General
Focal Length Tolerance	±5%
Design Wavelength	Visible
Glass Type	B270 Optical Crown Glass
Uncoated Transmission Graph*
Wavelength Range	Uncoated: 380 - 2100 nm A: 350 - 700 nm B: 650 - 1050 nm
Surface Quality	60-40 Scratch-Dig
Diameter Tolerance	+0.0 mm / -0.5 mm
Center Thickness Tolerance	±0.3 mm
Edge Thickness Tolerance	±0.3 mm
Centering Tolerance (Wedge)	30 arcmin
Temperature (Max)	250 °C
RoHS	Compliant

*Please see the Graphs tab to download transmission data.

Features

10 Different Diameters Available
Available Uncoated or with One of Two AR Coatings
Offers Higher NA and Less Spherical Aberration than Spherical Lenses

High Efficiency Illumination Applications

Light Collection
Projection
Detection
Condensing

The ACL Series of Aspheric Condenser Lenses is ideal for high-efficiency illumination applications. Compared to spherical lenses, this series introduces fewer aberrations, offers larger apertures, and provides lower f/# ratios. These aspheric condenser lenses are designed for collimating light from a lamp, LED, or similar light source; for best performance in this application, the plano side of the lens should face the source.

For imaging or other demanding applications, we recommend our Large-Diameter Aspheres, which offer diffraction-limited performance at their design wavelength.

These lenses are available in ten diameters, offering more flexibility for the design of your optical system. The aspheric surface is precision molded on the aspheric side and ground and polished on the plano side.

Antireflection-Coated Versions
These aspheric condenser lenses are available uncoated for use in the 380 - 2100 nm range or with an AR coating for the 350 to 700 nm (-A Coating) or 650 to 1050 nm (-B Coating) range. Please see the Reflectivity curve for the coated versions on the Graphs Tab.

Application Idea

One application for condenser lenses is to modify or manipulate light from LEDs. The picture below shows a pair of condenser lenses each mounted in an SCL03 Self-Centering Lens Mount. The light from a Mounted LED (right) passes to the left through the first condenser lens, then a diffuser, and finally through the second condenser lens.

Item #	Diameter (mm)	f (mm)	f/#*	Clear Aperture (mm)	f_b (mm)	Numerical Aperture	Center Thickness (mm)	Edge Thickness (mm)	Non-Aspheric Surface
ACL108	10	8	0.8	>90%	4.2	0.547	5.8	2.0	Plano
ACL1210	12	10.5	0.88	>90%	6.7	0.545	5.8	2.0	Plano
ACL1512	15	12	0.8	>90%	6.7	0.546	8.0	2.4	Plano
ACL1815	18	15	0.83	>90%	10.5	0.534	6.8	2.5	Plano
ACL2018	20	18	0.9	>90%	12.7	0.488	8.0	1.8	Plano
ACL2520	25	20	0.8	>90%	12.1	0.543	12.0	2.8	Plano
ACL3026	30	26.5	0.88	>90%	19.3	0.522	11.0	3.0	Plano
ACL4532	45	32	0.71	>90%	20.9	0.612	18.5	2.2	Spherical Convex
ACL5040	50	40	0.8	>90%	26.2	0.554	21.0	2.6	Plano
ACL7560	75	60	0.8	>90%	40.3	0.619	30.0	2.3	Plano

*Approximate f/# for the lens obtained by dividing the focal length of the lens by its diameter. Note that this will be an underestimate of the true f/# since the condenser lens cannot be used over its entire diameter.

Asphere Coeff

Item #	ACL108	ACL1210	ACL1512	ACL1815	ACL2018	ACL2520	ACL3026	ACL4532*	ACL5040	ACL7560
c=1/R	1/4.18464	1/5.49234	1/6.27696	1/7.72481	1/9.41544	1/10.4616	1/13.8595	1/18.280674	1/20.923201	1/31.384801
k	-0.602689	-0.623014	-0.613902	-1.0	-0.639158	-0.626528	-1.0	-1.0	-0.640512	-1.911446
A₂	-	-	-	-	-	-	7.9E-6	-	-	-
A₄	2.21E-4	8.7E-5	6.8E-5	6.5E-3	1.7E-5	1.5E-5	1.5E-7	2.0E-6	2.0E-6	5.0E-6
A₆	-	-	-	2.8E-4	-	-	1.3E-9	-	-	-

*S2 radius is 130 mm. All other Aspheric Condenser Lenses on this page have a plano S2.

Click Here for Raw Data
Click to Enlarge

Please Give Us Your Feedback

Email		Feedback On
(Optional)
Contact Me:
Your email address will NOT be displayed.

Please type the following key into the field to submit this form:

Click Here if you can not read the security code.
This code is to prevent automated spamming of our site
Thank you for your understanding.

Would this product be useful to you? Little Use 1 2 3 4Very Useful

Enter Comments Below:

Characters remaining 8000

Posted Comments:

Poster: jlow

Posted Date: 2012-08-02 13:01:00.0

Response from Jeremy at Thorlabs: Using our M365L2 LED, the divergence would be about 2-3° or so (full angle).

Poster: Andreas.Buck

Posted Date: 2012-07-31 03:34:24.0

What degree of collimation is achieveable with the ACL5040? How big is the divergence using an LED like M365?

Poster: tcohen

Posted Date: 2012-02-22 13:12:00.0

Response from Tim at Thorlabs to kmurphy: Thank you for contacting us. I have emailed you the Zemax file. If you need any more information, please feel free to contact us.

Poster: kmurphy

Posted Date: 2012-02-22 11:22:04.0

I would also like the zemax files for these lenses, specifically for ACL1512. Thank you

Poster:

Posted Date: 2011-11-30 07:35:33.0

A response from Tyler at Thorlabs: We will email you the zemax file immeadiately. Please let us know if you have any other needs.

Poster: mvirgen

Posted Date: 2011-11-29 13:27:04.0

I was wondering if i can get the zemax model for this. I have checked and updated the zemax catalog (from your website) and its not included. Thank you.

Poster: alee

Posted Date: 2011-09-29 11:44:28.0

could you put up the the transmission curves for these please, is the A coating suitable for use with one of your 385nm LED's? the A coating graph suggests it is but the substrate transmision is stated at 380, which sounds a little close to the edge. regards Andrew

Poster: sharrell

Posted Date: 2011-09-29 08:44:00.0

A Response from Sean at Thorlabs to Andrew: Thank you for your feedback. We have added the B270 transmission curve, as well as a link to download the transmission data in an Excel spreadsheet. This may be found on the Graphs tab.

Poster: jjurado

Posted Date: 2011-08-31 17:43:00.0

Response from Javier at Thorlabs to john.a.smith: The 4th order coefficient of the ACL2520 specified in the drawing is +1.5E-5. This information also agrees with the zmx model for this lens. I will contact you directly for further support.

Poster: john.a.smith

Posted Date: 2011-08-29 18:34:21.0

Specifications and coefficients for this aspheric lens dont seem consistent according to Zemax. Is the 4th order coefficient for the ACL2520 equal to -1.5e-5, not +1.5e-5? Thanks! John

Poster: Thorlabs

Posted Date: 2010-12-01 15:42:32.0

Response from Javier at Thorlabs to Edgar: I will work with our web team on updating this page with ZEMAX files for the aspheric condenser lenses. In the meantime, I will send you the zmx file for the ACL2520.

Poster: edgar.guevara

Posted Date: 2010-11-30 18:09:24.0

Can you post the full prescription data for ZEMAX, I think it would be very useful for all the users. I am trying to collimate the light from a LED, but I do not know if this aspheric (ACL2520) is enough.

Poster: Thorlabs

Posted Date: 2010-10-11 14:06:22.0

Response from Javier at Thorlabs to saxena.a: We would recommnend using the AL2520-A large diameter aspheric lens for this purpose. This lens, designed for diffraction-limited performance, has a better collection efficiency and better resolution than its ACL counterpart.

Poster: Thorlabs

Posted Date: 2010-07-07 08:28:15.0

Response from Javier at Thorlabs to mrubioroy: thank you for your reply. The easiest way to determine where the principal planes are for this lens is by ray tracing. For this purpose, it is important to know the wavelength(s) that you are working at, since Snells law needs to be applied, and we would need to know the index of refraction of the lens material at the operating wavelength. Also, beam diameter needs to be considered. I will contact you directly to work out all these details.

Poster: mrubioroy

Posted Date: 2010-06-09 12:22:40.0

Response to Javier: I guess my question should be: Can I know where the principal planes are?

Poster: Javier

Posted Date: 2010-06-08 04:24:57.0

Response from Javier at Thorlabs to mrubio: for a thin lens, the effective focal length can be considered as being measured from the center of the lens to the focal point. However, for a thick lens such as the ACL2520, the focal length is measured from one of the pricipal planes, which are basically defined as hypothetical planes were all the refraction is considered to happen. The thin lens equation can be used, but it disregards the distance between these planes. Gullstrands equation takes this distance into account, but the calculation process can get very involved. So, although the answer is not straightforward, you can consider the effective focal length as being measured a few millimiters from the convex surface of the lens. I will contact you directly in case you would like to discuss this further. Regarding your question about back focal length, you are correct; it is measured from the flat, or plano, side.

Poster: mrubio

Posted Date: 2010-06-07 16:20:13.0

From where is the EFL of 20mm on ACL2520 measured? Is the back focal distance measured from the flat side?

Poster: apalmentieri

Posted Date: 2009-11-02 08:15:02.0

A response from Adam at Thorlabs: I will send you all of the aspheric lens data that you will need.

Poster: dinesharakere

Posted Date: 2009-11-02 03:36:18.0

Sir, We had optimized our setup using AL108 and AL1210 combination for a Fluorescence detection (non-imaging application) setup. During websearch can find ACL108 and ACL 1210, which are much cheaper. Can I please have the aspheric lens prescription data - so that I can verify in Zemax that whether the alternate and cheaper substitute can meet the previous design performance.

Poster: klee

Posted Date: 2009-10-12 14:08:37.0

A response from Ken at Thorlabs: You are correct that the flat side should be facing the focus and the curved side should be facing collimation. We will correct this shortly.

Poster: thorlabs

Posted Date: 2009-10-09 21:28:01.0

Is the setup shown here correct? The Aspheric Condenser Lenses page shows two condenser lenses with curved faces toward each other. As I look at your picture, I see collimated light to the left and to the right of the pair (external to the pair) and light focused to a point between the pair. Normally the flat side of the lens faces toward focus and the curved side faces toward collimation.

Poster: apalmentieri

Posted Date: 2009-08-14 16:15:04.0

A response from Adam at Thorlabs: I understand your concerns and will send you all of the prescription information we currently can provide. I will also speak with our technical marketing department about adding this information to our website.

Poster: erik.foerster

Posted Date: 2009-08-14 04:15:33.0

For an optic designer it is imported to know the full description of the optical surfaces. Otherwise this product-information is really void.

Click on any phrase below to search our site using our new Search Engine:

1 inch lens 1 inch optic 1 lens 1 optic 10 mm lens 10 mm optic 10mm lens 12 mm lens 12 mm optic 12mm lens 15 mm lens 15 mm optic 15mm lens 18 mm lens 18 mm optic 18mm lens 2 inch lens 2 inch optic 2 lens 2 optic 20 mm lens 20 mm optic 20mm lens 25 mm lens 25 mm optic 25mm lens 25mm optic 3 inch lens 3 inch optic 3 lens 3 optic 30 mm lens 30 mm optic 30mm lens 45 mm lens 45 mm optic 45mm lens 50 mm lens 50 mm optic 50mm lens 50mm optic 75 mm lens 75 mm optic 75mm lens 75mm optic a coated anti reflection ar coated AR Coated Lens area asphere aspheric aspheric condenser lens aspheric condensor lenses ball lens coating Collimating lens condenser diameter IR AR Coated Lens IR AR Coating IR Lens large large diameter ashere led collimator 1 optic led collimator 10mm optic led collimator 12mm optic led collimator 15mm optic led collimator 18mm optic led collimator 2 optic led collimator 20mm optic led collimator 3 optic led collimator 30mm optic led collimator 45mm optic lens lenses molded asphere molded aspheres molded aspheric lens molded lenses NIR AR Coated Lens NIR AR Coating NIR lens VIS AR Coated Lens VIS AR Coating VIS lens

View All »Matching Part Numbers

Aspheric Condenser Lenses

Features

High Efficiency Illumination Applications

Application Idea