Question

Modeling a shear plate


Userlevel 3

I have a fiber output which is collimated by a simple PCX lens.  I check the beam collimation with a shear plate.

I’d like to model this using POP but I’m not sure it’s possible?  Seems like I would need non-sequential mode to account for the splitting. 

Or is it possible another way, maybe using the Huygens integral in NSQ?


4 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +3

You’re right. Use a shear plate in non-sequential mode to get shear fringes. Sequential mode gives you the wavefront directly.

Userlevel 3

But what about diffraction? It's a gaussian beam...

Userlevel 7
Badge +3

Well, a shear plate is just an experimental method to view the wavefront. POP lets you look at the phase of the wavefront including diffraction directly, you don’t need a model shear plate to see it.

Userlevel 3

True but I need to do a sensitivity analysis of how well collimated the beam is, based on the fringe pattern seen.  In other words how good does the fringe pattern need to be to get “good” collimation.  

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