Features

Easy to Use
Wavelength Ranges Covering UV and IR
Detects Radiation as Low As 1 nW/cm²

The VRC1 and VRC4 are credit-card-sized viewing cards; each has a photosensitive region that allows for the easy location of an IR, VIS, or UV light beam and its focal point. The card is made from a durable plastic with a photosensitive region adhered to the front surface of the card. Since the active region does not require charging, the emission is persistent even when used in CW applications in a darkened room. The detection region extends all the way to the edge of the card in order to facilitate the use of the card during alignment procedures. In addition, when the card is used in a darkened room with a sufficiently bright source, the fluorescence from the activated photosensitive region can be seen through the back of the card or the photosensitive region can be activated by illuminating the back of the card. This is especially useful for aligning the overlap of two beams.

The VRC2 is similar to the VRC4 and VRC1 except that it requires the user to charge the card with light from a visible light source. Also, the emissions from the card are not persistent and require the user to move the card around for optimal brightness of the beam spot.

The VRC5 is a smaller card measuring 2.4" x 1.79" (61.87 mm x 45.5 mm) and is designed for the 700 to 1400 nm wavelength range ; this card also requires room light charging. The photosensitive area meaures 1.5" x 0.75" (38.1 mm x 19 mm) and is encapsulated between two layers of durable clear plastic.

Please refer to the Specs and Graphs tabs for specifications and plots of the absorption bands for each of these products.

Thorlabs also offers IR or Visible Light Alignment Disks in half inch, one inch, or RMS microscope objective compatible sizes. Since they are the same size as many of the common optics found in experimental setups, they can be easily inserted into a setup to assist with beam alignment. Please follow this link for more information.

Viewing Card Specifications

Item#	Absorption Band	Emission Band	Active Region Dimensions	Charging Required
VRC1	250 - 525 nm	~450 - 750 nm	1.25" x 2.1" (31.8 mm x 54 mm)	No
VRC2	400 - 640 nm and 800 - 1700 nm	~580 - 750 nm	1.25" x 2.1" (31.8 mm x 54 mm)	Yes
VRC4	790 - 840 nm, 870 - 1070 nm, and 1500 - 1590 nm	~520 - 580 nm	1.25" x 2.1" (31.8 mm x 54 mm)	No
VRC5	700 - 1400 nm	Visible	0.75" x 1.5" (19.0 mm x 38.1 mm)	Yes

VRC1	VRC2

VRC4	VRC5

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Posted Comments:
Poster: klee	Posted Date: 2009-11-20 16:10:50.0
A response from Ken at thorlabs to traub: Unfortunately, we do not carry any viewing card for the Mid-IR range. I was unable to source this from other companies neither.

Poster: traub	Posted Date: 2009-11-18 15:26:53.0
Hello, I search for a sensor card that works in the mid infrared (2-5 um). I did not find such a card in your product catalog and/or website. Can you help me finding such MIR sensor cards? Thanks in advance, Tobias

Poster: Laurie	Posted Date: 2009-04-21 16:55:14.0
Response from Laurie at Thorlabs to smarka: Thank you for your interest in our products. We can provide the VRC4 with the requested dimensions. To provide a quote, we will need some additional information. Someone from our technical support staff will contact you directly.

Poster: smarka	Posted Date: 2009-04-20 11:43:10.0
I would like to know whether it would be possible to have VDIR (or VRC4) coated material available in larger sheets. 4"x4" or 10"x10" would be extremely useful. Thank you!

Poster: Tyler	Posted Date: 2008-11-03 16:58:13.0
A response from Tyler at Thorlabs to aren100won: I will contact you via email in case you had trouble with our feedback form.

Poster: Tyler	Posted Date: 2008-11-03 16:56:42.0
A response from Tyler at Thorlabs to Antonio_Oliver: I will forward this question to our technical support department who will then contact you. Thank you for considering us for this request. We always appreciate hearing about what the research community needs and Thorlabs is dedicated to fulfilling those needs whenever possible.

Poster: aren100won	Posted Date: 2008-11-03 02:44:02.0
sdfsdf

Poster: Antonio_Oliver	Posted Date: 2008-10-22 08:39:52.0
I would like to be able to purchase a large 30cm by 30cm detection "sheet." For our application, we often have to locate and align an array of multiple beams at once. Is it possible to get a custom product like what I have described above? Antonio

Poster: TechnicalMarketing	Posted Date: 2007-11-19 11:24:16.0
Dear acable, Thank you for your excellent suggestions. The active area of the VC-1550, VC-VIS/IR, and VC-UV viewing cards has been extended to the edge of the card and the back of the card behind the active region no longer has black ink on it so that in certain conditions the spot can be seen through the card. Your request for adding the absorption curves to the back of the card has been forwarded to a design engineer and will hopefully be implemented in the future.

Poster: acable	Posted Date: 2007-11-10 14:20:23.0
It would be good to extend the active area right to the end of the card. Also the back side of the card should be white, with the room lights out i can typically see a spot thru the card after i scrap off the black ink. It would also be good to have separate price boxes for each of the cards, with a photo of the card and the corresponding response curve. Not sure if the response curve is printed on the back of the VC-series cards but if not i would suggest adding it.

Poster: acable	Posted Date: 2006-05-02 14:34:27.0
Need to change these part numbers for the next catalog (use VCD1, VCD2, VCD3...), also should look at sales to see if we can drop a couple of cards. 1. Bullets 1 & 3 are not true, at least not for all of them, when i use the VIS/IR card i am always having to recharge it with a flashlight. 2. Add photo's of the round cards. 3. Have separate price box for the round IR cards and include a photo. 4. Drop Optic mount in Related Product area in favor of the beam profiler. 5. Overview tab: bullets 1, 2, and 3 are false, nothing is really safe from relections. First Paragraph: Drop the first sentences, no one uses a viewing card in place of a detector, they use it in place of an expensive IR viewing scope. It is also more convenient to use when the power levels are high enough or if the application is in a light controlled environment. Second Paragraph: Hopefull this is not printed in the catalog, the S, C, and L bands are all in the 1400 to 1600 nm range. Please make it clear why someone would want this card over the other mdoels. In general you need to help the customer clearly understand which card would be best for a given application. Perhaps a simple chart that has wavelength across the horizontal and then color bars, with each color recommending a particular card. Might want to have prefered and also works expressed by stacking bars. Drop the shirt pocket note. Third Paragraph: Who cares about the visble absorption bands, you can "see" visble light. From the text provided and from the plots on the Specs tab - which are just barely readable, did you really think these plots were okay to show a customer - i would guess "The VC-VIS/IR Viewing Card is enhanced for viewing both UV and IR laser light. In the UV the card is useful from about 250nm up to the visible, and in the IR the card is useful from about 800 to 1700nm. Forth Paragraph: Use same style on dimensions, inches outside the (), and mm inside. Also the laminated design is to protect the surface from physical abrasions, not to make it slip into the pocket of a shirt with low friction. General comments on the Overvew tab: Refer to other tabs whenever possible, refer to the cards as now featuring a white back side to allow stronger laser beams to be visualized (1mm diameter beam with about 1mW of power). For the disks talk about enhanced viewing from the backside as well. 6. Specs Tab: rework all the plots to make them readable, have them all be the same size, combine the disks and the VC-VIS/IR (they are the same matieral ?????). 7. Related Items: List only products that are related in some more substantial way, not post, not tunable, not filter wheel, not post hardware. 8. Only accessories that qualify of the ones shown are the Alignment Tools and Goggles.