Optical industry news, various optical talks from the latest industry fields, optical leading technologies, and the latest developments in optical research are all gathered here. Here you can learn about the latest industry updates, news, etc.
A dichroic mirror is a wavelength-selective optical component designed to reflect one spectral region while transmitting another. Unlike a conventional mirror that is intended to reflect a broad wavelength range, a dichroic mirror uses a carefully designed multilayer dielectric coating to control how different wavelengths…
A beamsplitter is often described simply as an optical component that divides one incident beam into transmitted and reflected paths. In an actual optical system, however, an important question comes first: Should the splitting behavior depend on polarization? That question separates two major categories: polarizing…
An ultra narrow bandpass filter is used when an optical system needs to transmit a tightly defined wavelength region while strongly attenuating light outside that region. Typical ultra narrow bandpass filter applications include laser-line cleanup, LiDAR and active optical sensing, selected fluorescence channels, analytical spectroscopy,…
Use a V-coat when the optic sees one laser line and you need the last fraction of a percent of transmission. Use a broadband anti-reflection (BBAR) coating when the optic has to work across a spectral band, or when a second wavelength such as an…
The practical difference between OD4 vs OD6 optical filter blocking is a factor of 100 in transmitted unwanted light. OD4 permits a maximum transmittance of 10-4, or 0.01%, while OD6 corresponds to 10-6, or 0.0001%. That difference can be important when a detector must separate…
1550 nm Narrow Bandpass Filter for LiDAR: How to Specify the Receiver Filter A 1550 nm narrow bandpass filter for LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) sits directly in front of the InGaAs (indium gallium arsenide) detector, and it has exactly one job: discard solar photons…
Thermal lensing in germanium optics is the change in optical power that occurs when absorbed radiation heats a germanium element non-uniformly, creating a radial temperature gradient that is converted into a refractive index gradient through the material’s thermo-optic coefficient. The heated element behaves as if…
In most catalogs, “laser line filter” and “laser cleanup filter” describe the same physical object: a narrow dielectric bandpass filter centered on a laser wavelength. The real distinction in a laser line filter vs laser cleanup filter comparison is not the coating, it is where…
The Stokes shift of a fluorophore is the spectral gap you have to work with, and that gap sets every meaningful parameter in the filter set. How Stokes shift affects fluorescence filter selection comes down to a single budget: the wavelength distance between the excitation…
If your search starts with “dichroic mirror for fluorescence manufacturer,” the most important question is not simply who can supply the optic. The engineering task is to determine whether the dichroic mirror has the correct spectral transition, reflectance and transmission bands, angle-of-incidence behavior, polarization performance…
Transmission, reflection, and absorption describe three fundamental ways light interacts with an optical material or component. Transmission is the portion of incident optical power that passes through the component, reflection is the portion returned from its surfaces or optical structure, and absorption is the portion…
Germanium vs silicon infrared optics is mainly a question of wavelength, thermal behavior, weight, optical design, and material grade—not which material is universally better. Germanium is commonly selected when an optical system must transmit long-wave infrared radiation, particularly in the 8–14 μm region. Silicon is…
