OPTx42_simulator

Optical simulator for teaching of aberrations, interferometry, and optical testing (University of Rochester courses OPT 242 and OPT 442)

This simulation GUI is used to aid in the teaching of aberrations, interferometry, and optical testing. It was developed for courses at the University of Rochester's Institute of Optics, specifically for undergraduate-level OPT 242 and graduate-level OPT 442 (Instrumental Optics).

The GUI interface allows users to input aberration / wavefront coefficients as either primary Seidel aberrations or fringe Zernike coefficients. The GUI then offers a variety of displays:

Wavefront aberration visualization: Wavefront surface maps, wavefront color maps, wavefront lineouts (sagittal and tangential fans)

Transverse ray error visualization: Ray intercept plots, spot diagrams

Imaging system performance: Point Spread Functions, MTF (2D color plot or lineouts along positive fx and fy axes)

Interferometry: Single-pass or double-pass 2-beam interferometers (e.g. Fizeau, Mach-Zehnder, Twyman-Green interferometers), lateral shearing interferometer (shear plate testing)

Non-interferometric testing: Shack-Hartmann spot simulator, Foucault knife-edge and wire testing