Beam Splitters: Explained
Beam splitters are a fundamental element in optical systems. Beam splitters are, in essence, optical components used to divide a single light source (usually a laser) into two separate beams. The more common kind of beam splitters (the kind that you can find in most colleges or labs) is a beam splitter that can split […]
Calcium Fluoride Glass: An Overview
The choice of glass is a fundamental part in the optical design process. This is especially true for IR and thermal optics materials. In this article, we will review Calcium Fluoride (CaF2), an interesting glass that has a wide range of applications. Before we start, let’s look at the transmission window for CaF2 (Figure 1). […]
Understanding objective lenses
Introduction In previous entries, we have talked about the design of scanning microscopes, infinity corrected microscopes, confocal microscope design, and Koehler illumination systems-a common illumination system in microscopes. The most essential microscope element in a borescope design is the objective lens. Microscope objective lenses are a crucial part of a microscope, responsible for magnifying the […]
Powering advanced optical design with liquid lenses
Liquid lenses, are a type of optical lens that have a tunable focal length by shaping a liquid electronically. These lenses can be based on voice coil actuation, or based on electrowetting technology, which involves manipulating the surface tension of a conductive liquid droplet by applying an electric field. The core component of an electrowetting-based […]