Aspheric Lenses - Lightpath Technologies - #1

• High quality optical glass lenses

• Custom designs available

• Numerical aperture up to 0.83

• Diameters from 0.250mm to 25.0mm

• Diffraction-limited performance

• Available in standard and custom housings

For today's sophisticated and compact laser systems, aspheres are the most powerful lenses for managing laser light. In these systems, spherical aberration is the most prevalent performance detractor. It arises from the use of spherical surfaces and artificially limits focusing and collimating accuracy.

Although it has been known for centuries that spherical geometry is not optimal for refracting light, the expense of fabricating non-spherical (aspheric) surfaces has inhibited their use. With the breakthrough of LightPath's® glass molding technology, this optimal lens geometry has become a reality

Molded lenses are used in a variety of photonic products: barcode scanners, laser diode to fiber couplings, optical data storage, and medical lasers, to name a few. In many of these applications, the material of choice is optical glass because of its durability and performance stability over a wide environmental range. High power transmittance is also an added advantage.

The benefits of glass molding technology become apparent when traditional methods of grinding and polishing become cost-prohibitive. The direct molding process eliminates the need for any grinding or polishing, offering aspheric lenses at practical prices for system designers. Molding is the most consistent and economical way to produce aspheres in large volumes.

Small and lightweight, our aspheres collimate or focus light as a single element. This means less complex systems, fewer alignment requirements, less re-work and shorter assembly time. Our aspheres are molded; therefore the lenses have excellent piece-to-piece uniformity They are made of glass, which is the most durable optical material available, capable of withstanding repeated cleaning and performing at specification despite extreme temperature and moisture variations.

LightPath's® aspheric lenses are inspected and optically tested to ensure complete customer satisfaction. Visual cosmetic inspection is preformed on 100% of all lenses per MIL-PRF-I3830B with a scratch/dig spec of 40/20. Other inspection criteria including 80/40, 20/10 and 10/5 can be provided upon request.

Optical performance is guaranteed by test methods utilizing 632.8mm interferometer measuring transmitted RMS wavefront error listed in the individual lens specification. LightPath® can also perform customized optical tests in order to screen for the customers' specific application criteria.

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www.lightpath.com