This article introduces prospective and new ZEMAX users to the Physical Optics Propagation capabilities of ZEMAX including:

• Anamorphic beams
• Fiber coupling
• Gibbs phenomenon
• Spatial filters
• Complex optics
• Beam File Viewer

Sometimes, manufacturers provide Gaussian beam data as FWHM measurements.  This article describes how to convert FWHM measurements to 1 over e squared measurements, which are used by ZEMAX.

This article is also available in Japanese.

This article explains how to compute the effective width of an arbitrary POP beam.

This article is also available in Japanese.

This article demonstrates:

• How to model several passes through an unstable optical resonator
• How to apply soft-edged apertures to a laser beam
• How to use beam resampling
• How to model adjustment errors

A zip file containing sample files can be downloaded from the last page of this article.

This article explains how to sum two physical optics propagation results using *.ZBF beamfile-related macro keywords.

This article is also available in Japanese.

This article describes how to model an unusual surface - in this case an imaging slicing mirror - by using the user-defined surface capability of ZEMAX. In addition, Physical Optics propagation is also used to compute cross-talk between channels.

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.

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.