A cylindrical lens focuses light into a line, unlike a spherical lens that focuses light into a point. Its curved faces are sections of a cylinder, compressing the image perpendicularly while leaving it unaltered parallel to the line. In light sheet microscopy, it creates the light sheet for imaging. Bena Optics manufactures standard and custom precision cylindrical lenses, including plano-convex, plano-concave, double convex, double concave, meniscus, double cemented, and triple cemented cylindrical lenses.
Cylindrical lenses focus light into a line rather than a point, unlike spherical lenses that focus light in all directions. Key optical characteristics include:
Directional Focusing: Cylindrical lenses focus light in a single direction, forming a focal line whose length equals the lens’s aperture height. Parallel light passing through the lens forms a clear image on this line.
Applications: Widely used to focus incident light into a line or alter image aspect ratios. Common applications include laser line generation, beam shaping, astigmatism correction in optical systems, high-power and long-distance linear interferometers, synchrotron beams, barcode scanning, and high-power laser systems.
These lenses are essential in high-precision measurement instruments and various optical applications.
Cylindrical lenses are widely used in linear detector illumination, barcode scanning, holography, optical information processing, computing, and laser emission. Specific applications include:
3D Display Technology: Adding cylindrical lenses to LCD screens projects each sub-pixel in different directions, creating 3D images.
Holographic Interferometry: Used in dual-beam holographic systems to vary interference angles, forming Chirp fiber Bragg gratings.
High-Precision Instruments: Applied in high-power laser systems, synchrotron beamlines, laser resonators, and long-distance linear interferometers.
Medical Field: Utilized in endoscopes, spectrometry, laser diode beam shaping, and light-sheet microscopy.
Cylindrical lenses excel in focusing light into one-dimensional shapes and correcting astigmatism, making them essential in high-precision measurement devices.
English
русский
