8

I am drawing an optical experiment that involves making a path take a detour.

Looped path

This is possible with PSTricks, but I haven't found a way to achieve this with TikZ.

What I currently have:

  • The beam splitter and mirror are positioned with relative node positioning.
  • The lasers are connected simply by defining paths from nodes.

So far I've tried the loop library (can only loop back to the node itself, like a state diagram), setting bends (will not turn one whole turn, just bend slightly), using a coil decoration, (best so far, but ugly and won't look good in the paper).

Does anybody have a pointer to a library that could do this for me?

Edit: I have taken the accepted answer and done a few tweaks. Note that the end angles are set to vertical.

\documentclass[tikz]{standalone}

\usetikzlibrary{
    positioning,
    arrows,
    decorations.markings,
    hobby
}
\colorlet{maroon}{red!80!black}

\tikzstyle{beamsplitter} = [
    fill=gray,
    fill opacity=0.3,
]

\tikzstyle{left-hand-mirror} = [
    draw,
    postaction=decorate, 
    decoration={
        markings,
        mark=between positions 0.015 and 0.98 step 0.1072 with {\draw (0,0)--(60:3pt);}
    }
]   

\tikzstyle{laser} = [
    draw=maroon,
    line cap=round,
]

\tikzstyle{laserarrow} = [
    line cap=round,
    draw=maroon,
    decoration={markings,mark=at position 0.55 with{\arrow[rotate=-20,maroon]{latex'}}},
    postaction={decorate},
    mark options={color=maroon}
]

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}[use Hobby shortcut]
    \node (source) {};  

    \node[right=1cm of source] (splitter) {}; 

    \node[above=1 cm of splitter] (mirror) {};
    \node[right=5mm of splitter] (combiner) {};
    \node[right=5mm of mirror] (end) {};

    \path[laser] (source.east) -- (splitter.center);

    \path[laser] (mirror.center) -- (end.center) {};

    \path[laser] (splitter.center) -- (combiner.center);

% Create a node to the left of the midway between the splitter and mirror
    \path (splitter) -- (mirror.center) node[midway,left]
    (midway) {};

% Create a node to the left of the above node
    \node [left = 5mm of midway] (midway-left) {};

% Create the loop
    \draw [laserarrow]
    ([out angle=90, in angle=-90]splitter.center) .. (midway) .. (midway-left) 
    .. (midway) .. (mirror.center);

    \path[left-hand-mirror] (mirror.south west) --
    (mirror.north east) ;

    \draw[beamsplitter] (splitter.north west) rectangle (splitter.south east);
    \draw (splitter.north east) -- (splitter.south west);
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

and this creates the following output:

Final result

I still need to fix that arrow positioning, but I'm getting there.

Jonathan Jogenfors
  • 197
  • 1
    Welcome to TeX.SX! We normally don't put greetings in questions so I removed yours. – Svend Tveskæg Feb 19 '14 at 13:10
  • 1
    Search for hobby in this site. –  Feb 19 '14 at 13:16
  • Harish, thanks for the suggestion for the hobby package. It might be a good answer for my question, however it refuses to work on MiKTeX 2.9 even though I am using the latest package version. Not even an MWE compiles. Should I ask a separate question about this? The error message in question is "Undefined Control Sequence" withouth telling me which control sequence is undefined. – Jonathan Jogenfors Feb 19 '14 at 13:51
  • I intended this as a comment but do not have the prerequisite reputation to make comments. Did any one answering this consider controls ? If not was there a reason, other then it's a bit fiddly. \tikz draw (0,0) .. controls (3,1) and (-2,1).. (1,0); – Carel Aug 03 '15 at 08:51

1 Answers1

6

A possible solution:

\documentclass[tikz,border=10pt,png]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{backgrounds,calc,decorations.markings,hobby}
\pgfdeclarelayer{foreground}
\pgfsetlayers{main,foreground}
\colorlet{maroon}{red!80!black}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[use Hobby shortcut]
%\draw[help lines] (-1,-1) grid (4,3);

\draw[thick,maroon] (0,0) -- (2.75,0);

\begin{pgfonlayer}{foreground}% to avoid:
% http://tex.stackexchange.com/q/156613/13304
\node[thick,inner sep=5pt,fill,draw,fill opacity=0.2](n) at (2,0){};
\draw[thick,
  shorten <=\pgflinewidth, 
  shorten >=\pgflinewidth
 ]
 (n.south west)--(n.north east);
\end{pgfonlayer}

\draw[thick,maroon, 
 postaction=decorate, 
 decoration={markings,mark= at position 0.44 with 
  {\arrow[rotate=-12]{stealth};}}
 ] 
 (2,0) .. (1.75,1) .. (1.6,1.25) .. (1,1) .. 
 (1.6,0.75)..([tension=-2]2,2)--(2.75,2);

\draw[thick] (2,2)--($(2,2)!0.25!(1,1)$)coordinate(a)
(2,2)--($(2,2)!0.25!(3,3)$) coordinate(b);

\path[ 
 postaction=decorate, 
 decoration={markings,mark=between positions 0 and 1 step 4pt
  with {\draw[thick] (0,0)--(70:3pt);}}
 ]
 (a)--(b);

\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

The result:

enter image description here

Claudio Fiandrino
  • 63,575