Diamond Lens Makes Laser Optical Material Processing System Lighter

 Diamond Lens Makes Laser Optical Material Processing System Lighter

Diamond has some remarkable properties: for example, its refractive index is 2.4, which is very high, and can be made into thinner optical components for optical systems with the same optical power. Their thermal conductivity is 2000 W/m*K, 1400 times higher than that of optical glass.

So far, polycrystalline diamond substrates have only been used as light windows for carbon dioxide lasers. Due to impurities and defects, they absorb and scatter hyperion laser radiation at the emission wavelength of 1 micron, so they are not suitable for fiber lasers. Although single crystal diamonds do not have this problem, they are difficult to manufacture. Over the years, the German Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics (IAF) has been devoted to the production of single crystal diamond. The continuous vapor deposition (CVD) reaction chamber developed in IAF has stable plasma conditions and it can produce a substrate with a thickness of several millimeters.

It can simultaneously process 60 diamonds at most. At a rate of up to 30 microns per hour, the reaction chamber can produce an optical element with an aperture of about 10 millimeters.

The lenses made of these synthetic single crystal diamonds have low absorptivity and low birefringence. At present, some samples coated with antireflection film have been provided and used in fiber laser cutting head. "We have optimized a complete laser optical system for diamond lenses for the first time, and the weight of the cutting head has been reduced by 90%," said Martin Traub of the Fraunhof Institute of laser technology".

The lens with a diameter of 7mm has passed the test of 2 kW laser power, without any problems. Now, partners have built a cutting test system using 1kW fiber lasers. Water cooling and protective gas supply are integrated in the cutting head. Process monitoring has not been planned. Currently, compact cutting heads is in process of testing for the first time.

A new optical system will significantly enhance the flexibility of laser cutting. The small size enables the system to process inaccessible areas, while the low weight is beneficial to the high dynamic motion in the 3D process.

As an optical assembly manufacturing company, we will do our best to meet all the needs of customers.

New Crystal Glass may Allow Humans to Breathe Underwater like Fish

 New Crystal Glass may Allow Humans to Breathe Underwater like Fish

The core problem of underwater activity of divers is that humans cannot ingest oxygen from water, therefore, it is necessary to carry gas cylinders or to supply gas from the water surface, and the breathing problem has become one of the most complicated technologies in diving technology. But the water actually dissolves a certain amount of oxygen, fish is through the gills to absorb oxygen from the water to maintain life. In theory, if you can master the rapid uptake of oxygen from water, then humans do not need to carry gas in the underwater activities. But keeping breathing for a long time under water has always been considered unthinkable and impossible, scuba diving can only continue to be carried out underwater by carrying air or by piping. Because fish can absorb oxygen from the water by their gills, humans and mammals don't have gills, and they can't use oxygen in the water to support life.

Let the human fish breathe oxygen in the water for a long time to survive in the water, it sounds like science fiction, and Danish scientists have recently been able to get oxygen permanently underwater, which is a step toward that goal. It's because of the kind of crystal material they developed, this synthetic material is named Neptune crystal AquamanCrystal. This synthetic material can continuously ingest oxygen from air and water without any other means. The oxygen absorbed by the crystal can be released as long as it is heated slightly or exposed to low oxygen pressure. At present, it is difficult to produce this kind of synthetic crystal material in large quantities.

The implications of this finding are profound, says Christina Mackenzie, a professor at the university of Denmark, who led the research. She told the science daily: "this material can absorb oxygen from the air. Patients with respiratory dysfunction need daily oxygen, the technology will allow patients to get rid of heavy oxygen tanks. Divers may also use the technology in the future to carry a small amount of this crystal grain. The diver breathes the material into the water to absorb oxygen that is dissolved in water, so there is no need to carry gas cylinders or supply the gas from the water. So they named the crystal AquamanCrystal.

Neptune crystals have a spongy composition that absorbs oxygen.

Neptune crystals absorb oxygen and rely on cobalt ions. This is very similar to the ability of hemoglobin to absorb oxygen. Because oxygen is difficult to dissolve in water and blood, all living things on earth use metal ions to combine and transport oxygen. The hemoglobin in the blood of people and many animals depends on the combination of iron and oxygen. Myoglobin, the myoglobin in muscle cells, is also a similar molecule. Animals such as crabs and spiders rely on copper ions to combine and transport oxygen. The ability of metal ions to absorb oxygen is huge. So it's not surprising that this crystal glass has a powerful ability to absorb oxygen.

If you want to know more about how fish breathe underwater, please visit our website.

Hyp design is a premium full-service photonics supplier. Our manufacturing capabilities span across the spectrum. From UV, VIS, to IR, we fabricate custom optical components to system assemblies that meet unique and specialized applications.  

Composition of Different Achromatic Doublet Lenses

 Composition of Different Achromatic Doublet Lenses

1. Achromatic doublet lens is a kind of common lens. It consists of several groups of positive and negative cemented lenses with different radius of curved surface. It can only correct the axial chromatic aberration of red and blue light in spectral line. At the same time, the spherical aberration on the axis and the coma aberration on the paraxial point are corrected. This kind of lens can not eliminate the second-order spectrum, only the spherical aberration and chromatic aberration in the yellow and green wave regions are corrected. The spherical aberration and chromatic aberration of the remaining chromatic aberration and other wave areas can not be eliminated, and the image field bending is still very large, that is to say, only the clear image in the middle of the field of view can be obtained. It is advisable to use yellow-green light as illumination source or insert yellow-green filter in the optical path. This kind of lens is simple, economical and practical. It is often used in conjunction with correction eyepiece and is widely used in medium and low power microscopes. In black-and-white photography, green filters can be used to reduce the residual axial chromatic aberration and obtain good contrast photographs.

2. Complex achromatic doublet lens is composed of several groups of advanced lenses made of special optical glass and fluorite. The axial chromatic aberration is corrected by red, blue and yellow light, and the secondary spectrum is eliminated. Therefore, the image quality is good, but it is difficult to process and calibrate many lenses. The correction of chromatic aberration is in all wavebands of visible light. If blue or yellow filters are added, the effect will be better. It is the best objective in the microscope. It has good correction for spherical aberration and chromatic aberration. It is suitable for high magnification. However, it still needs to be used with compensating eyepiece to eliminate residual chromatic aberration.

3. Planar achromatic doublet lens is a complex optical structure composed of multiple lenses, which can correcting astigmatism and image field bending well, and make the whole field of view clear. It is suitable for microphotography. The correction of spherical aberration and chromatic aberration of the objective is still limited to the yellow-green wave region, and there is still residual chromatic aberration.

4. Planar achromatic doublet lens has the same degree of aberration correction as complex achromatic objective lens except for further image field bending correction, which makes the image clear and flat. But the structure is complex and difficult to manufacture.

With over 12+ years of optical design manufacturing and fabrication experience, Hyperion Optics can deliver an optimized lens solution with guaranteed satisfactory results for your unique application.

Basic knowledge of aspheric lens technology

 Basic knowledge of aspheric lens technology

1、Technical principle

The curvature radius of the plastic aspheric lens changes with the center axis. It can be used to improve optical quality, reduce the number of optical components and reduce design costs. Compared with spherical lens, aspheric lens has unique advantages, so it has been widely used in optical instrument, image and photoelectron industry, such as digital camera, CD player and high end micro instrument.

2、Comparative advantage

a, Spherical aberration calibration

The most remarkable advantage of aspheric lenses in replacing spherical lenses is that they can correct the spherical aberration caused by spherical lenses in collimating and focusing systems. By adjusting the surface constant and the aspheric coefficient, the aspheric lens can eliminate spherical aberration to the maximum extent.Aspheric lenses (rays converge to the same point and provides optical quality) basically eliminate spherical aberrations produced by spherical lenses (rays converge to different points and leads to blurred imaging).

Three spherical lenses are used to increase the effective focal length, which can be used to eliminate spherical aberration. However, a aspheric lens (high numerical aperture, short focal length) can be realized, and it can simplify the system design and provide the light transmittance.

b, System advantages

The aspheric lens simplifies the elements involved in optical engineers to improve the optical quality and improves the stability of the system. For example, in zoom systems, 10 or more lenses are normally used (additional: high mechanical tolerances, additional assembly procedures, and the improvement of antireflection coating). However, one or two aspheric lenses can achieve similar or better optical qualities. This reduces the system size, increases the cost rate and reduces the overall cost of the system.

3、Moulding techniques

a, Moulding of precision glass

The molding of precision glass is to make the glass material heated to high temperature and become plastic, and then molded by aspheric mold, and finally gradually cooled to room temperature.At present, the molding of precision glass is not suitable for aspheric lens with diameter greater than 10mm. However, new tools, optical glass and metrology process are driving the development of the technology. Although precision glass molding at the beginning of the design has high cost (high precision mold development), but after the molding, the production of high-quality products can be split off the pre development costs. It is especially suitable for the needs of mass production.

b, Forming of precision polishing

Lapping and polishing are generally applicable to the production of monolithic aspheric lenses at one time. With the improvement of technology, the accuracy is higher and higher.The most remarkable thing is that precise polishing is controlled by computers and automatically adjusted to optimize parameters.If higher quality polishing is required, magnetorheological finishing (magneto-rheological finishing) will be adopted. Compared with standard polishing, magnetorheological finishing has higher performance and shorter time.Precision polishing molding technology need professional equipment. It is currently the first choice of sample production and small batch sample.

c, Hybrid molding technology

The hybrid molding is a spherical aspheric lens with a spherical lens as the substrate, which is cast on the surface of the spherical lens through an aspherical mould and cured by a layer of high polymer with UV light. Mixed forming is generally used the achromatic spherical lens as the base, and then a layer of aspheric surface is cast on the surface to eliminate chromatic aberration and spherical aberration simultaneously. Figure 7 is the manufacturing process of the hybrid aspheric lens. The hybrid aspherical lens is suitable for large scale manufacturing with additional characteristics (eliminating chromatic aberration and spherical aberration) .

d, Injection molding

In addition to glass aspherical lenses, there are plastic aspheric lenses.Plastic molding is the injection of molten plastics into aspherical molds.Compared with glass, the thermal stability and compressive resistance of plastics are poor. It requires special treatment to obtain similar aspherical lenses. However, the plastic aspheric lens is characterized by its low cost, light weight and easy molding. It is widely used in the fields of moderate optical quality, insensitive to thermal stability and little pressure resistance.

4、Basis of choice

All kinds of aspheric lenses have their own relative advantages. Therefore, it is very important to choose the right products for different applications. The main considerations include: batch, quality and cost.

With over 12+ years of optical assembly manufacturing and fabrication experience, Hyperion Optics can deliver an optimized lens solution with guaranteed satisfactory results for your unique application.