This article explains

• How to set up a fiber coupling system
• How to use paraxial Gaussian beam calculations
• How to use the single-mode fiber coupling calculation
• How to use the Physical Optics fiber coupling calculation
• How to account for reflection losses and material absorption

The article is accompanied by a ZIP archive containing the sample ZEMAX files used. This can be downloaded from the final page of the article.

This article is also available in Japanese.

This tutorial illustrates how to convert information from ZEMAX into RSoft’s propagation software and back. This can be useful for multi-stage cases in which one part of the system is a bulk optical system, and a waveguide in others. In this example, we will look at the coupling from a focusing lens into a small silica fiber.

We will first create output information from ZEMAX and then convert these files into field files that can be used for a BPM propagation. The result will be that ZEMAX is used to propagate a Gaussian complex amplitude through a bulk optical system, and focus it at the input face of a single mode fiber. The resulting complex amplitude is then imported into RSoft software and propagated through the fiber. The resulting data can then be read back into ZEMAX if needed.

This article demonstrates the use of the Geometrical Image Analysis feature to compute multi mode fiber coupling efficiency. The sample files can be downloaded from the last page of this article.

ZEMAX now supports the input of mode field data from Optiwave's OptiBPM and OptiFiber codes. This makes it easy to improve the accuracy of fiber and waveguide coupler designs using Physical Optics in ZEMAX, by providing more accurate input data. This article gives several examples.

This article is also available in Japanese.