Spherical Lenses

  

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Spherical lenses can be used to focus a beam, form an image, and collimate or expand a beam of light. At Solid Photon Inc, we routinely manufacture lenses with high surface quality and accuracy, and have extensive experience in delivering high laser damage threshold optics. However, we also understand the importance of balancing cost and performance for less demanding applications that still require precision and well controlled manufacturing. That is why our extensive line of catalog products includes lenses in a broad range of shapes, materials, focal lengths and diameters, with different quality levels to address the various performance requirements of our customers. We have the knowledge to understand your needs and supply the best component for your application: not over-specified, with the right quality and cost.

If you are unable to find a perfect fit within our line of catalog products, we encourage you to call us to discuss a custom solution. We have experience working with a variety of other materials using conventional, diamond turning, and molded fabrication techniques. We can manufacture a lens with the right combination of shape, radius of curvature, diameter, and tolerances to meet your exact requirements for OEM or laboratory use.

High quality antireflection coatings are essential for maximum throughput and power handling, and ours are among the best. We offer a wide range of BBAR and V-coats, and custom coatings. To achieve highest laser damage threshold, we typically recommend V-coat antireflection coatings on laser-grade 10-5 fused silica substrates.

Capabilities

  Standard Custom Options Types  Plano-convex, plano-concave, 
biconvex, biconcave, bestform, molded aspheric condenser  Meniscus, ball, precision aspheric lenses  Materials  N-BK7, UV-grade fused silica, excimer grade fused silica, UV-grade CaF2, N-SF11, crown glass Other optical glasses, fused silica and fused quartz, CaF2 , MgF2, sapphire Diameter  2.5 to 76.2 mm Polished: up to 600 mm 
Molded: 0.3 to 55 mm 
Diamond turned: up to 250 mm Focal length  3.0 mm to 10.0 m 
-10.0 mm to -1.0 m   Coatings 

• Narrowband V-coat AR
• Dual wavelength (/532)
• Broadband Multilayer
• Single layer MgF2 AR

• Other wavelengths (193-nm)
• Triple-V AR coating
• Ultra-low reflectivity
• Mirror coating

Quality  Standard and laser quality See manufacturing tolerances below

Spherical Lens Manufacturing Capabilities**

Surface Tolerances Commercial Laser Quality High Precision Surface quality (scratch - dig) 60 - 40  10 - 5*  5 - 2  Surface roughness (Å, RMS) 20  5  2.5  Surface Irregularity 
(waves, P-V @ 633 nm) λ/2 λ/10 λ/20 Surface Power 
(waves, P-V @ 633 nm)  λ/2 λ/10 λ/20 Dimensional Tolerances Commercial Precision High Precision Diameter (mm) +0.000 / -0.250 +0.000 / -0.050 +0.000 / -0.015 Center thickness (mm) ± 0.250 ± 0.050 ± 0.015 Spherical radius (fringes) 5  3  < 3  Centration (edge thickness variation, mm) 0.05 0.015 0.005 Clear aperture (%) 85% 90% 95%

* This is for the most well behaved materials, like fused silica and N-BK7.  Softer materials like CaF2 and N-SF11 are manufactured with 20-10 laser grade surface quality.

Molded and Diamond Turned Manufacturing Capabilities**

Surface Tolerances Typical Molded High Precision Molded Typical Diamond Turned High Precision Diamond Turned Surface quality 
(scratch - dig) 40 - 20 20 - 10 40 - 20 10 - 5 Surface Texture, per ISO--8 P2 P3 P2 P3 Surface roughness (Å, RMS) 30  7  10 - 70  5  Surface Irregularity 
(waves, P-V @ 633 nm) λ/4 λ/20 λ/4 λ/20 Surface Power 
(waves, P-V @ 633 nm) λ λ/20 λ/4 λ/20 Dimensional Tolerances Typical Molded High Precision Molded Typical Diamond Turned High Precision Diamond Turned Diameter (mm) +0.000 / -0.100 +0.000 / -0.020 +0.000 / -0.020 +0.000 / -0.005 Center thickness (mm) ± 0.050 ± 0.020 ± 0.050 ± 0.005 Wedge (arc seconds) 60  10  30  10  Clear aperture (after edging) 90%  98%  90%  98% 

** Note: The general tolerance specifications above are intended to guide determination of appropriate tolerances based both on relative cost and manufacturability.  Part-specific tolerances will vary depending on size, material, shape and aspect ratio.  Tighter tolerances may be possible, so please contact us to discuss your custom specifications.  All specifications do not need to be from a single column, though trade-offs may be required in order to meet the desired combination of cost and performance.

Types of Lens

Additional reading:
Questions You Should Know about Double concave Cylindrical Lens
Zenni Optical Review: Options, Pros and Cons, Is It Worth It?

Contact us to discuss your requirements of custom spherical lenses. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.

Plano-Convex Lenses

Plano-convex and double convex lenses are categorized as positive lenses, which means they have positive focal lengths. Plano-convex lenses have one flat surface and one spherical surface, making them suitable for applications involving infinite or near-infinite conjugates, light collimation, and monochromatic illumination. These lenses minimize spherical aberration up to a conjugate ratio of approximately 5:1 and are often the preferred choice for demanding applications. In an ideal setup, the curved surface should face the infinite conjugate or the largest object distance.

Double Convex Lenses

Double convex lenses feature two convex surfaces with equal radii and exhibit both horizontal and vertical symmetry. They are well-suited for forming images at close conjugate distances and for image relays. At 1:1 magnification, when the object and image distances are equal, the lens&#;s symmetry cancels out coma, distortion, and chromatic aberration while minimizing spherical aberration. Double convex lenses are recommended for applications where the conjugate ratios range between 5:1 and 1:5.

Magnifying glasses commonly utilize double convex lenses. When the object distance is close, the rays are bent towards the focal point at the center of the lens, resulting in a virtual image appearing much larger than the real image.

Plano-Concave Lenses
Plano-concave lenses have negative focal lengths and are suitable for situations where the light rays need to diverge after passing through the lens. They are used in light projection, beam expansion, or when expanding the focal length of an optical system is desired. When used in conjunction with other lenses, the negative spherical aberration of plano-concave lenses can be utilized to counterbalance the aberrations caused by convex lenses. These lenses have one flat surface and one concave surface, and in most cases, the curved surface should face the most significant object distance. However, in high-energy lasers, the flat surface should be directed towards the infinite conjugate or most considerable object distance to avoid the possibility of a virtual focus.

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