So that you can focus on the specific modeling capabilities introduced by this article, please download the attached non-sequential ZEMAX file on the last page of this article:

FILE:  “Dichroic_BS_Start.ZMX”

This starting point includes a Source Ellipse, a Standard Lens (to model the plate beam splitter) and two Detector Rectangles (one to characterize the pass band and one to characterize the stop band):


Illustration of NSC 3D Layout showing starting point

Observe from the System » General dialog that:

  • The lens units for this system have already been set to inches

Units tab of General dialog

  • The Minimum Relative Ray Intensity has been set to 1E-2 (indicating that rays will only be traced if they have at least 1% of the energy that they had originally)

    Non-Sequential tab of General dialog showing energy thresholds

The Wavelength Data dialog indicates that the two wavelengths of interest have been assigned to this system:

Wavelength Data dialog

There are no coatings yet assigned to the plate beam splitter. That will be our focus in this example.