A cylindrical lens is an optical lens with a cylindrical or semi-cylindrical shape. Like a spherical lens, a cylindrical lens has one curved and one flat side. Unlike a spherical lens, however, cylindrical lenses aren’t fully symmetrical — the orientation of a cylindrical lens affects how it transmits light. Cylindrical lenses are optical lenses with different radii on the x and y axis. These lenses are often used to correct for astigmatism in imaging systems, and are also ideal for beam shaping, to adjust image height size, or as a laser line generator. Like spherical lenses, these lenses may have one curved and one flat side or two curved sides. The curved face or faces of a cylindrical lens are portions of a cylinder, and the lens focuses light in a single dimension; i.e., into a line rather than into a point. Cylindrical lenses from yutai are typically square, circular, or rectangular. Yutai Optics produces a line of cylindrical lenses in plano convex, plano concave, or aspheric shape. The main significance of a cylindrical lens is its ability to focus light onto a continuous line rather than a fixed point. This quality gives the cylindrical lens various unique abilities, such as laser line generation. Some of these applications simply aren’t possible with a spherical lens. Cylindrical lens capabilities include:
Correcting astigmatism in imaging systems
Adjusting the height of an image
Creating circular, rather than elliptic, laser beams