LASER COMPONENTS UK is delighted to announce a key partnership with PLX Inc. PLX is an optical technology company located in New York, USA that provides tailored solutions to many industries and specialises in the development and manufacture of high accuracy complex optical structures that withstand non-optimal conditions. PLX has a 65 year heritage at the forefront of transforming optics by integrating innovative optical systems into the assemblies of critical defence, space and aerospace platforms. One of the core technologies of PLX is their patented system integration of optical structure technologies, the Monolithic Optical Structure Technology (M.O.S.T.™), which has thermally and environmentally stable sub-arcsecond performance in a compact form factor.
Utilising the M.O.S.T.™ technology, PLX offers their Monolithic Michelson Interferometers series. Michelson interferometers are commonplace in NIR FTIR spectroscopy but require initial alignment and are subject to misalignment with vibration, shock and changes in temperature. The Monolithic Michelson Interferometer features a rugged pre-aligned design, with two arm mirrors imaged on to each other by a beamsplitter-compensator, which is then combined into a one-piece assembly which never needs adjustment. A moving retroreflector is added to one arm to complete the interferometer and allow variation of the optical path difference around zero OPD and makes this assembly completely invariant. The Monolithic Michelson Interferometer is available in a 1” and 0.5” aperture as standard but can be customised to meet any customer requirement. Even though the M.O.S.T.™ interferometers continually outperform the traditional multi-part designs in any environment, PLX’s offerings are priced competitively to these other systems.
