Apparatus for improved fiber optic coupling efficiency

An optical assembly for coupling an optical device to an optical fiber, comprising:

• a lens comprising a reflecting curved surface for bending and confining a light beam and a focusing curved surface for focusing the light beam, the lens conveying the light beam between the optical device and the optical fiber by reflection off of the reflecting curved surface and transmission through the focusing curved surface,
• wherein the lens includes an elongated, non-spherical section and the path of the light beam traverses the elongated, non-spherical section between the reflecting curved surface and the focusing curved surface;
• wherein the lens is a lens assembly having at least two mating parts, a first mating part including the reflecting surface and a second mating part including the focusing surface, and wherein each of the first and second mating parts include at least one substantially flat mating surface for engaging each other and the substantially flat mating surfaces are in the optical path of the beam, and at least one of the substantially flat mating surfaces has a reflective portion shaped to reflect a portion of the beam along a monitoring path.