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...

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...

Different types of parabolic, spherical, and flat mirrors are produced having different types of mirror substrates . These products have a variety of metallic and dielectric coatings that make them suitable for various applications. The various types of mirror coatings include Protected Aluminum, Enhanced Aluminum, UV Enhanced Aluminum, Bare Gold, and Protected Gold etc that are used for visible applications. UV and DUV enhanced aluminum is used for UV and visible applications while Bare and Protected Gold offer high reflectance for near Infrared and Infrared Wavelength. First Surface and Second Surface Mirrors All the mirrors you use are first surface mirrors. This mirror has a high reflectance coating deposited on the front surface of a variety of different types of glass, metal or semiconductor substrates. The other surface of the mirror may be clear or ground and the mirror is oriented so that the coating faces the source. They are widely used in precision optics ap...

Fiber optics or optical fiber refers to the medium and the technology associated with the transmission of information as the light pulses along a glass or plastic strand or fiber. The central core to the fiber is surrounded by a cladding and a protective coating. Ones the light is injected into the core it remains trapped into it until emerged from the opposite end; this is because the cladding has a slightly higher index of refraction than the core. The sensors, illuminators, and toys make use of inexpensive plastic fibers. The environment that requires electrical isolation or protection from the elements uses fiber coupled LED . Coupling of Optical Fibers to LEDs and Sensors Although many fiber couplers are available for various LEDs and light sensors one can connect silica and plastic fibers directly to LEDs and sensors. Here are different methods used to produce fiber coupled LED and sensors. Preparing the Fiber Ends To obtain the best results use the plast...

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...

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...

Most of the chemical reactions are need to be carried out in cold temperature and therefore lab water chiller plays an important role in the research laboratories, pharmaceutical industries, educational institutes etc. Chillers help in removing heat for a wide variety of processes. It is necessary to make a right choice as a proper and right chiller increases the production speed and accuracy, protects valuable process equipment, and reduces water consumption and related costs. On the other hand, choosing a wrong device or the chiller with the wrong size would not be able to meet the cooling requirement and may hinder with the whole process.   An ideal chiller is the one that has an adequate cooling capacity and that deliver the cooling fluid at the proper pressure and flow rate. Here are a few characteristics that needed to be considered while choosing a lab water chiller . Heat load: While purchasing the chiller for your laboratory it is essential to determine the heat...