Knight Optical supply a range of Infrared Diamond turned aspheric lenses

24 Jan 2017

Spherical aberration occurs in common singlet lenses which results in an image that appears distorted, aspheric lenses correct spherical aberration. An aspheric lens surface is designed non-spherical, which allows a single component lens to collimate or focus highly divergent rays, potentially replacing a multi-lens system.

Diamond turned aspheric lenses are typically used in missile guidance systems, night vision/thermal Imaging cameras and other military based and commercial infrared systems.

Knight Optical offers diamond turned aspherics from a range of infrared materials including Germanium (Ge), Calcium Fluoride (CaF₂), Zinc Sulphide (ZnS), Zinc Selenide (ZnSe), Aluminium (Al) and chalcogenide glasses like AMTIR (Ge33As12Se55).

Lenses can be coated with a range of antireflective coatings, e.g. for MWIR (AR/DLC coated 3 to 5µm) and LWIR (AR/DLC coated 8 to 12µm) Imaging Systems. Germanium is particularly good for MWIR band, and can be used with Silicon orZinc Selenide , given its refractive index range is higher than the two of them, to form corrected doublets and lens systems. These systems include, for example, Forward Looking Infra-Red (FLIR) systems, and thermography.

Typical specs:

Material: Germanium, ZnSe, Caf2, Silicon, Zinc Selenide (For LWIR)
Diameter: Up to 200mm dia +0, -0.02mm
Thickness: +/- 0.2mm
Flatness: < 1/2 wave over 90% aperture
Surface Quality: < 40-20 scratch/dig
Parallelism: 5 arcmin
Coating: AR/DLC (3-5 micron, 7-14 micron, 10-12 micron)

Our IR-Aspheric lenses are checked for quality in our state-of-the-art Metrology laboratory using equipment from Trioptics, Varian and Starret allowing us to work to the highest QA standards and meet the tolerance specifications on these precision components.

Contact our technical sales team to discover how Knight Optical’s high quality Diamond Turned Aspheric lenses and superior service can improve your instrumentation and supply chain experience.

Tel +44(0)1622 859444 | Email contact@knightoptical.co.uk

Tel +(001) 401 583 7846 | Email usasales@knightoptical.com