1. What is a spherical lens?

Ball lenses are highly transparent spheres made of optical glass. They are used to focus light into optical fibers, such as diode laser to fiber coupling and fiber to fiber coupling. They have high coupling efficiency and should be easier to align than conventional lenses due to their physical shape. We can offer a wide range of ball lenses in a variety of substrates that can achieve performance in the UV to NIR spectrum.

optical ball lens

2. What are ball lenses used for?

Widely used for optical coupling into and out of optical fibers. It has the advantage of being easy to manufacture and lightweight, and can be considered an ideal component for optical communication applications. Ball lenses have a short back focal length to minimize the distance between the ball lens and the fiber.

Features:

-Can be used as a fiber coupling sphere or collimating lens.
-Ideal preform for aspheric lenses
-Multiple sizes available

This product is a polished spherical lens made of optical glass, fused silica, sapphire or other optical materials with high transmittance for lasers with enhanced transmission coatings.

Although the coupling efficiency is low due to spherical aberration, its unique property of easy encapsulation ensures that the ball lens is undoubtedly suitable for mass production for optical communication applications, especially with aspherical lenses.

We offer you ball and hemispherical lenses in various sizes; in addition to optical glass, we can also offer ball/hemispherical lenses on fused silica substrates with excellent UV and IR transmittance between 185nm and 2100nm, see their transmission curves for details. Sapphire ball lenses can also be supplied to custom specifications and are available in a wide range of diameters.