optical news

optical resources

A thorough understanding of optical technology improves the performance of optics in laser systems. This is the reason we are sharing our knowledge to help you choose the best optical system with the best performance and lowest cost.

We are proud to support the following organizations

The Optical Society of America

The Optical Society of America

Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers

Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers

Colorado Photonics Industry Association

Colorado Photonics Industry Association

Extreme Ultraviolet Research Center

Extreme Ultraviolet Research Center

News & Blog

Angle of Incidence

Angle of Incidence

Angle of incidence is defined to be the angle between the direction of propagation of incoming light and a line perpendicular to the component surface.

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Diameter Tolerances

Diameter Tolerances

Dimensional tolerances refer to the allowed variations in the physical dimensions, such as diameter, length, width and thickness, of a finished part. Performing dimensional measurements during part fabrication is usually relatively straightforward, and is accomplished using familiar tools such as calipers, gauges and optical comparators.

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Extinction Ratio

Extinction Ratio

Extinction Ratio is the ratio of transmitted power with only p polarized incident light to the transmitted power with only s polarized incident light. ARO determines extinction ratio by performing separate measurements of s and p polarized light transmittance in our spectrophotometers.

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Reflectivity

Reflectivity

Reflectance is the ratio of the light flux returned from a surface to the amount of light flux incident on the surface. In the context of precision optical components, the returned light flux specifically refers to specular reflectance (energy contained within the usable returned wavefront), and does not include diffuse reflectance (scattered light).

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Surface Quality

Surface Quality

Surface quality, or scratch and dig (SAD), relates to the number and apparent size of visible defects, typically scratches and pits (called digs), on the part surface. While this may seem straightforward, probably no optical specification causes greater confusion.

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Optical Components

Optical Material and Components

Here at Alpine Research Optics, our products are created with the highest quality materials and assembled with the most advanced techniques available. From fabrication to coating, we can readily produce customized optics in virtually every aspect.

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Surface Flatness

Surface Flatness

For plano parts, surface flatness is defined to be the amount by which the actual part differs from a perfect plane. For radiused parts, two numbers are typically used to specify surface shape.

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Surface Roughness

Surface Roughness

Surface roughness is the texture of an optical surface on a microscopic scale, as opposed to flatness, power and irregularity which all relate to large scale (macroscopic) surface shape. It can be defined a number of different ways (arithmetic average, root mean square, etc.)

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Infrared Optics

Infrared Optics

ARO offers near infrared coatings from 750-3000nm. Our infrared optics cover a broad range of the most commonly required specifications in terms of wavelength, size, reflectivity, and angle of incidence.

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