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Diffraction from microlens arrays in non-sequential mode

  • 8 December 2021
  • 2 replies
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Dear Community,

 

I’m trying to model the diffraction from microlens arrays using non-sequential mode. I’ve made my array fine and I’m using a diffractive source. The results look nice, with the diffraction spikes in the place where I would expect. What I do not understand is that the intensity of the diffraction spikes are much smaller than I see in reality. Has anyone ever tried to use Zemax to model these effects before or is there an example somewhere?

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Best answer by Jeff.Wilde 8 December 2021, 19:43

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It’s not clear that use of the Source Diffractive object in a nonsequential model is the proper way to go about looking at diffraction from a microlens array (MLA). 

As noted in this Knowledgebase article: The Source Diffractive object -- “The Source Diffractive object in Non-Sequential Mode is defined by a collimated ray bundle passing through a User Defined Aperture (UDA). The simulation of this source includes scalar diffractive effects due the clipping of the wavefront by the aperture.”

Are you somehow trying to incorporate an MLA into a UDA (which I don’t think is doable)? 

Instead, you may want to use Physical Optics Propagation (POP) in a sequential model.  Here’s a good article that describes the details: How to use POP with lenslet arrays

 

Dear Jeff,

 

Thank you very much for the answer - that article you’ve linked looks to have contrasts far more like what I’d expect, so I’ll try it this way. 

Fingers crossed!

Rob

 

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