UltraLight™ optical breadboards offer high strength-to-weight ratio and excellent thermal stability. These breadboards are ideal for optical setups where portability and dynamic rigidity are important. They are typically used as replacements for aluminum, steel or granite surface plates, as well as for applications demanding a totally nonmagnetic surface.

55mm (2.2") Thickness

UltraLight Breadboards are 20% Lighter than Equivalent Solid Aluminum Surface Plates

All-Aluminum Construction Results in Excellent Thermal Stability

Black Matte Finish Reduces Reflectivity and Backscatter

High Density Core and Internal Damping Provide Static and Dynamic Rigidity

Choosing an optical breadboard

When choosing an aluminum optical breadboard, stiffness is a major consideration.

Thorlabs offers two levels of Stiffness: High and Enhanced. While strongly correlated to the thickness of the breadboard, the differences in stiffness translate to a different deflection under load. The higher the stiffness the better the ability of the breadboard to resist bending when a load or force is applied to the breadboard. As such, when placing a heavy load in the center of the breadboard the high stiffness breadboard will deflect more than the enhanced stiffness breadboards. This deflection can create misalignment between two components on opposite ends of the breadboard. This feature is especially important, for example, when conducting experiments which require sliding optical setups across the breadboard while maintaining a straight optical axis. As an example, when placing a load of 100Kg on the center of a PBG11107 (an UltraLightTM 4' x 2' high stiffness, breadboard, 1" thick), the breadboard will bend by 11µm, i.e. the breadboard will have a parabolic shape with the center being 11µm lower then the edges. A PBG12107 (an UltraLightTM 4' x 2' enhanced stiffness breadboard, 2.2" thick) in the same example would deflect by only 3µm assuming a considerably smaller parabolic shape.