A cylindrical lens is made of a section of cylindrical glass and consists of a cylinder and a plane, including plano - concave and plano - convex lenses.
Introduction to Cylindrical Lenses
Concept: A cylindrical lens is made of a section of cylindrical glass and consists of a cylinder and a plane, including plano-concave and plano-convex lenses.
Optical properties: Light rays passing through the axial meridian (vertical direction in the figure) will not undergo convergence or divergence changes. When light rays pass through the refractive meridian (horizontal direction in the figure), convergence and divergence changes will occur.
Applications: Cylindrical mirrors are usually used to focus the incident light onto a line or change the aspect ratio of the image. Cylindrical lenses have a cylindrical surface, allowing the incident light to be focused in one dimension and stretching the image. Cylindrical lenses can have a negative or positive focal length and are suitable for laser line generation or anamorphic beam shaping to circularize the laser output.
