Scientific Laboratory Instruments, Optics, and Photonics

LED has a small protective dome over the diode that is commonly known as the primary optic that serves to protect and shape the output of the small diode. But light from the primary optic of the LED is broad for most application and lacks intensity for long distance. To reduce this drawback LED fixtures use secondary fixtures like collimating lens from Thorlabs or other labs, reflectors, TIR optics etc that collects light and magnifies its intensity towards the target. If you wish to create lenses and reflectors for LEDs, then you need to use some logical ways apart from just scaling them down from the light source. This is because LED has much smaller form factors than other light sources and also differs in the way it emits light . Use of collimating lens in LED          The collimating lens of the LED undergoes the process of Total Internal Reflection or TIR. TIR is defined as the complete reflection of a ray of light within a medi...

The collimator is a device that changes the diverging light or other radiations from a point source into a parallel beam. This specific feature of the device makes it an important part in spectroscopy and geometric and physical optics. An optical collimator consists of a tube with a convex lens at one end and an adjustable aperture at the other. The collimating lens of Thorlabs inside the collimator produces rays into the parallel beam so that the image can be viewed without parallax. Uses of Collimating Lens The collimating lens of Thorlabs or other labs is curved optical lenses that are used by the user to control the field of view, collection efficiency and spatial resolution of their setups. It is also used to configure illumination and collection angles for sampling. Use of Collimating Lenses in Radiology The collimator lens is also used in radiology where a collimator is an arrangement of absorbers for limiting beam of X-rays, gamma rays, or nuclear par...

Lenses come with many aberrations like chromatic aberration and spherical aberration. To reduce aberrations and to increase the performance of your system it is important to choose a lens with a right design and correct multi-element systems. Thorlabs provides a high-quality optical material with the substrate and anti-reflection coating of a different wavelength. Spherical Singlets It is a preferable choice for many applications where aberration is not a great concern. The various singlet design of collimating lens Thorlabs are Plano-Convex, Bi-Convex, Plano-Concave, and Bi-Concave. These lenses are used for the wide application. Plano-Convex Lenses These lenses are used where the object or image distance is more than five times the other. Plano-convex lens of the Thorlabs performs best for collimating a point source or for focusing collimated light. These lenses are subjected to some aberration that reduces a multi-element system. Bi-Convex Lenses It...

Laboratories that are concerned with quantitative analysis require stringent calibration of scales. Nowadays, modern scales are used, whose precision is largely dependent on the accuracy of calibration weight in the United States. The accuracy of the scale depends on the grades of stainless steel and other contributing factors. There are different classes of calibrated weight which is defined by the International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML) These calibration weight is available with certificates in the United States . Class E1: These weights are the highest accuracy class, and are intended to use for traceability between national mass standards and OIML class E2 weight and lower. The maximal permissible error from the nominal value at 1 kg is ±0.5 mg. This class of calibration weight is used as primary laboratory reference standard in the United States . Class E2: Weights that are intended for use in the verification or calibration of class F1 weights an...

Ball lenses are an optical component used for improving coupling between fibers, emitters, and detectors and for coupling and collimating in the range of 0.5 to 5mm in diameter. They are also used in endoscopy, barcode scanning, and sensor applications. Ball lens of Thorlabs are prepared using a single substrate of glass and is used for collimating light. The collimation of light depends on the geometry of input sources. The most important factor that is used to determine the performance of the ball lens is the numerical aperture. This is because of the spherical aberration of the ball lens in proportion to the cube of numerical aperture. This limits the use of ball lens for the use with fibers having a numerical aperture of 0.2 or less. Following parameters are used to defines the application of ball lens: •          The diameter of the input source •          The diameter of the b...

It is often required to transform light output from an optical fiber into a free-space collimated beam. Although to carry out this task, a simple collimation lens is sufficient, but it is necessary to fix the fiber end firmly at one end at the fixed distance from the lens. To fix the fiber at one end, fiber collimator is used. It is placed at the distance approximately equal to the focal length of the lens. Fiber Collimator is a passive device that combines the fiber and lens for collimating the light that is coming from the fiber, or for launching collimated light into the fiber. Features of Fiber Collimator ·          Fiber Collimator is made from a curved mirror or Collimating lens Thorlabs . ·          The light source in fiber collimator is placed at its focus that makes divergent light into a parallel beam or couple the parallel beam into the fiber. ·     ...

The laser is amazing light beams that are powerful enough to zoom miles into the sky or cut the lumps of metal. Nowadays the lasers are found in a dazzling range of products and technologies, including CD and DVD players, metal-cutting machines, measuring systems, laser printers, barcode scanners, in the eye and cosmetic surgery. Even our clothes are cut with lasers; we send and receive emails over the internet with the signals that lasers fire down fiber-optic cables. The wide application of laser has results in the manufacture of laser crystal product that are used in optics study. How is laser created? The laser beam is created when the electrons in atoms in special glasses, crystals, or gases absorb energy from an electrical current or another laser and jump to higher energy orbit on excitation. When the excited electrons return back to their ground state they emit energy in the form of photons (particles of light). Unlike normal light, the photons of laser light hav...

Water baths and chiller plays a very important role in the laboratory of pharmaceutical companies, biotech companies, research institutes etc. But most often it is placed at one corner of the lab and is not taken care of. Since lab water chiller and bath plays an important role in various laboratory tasks therefore it is essential to maintain its proper functioning. Whenever a task involving heating and cooling of chemicals is to be done in the lab, the role of water bath and chiller comes into play. A proper maintenance of water bath and chiller is very important as a small error in the unit can result in loss of thousands of dollars. How often should you check the functioning of the equipment? A cleaning and maintaining of water chiller and bath employs little efforts and energy. Cleaning of air, fluid or condenser of the water bath is found to be enough to maintain its proper functioning. •             Fitters and water level m...

It is often required to transform light output from an optical fiber into a free-space collimated beam. Although to carry out this task, a simple collimation lens is sufficient, but it is necessary to fix the fiber end firmly at one end at the fixed distance from the lens. To fix the fiber at one end, fiber collimator is used. It is placed at the distance approximately equal to the focal length of the lens. Fiber Collimator is a passive device that combines the fiber and lens for collimating the light that is coming from the fiber, or for launching collimated light into the fiber. Features of Fiber Collimator ·      Fiber Collimator is made from a curved mirror or Collimating lens Thorlabs . ·      The light source in fiber collimator is placed at its focus that makes divergent light into a parallel beam or couple the parallel beam into the fiber. ·          It is available at a differ...

The laser is an amazing substance that is known for its high luminosity (billion times of that of the sun). It has incomparable collimation. The great power of laser has a tendency to melt even the hardest substance. For this reason, it has wide application in manufacturing, life as well as scientific research. A laser device is equipment that generates the laser. On the basis of working substances, laser devices are •     Gas laser •     Solid laser •     Liquid laser •     Semi-conductor laser Laser Optics is used in wide range of laser instrumentation or laser applications. It uses different substrates like laser crystal. Laser crystal optics provides superior performance at specific laser wavelength or over the range of wavelengths. The Distinctiveness of Laser Crystal Laser crystal has a unique composition and is doped with other ions like transition rare earth ions or transition metal ions. ...