10 Questions You Should to Know about Plano Concave Cylindrical Lens

Although not as widely known as convex or concave lenses, cylindrical lenses play an important role across numerous applications thanks to their distinct capabilities. This article explores the fundamentals of cylindrical lenses, shedding light on their working principles and use cases.

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Cylinder Lenses

Cylindrical lenses, as the name implies, have a cylindrical shape in at least one section. Unlike spherical lenses, which evenly focus or disperse light in all directions, cylindrical lenses are designed to direct light in just one dimension. This distinctive feature makes them invaluable for applications where other lenses simply cannot deliver the required precision.

Understanding How Cylindrical Lenses Work

The unique shape of a cylindrical lens allows it to focus light from sources like lasers into a straight line. This capability to control light in a single dimension, either compressing or expanding it, makes cylindrical lenses incredibly versatile. Their design enables precise bending and focusing of light to meet the demands of specific applications.

Investigating Types of Cylindrical Lenses

• Singlet, Doublet, and Triplet: Cylindrical lenses with one, two, or three lens parts.
• Plano-Convex and Plano-Concave Lenses: With flat faces and convex or concave cylindrical surfaces.
• Sphero-Cylindrical Lens: Merging a sphere-like surface with a cylindrical one.
• Biconvex or Biconcave Lens: Where both sides are either concave or convex.
• Achromatic Cylinder Lens: Built to diminish chromatic aberration, concentrating light with several colors in a single direction.

Applications of Cylindrical Lenses

• Correcting Astigmatism: Aligning with the direction of astigmatism to concentrate light in a single plane and rectify distorted or blurred images.
• Laser Beam Shape Correction: Reshaping laser beams, particularly in semiconductor lasers, for enhanced quality and circular profiles.
• Optical Spectroscopy: Regulating spatial and spectral characteristics of light in spectroscopy use cases, like monochromators.
• Laser Line Scanning: Shaping laser beams into straight lines for use cases like 3D metrology and quality control.
• Microscopy: Improving confocal microscopy by shaping laser beams, rectifying aberrations, and enhancing signal-to-noise ratios in fluorescence microscopy.

Figure 1. Typically, laser diodes emit light with an elliptical profile that requires correction. Image Credit: Shanghai Optics

Materials Used to Build Cylindrical Lenses

Cylindrical lenses are available in different materials, such as fused silica (JGS1, Corning , JGS2), optical glass (BK7, B270, H-K9L from Ohara, Schott, CDGM, or Corning), IR materials (MgF2, Ge, CaF2, Si), and other options such as optical plastics and sapphire.

Factory Standard

• Substrate Material: Schott, Ohara, CDGM, Corning Fused Silica and JGS1, JGS2
• Shape: P-Concave, P-Convex or Aspheric
• Focal length: +/-1 %
• Surface Quality: 20-10 (after coating)
• Surface figure: l/4 @ 633 nm
• Angle: +/-5″
• Clear Aperture: >90 % of central dimension

 Source: Shanghai Optics

Specifications Factory Standards Manufacturing Limit Dimension Tolerance +/-0.03 mm +/-0.01 mm Center Thickness Tolerance +/-0.03 mm +/-0.02 mm Radius Tolerance +/-0.3 % +/-0.1 % Surface Quality(S/D) 40-20 10-5 Irregularity(Plano Surface) 1/8Lambda < 1/15Lambda Irregularity(Cylindrical Surface) 1/4Lambda < 1/8Lambda Centration(arc min) 3′ 1′

Industrial Uses of Cylindrical Lenses

Cylindrical lenses are widely used across various industries, including:

• Industrial Inspection: Integral to laser scanning systems, alignment tools, and laser processing equipment.
• Semiconductor Manufacturing: Essential for circularizing elliptical beams in wafer inspection tools and flat-panel display measurement systems.
• Entertainment: Used in digital cinema cameras and projectors to compress or stretch images for optimal visual quality.
• Life Sciences and Medical Fields: Vital in life science imaging and medical testing instruments.

These specialized optical tools play a crucial role in directing light in a single dimension, with applications ranging from correcting astigmatism in ophthalmology to shaping laser beams for enhanced performance. The variety of cylindrical lenses available highlights their importance in advancing tools and technologies across multiple fields.

Shanghai Optics specializes in delivering high-quality, custom-built cylinder lenses.

This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials provided by Shanghai Optics.

The RP Photonics Buyer's Guide contains 109 suppliers for cylindrical lenses. Among them:

IRD Glass

IRD Glass manufactures cylindrical optics, both convex and concave, from numerous substrate materials and with optical coatings like high laser damage threshold or anti-reflection coatings. Custom solutions are available in less time than from competitors, while still offering competitive pricing.

Are you interested in learning more about Plano Concave Cylindrical Lens? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!

We use custom centering equipment to locate the center of curvature and custom ripple-checking equipment to ensure form and flatness of curves. Our machining, polishing, and grinding capabilities produce radii less than 2 mm or greater than 125 mm.

Sinoptix

We offer cylindrical lenses up to 100 mm width, λ/4 surface quality with centering of 2 arcmin. Plano-convex cylindrical lens, plano-concave cylindrical lens, bi-concave & bi-convex cylindrical lens. Achromatic cylinder lenses are also available.

Edmund Optics

Edmund Optics selection of cylinder lenses include achromatic, acylinder, plano-convex, or plano-concave. Achromatic cylinder lenses provide additional color correction by minimizing chromatic aberration. Hybrid acylinder lenses are ideal for color correction, in addition to minimizing spherical aberration. Edmund Optics offers cylinder lenses with glass or plastic substrates, or with circular, rectangular, or oblong dimensions. Multiple anti-reflection coating options are available from the ultraviolet to the infrared, including UV-AR, UV-VIS, MgF2, VIS-NIR, VIS 0°, NIR I, or laser line coatings designed for specific wavelenghts. Edmund Optics offers full prescription data, in addition to 2D or 3D models.

UM Optics

UM Optics offers both plano-convex and plano-concave cylindrical lenses based on a wide range of materials and coatings, such as CaF2, K9, UVFS, Si, Ge and ZnSE.

Artifex Engineering

Artifex Engineering offers custom plano-convex, plano-concave or achromatic cylindrical lenses. Achromatic cylindrical lenses significantly reduce chromatic, spherical and coma aberrations. Visit our product page for more information. We look forward to your inquiry.

Ecoptik

Ecoptik offers cylindrical lenses with different substrate shapes and high surface accuracy. As one of the best optical components manufacturers, we monitor the quality of each individual lens using Trioptics centration measurement and a Zygo GPI interferometer. All Ecoptik lenses are available both uncoated or coated with a broad range of high durability, low loss AR coatings, and can be manufactured to 20–10 surface roughness.

Shalom EO

Shalom EO is a specialized supplier of cylindrical lenses, we provide a full portfolio of cylindrical optical lenses including plano-convex cylindrical lenses plano-concave cylindrical lenses, fast axis collimators and slow axis collimators made of various materials such as fused silica, BK7, optical glass, BaF2, CaF2, MgF2, and ZnSe, etc. Coating options include: uncoated, MgF2 single layer, V-coating, and broadband AR coating.

With stringent inspection measures carried out using instruments like Zygo interferometer, Shalom EO’s cylindrical lenses are excellent for laser line generation, anamorphic beam shaping, and one-dimensional compression of images in laser scanners, spectroscopes, dye lasers, acousto-optics, optical processors and other similar applications.

Shanghai Optics

Shanghai Optics offers cylindrical lenses e.g. with a dimension tolerance of ±30 μm or even ±10 μm, λ/4 or λ/8 surface irregularity and a centration better than 3 arcmin or even 1 arcmin.

EKSMA OPTICS

EKSMA Optics offer a selection of uncoated plano-convex and plano-concave cylindrical lenses for quick delivery. Custom cutting, edging, coating or complete fabrication can be offered on request.

Knight Optical

Knight Optical‘s stock catalogue includes BK7 and UV fused silica cylindrical lenses designed to focus light across one plane rather than to a point. We currently offer 12.5mm to 150mm focal lengths, with AR-coated options available in the visible region. Custom cylindrical lenses can also be provided to meet bespoke requirements.

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