalf of the Italian Space Agency.

thumb|right|200px|Mars [[Perseverance (rover)|Perseverance rover - LaRA - (artwork)]]

In satellites

Many artificial satellites carry retroreflectors so they can be tracked from ground stations. Some satellites were built solely for laser ranging.

LAGEOS, or Laser Geodynamics Satellites, are a series of scientific research satellites designed to provide an orbiting laser ranging benchmark for geodynamical studies of the Earth. There are two LAGEOS spacecraft: LAGEOS-1 (launched in 1976), and LAGEOS-2 (launched in 1992). They use cube-corner retroreflectors made of fused silica glass. As of 2020, both LAGEOS spacecraft are still in service. Three STARSHINE satellites equipped with retroreflectors were launched beginning in 1999. The LARES satellite was launched on February 13, 2012. (See also: List of laser ranging satellites.)

Other satellites include retroreflectors for orbit calibration and orbit determination, such as in satellite navigation (e.g., all Galileo satellites, most GLONASS satellites, IRNSS satellites, BeiDou, QZSS, and two GPS satellites) as well as in satellite gravimetry (GOCE) satellite altimetry (e.g., TOPEX/Poseidon, Sentinel-3).

Retroreflectors can also be used for inter-satellite laser ranging instead of ground-tracking (e.g., GRACE-FO).

The BLITS (Ball Lens In The Space) spherical retroreflector satellite was placed into orbit as part of a September 2009 Soyuz launch by the Federal Space Agency of Russia with the assistance of the International Laser Ranging Service, an independent body originally organized by the International Association of Geodesy, the International Astronomical Union, and international committees. The ILRS central bureau is located at the United States' Goddard Space Flight Center.

The reflector, a type of Luneburg lens, was developed and manufactured by the Institute for Precision Instrument Engineering (IPIE) in Moscow. The mission was interrupted in 2013 after a collision with space debris.

Free-space optical communication

Modulated retroreflectors, in which the reflectance is changed over time by some means, are the subject of research and development for free-space optical communications networks. The basic concept of such systems is that a low-power remote system, such as a sensor mote, can receive an optical signal from a base station and reflect the modulated signal back to the base station. Since the base station supplies the optical power, this allows the remote system to communicate without excessive power consumption. Modulated retroreflectors also exist in the form of modulated phase-conjugate mirrors (PCMs). In the latter case, a "time-reversed" wave is generated by the PCM with temporal encoding of the phase-conjugate wave (see, e.g., SciAm, Oct. 1990, "The Photorefractive Effect," David M. Pepper, et al.).

Inexpensive corner-aiming retroreflectors are used in user-controlled technology as optical datalink devices. Aiming is done at night, and the necessary retroreflector area depends on aiming distance and ambient lighting from street lamps. The optical receiver itself behaves as a weak retroreflector because it contains a large, precisely focused lens that detects illuminated objects in its focal plane. This allows aiming without a retroreflector for short ranges.

Other uses

thumb|Demonstration of retroreflective effect with camera flash

Retroreflectors are used in the following example applications:

  • In common (non-SLR) digital cameras, the sensor system is often retroreflective. Researchers have used this property to demonstrate a system to prevent unauthorized photographs by detecting digital cameras and beaming a highly focused beam of light into the lens.
  • In movie screens to allow for high brilliance under dark conditions.
  • Digital compositing programs and chroma key environments use retroreflection to replace traditional lit backdrops in composite work as they provide a more solid color without requiring that the backdrop be lit separately.
  • In Longpath-DOAS systems retroreflectors are used to reflect the light emitted from a lightsource back into a telescope. It is then spectrally analyzed to obtain information about the trace gas content of the air between the telescope and the retro reflector.
  • Barcode labels can be printed on retroreflective material to increase the range of scanning up to 50 feet.
  • In a form of 3D display; where a retro-reflective sheeting and a set of projectors is used to project stereoscopic images back to user's eye. The use of mobile projectors and positional tracking mounted on user's spectacles frame allows the illusion of a hologram to be created for computer generated imagery.
  • Flashlight fish of the family Anomalopidae have natural retroreflectors. See tapetum lucidum.
  • High-visibility clothing, especially in the construction industry.

History

Many prey and predator animals have naturally retroreflective eyes by having a reflective layer called the Tapetum lucidum behind the retina, since this doubles the light that their retina receives.

thumb|right|Double-ended cat's eye is Shaw's original design and marks road centre-line.

Inspired by the natural world, the inventor of road 'cat's eyes' was Percy Shaw of Boothtown, Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. When the tram-lines were removed in the nearby suburb of Ambler Thorn, he realised that he had been using the polished steel rails to navigate at night. The name "cat's eye" comes from Shaw's inspiration for the device: the eyeshine reflecting from the eyes of a cat. In 1934, he patented his invention (patents Nos. 436,290 and 457,536), and on 15 March 1935, founded Reflecting Roadstuds Limited in Halifax to manufacture the items. The name Catseye is their trademark. The retroreflecting lens had been invented six years earlier for use in advertising signs by Richard Hollins Murray, an accountant from Herefordshire and, as Shaw acknowledged, they had contributed to his idea.