Scientific Laboratory Instruments, Optics, and Photonics

Integrating Sphere system fulfills two important parts; one for measuring and analysis and other is the assistant part that provides testing environmental. While choosing an integrating sphere always consider the size of the lamp, type of lamp and the reflectance material used in the sphere. Most of the integrating sphere comes with some additional interchangeable features for the light source, assemblies, and post reducers. This makes it perfect for the use of various applications. Integrating sphere from Labsphere is perfectly designed having a port frame, easy access mounting options, and quick change accessory options. This design meets your maximum requirements. Size of the integrating sphere: The diameter of the integrating sphere ranges from several centimeters to several meters. The lighting industry uses the integrating sphere of the size from 0.3 m to 4 m. The sphere of size 0.3m to 0.5 m is used to test single LED whole of size 1 m is used to test LED bulb, ...

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...

Light sources are needed for transmission, absorption and reflection spectroscopic setups. To couple, the light conveniently with the fiber optic bundles, bundles and probes it is essential to collect the light and couple it through SMA-905 connectors. There are different light sources like Tungsten-Halogen light source, Deuterium-Halogen Light Source , LED, Mercury-Argon etc that have different application and wavelength ranges. Tungsten-halogen light source provides stable output and is used in the visible range to do color measurements. Halogen light provides stable output and its life depends on the color and temperature of the bulb. The high stability of halogen light source makes it suitable for the use as a color reflection illumination source and as an irradiance calibration light source. Deuterium light source is found in combination with halogen and is called Deuterium-Halogen Light Source . It provides a stable output and is used in UV-absorption or reflection...

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...

Integrating sphere is a versatile optical element that has multiple Lambertian reflections at the inner surface. This reflection results in the homogenous distribution of optical radiation. The radiation source located in two locations; either inside the sphere or in front of the source’s entrance port. Properties of integrating sphere The irradiance of the integrating sphere labsphere is proportional to the total radiant power emitted either by the source inside the sphere or by the one located at the entrance port. The irradiance level does not depend on the geometrical and directional distribution of the primary source if direct illumination of the respective location is prevented. This property makes the instrument useful optical element for the detection of radiant power. The radiance reflected from the inner surface of the sphere and shielded from the direct illumination, is constant in its directional distribution and independent of the specific location wher...

Halogen has been used as the light source for decades and is chosen as the source of illumination for varieties of imaging modalities. But now LEDs is gaining popularity in the marketplace and increasingly becoming a preferred choice for a light source in various optical instruments due to its many advantages. Before comparing the characteristics of both light source, have a look on the how halogen and LED lamps produces light. Halogen Lights Halogen light source is similar to incandescent bulbs. It consists of tungsten filament surrounded by quartz envelope filled with an inert gas that makes it preferable for the use in a microscope for bright field and phase contrast microscope. With the supply of electricity, tungsten begins to glow just as within the incandescent bulb. As tungsten glows it begins to evaporate, giving off tungsten atoms. This lowers the brightness of the lamp with time. The gas present inside the lamp reacts with the tungsten vapors and recoats it...

An ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer can measure the wavelength of light near UV and near Infrared range i.e. from 190 nm to 1100 nm. It is used in the quantitative determination of concentrations of the absorber in the solutions of transition metal ions and highly conjugated organic compounds. The UV/VIS spectrophotometer has a different specific sample cell (sample chamber), and cuvette (sample tube) and also have different types of light sources. The different light sources that are used in spectrophotometer are deuterium light source, halogen light source, deuterium-halogen light source , xenon light source, tungsten light source. Today the spectrophotometer comes with different light sources that change its wavelength automatically for optimized and interruption-free operation. The choice of a light source in the spectrophotometer depends on various factors. The desirable features for light sources are: •     Uniform light output over a specified w...

A mirror substrate is the basic component of laser optics.   There are a few factors that determine the price and quality of mirror substrate like its material, a shape of substrate, size, tolerance and polishing quality. The good quality mirror substrate has following features: •          It should have flat and smooth surface. The flatness of mirror substrate is defined by the number of a wavelength of light that the surface can deviate from being the perfect plane. The number of the scratches and digs on substrate surface after polishing defines the smoothness of substrate. The best quality mirror substrate is the one that has a scratch specification of 20/10. •          It should be made of a material that is free of absorption for all wavelength of high transmission.     •          It should have high thermal conductivity. G...

When one employs an integrating sphere labsphere for measuring optical power, you remove all the hassles faced with direct coupling method. But one must not forget that there are certain things about the integrating sphere you must know. Read on to learn about those things… You must pay attention to the internal reflectance The internal surface of the sphere should be highly reflective and at a wavelength of light which is to be measured. This only will ascertain the right measurements. Old integrating spheres were made up of two hollow hemispheres. The inner surface is usually given a coat of material which reflects wavelength of interest and eventually diffuses the input light. Coating used is sensitive to environment changes such as atmospheric conditions: bases, acids and vacuum). The integrating sphere labsphere must be coated every year. Calibrate detector and weight together  The distinct feature of any sphere and detector is completely specific to ...

Halogen light source s have come a long way from a traditional light bulb to a high precision lamp. Halogen bulbs derive their name from the halogen gas filled inside the lamp casing which houses the tungsten filament. Here are the different types of halogen light sources used in spectrophotometry: Deuterium lamp It is also known as D2 lamp. The wavelength range varies from 190nm – 370nm. A normal glass exterior is not suitable due to its high temperature condition. Hence quartz or some other material is used. A deuterium lamp can live up to 1000 hours. A deuterium lamp is made with halogen lamps in an UV/VIS spectrophotometer. This will aid in canvassing the whole visible and UV light wavelength. Deuterium lamp is a good source of ultraviolet light for analytical instruments, liquid chromatography detectors, pollution analyzers, medical analyzers, densitometers, and colorimeters. They are well suited for secondary calibration standards in the UV region. Halog...