Friday 23 October 2015

resource recommendations - Software for geometrical optics



Is there any good software for construction optical path's in geometrical optics. More specifically I want features like:




  • draw $k \in \mathbb{N}$ objects $K_1,\dots,K_n$ with indices of refraction $n_1,\dots,n_k$ and light sources $l \in \mathbb{N}$ light sources $L_1,\dots,L_l$





    • define some light sources (or just light rays) and the program constructs the optical path of those rays through $K_1,\dots,K_n$.




    • define a point and the program constructs the optical path between the light sources and the given point






  • draw some specific optical elements like lenses, (concave, convex) mirrors and do things like above





  • construct automatically virtual images



  • 3D drawings would be fine


I would prefer free software for linux.



Answer



The industrial tool is zemax; however, it is very expensive.


If you just want to make diagrams, the TeX package pst-optics might do the trick.



In the gaussian beam regime, optocad (free) is a tool often used in the laser interferometer gravitational wave detector community.


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