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Features

• Molded Glass Aspheric Lenses
• Focus or Collimate Light Without Introducing Spherical Aberration
• Available Unmounted or Pre-Mounted in Nonmagnetic 303 Stainless Steel Lens Cells
  Engraved with the Item #
• Broadband AR Coating for Either 350 - 700 nm or 400 - 600 nm

Aspheric lenses focus or collimate light without introducing spherical aberration into the transmitted wavefront. For monochromatic sources, spherical aberration often prevents a single spherical lens from achieving diffraction-limited performance when focusing or collimating light. Aspheric lenses are designed to mitigate the impacts of spherical aberration and are 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.

All of the molded glass lenses featured on this page are available with an antireflection coating for either the 350 - 700 nm or 400 - 600 nm range deposited on both sides. Other AR coating options are listed in the Aspheric Lens Selection Guide table at right.

These lenses can be purchased unmounted or premounted in nonmagnetic 303 stainless steel lens cells that are engraved with the Item # for easy identification. All mounted aspheres have a metric thread that make them easy to integrate into an optical setup or OEM application; they can also be readily used with our SM1-threaded (1.035"-40) lens tubes by using our aspheric lens adapters. When combined with our microscope objective adapter extension tube, mounted aspheres can be used as a drop-in replacement for multi-element microscope objectives.

A selection of the lenses sold on this page are designed for collimating laser diodes. As seen in the tables below, a compatible laser window thickness is listed for these lenses. In these instances, the numerical aperture (NA), working distance (WD), and wavefront error of these lenses are defined based on the presence of a laser window of the indicated thickness (not included).

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. To collimate light using one of our mounted aspheric lenses, orient the housing so that the externally threaded end of the mount faces the source.

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. Specific material properties for each lens can be found by clicking on the Info Icon  in the tables below and selecting the Glass tab. 

Choosing a Lens

Aspheric lenses are commonly chosen to couple incident light with a diameter of 1 - 5 mm into a single mode fiber. A simple example will illustrate the key specifications to consider when trying to choose the correct lens.

Example:
Fiber: P1-630A-FC-2
Collimated Beam Diameter Prior to Lens: Ø3 mm

The specifications for the P1-630A-FC-2, 630 nm, FC/PC single mode patch cable indicate that the mode field diameter (MFD) is 4.3 μm. This specification should be matched to the diffraction-limited spot size given by the following equation:

Here, f is the focal length of the lens, λ is the wavelength of the input light, and D is the diameter of collimated beam incident on the lens. Solving for the desired focal length of the collimating lens yields

Thorlabs offers a large selection of mounted and unmounted aspheric lenses to choose from. The aspheric lens with a focal length that is closest to 16 mm has a focal length of 15.29 mm (Item # 354260-B or A260-B). This lens also has a clear aperture that is larger than the collimated beam diameter. Therefore, this option is the best choice given the initial parameters (i.e., a P1-630A-FC-2 single mode fiber and a collimated beam diameter of 3 mm). Remember, for optimal coupling, the spot size of the focused beam must be less than the MFD of the single mode fiber. As a result, if an aspheric lens is not available that provides an exact match, then choose one with a focal length that is shorter than the calculation above yields. Alternatively, if the clear aperture of the aspheric lens is large enough, the beam can be expanded before the aspheric lens, which has the result of reducing the spot size of the focus beam.

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Reference Drawing

Aspheric Lens Design Formula

• Positive Radius Indicates that the Center of Curvature is to the Right of the Lens
• Negative Radius Indicates that the Center of Curvature is to the Left of the Lens

Aspheric Lens Equation

Choosing a Collimation Lens for Your Laser Diode

Since the output of a laser diode is highly divergent, collimating optics are necessary. Aspheric lenses do not introduce spherical aberration and are therefore are commonly chosen when the collimated laser beam is to be between one and five millimeters. A simple example will illustrate the key specifications to consider when choosing the correct lens for a given application.

Example

• Laser Diode to be Used: L780P010
• Desired Collimated Beam Diameter: Ø3 mm (Major Axis)

When choosing a collimation lens, it is essential to know the divergence angle of the source being used and the desired output diameter. The specifications for the L780P010 laser diode indicate that the typical parallel and perpendicular FWHM beam divergences are 10° and 30°, respectively. Therefore, as the light diverges, an elliptical beam will result. To collect as much light as possible during the collimation process, consider the larger of these two divergence angles in any calculations (i.e., in this case, use 30°). If you wish to convert your elliptical beam into a round one, we suggest using an Anamorphic Prism Pair, which magnifies one axis of your beam.

Assuming that the width of the lens is negligible compared to the radius of curvature, the thin lens approximation can be used to determine the appropriate focal length for the asphere. Assuming a divergence angle of 30° (FWHM) and desired beam diameter of 3 mm:

Note that the focal length is generally not equal to the needed distance between the light source and the lens.

With this information known, it is now time to choose the appropriate collimating lens. Thorlabs offers a large selection of aspheric lenses. For this application, the ideal lens is a molded glass aspheric lens with focal length near 5.6 mm and our -B antireflection coating, which covers 780 nm. The C171TMD-B (mounted) or 354171-B (unmounted) aspheric lenses have a focal length of 6.20 mm, which will result in a collimated beam diameter (major axis) of 3.3 mm. Next, check to see if the numerical aperture (NA) of the diode is smaller than the NA of the lens:

0.30 = NA_Lens > NA_Diode ≈ sin(15°) = 0.26

Up to this point, we have been using the full-width at half maximum (FWHM) beam diameter to characterize the beam. However, a better practice is to use the 1/e² beam diameter. For a Gaussian beam profile, the 1/e² diameter is almost equal to 1.7X the FWHM diameter. The 1/e² beam diameter therefore captures more of the laser diode's output light (for greater power delivery) and minimizes far-field diffraction (by clipping less of the incident light).

A good rule of thumb is to pick a lens with an NA twice that of the laser diode NA. For example, either the A390-B or the A390TM-B could be used as these lenses each have an NA of 0.53, which is more than twice the approximate NA of our laser diode (0.26). These lenses each have a focal length of 4.6 mm, resulting in an approximate major beam diameter of 2.5 mm. In general, using a collimating lens with a short focal length will result in a small collimated beam diameter and a large beam divergence, while a lens with a large focal length will result in a large collimated beam diameter and a small divergence.