Features

• Aspheric Condenser Lenses with Larger Apertures and Higher NA than Spherical Lenses
• Diameters From 3 to 310mm Available
• NA from 0.17 to 0.79
• Available Uncoated or AR-Coated for 350 - 700 nm or 650 - 1050 nm
• Fabricated from B270 Optical Crown Glass (380 - 2100 nm)

High-Efficiency Illumination Applications

• Light Collection / Condensing
• Projection
• Detection
• Laser collimator

AUTC Aspheric Condenser Lenses offer larger apertures, higher NA, and lower f/# ratios than spherical lenses. Therefore, these lenses are ideal for high-efficiency illumination applications or collimating light from a lamp, LED, or similar light source. Our condensers are sold in diameters from 10 to 75 mm and are available uncoated for 380 - 2100 nm or with an AR coating for 350 to 700 nm (-A Coating) or 650 to 1050 nm (-B Coating). The -A Coating will not completely counteract the substrate's absorptive properties from 350 nm to 380 nm.

Because of the shorter focal lengths and a lower f/# than other lenses, condenser lenses can be used in close proximity to one another or other optical elements, which makes them ideal for focusing light onto a detector or other light collection element. The lens surface is precision molded on the aspheric side while the plano or spherical convex side is ground and polished. For best performance, the flatter side of the lens should face the source. Please note that although the B270 substrate transmits from 380 - 2100 nm, these lenses are designed for use at visible wavelengths;

Molded Glass Aspheric Lenses
Aspheric lenses are designed to focus or collimate light without introducing spherical aberration into the transmitted wavefront. For monochromatic sources, spherical aberration is often what prevents a single spherical lens from achieving diffraction-limited performance when focusing or collimating light. Thus, an aspheric lens is often the best single element solution for many applications including collimating the output of a fiber or laser diode, coupling light into a fiber, spatial filtering, or imaging light onto a detector.
If an unmounted aspheric lens is being used to collimate the light from a point source or laser diode, the side with the greater radius of curvature (i.e., the flatter surface) should face the point source or laser diode.
Molded glass aspheres are manufactured from a variety of optical glasses to yield the indicated performance. The molding process will cause the properties of the glass (e.g., Abbe number) to deviate slightly from those given by glass manufacturers.