Binoculars flat part of the former facing the eye) and the field lens is a double-convex singlet. A reversed Kellner eyepiece was developed in 1975 and in it the field lens is a double concave/ double convex achromatic doublet and the eye lens is a double convex singlet. The reverse Kellner provides 50% more eye relief and works better with small focal ratios as well as having a slightly wider field. Wide field binoculars typically utilize some kind of Erfle configuration, patented in 1921. These have five or six elements in three groups. The groups may be two achromatic doublets with
Compound refractive lens the order of meters, by using many lenses in series. To minimize the absorption the lens must be made from a material such as aluminium, beryllium, or lithium. CRLs were first demonstrated in the mid-1990s by a group of scientists at the ESRF. They drilled holes in an aluminium block, and achieved focusing in two dimensions. For X-rays a concave lens focuses the X-rays because the index of refraction is slightly below unity. In a CRL of this type the walls between the cylindrical holes act as concave lenses for X-rays traveling perpendicular to the axis of the drilled cylinders.