Lens (optics) concave surfaces is "biconcave" (or just "concave"). If one of the surfaces is flat, the lens is "plano-convex" or "plano-concave" depending on the curvature of the other surface. A lens with one convex and one concave side is "convex-concave" or "meniscus". It is this type of lens that is most commonly used in corrective lenses. If the lens is biconvex or plano-convex, a collimated beam of light passing through the lens converges to a spot (a "focus") behind the lens. In this case, the lens is called a "positive" or "converging" lens. The distance from the lens to the spot
Compound refractive lens Compound refractive lens A Compound refractive lens (CRL) is a series of individual lenses arranged in a linear array in order to achieve focusing of X-rays in the energy range of 5-40 keV. They are an alternative to the KB mirror. For all materials the refractive index for X-rays is close to 1, hence a single conventional lens for X-rays has an extremely long focal length (for practical lens sizes). In addition, X-rays attenuate as they pass through a material so that conventional lenses for X-rays have long been considered impractical. The CRL gets its reasonably short focal length, on