 Dichroism

In optics, a dichroic material is either one which causes visible light to be split up into distinct beams of different wavelengths (colours) (not to be confused with dispersion), or one in which light rays having different polarizations are absorbed by different amounts.The original meaning of "dichroic", from the Greek "dikhroos", two-coloured, refers to any optical device which can split a beam of light into two beams with differing wavelengths.