I’m new to Zemax and this community and I hope someone here can help!
I am trying to design an Acousto-Optic Modulator for an experiment in our lab. The idea was to model a rectangular volume with a grating in the center that would output different orders of light where the output angles of each order are dependent on laser wavelength, crystal index of refraction, and wavelength of acoustics. I believe I can create a script that varies each of those parameters through the integrated programming functions. What I’m not sure about is how to go about modelling this. Does Zemax have any built in models for this or has anyone tried this before? I’m assuming sequential mode is the way to go, but if not, please enlighten me. Any help would be much appreciated.
-Michael
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Hi Michael,
Thanks for posting on our forums!
While we do not have any specific AOM surface/object types in OpticStudio, we can model diffraction in various ways, in both Sequential and Non-Sequential Mode. For instance, you could potentially define equivalent diffractive behavior of your AOM element with our Diffraction Grating surface type in Sequential Mode (the following is from our Help Files at “The Setup Tab > Editors Group (Setup Tab) > Lens Data Editor > Sequential Surfaces (lens data editor) > Diffraction Grating (sequential surfaces, lens data editor) ”):
In Sequential Mode, I should note that you would need to define multiple configurations to define each order of diffraction. I should also note that diffraction will take place at this particular surface due to how OpticStudio handles diffraction. We have some additional discussion on modeling diffraction in OS at the article here: How diffractive surfaces are modeled in OpticStudio – Knowledgebase (zemax.com).
Lastly, this definition for diffraction would strictly be the ray directions from diffraction. Data like diffraction efficiency wouldn’t be computed, so you would need to know that beforehand. Additionally, there is also the option to create a custom Surface DLL or Diffraction DLL to accommodate your needs -- we have some information on what the DLLs would need at this article here: Custom DLLs in OpticStudio: An overview of user-defined surfaces, objects, and other DLL types – Knowledgebase (zemax.com)
Let us know if you have any more questions! Thanks again, and I hope you have a happy new year.
