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Edmund Optics offers off-axis parabolic mirrors with a wide variety of coating options off-the-shelf and available for immediate shipping (Figure 4). Fully custom design and manufacturing is also available.

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Parabolic mirrors have the ability to focus collimated light without introducing spherical aberration. An Off-Axis Parabolic (OAP) mirror is simply a side section of a parent parabolic mirror (Figure 1). Collimated light that is incident to an OAP mirror is focused to a point. However, unlike a centered parabolic mirror, an OAP mirror has an advantage in that it allows more interactive space around the focal point without disrupting the beam as shown in Figure 2.

The following selection guide provides helpful information detailing the various OAP mirror options available from Edmund Optics®.

Edmund Optics® engineers design and diamond turn custom OAPs, off-axis elliptical mirrors, and other optics. Watch the video below to learn about our in-house diamond turning and visit the link below to learn more and get a quote.

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Depending on which section of a parabolic shape an OAP mirror is replicating, the angle between the focal point and the central ray axis can be large or small. Figure 3 represents this phenomenon by modeling a 15° and 45° off axis mirror respectively. Note: It is important to keep the incident beam parallel to the optical axis, any angular displacement will produce comatic aberration.

Surface roughness describes high spatially frequency errors on optical surfaces. It impacts how much light is unintentionally scattered off of the surface into different directions (Figure 5). This deviation from the ideal surface shape is often measured in Angstroms (Å) and Edmund Optics® OAPs are specified as having either <50Å or <100Å RMS surface roughness. You can learn in our Roughness of Diamond Turned Off-Axis Parabolic Mirrors application note.