Benefiting from a facility where temperatures remain constant year-round and vibration is practically non-existent, Optical Surfaces has been able to routinely produce and test demanding telescope spectrograph optics (aspheres, flats, lenses, mirrors and prisms) that aims to stretch the limits of conventional optical fabrication techniques.

The optimal beamsplitter can take on many forms including cubes, plates, hexagons, pentagons, polarising, non-polarising or wedge designs in a wide variety of reflection / transmission ratios and substrates depending upon your application.

Optical Surfaces is manufacturer of large, high quality prisms for spectroscopic, surveying and telescope applications. Prisms are solid optics that are ground and polished into geometrical and optically significant shapes where the angle, position, and number of surfaces help define the type and function. Spectroscopic applications typically demand that prisms must be manufactured with very strict tolerances and accuracies.

Optical Surfaces has undertaken a study to determine how microroughness impacts the performance of Aspheric lenses and mirrors. Microroughness is a quantity which considers features which are even smaller than slope errors and is often expressed in RMS terms after integrating over spatial periods that are usually less than 0.25mm.

Optical Surfaces has developed a hyperbolic mirror for deep space observation. A hyperbolic mirror is the optical component of choice for precisely and accurately focusing light in a telescope from one focal point to the other focal point. Hyperbolic mirrors are used in a telescope design to correct certain distortions caused by an extremely fast f-ratio design.

Nuclear research laser facilities around the world today commonly use powerful amplified ultra-short duration pulses of coherent light to deliver massive energy densities at a given target. The synchronised delivery of such high-power pulses generates extreme conditions that allow scientists to carry out state of the art nuclear research and to study the conditions that exist in exotic and distant to us environments, such as the core of our sun.

Using ultra smooth transmission optics supplied by Optical Surfaces, the MAX IV Laboratory has managed to achieve measurement of the smallest ever electron beam emittance on their 3 GeV synchrotron storage ring. The MAX IV Laboratory is Sweden's national synchrotron radiation facility.

An article titled 'Unveiling the Cosmos' has been published by Optical Surfaces, which discusses the latest challenges and trends in modern astronomy and describes how these advances have acted as a significant driver towards the improvement of their optical technologies.

Benefiting from an ultra-stable production environment and proprietary polishing techniques, Optical Surfaces, is reportedly able to routinely produce high-power laser windows up to 600mm in diameter with typical wavefront error of lambda/10 and surface finish of 40/20 to 10/5.

  Working with highly-stable materials such as fused quartz and Zerodur, Optical Surfaces is able to produce reference and transmission flats with a surface accuracy of better than lambda/20 p.v. and surface roughness of less than one nanometre.

It has been announced that Optical Surfaces has received an order from Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) for two high precision reference mirrors to accelerate the precise alignment and testing of their Earth Observation Satellite Telescopes. SSTL manufacture and operate small to medium sized satellites, covering a range of use cases, from telecoms to Earth observation. 

  Optical Surfaces has announced that it has received an order from the UK Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) for twelve ultra-fast focusing 370mm diameter aspheric lenses for its Orion petawatt laser research facility.

An order has been received from Strathclyde Intense Laser Interaction Studies (SILIS) Group, from University of Strathclyde (UK) to Optical Surfaces, for three ultra-high performance off-axis parabolic mirrors in special custom vacuum motorised mounts. The mounted mirrors to be developed by Optical Surfaces will be used on several beamlines of the facilities 350TW laser which is designed to support an extensive research portfolio in laser-plasma ...

Strathclyde Intense Laser Interaction Studies (SILIS) Group, from University of Strathclyde (UK) has sent an order to Optical Surfaces for three ultra-high performance off-axis parabolic mirrors in special custom vacuum motorised mounts. The mounted mirrors to be developed by Optical Surfaces will be used on several beamlines of the facilities 350TW laser which is designed to support an extensive research portfolio in laser-plasma physics an...

Producer of fast focusing on-axis parabolic mirrors, Optical Surfaces ensures the mirrors are precisely manufactured to customer specifications and supplied with full surface quality test data. Supplying on-axis paraboloids to leading research groups around the world, Optical Surfaces heritage in this area dates back over 50 years to the production of large astronomical telescope optics, more than 1m (39.4”) in diameter for the Royal Greenw...

  Thanks to their completely achromatic performance characteristics, Optical Surfaces reports that its Off-Axis Paraboloids are particularly suitable for broadband and multiple-wavelength applications.

Optical Surfaces provides variable focus motorised beam expanders for LIDAR system that are used in meteorological applications. An off-axis reflective beam expander greatly reduces the blind zone of LIDAR systems and therefore often offers the best solution to this problem. In LIDAR systems, such as Doppler Wind LIDAR, the wave front performance of the beam expander is very important for the LIDAR efficiency.

For a wide array of demanding optical applications Optical Surfaces has manufactured aspheric lenses, which involve beam focusing, collimation, expansion or wave front correction. Aspheric lenses provide a cost effective way of reducing the number of optical elements in a system. 

  Optical Surfaces is a manufacturer and supplier of high precision, custom beamsplitters and beamsplitting assemblies to leading spectroscopy, interferometry and imaging companies worldwide looking to enhance the performance of their instruments.

  The first of ten high performance beam expanders have been supplied to Thales, from Optical Surfaces. The beam expanders for the Extreme Light Infrastructure for Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) project are to develop the world’s most powerful laser system.