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Hello,

I’m trying to simulate the movement of a laser beam by tilting an element (e.g. a mirror). I’d like to see the movement of the beam on the target with a physical simulation where diffraction is considered (like the image shown below). 

I tried to use FFT PSF, POP and Extended Diffraction Image Analysis. However, none of these show the beam movement while tilting the mirror.

I wonder what would be a proper tool, or how I can set up these tools to achieve this task? 

 

Thanks,

Sean

Hey Sean,

The POP array is always centered on the chief ray, so as the chief ray moves the array will move with it. This means you can’t make an animation of the beam moving over the array. (0,0) of the array is always on the chief ray, and you can’t make the beam ‘walk off’ the data array.

You’d have to do something outside of OS, sadly, It’s easy enough to get the chief ray position and some external program could shift the data such that you get the visualization you want

  • Mark

Thank you, Mark, for the quick reply. Post-processing outside of OS works for me as long as I know the centre of the array.

Sean


Hey Sean, if you can use the FFT PSF, try the Huygens PSF.  The FFT PSF is calculated in Pupil space but the Huygens PSF is calculated in Image space.  There is not an option in the GUI settings to center on the Vertex, but the Center Coordinates are reported for each calculation so you can use Python to re-center the Huygens PSF on the image vertex (if you feel adventurous, you could even use the PLOT2D with the ZPL to recenter the Huygens PSF).

 


The chief ray coordinates are also listed at the beginning of the Prop Report.  Here’s an example from the “Aplanatic Lens.ZMX” sample model.

 

Regards,

Jeff


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