Product category:
Cameras and imaging systems
News Release from: Optical Surfaces | Subject: Off-axis parabolic mirrors
Edited by the Laboratorytalk Editorial
Team on 07 February 2008
Off-axis parabolic mirrors are large and
accurate
Optical Surfaces can typically produce off-axis parabolic mirrors up to 600mm in diameter with surface accuracy to lambda/20p-v depending upon off-axis angles
Off-axis parabolic mirrors from Optical Surfaces are the high precision optical component of choice for applications including high power laser focusing, focusing upon astronomical objects, collimating reference wavefronts, beam expansion, MTF measurement, MRTD testing and bore sight alignment for missile guidance systems With proprietary polishing techniques Optical Surfaces can, depending on the surface accuracy required, achieve the natural limit to the off-axis angle of around 25-30deg and surface micro-roughness on aspherics of ~1nm RMS
This article was originally published on Laboratorytalk on 28 May 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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Off-axis parabolic mirrors provide an unobstructed aperture allowing complete access to the focal region as well as reducing the size and minimising the weight of a design
A range of coatings is available for standard and custom components from metallic with or without protective overcoat to multilayer dielectrics and ultra hard coatings.
Parabolic mirrors are the most common type of aspherical mirrors used in optical instruments.
They are free from spherical aberrations, and thus focus a parallel beam to a point or a point source to infinity.
Off-axis parabolic mirrors provide an unobstructed aperture allowing complete access to the focal region as well as reducing the size and minimising the weight of a design.
They are especially suitable for broadband or multiple wavelength applications due to their completely achromatic performance.
All together these advantages produce a cost-effective solution for many optical design problems with no compromise in performance.
Production approved to ISO 9001-2000 the quality of off-axis parabolic mirrors from Optical Surfaces is ensured a range of interferometric and surface test measurements on all optics and optical systems leaving the factory.
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