@Ying

Q: Is POP used for sequential mode or non-sequential mode or both? 

A: POP is mainly a Sequential tool. It’s not available in Non-Sequential mode. The Fresnel propagation method used by POP is not suitable for computing the effects of propagation through arbitrary NSC surfaces. You can read a bit more on this limitation in the help file at The Analyze Tab (sequential ui mode) > Laser and Fibers Group > About Physical Optics Propagation > Propagating Through Non-sequential Surfaces.

-Hui

Hi Brian ,

Q: Does Lumerical allow import of thin film design files from TFCalc or Optilayer? / What about fiber tip coatings?

A: I am not familiar with these file formats, and I don’t believe that design files from these tools can be automatically imported.  That being said there are general methods of reading in text, json, or csv files, so it should be possible. Also for your information Lumerical offers similar tools for designing coatings - STACK optical solver. For fiber tip coating simulation you may want to use Lumerical FDTD or EME, which are 3D full wave solvers.

Hi Ofir,

Q: Is ZBf format compatible with .txt? What is the basis for the ZBF file...ray positions and angles...? could you elaborate? How do the rays at the output of the sequential portion (just prior to entering the fiber) define the gaussian beam profile defined by the POP tool? could you elaborate on this..? trying to understand the POP input/output…

A: The ZBF file supports both Binary format and Text format. You can find a detailed description in our help file at The Analyze Tab (sequential ui mode) > Laser and Fibers Group > About Physical Optics Propagation > Defining the Initial Beam > File (defining the initial beam) > Zemax Beam File (ZBF) text format.

The ZBF file stores the electric field information Ex(x,y), Ey(x,y) on a given surface. Unlike the NSC Source File that stores the rayset info such as ray starting position and direction cosines, the ZBF file describes the beam using its electric field distribution or its mode on a give surface. For example, to model an ideal Gaussian beam that has a waist size of 5 um, you can set it up like below in POP. You can save this beam profile into a ZBF file. In that file it’ll record electric field distribution for every sampling point on this surface. 

POP is the wave model of beam propagation. It uses scalar diffraction theory. For near field POP uses Angular Spectrum Propagation and for far field POP uses Fresnel diffraction propagation. As for how to create your own ZBF file, we have a forum post describing it at How to manually create a ZBF file.

-Hui

Hello Salah,

Q: How are insertion loss and return loss handled? / How are backreflections and intereference from output optics to input optics handled,  / How are imperfections in optical surfaces and components handled?

A: When using OpticStudio POP to model beam propagation, if you check the Use Polarization box in the POP\General tab, the Fresnel reflection loss at each air/glass interface will be included in the modeling. 

About your second question, POP lives in OpticStudio Sequential mode. This means in POP the beam will follow a single sequence of path as pre-defined in a single configuration in the Lens Data Editor. For POP to handle multiple beam interference, you will need to first model each beam path individually and save the results into a ZBF file, then use ZBFSUM to coherently sum multiple beams to model their interference.

As for the imperfections in optical surfaces and components, this can be handled via Tolerance study in OpticStudio. Tolerance is OpticStudio’s way to systematically introduce manufacturing and assembly error into your design and study performance degradation and manufacturing yield of the as-built system. This can significantly improve product’s time to market.