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Emre.AslanSingle Emitter

asked in Got a question?

Reading the effect of Random Polarization by Detector Rectangle.

Hi there, I am trying to model a Fiber Interferometer in Non-Sequential mode and wanting to see an interference pattern with the effect of multiple reflections.  I have a diode source which has 3mW Power. In the source, Random Polarization box is checked. I have a cylinder and end the of the cylinder is coated. After the coating, I have a Mirror Detector Rectangle and I am trying to read the Coherent Power. By the way,  the 'Normalize Coherent Power' box is not checked in the detector because I want to see an interference pattern with the effect of multiple reflections between coating and mirror detector. I read the Total Power of the laser as 2 mW. There is no problem here because I am using coatings at the end of the fiber and Polarization Flag of the detector is 0 for now. But, when I try to read the power of laser with Polarization Flag is 1, I read the Total Power of Laser around 10^(-6) mW. The power is also the same with Polarization Flag 2. The reason I chan

Arthur.Méndez-RosalesSingle Emitter

posted in Got a question?

Data Extraction Automation

I am designing a basic device to determine the BRDF from an arbitrary surface. I have created the attached ZEMAX file. I need to vary certain parameters, ray-trace, and download the detector data (10 detectors in total), which I believe is a fairly standard test procedure. The image below tries to describe the parameter variations for this test. I tried doing this by hand but at some point realized there are just too many parameter combinations. I consider using the MATLAB or Python API but could not find much documentation regarding detector commands, and how to save their data to txt files for post-processing. Could anyone direct me in the right direction?

Michael.GirschSingle Emitter

posted in Got a question?

Wavefront

Hello, i am currently trying to extract the wavefront from different single lens systems. I want to get the coordinates [x,y,z] of all rays having the same optical path length. Maybe you can help. Best Michael

Sean.LinFully Spectral

posted in Got a question?

what the units are for the ZERN value in the merit function?

Q: What the units are for the ZERN value in the merit fucntion. Is it system units, microns, waves, fringes or something else ? Ans: The unit of Zernike Fringe coefficients is same as Wavefront Map, which is waves.The following is an example of a calculation 1.First open the built-in Double Gauss 28 degree field.zmx. Then check Zernike Fringe Coefficients for Field 3.   2.Then copy these value in Excel. In excel, built X and Y mesh and calculate the wavefront manually following the equation. As you can see below. The value is same as that you can find in the Wavefront Map. I didn’t make any change to the coefficients in the test, so I think the unit used in Zernike Fringe should be same as that in Wavefront Map. Since in Wavefront Map it’s unit is “waves”, I think this is same for the Zernike Fringe. I have also calculated P-V, which is also very similar to that reported in Wavefront Map. I think the difference is mainly about the fitting and

KalebUltraviolet

posted in Got a question?

Why is the nominal RMS wavefront value in tolerancing different from the value on the wavefront map

When the Tolerance Analysis returns the nominal value, it is building a default merit function for RMS wavefront error and returning the merit function value. The Merit Function considers all fields and wavelengths in the system, but the Wavefront Map only allows you to look at a single field and wavelength at a time. So usually, the Wavefront Map will give you a smaller value for RMS wavefront than the default merit function – the only time they will be similar if you have 1 field/wavelength in your system.

suhwanInfrared

posted in Got a question?

How to proceed with optimization to get a large number of hits

    Hi Zemax Thanks for your help every time. I designed it as follows. 1. My lens is designed as a rectangular parallelepiped. 2. The point source exists in the lens and the cone angle of the source is 180. 3. There is a reflector at the end of the lens and a detector at the other end. 4. I want to set the reflector's Radius and Conic as variables. My purpose is to get the most number of hits detected by the detector. What should I do to proceed with the optimization? Best regards,   Suhwan Kim  

Hui ChenZemax Staff

posted in Got a question?

Why is my Ideal coating not working

A user asked why the Ideal Coating I.99999999 applied on an interface between two glass materials does not eliminate the surface reflection as expected. If you are applying this coating on a boundary shared between two objects, for the coating to work properly, it needs to be applied on the face that belongs to the object that’s defined later in the NSC Editor. For example, in the plot below, I have two glass plates where the back face of the front glass plate overlaps the front face of the back glass plate. In this case, to eliminate reflection at this interface, the I.99999999 coating needs to be applied on the front face of Object 3 because Object 3 is defined later in the NSC Editor.    This is due to the Nesting Rule of object placement in Non-sequential mode. This is explained in the Help File at The Setup Tab > Editors Group (Setup Tab) > Non-sequential Component Editor > Non-sequential Overview > Object Placement In this case, if you apply the coating on the ba

Catherine.ArndtStudent

posted in Got a question?

Optimizing Folding Angle in Ring Enhancement Cavity

Hello, I am trying to optimize a basic four mirror ring cavity in a bowtie configuration. I am looking to optimize the system for the following traits in order of highest to lowest importance: 1. Folding angle of the mirrors to minimize distortions and abberations 2. Minimize the gaussian beam waist at a particular surface (currently set to a detector rectangle)   Additionally if possible, I would like to see how much enhancement we achieve in the cavity upon reaching the cavity's steady state behavior. The system is designed in nonsequential mode. I have set the variables, but I not sure how to correctly use the merit function editor.   How can I optimize for the two traits above, while keeping the variables within my physical constraints?   Ring resonantor image from https://www.rp-photonics.com/ring_resonators.html

KalebUltraviolet

posted in Got a question?

Can I pull from multiple glass catalogs during glass substitution?

When you put a 'Substitute' solve on a material it will ask for a catalog. If you would like to pull from multiple catalogs, just leave this blank and put your catalogs of interest in your 'Catalogs to use' section of the System Explorer. 

Michael ChengZemax Staff

posted in Got a question?

Another way to understand the meaning Root Mean Square (RSS) performance in tolernace report

When we run a tolerance analysis, in the report, there is always a section for 'Estimated Performance Changes based upon Roo-Sum-Square method'. Here let's give an simple math to explain why this can be considered as 'worst case' in tolerance. In Help file, we can explanations as shown below. Normally, this value can be considered as the criterion of the worst case of the system after consider tolerance. If the RSS performance is acceptable, then it's very likely the final really-fabricated system can meet designer's goal.   Here we will use the 'Stack Up' question to explain the calculation of RSS.   Stack Up question Here is the question: Imagine we have 5 wood plate to be stacked up together and we would like to estimate the total thickness of the the stack. We already know each wood plate has different thickness (which is error!). The thickness of each plate is 25 with an error of +-0.1 mm. Assuming the probability of thickness of a randomly-t

Sarah.GrabowskiUltraviolet

posted in Got a question?

Does OpticStudio use the paraxial approximations in its calculations?

The paraxial approximation of Snell’s Law is a first order approximation that reduces the full form of Snell’s Law from n sin(θ) = n’ sin(θ’) to the linear relationship n θ = n’ θ’ (where the primed quantities denote values after refraction), and is valid for very small angles (and thus rays that travel close to the optical axis). OpticStudio uses these paraxial rays in the computation of paraxial data such as the EFL, F/#, and entrance pupil diameter. However, OpticStudio uses the full form of Snell’s Law in most calculations and analyses because not all surfaces can be properly defined by the power of the surface at the vertex, and to account for aberrations, which are deviations from this ideal ray. While the first order approximations might have been crucial to expediting calculations done by hand, the speed of modern computers makes the difference in calculation time inconsequential when compared to the benefits of

Sandrine AuriolZemax Staff

posted in Got a question?

Contrast Optimization: my merit function cannot be evaluated

During the contrast optimization, OpticStudio uses a method called Moore-Elliott (also documented in our Help File under The Optimize Tab (sequential ui mode) > Optimization Overview > Sequential Optimization > Optimizing for MTF) where rays are traced by pairs. One ray is the original ray specified in the MECS operand The other one is a shifted ray. The shifted ray is the original ray shifted by a pupil shift. The shift is calculated as 2 times the optimization frequency over the cutoff frequency. The shifted ray is shifted once along X and once along Y. So if the merit function cannot be evaluated with Moore-Elliott Contrast operands (MECA, MECS, and MECT), it can be that the shifted ray cannnot be traced because the shifted ray is not in the pupil. To check the issue, I would use: the Single Ray Trace under Analyze ... Rays & Spots. the Contrast Loss map under Analyze ... MTF. On the Contrast Loss Map, you will see if some rays are missing at the edge of the pupil like th

Sarah.GrabowskiUltraviolet

posted in Got a question?

What is the difference between the Global and Hammer Optimization options?

When it comes to optimizing a system, there are a couple different options. Global and Hammer Optimization are the two global techniques available in OpticStudio, located under the Optimize tab. These two algorithms differ most prominently in the scope of their search. Global optimization is great if you are looking to explore possible design forms. It searches more broadly over all the parameters, saving the 10 best solutions for you. Hammer optimization, on the other hand, is more useful for improving a design you already have. It searches for similar designs that have lower merit functions. However, it does not search on as large of a scale as the Global Search. In many projects, it will likely help for you to use both! Generally, Global optimization would be used in the early stages of the project as you test out the design space, followed by some local optimization, and finally Hammer optimization to more thoroughly improve your design.

Ali HVisible

posted in Got a question?

Rayleigh Resolution Criteria for PSF

One of my colleagues, Michael Humphreys, wrote an interesting article on the Rayleigh Criterion, so I thought I would post it here :) In perfect geometric optics, a point source is imaged to a perfect point. In order to achieve this perfect imaging, the Exit Pupil has to be infinite in extent. As soon as the Exit Pupil has a finite diameter, diffraction from the edges 'blur' the perfect point into a Point Spread Function. If the finite extent pupil function in the Exit Pupil is circular and perfectly flat (no aberrations) then you will see the traditional Airy disk (mathematically represented by the Bessel function of the first kind of order one). When two point sources are close to each other, there is an angular limit to how close they can be before the individual PSFs blur together and they become unresolvable. This limit is called the Rayleigh Resolution Criteria and occurs when the peak of one PSF falls on the first minima, also known as the Airy Disk, of the second PSF (thi

Sarah.GrabowskiUltraviolet

posted in Got a question?

Is there a way to list similar glasses side by side from different suppliers?

Located under the Libraries Tab…Material Tools is the Glass Compare tool.   This tool allows you to choose a reference glass catalog (the primary catalog) and it will select the closest equivalent glass from one or two other catalogs for each entry for materials used in the visible range. The user chooses the tolerance on the refractive index (nd) and the Abbe number (Vd) that defines the maximum allowable deviation from the characteristics of the primary material. Once run, you will see columns for each of the glass catalogs that allows for the quick comparison of what glasses can be easily substituted by one from another catalog. Each entry also includes a flag indicating the status of each glass type (Standard, Preferred, Obsolete, Special, or Melt), which may be particularly helpful if you are trying to find glass substitutes that are more common to reduce costs.  

Sandrine AuriolZemax Staff

posted in Got a question?

How to catch transient error messages in ZOS-API

When using OpticStudio interface, it can sometimes display an error message. In ZOS-API, there are some methods under the IZOSAPI_Application Interface that allows to retrieve transient error messages: bool IsLoggingMessages { get; } void ClearMessageLog(); bool BeginMessageLogging(); bool EndMessageLogging(); string RetrieveLogMessages(); The general workflow is prior to whatever operation will generate the message you need to call BeginMessageLogging(), after the operation call RetreiveLogMessages(), then call EndMessageLogging(). These properties were added as 'feature experiments'.   For example, let's create an error in the file: '{Zemax}\Samples\Sequential\Objectives\Wide angle lens 210 degree field.zmx'. I am adding the field X=0, Y=120, Weight=1. It creates the error “Cannot determine object coordinates!”. I am now going to read that message in Matlab. I create a connection with the Interactive Extension. My lines in Matlab are the following

Csilla Timar-FulepZemax Staff

posted in Got a question?

How can I fix the scale of a Layout plot?

If slider or visual optimizer is used in the system, it can be useful to be able to fix the scale on the Layout plot, to better understand how the system is changing when changing some thickness parameters. In the Classic view of the Layouts (both Cross-Section and 3D), there is a Scale Factor setting, that can be used to fix the scale of the plot: If the Scale Factor is set to 0, then 'Fill Frame' will be selected, which will scale the range of surfaces drawn to fill the graphic page. However, if the Scale Factor is set to a numeric value, then the plot will be drawn in 'real' scale, times the Scale Factor. For example, a scale factor of 1.0 will plot the lens actual size on the printer, while a factor of 0.5 will plot the lens at half scale. To use this feature, the Classic view can be turned on or off in the Setup tab > Project Preferences > Graphics > Enable Classic View.

Divya.GuruprasadMonochrome

posted in Got a question?

aperture type - EPD

Usually, the system aperture is the first parameter defined when starting a new design. The system aperture not only defines the size of the beam which ZEMAX will trace through the optical system, but it also determines the initial direction cosines of the rays launched from each field point in the Object plane. Entrance Pupil Diameter is perhaps the most commonly used system aperture type. In ZEMAX, the EPD is defined as the diameter of the pupil in lens units as seen from object space. That is, axial rays at the object appears to enter the system entrance pupil.

TomCDSingle Emitter

posted in Got a question?

Did not plot right

I have trouble using Opto Studio on my new good HP laptop. Many plots, such as 3D-OPD, did not show correctly. I guess this is due to the graphic card in my computer. Is there any solution for this?

Julius.ReinhardSingle Emitter

posted in Got a question?

Modelling an x-ray imaging setub with elliptic mirrors

Edit: I have no idea how the typo in the title happened but I can't fix it. Sorry for that!   Hello, I am trying to build an x-ray imaging setup which bases on Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT). For this reason I need to be able to focus broadband x-ray radiation from a plasma source on my sample and collect the reflect light in a spectrometer. I want to do this by using two identical ellitical mirrors. Sometimes also referred to as capillary condenser even if they have a bigger diameter in my case. So they have a ellipsoidal shape. I am trying to simulate this setup with Zemax. I never 'learned' how to use it and am mostly an autodidact. In a first step I simulated a single ellipsoidal mirror with my geometry and look at the resulting spot on my sample, just using a conic surface. Now I want to put the second ellipsoidal mirror behind the first one and look at the spot which I would have in my spectrometer. But I can't get it to work. The rays are just not reflec

Ali HVisible

posted in Got a question?

How can I change the beam direction in POP?

The direction of propagation of the beam with POP is dictated by the direction of the Chief ray of that particular field point through the optical system. If you want to send beam in slightly off axis, you can create another field point, which is not parallel to the optical axis, and select that field point in POP.  

AngelGSingle Emitter

posted in Got a question?

filtering rays out in raytrace command and energy output in Path Analysis

Hello,    I'm exploring the use of Zemax with mirror setups in NSC mode and I'm a little confused, but then I'm a student in this field.   In order to limit the amount of rays in disk, I launch the ray trace with a filter string where I state save only those rays which impact last my detector (which it's ABSORB as well). Good for now (checked in 3D layout, only rays going to the detector)   Then I run the Path Analysis and I found the _1 path is listed with quite a lot of energy but the sequence showed it's not what I asked for.   Checking, and I see it's empty. Empty? Empty but listing an energy contribution?   I've checked with both the DB viewer and the NSC 3D layout, and yes, the ray subset _1 is empty. Also if I request the Detector Viewer to plot for subset _1, it's zero Watts.   Mind, the Path Analysis report stated there is a non-zero total flux out for that subset. There's an energy outp

Nicholas.TallaridaSingle Emitter

posted in Got a question?

Explode CAD issues

Hello, I have a solidworks assembly file that contains subassemblies. I'ved tried bringing it into a non-seq model as a CAD Soldworks Assembly but get the following error: 'File must represent a SolidWorks assembly and end with the extension SLDASM.'  My file is an solidworks assembly and does end with SLDASM. To avoid this error, I've saved it as a STEP file, and have loaded it that way. The CAD file looks as it should in the NSC Shaded Model view. However, when I highlight that object and explode the CAD, several of the parts are missing. The explode dialog box does get the correct number of parts but duplicates several parts while omit others entirely.  Is there any way to import the assembly and then explode and edit parts? Thank you, Nick

Thomas MagnacZemax Staff

posted in Got a question?

20.3 Speed improvements

Hi everyone, On September 15th 2020, Zemax released OpticStudio 20.3, and the release notes announced exiting major speed improvements for both Sequential and Non-Sequential mode.  I wanted to clarify and provide examples that highlight those speed improvements. -Sequential mode optimization, here is a system we typically use for training, and you can see a 3x improvement (file attached ‘’optSpeedTest’’). What we have improved is the multithreading of our Damped Least Square optimization algorithm, so the speed improvement can be observed over complete optimizations, not just raytracing speed. -In Non-Sequential raytracing through CAD objects is now faster using the new ACIS libraries.  Using the ‘’white LED phosphor.zmx’’ in the sample files, without ignoring the CAD, I get a 4x improvement. I hope that this will prove useful. PS: my config is: Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-8950HK CPU @ 2.

Michael ChengZemax Staff

posted in Got a question?

Error when generating ZBF for Lumerical

ZBF is file describing a beam's 2D energy distribution exported by Physical Optics Propagation (POP) in OpticStudio. This file can be further imported to Lumerical to do further simulation. When importing th ZBF to Lumerical, users might see an error shows as below: 'Error: the file data had unacceptable values.'   In this case, it means the ZBF doesn't include electric field information (Ex, Ey). We can generate a ZBF with eletric field information by (1) Check the 'Use Polarization' in POP. (2) Go to System Explorer, uncheck 'Unpolarized' and set up an polarization. It's suggested to run POP twice for X and Y polarizied beams to fully consider both polarization.

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