Application Optimized off-axis Parabolic Mirrors

Hits:25   Date: 5/12/2026

Optical Surfaces Ltd offers custom off-axis parabolic mirrors with a wide variety of coating options optimised for the most demanding high-power laser, defence, aerospace, spectroscopy and astronomy applications.

A reflective beam collimator incorporating OAP mirrors for MTF testing of military optical systems

 
Off-axis parabolic mirrors (OAP’s) combine the achromatic and diffraction limited imaging properties of a parabolic mirror with the ability to deviate the light path off-axis, which is useful for most imaging or beam delivery systems. OAP’s offer the ability to focus collimated light without introducing spherical aberration. In addition, unlike a centred parabolic mirror, an OAP mirror advantageously allows more interactive space around the focal point without disrupting the beam.
 
Benefiting from an ultra-stable manufacturing environment, and employing proprietary production techniques, Optical Surfaces highly skilled engineers are world renowned for producing large diameter prototype and custom OAP mirrors with unmatched surface accuracy (> lambda / 20 peak-to-valley), slope errors and surface microroughness of less than 1nm.

An ultra smooth OAP mirror used as a key focusing element on a high-power laser beamline.

 
Dr Aris Kouris of Optical Surfaces commented “Few companies in the world can produce off-axis parabolic mirrors of sufficient quality to enable Petawatt and Zettawatt lasers to focus their massive energy down onto targets only a few microns in size. As a result, we have been selected by world leading high power laser research groups including AWE, ELI, LULI and CLF Rutherford as well as a growing number of academic centres of excellence to provide key OAP mirrors and other related optics for a range of demanding high-power laser applications”.
 
Drawing upon many decades of experience - Optical Surfaces Ltd has written an informative guide (see https://optisurf.com/technical-tips-guides/) to enable users to get top performance from their off-axis parabolic mirrors. This illustrated guide includes an introduction to OAP geometry as well as step-by step instruction on initial alignment; tips to correct for errors in focus and tilt, set off-axis distance and rotation as well as a final alignment procedure to ensure optimised performance.
 
For further information on custom OAP mirrors please visit https://optisurf.com/off-axis-paraboloids/ or contact Optical Surfaces Ltd. on +44-208-668-6126 / sales@optisurf.com.

Optical Surfaces Ltd. has been producing large, ultra-high precision off-axis parabolic mirrors for more than 60 years and is today internationally acknowledged for its technical expertise, attention to quality and customer service.

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Worldwide HQ

Optical Surfaces Ltd.
Godstone Road
Kenley
Surrey CR8 5AA
UK
Tel. +44-208-668-6126
email sales@optisurf.com
web http://www.optisurf.com