Product Portfolio
AMS Technologies offers a wide range of optical lenses manufactured from high-quality optical glass, but also crystals and other optical materials.
Spherical lenses – the most common optical lens type – are available in various sizes and shapes (plano-convex, plano-concave, bi-convex, bi-concave, meniscus), for application with UV, visible (VIS) and infrared (IR) light, either uncoated or AR-coated.
AMS Technologies also offers a very broad selection of molded-glass aspheric lenses with outer diameters ranging from 2.4 mm to 11.0 mm that feature an exceptional price/performance ratio and are suitable for applications in the visible and infrared wavebands.
Cylindrical lenses are used to focus the light on a straight focal line or to spread a beam of light. We carry plano-convex, plano-concave or rod-style cylindrical lenses in dimensions ranging from 2.0 up to 250.0 mm and beyond, as well as doublets and triplets of cylindrical lenses.
Our achromatic lenses reduce the chromatic aberration caused by the variation of refractive index with the wavelength of the light. An achromatic lens is formed by two single lenses with two materials with different dispersion which are bonded together.
Click on the categories below to learn more about our range of optical lenses, which can either be ordered online and delivered directly from stock or is available on request.
Additionally to our broad range of standard products, we can provide customized optical lenses on request. Please contact the AMS Technologies optical lens experts to discuss your customized optical lens solution that exactly matches your application’s requirements.
Related Products
Complementing our optical lens offering, we carry a broad range of complementary products such as fiber collimators and focusers, lens holders and lens positioners as well as MWIR or LWIR thermal imaging assemblies.
Other available precision optics include optical windows, prisms or optical filters. All featuring high precision, smallest tolerances (dimensional and angular) and special coatings for exotic wavelengths, even into the UV spectral range.
Additionally, we carry a broad range of complementary products such as optical mounts, rotary and translation stages, optical tables, breadboards and platforms, lasers and light sources as well as a broad range of optical test and measurement equipment.
Definition
An optical lens is a device which refracts the light when passing through it. It consists of a material with a certain refractive index which is transparent for the wavelength range for which it is intended to be used.
Shape and material define the optical performance of an optical lens. Many different shapes are used, most common are spherical lenses, whose two surfaces are defined by sections of a geometrical sphere.
At least one of the surfaces of an optical lens is either convex (bending outwards from the lens) or concave (bending inwards). Convex lenses converge the beam focusing to a point in a defined distance called focal length, while concave lenses diverge (spread) the beam. A lens with two such surfaces is either bi-convex or bi-concave, while the combination of a convex and a concave surface is called a meniscus lens.
Because of the variation of refractive index depending on the wavelength, the light will be dispersed while passing through the lens which leads to chromatic aberration – with the light being focused to different positions and forming fringes of different color around the image. Achromatic lenses deal with this effect, reducing the chromatic aberration. An achromatic lens is formed by two single lenses with two materials with different dispersion which are bonded together, compensating that way most of the chromatic aberration.
There are many other types of optical lenses:
- Aspheric lenses have surfaces different from the surface of a sphere and are able to form images with less optical distortions.
- To focus light into a line, cylindrical lenses are used. These lenses are curved only along one axis.
- Gradient index lenses (GRIN lenses) are special glass rods with a certain profile of the refractive index, either radial or axial. Depending on this profile and the length, these lenses can either focus or collimate the optical beam.
- Freeform lenses are emerging with the development of new lens manufacturing technologies enabling the design of more complex optics with a reduced number of lenses.
Traditional technologies for the production of optical lenses are grinding and polishing, using more and more advanced, fully automated CNC grinding and polishing machines. These technologies allow larger diameters, high reproducibility and higher surface qualities.
Molded lenses with very high surface quality are available in diameters from a few millimeters up to 30 mm. The main advantage of this technology is its attractive price.
The lens material plays an important role, defining the optical performance. Many different materials are available, covering a wide wavelength range from UV to longwave infrared (LWIR).