Speaker
Description
Traditional propagation calculations in photonics textbooks and courses pose a daunting task for beginners. The angular spectrum method is a complex numerical calculation that requires knowledge of 2D Fast-Fourier Transorms (FFTs) and their inverses, additionally it lacks physical insight into the nature of propagation making it relatively complicated for many students to fully grasp. The need to develop an approach to model this fundamental calculation in an easy-to-understand-and-apply manner is crucial to the growth of educational resources in photonics. We, therefore, developed an intuitive and instructive method to propagate arbitrary optical fields from a modal perspective allowing for a clear, fast and comprehensive calculation. We decompose an initial field at the plane z = 0 into an appropriate basis with a known z-dependent propagation function. Each basis element in the decomposition can be propagated analytically, and therefore, so too can the entire initial field which may not have any known analytical propagation rule. To illustrate the ease of implementation and accuracy of the approach, we compare it to the numerical angular spectrum approach, showing excellent agreement, and then validate the method by experiment. We believe that this approach is a powerful and intuitive resource for educational institutions specialising in optics and photonics.
Level for award;(Hons, MSc, PhD, N/A)?
PhD
| Apply to be considered for a student ; award (Yes / No)? | Yes |
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