Custom Aspheric Lenses

In traditional spherical lenses, the issue of the convergent light from the lens not having a common focus arises. In some imaging and laser applications, the blurring of the image edges caused by this lack of light convergence might be troublesome. Aspheric lenses are commonly used to correct for spherical aberrations.

Alfa Chemistry can provide aspheric lenses in glass, plastic, or infrared materials specifically tailored to each customer and their needs. Our highly skilled professionals test each product in our state-of-the-art metrology lab to ensure it meets standards. For more information on your custom aspheric lens needs, please contact our technical sales team.

Why Choose Aspheric Lenses

Because spherical aberrations can be produced at even tiny angles of incidence, conventional spherical lenses cannot effectively collimate light. This could imply that a number of optics components would be needed to produce the intended effects. For the purpose of correcting spherical aberrations in laser and imaging, customers can select aspherical lens surfaces. The aspheric surface of an aspheric lens allows a single component to effectively focus or collimate even highly divergent emission, potentially replacing a multi-lens system with a single aspheric lens.

Our Capabilities

Aspheric lenses can replace the need for multiple lenses in a system, which reduces the system's weight and associated costs. Alfa Chemistry can provide achromatic aspheric lenses for excellent color correction purposes.

• Plastic Aspheric Lenses: This is a cost-effective solution. It has a reduced surface quality compared to other lens types. One of its advantages is that flanges can be added for easier assembly in the system. Our plastic aspheric lenses can be made to order and have focal lengths between 3.5 mm and 85 mm.
• Molded Glass Aspheric Lenses: To satisfy our customers' needs, the surface is polished.
• Fire Polished Aspheric Lenses: These lenses are perfect for LED-based lighting solutions that require spot lenses for light gathering.
• Diamond Turned Aspheric Lenses: Infrared optics often uses these lenses as precision grade lenses.

Below are examples of our standard manufacturing capabilities.

Coatings

Alfa Chemistry offers a variety of optical coatings for custom aspheric lenses, including:

• Anti-Reflective (AR) Coatings: These coatings are optimized for operating wavelengths.
• Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) Coatings: This coatings are typically used for infrared materials such as germanium to improve the durability of the coated surface.

Fig 1. Aspheric lens systems. (Ducnam N, et al. 2019)

Quality Assurance

Alfa Chemistry tests all custom optics in a professional metrology lab to ensure they meet requirements. They are then visually inspected 100% of the time in our QA department. Our technicians are trained to professional specifications and can inspect for scratch/dig down to 10/5, which is especially important in laser applications.

Reference

1. Ducnam N, et al. (2019). "FEA and Experimentally Determination of Applied Elasticity Problem for Fabricating Aspheric Surfaces." Elasticity of Materials - Basic Principles and Design of Structures.