Kotalpa - 家长里短

I am currently a PhD student working with ultrafast (femtosecond) lasers in Germany, and I am in the process of teaching myself optical engineering. One challenge I’ve been facing is how to properly validate designs created in sequential mode, especially when dealing with laser-based systems. I haven’t found many practical resources that bridge this gap using non-sequential modeling with realistic laser examples, which is why your book immediately stood out to me.

Given my background, beginner to intermediate experience with Zemax OpticStudio and SolidWorks, my goal is to develop into a well-rounded optical engineer, capable of both optical system design and mechanical integration.

From your perspective, what would be the best way to approach your book to get the most out of it? Are there specific chapters, workflows, or exercises you would recommend focusing on, particularly for someone working with laser systems?

Thank you very much for your time, and I appreciate any guidance you can offer.

南半球夜猫 - 05/12/26 09:38

👍

二泉映月 - 05/11/26 07:01

Hi Omar:
You are right that there is no a simple and straightforward way to model laser beams passing through optical systems. A software named GLAD is the best aoftware for this task, but few people have access to this software.
Zemax non-sequentail mode (ZNSM) can well model far field laser beams,
In the near field, if the aberration is much larger than diffraction limit (low beam quality), ZNSM can still be used. If beam quality is not good, manual calculation need to be used to model the beams. If you are not sure the beam quality, you need to do do both ZNSM and manual calculation and compare the results. If no apparent differences, the beam quality is good, then ZNSM can be safely used. Otherwise, manual calculation results should be used for near field.
Gaussian beam optics needs to be used for manual calculation. Gaussian beam optics is pretty simple. Being fluent in Gaussian beam optics can be very helpful. The book you bought now does not talk much about Gaussian beam optics, section 5.3 touches a little. There are several other books do, including another book of mine on optical engineering, which devoted a whole chapter on Gaussian optics. You can goole search optical engineering book with my name to find this book. This book has less theories than other optical engineering books, are more practical, and can help you to become a well rounded optical engineer.

二泉映月 - 05/11/26 07:54

Thank you very much for your detailed and insightful response.

Your explanation clarified an important point for me, especially the need to combine ZNSM with Gaussian beam optics and manual calculations when working in the near field. This gives me a much clearer direction on how to validate my designs more rigorously.

Thank you again for taking the time to share your advice. I truly appreciate it.

Omar

家长里短

现在有时会有年轻人来提问，我尽量解答