Alternative Aspheric Lenses
Coating Designation	Spectral Range
Uncoated	Visible and NIR
-A	350 - 700 nm
-B	600 - 1050 nm
-C	1050 - 1620 nm
-D	1.8 - 3 µm
-E	3 - 5 µm
-F	8 - 12 µm
-405	405 nm
-1064	1064 nm

Molded Glass Aspheric Lenses: 1050 to 1620 nm Broadband AR Coating

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. Thus, an aspheric lens is 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 molded glass aspheres are also available premounted in non-magnetic 303 stainless steel lens cells that are engraved with the part number for easy identification. These mounted aspheres have a metric thread that makes them easy to integrate into an optical setup or OEM application. The mounted aspheres are readily adapted to our SM1 series of lens tubes by using our Aspheric Lens Adapters. Mounted aspheres can be used as a drop-in replacement for multi-element microscope objective by combining the lens with our Microscope Objective Adapter Extension Tube.

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 cliciking on the Glass link in the tables below.

Webpage Features
	Click to view complete specifications, documents, and drawings.
Performance Hyperlink	Click to view item specific spot diagrams at various wavelengths and focal length shift data.

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 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:

$Equation for Diffraction-Limited Spot$

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

focal length of collimating lens

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# 352260-B or A260-B). This lens also has a clear aperture that is larger than the collimated beam diameter. Therefore, this aspheric lens is the best option given the initial parameters (i.e., a P1-630A-FC-2 single mode fiber and a collimated beam diameter of 3 mm). Remember, for optimum 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 the aspheric lens 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.

Lens Design Formula

Positive Radius Indicates that the Vertex is Located Left of the Center
Negative Radius Indicates that the Vertex is Located Right of the Center

Aspheric Lens Equation

Variable Definitions
z	SAG as a Function of Y
R	Radius of Curvature
k	Conic Constant
A₄	4^thOrder Aspheric Coefficient
A₆	6^th Order Aspheric Coefficient
A₈	8^th Order Aspheric Coefficient
A₁₀	10^th Order Aspheric Coefficient
A₁₂	12^th Order Aspheric Coefficient
A₁₄	14^th Order Aspheric Coefficient
A₁₆	16^th Order Aspheric Coefficient

Aspheric Lens Coefficients

The aspheric lens coefficients are listed on the lens information pages that are loaded by clicking on the info icon symbol in the tables below and in the .pdf and .dxf files available for each lens. Links to the files can be found under the Drawings and Documents tab or by clicking on the part number in the price table below.

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Posted Comments:

Poster: tcohen

Posted Date: 2012-04-16 12:49:00.0

Response from Tim at Thorlabs: The dispersion formula used for these materials is actually the Schott formula. I will contact you with the information including the coefficients and min/max wavelength ranges.

Poster: hungwen

Posted Date: 2012-04-16 03:59:45.0

Could you also send me the Sellmeier coefficients of these glasses too? (ex: D-ZK3, ECO-550) Thank you!

Poster: bdada

Posted Date: 2012-01-09 19:21:00.0

Response from Buki at Thorlabs: The unmounted lens is 352280-1064 and the drawing is linked below. One surface is flat and the other surface is curved outward. Please refer to the drawing linked below for more information and contact TechSupport@thorlabs.com if you have any questions: http://www.thorlabs.com/Thorcat/19700/19773-E0W.pdf

Poster: niels.martinsen

Posted Date: 2012-01-01 14:20:56.0

Hi Is the C280TME-C lens plano convex/concave? In other words, can I regard it as a thin lens? Cheers, Niels.

Poster: clarafly

Posted Date: 2011-03-22 18:57:18.0

Can you provide the Sellmeier coefficients of these glasses so that we can simulate the performance of these lenses? Thanks!

Poster: jjurado

Posted Date: 2011-03-22 13:38:00.0

Response from Javier at Thorlabs to clarafly: Thank you very much for contacting us. I will send you this information shortly.

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a110tmc a220tmc a230tmc a240tmc a375tmv a390tmc a397tmc a414tmc AR Coated Lens asphere Aspheres aspheric Aspheric Lens Aspheric Lenses c110tmec c220tmec c230tme spot size C240TMEc Collimating lens Collimators fiber collimator focus lens focusing a laser diode geletech aspheric lens geltech geltech aspheric lens geltech glass aspheric lenses geltech glass lenses geltech lens glass Glass Aspheric Lens Glass Aspheric Lenses IR AR Coated Lens IR AR Coating IR Lens laser diode collimator laser fiber coupling Lens Lenses lightpath lightpath aspheric lens lightpath lens molded asphere molded aspheres molded lens mounted asphere mounted aspheric lens mounted lens NIR AR Coated Lens NIR AR Coating NIR lens rochester rpo

Unmounted

Mounted

Info

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Performance

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352140-C

C140TME-C

1.45 mm

0.55

1.60 mm

0.88 mm

780 nm

2.40 mm

∞

352710-C

C710TME-C

1.49 mm

0.50

1.50 mm

1.10 mm

1550 nm

2.65 mm

∞

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352150-C

C150TME-C

2.00 mm

0.50

2.00 mm

1.09 mm

780 nm

3.00 mm

∞

355390-C

C390TME-C

2.75 mm

0.55

3.60 mm

2.16 mm

830 nm

4.50 mm

∞

355392-C

C392TME-C

2.75 mm

0.64

3.60 mm

1.50 mm

830 nm

4.0 mm

∞

352440-C

C440TME-C

2.95 mm

0.27^c
0.53^d

4.20 mm^c
4.00 mm^d

6.91 mm^c
2.66 mm^d

980 nm

4.70 mm

355660-C

C660TME-C

2.97 mm

0.60

3.60 mm

1.56 mm

1550 nm

4.00 mm

∞

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352330-C

C330TME-C

3.10 mm

0.68

5.0 mm

1.76 mm

830 nm

6.33 mm

∞

A414-C

A414TM-C

3.30 mm

0.47

3.52 mm

1.94 mm

670 nm

4.50 mm

∞

N414-C

N414TM-C

3.30 mm

0.47

3.52 mm

1.94 mm

670 nm

4.50 mm

∞

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352350-C

C350TME-C

4.50 mm

0.42

3.70 mm

2.38 mm

980 nm

4.70 mm

∞

352230-C

C230TME-C

4.51 mm

0.55

4.95 mm

2.92 mm

780 nm

6.33 mm

∞

A230-C

4.51 mm

0.55

4.95 mm

2.91 mm

780 nm

6.34 mm

S-NPH1

∞

A230_Asph.pdf

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354430-C

C430TME-C

5.00 mm

0.15

1.60 mm

4.37 mm

1550 nm

2.00 mm

∞

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352170-C

C170TME-C

6.16 mm

0.30

3.70 mm

4.38 mm

780 nm

4.70 mm

∞

352110-C

C110TME-C

6.24 mm

0.40

5.00 mm

3.39 mm

780 nm

7.20 mm

∞

A110-C

A110TM-C

6.24 mm

0.40

5.00 mm

3.39 mm

780 nm

7.20 mm

∞

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A375-C

A375TM-C

7.50 mm

0.30

4.50 mm

5.90 mm

810 nm

6.51 mm

∞

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352240-C

C240TME-C

8.00 mm

0.50

8.00 mm

5.92 mm

780 nm

9.94 mm

∞

A240-C

A240TM-C

8.00 mm

0.50

8.00 mm

5.92 mm

780 nm

9.94 mm

∞

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A397-C

A397TM-C

11.00 mm

0.30

6.59 mm

9.64 mm

633 nm

7.20 mm

∞

352220-C

C220TME-C

11.00 mm

0.25

5.50 mm

7.97 mm

670 nm

7.22 mm

∞

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354560-C

C560TME-C

13.86 mm

0.18

5.10 mm

12.11 mm

650 nm

6.33 mm

∞

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352260-C

C260TME-C

15.29 mm

0.16

5.00 mm

14.00 mm

780 nm

6.50 mm

∞

A260-C

A260TM-C

15.29 mm

0.16

5.00 mm

14.09 mm

780 nm

6.50 mm

∞

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352280-C

C280TME-C

18.40 mm

0.15

5.50 mm

17.13 mm

780 nm

6.50 mm

∞

A280-C

A280TM-C

18.40 mm

0.15

5.50 mm

17.13 mm

780 nm

6.50 mm

∞

View All »Matching Part Numbers

Molded Glass Aspheric Lenses, 1050 to 1620 nm AR Coating

Molded Glass Aspheric Lenses: 1050 to 1620 nm Broadband AR Coating

Choosing a Lens

Lens Design Formula

Aspheric Lens Coefficients