Sequential Surfaces
ZEMAX-EE supports the following additional surfaces:
| Type |
Description |
| Birefringent Surface |
Models uniaxial crystal polarization components |
| Jones Matrix |
Models idealized polarization components |
| Non-sequential components |
Allows non-sequential objects and ray-tracing to be used in an otherwise sequential system. Ideal for prism modeling or incorporating CAD objects inside a sequential ray trace model |
| NURBS |
Radial and Toroidal NURBS surfaces for freeform optical design |
| Optically Fabricated Hologram |
Comprehensive modeling of optically fabricated holograms, in which two separate optical systems illuminate a common variable-line-space grating, which is then read out by a third optical system. Allows simultaneous optimization and tolerancing of the construction and playback opticla systems. |
| User-defined surfaces |
A powerful capability to write surfaces that are not built-into ZEMAX. Several samples are provided, as examples of how to write such surfaces, and these can also be used just like a built-in surface. The supplied user-defined surfaces include:
Lens Arrays (rotationally symmetric and cylinder lenses)
Filter surfaces to modulate a surface's transmission
Gradient Index surfaces
|
Polarization Ray-Tracing
| Polarization Analysis |
Polarization state evolution
Polarization ellipse pupil map
System transmission
Thin-Film Coating reflection, transmission, absorption , phase, retardance and diattenuation
Polarization aberrations
System transmission fans
Optimization operands
|
| Thin-film coatings |
Defined by coating prescription
Dielectric and metallic coatings and layers
Replicated stacks of coatings
Automatic reversal of coating layer order at air/glass, glass/air interfaces
Defined by table of performance
IDEAL coating for simple listing of coating performance |
Physical Optics
| Beam Modelling |
User defined beam definition including TEMx,y, truncated TEMx,y, top hat, multi-mode, table data and DLL
All beams separable in x and y for cylindrical systems
Imports OptiWave file format |
| Propagation Methods |
Fresnel diffraction, angular spectrum, user selected or automatic
Phase reference to best fit sphere, plane, automatic or user selected
Beams may be propagated through any refractive, reflective, diffractive or gradient index surface
Beams may strike a surface at any angle |
| Analysis |
Irradiance plots
Phase plots
M2, effective width, best-fit Gaussian
Encircled Energy plots
Fiber Coupling
Supports Polarization
Surface, contour, false color, greyscale or cross section plots and text listings
Diffraction based fiber coupling; arbitrary fiber modes supported; support for OptiWave file format |
| Optimization, tolerancing |
Fully supported |
Non-Sequential Ray-Tracing
| General Capabilities |
3D optics placement in a global coordinate system, with optional linking of object positions
Unlimited number of sources, objects, detectors, rays, etc
Monte-Carlo ray-tracing
Ray splitting
Ray scattering
Full polarization and thin-film modeling
Saving of ray trace results to database for subsequent analysis
Radiometric and photometric units
|
| Geometric Objects |
Fully parametric models of lenses, aspheric lenses, lightpipes, Fresnel lenses, prisms, triangles, rectangles, ellipses, cones, cylinders, pipes, torus, surfaces, compound parabolic concentrators, diffarctive optics, holograms, Zernike, etc
Polygonal objects defined by data file
Objects can be imported from CAD programs in IGES, STEP, SAT, or STL format
User-defined objects via dll interface
ZEMAX-EE includes a large library of predefined prisms. These objects may be scaled to any size, then placed anywhere. Most common prisms, such as right, dove, roof, penta, pechan, and many others are included.
Objects may be multiply nested, or in contact (glued), or straddle
Media may be arbitrary glass, gradient index, absorbing, reflecting, scattering, or diffracting
Thin film coatings may be placed on any face of any object, or between any objects
|
| Geometry Creation |
Geometric Objects may be transformed with Boolean operations, made into arrays of objects, or swept about arbitrary points
|
| Gradient Index |
Any solid volume may be GRIN
GRIN media completely arbitrary, user definable
GRIN's may be nested inside other GRIN's or voids |
Diffractive Optics
|
Multiple orders may be traced simultaneously
Relative energy in each order user defined
Phase profile may be standard or user defined
Most objects may have diffractive faces |
| Source Objects |
Fully parametric models of point, diode, elliptical, rectangular, filament, volume, and surface sources
Import of IES®, Radiant SourceTM , Opsira® measured source data
Ray-trace results may be saved and used as a source
Sources may be defined from ASCII or binary datafiles
User-defined sources via dll interface
Any geometric object may be used as a source
All sources have user-definable polarization
All sources have user-definable coherence length
All sources support Monte-Carlo sampling
Most sources support Sobol sampling
Reverse ray-tracing supported for all sources
|
| Detector Objects |
Rectangular detector objects
Curved detector objects
Most geometric objects can be used as detectors
Any faceted object may be a detector
Detector data may be viewed “in place” on layout plots
|
| Ray Splitting |
Rays striking surfaces may split into multiple rays
Split rays may split again and again
Controls on ray energy and number of splits
Rays split with correct energy
Polarization and thin film coatings accounted for
|
Ray Scattering
|
Specular, Gaussian, Lambertian scattering
ABg model scattering for BTDF/BRDF data
Multiple rays may be split and scattered off
Bulk scattering inside volumes
Arbitrary scattering data defined in a catalog
Conservation of energy automatically enforced
|
Ray Database
|
Rays traced may be saved in a file
Rays may be filtered using a complex query
Only rays which pass the query are displayed
Paths for any scattered ray may be recreated |
The definitive list is maintained in the User's Guide which is included as part of the download of the current ZEMAX version.
|