Knight Optical UK Ltd

For over twenty years Knight Optical (UK) Limited has been a global leader in the field of scientific optical components. Supplying some of the top companies in the scientific, medical, pharmaceutical, defence and opto-electronics sectors, our goal is to be the first choice for high quality precision optical components. Knight Optical stocks over 2,500 standard components including scientific optical components filters, precision optical lenses, interference band-pass filters and high quality precision optical windows. Our experienced and knowledgeable technical team is always on hand to provide superb customer support and optical solutions to meet your requirements efficiently and at competitive prices. We are also fully equipped to provide custom optics to suit all manner of specifications. From unique research orders to mass production runs, we specialise in bespoke optical components and can provide top quality pieces at competitive prices with a fast turnaround thanks to our highly trained workforce who combine traditional techniques with advanced computerised equipment. All our components are checked for quality by our laboratory technicians to ensure we always deliver outstanding service.

Lenses

Knight Optical stocks a wide range of lenses including aspheric lenses, biconvex lenses, cylindrical lenses, planoconvex lenses and rod lenses to name but a few. Our aspheric lenses are designed to correct the image defects created by traditional spherical lens surfaces and can be highly effective in focussing or collimating laser beams. We stock both high quality precision grade aspheric lenses and more economical plastic grade versions. In our concave lens range, we stock a number of different versions from quality grade and high index, to UV fused silica and commercial grade lenses. We are also fully equipped to offer custom made lenses to suit your exact specifications.

Filters

At Knight Optical, we produce a large selection of optical filters used to control the spectral content of light beams and allow only wanted light to pass. To suit all performance and budget requirements, we stock both absorption and interference types. Our range includes various colour filters, dichroic filters, cold and hot mirrors, neutral density filters and UV transmitting filters among many others. Our classic interference band-pass filter allow light of a narrow bandwidth/wavelength to pass while reflecting or blocking all other light. All our interference filters are specially manufactured to ensure the utmost long-term stability. We are also able to provide bespoke filters to meet your specific requirements.

Diffusers

Knight Optical provides a range of diffusers in the form of anti-Newton glass diffusers, ground glass diffusers, flashed opal diffusers, and plastic screen diffusers. Our ground glass diffusers are capable of scattering light at angles up to approximately 10 degrees. Used for focussing as well as enhancing lighting system illumination uniformly, we stock two types of ground glass diffuser, borosilicate and UV silica. Great for use in light boxes and other illumination systems where strong diffusion is needed, Knight Optical’s opal diffusers have wide scattering angles with their apparent brightness independent of the viewing angle. We stock both round and square versions. If you require a custom diffuser, please do not hesitate to contact our specialist team.

Germanium Windows

Knight Optical is also a producer of high quality optical components constructed from Germanium (Ge), a fairly hard, high-density IR transmitting material which has the capability to block UV and VIS wavelengths while allowing IR from 2µm. With the highest refractive index of common IR-transmitters and low optical dispersion, Germanium lends itself to lens designs with previously unachievable specifications. Typically used for thermal imaging, wide-angle lenses and microscopes, Germanium components can also be utilised for FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared) and FTIR (Fourier Transformed Infrared) systems as well as other analytical instrumentation. Knight Optical provides AR/DLC coated Germanium windows as well as custom Germanium windows, lenses, prisms and blanks to perfectly suit your exact specifications.

Beamsplitters

Knight Optical offers a large range of optical beamsplitters, from cube beamsplitters to plate beamsplitters, for use with all beam steering applications. Our plate beamsplitters, typically used in laser applications, are manufactured with the beamsplitter coating on one face and a multilayer dielectic AR coating on the other. We stock three grades of plate beamsplitter, precision, general-purpose, and economy grades, offering you a suitable component for your application. Our cube beamsplitters have an internal diagonal face acting as the splitter which is protected right inside the cube. Easier to mount than plate beamsplitters, cube beamsplitters also avoid any deviation of the axis as a result of inclined plates. We are also able to supply you with bespoke beamsplitters to meet your precise needs.

Prisms

Knight Optical stocks a wide range of prisms for use in many different applications including reflection prisms, deviation prisms, dispersion prisms, inversion prisms and rotation prisms. Our precision grade right angle prisms are available in various different coatings with high surface quality and tight tolerance angles. We also offer a more cost effective standard grade right angle prism which can be ground to create much smaller sizes or drilled and edged to precise specifications. For use with creating small controlled variations in beam direction, Knight Optical produces wedge prisms with nearly parallel input and output faces. If you require a prism with a different specification to our stock components, do not hesitate to contact our sales team to discuss a bespoke order.

Polarisers

Knight Optical manufactures a range of polarisers for use with filtering out all light except one state of polarisation or to modify the state of polarisation. Our range includes circular polarisers with various laminations, cube polarisers in various grades, sheets polarisers and crystal polarisers. Our cube polariser, a variation on the cube beamsplitter, splits two beams based on their state of polarisation and can be manufactured with a high performance AR coating on the input and output faces if required. Custom made polarisers are also available on request.

Optical Flats

Knight Optical can also provide optical flats which are single precision flat surfaces which can be used as a reference surface with interferometers as well as a substrate for laser mirrors. Manufactured using different materials such as Quartz and Zerodur, each type offers varying stability and surface qualities. Of moderate stability, our Quartz type optical flats come in three different flatness options and are available single or double sided. Knight Optical’s Zerodur optical flats, made from a synthetic glass/ceramic material, are highly stable and can be worked to a high standard. Zerodur optical flats are also available in three flatness options and come single or double sided. We are also able to produce optical flats to any size with a fast turnaround.