Manufacturing of cylindrical lenses

Cylindrical lenses can be seen as a section of a cylinder whereas spherical lenses can be seen as a section of a sphere. This difference of shape leads to a mono-direction (one dimension) spread of the output of the lenses. At the difference of the spherical lens which will focus or expend the signal in a point or a circle, cylindrical lenses will focus or expend the signal in the shape of a line.

Like spherical lenses combinations of faces shapes are available for cylindrical lenses:

-Plano-Convex cylindrical lens (used to focus light in a line)
– Plano-concave cylindrical lens (used to expend light in one direction)
– Bi-convex double-cylindrical lens
– Bi-concave double-cylindrical lens
– Achromatic cylindrical lens (reduce optical aberration by gluing a flint glass and a crown glass to form a lens)
Lenses are usually cut in square shape basis, but can also be provided with round basis or other specific shape.

Custom AR (anti-reflect) surface treatment is available on all the aspheric lenses we are supplying. Please note that if the lenses are used with a laser, coating will be the bottle neck for the damage threshold

Achievable specification on cylindrical lenses

Cylindrical lenses are harder to manufacture than their spherical counterparts. Important parameters are centering and surface figure. You’ll find below for your information some typical specifications we can offer :

LENGTH lenses can be provided in a bar shape and therefore being much more longer than wide
WIDTH from mm up to 100mm
TRANSMISSION high transmission from UV to far infrared
SCRATCH & DIG 60/40 for normal quality, up to 10-5 for high requests
SURFACE FIGURE λ/4
DIMENSIONAL TOLERANCES up to +/- 0,05mm
CLEAR APERTURE 80 to 90%
CENTERING 5 to 2 arcmin
COATINGS Custom AR coatings available on request

You’ll find below some examples of cylindrical lenses manufacturing capabilities, as supplied by SINOPTIX to its customers.

SINOPTIX offers most of optical glass present on the market. Usual materials are Schott NBK7 (or CDGM HK9L),fused silica (JGS1 / JGS2), or IR materials (Si, Ge, ZnSe, MgF2, CaF2).

As each project is unique, don’t hesitate to contact us for a quote, please be sure to provide below information:

  • Technical drawing following ISO10110 norm, including surface aspect specifications
  • Material
  • Wavelength range for an eventual AR treatment
  • Expected quantities
    After receiving your request, we will come back to you shortly by email with a quote of your cylindrical lenses delivered to your place.

Below drawings shows two examples of :

  • Plano-convex cylindrical lens
  • Plano-concave cylindrical lens

Other combinaisons are also possible like cylindrical meniscus, double convex lens or double concave lens.

lens cylindric shape scheme

Request quote for cylindrical lens