Tutorials & Case Studies
Beginner Tutorials
Thin-film tutorials: optical principles, simulation validation, and basic design
This series is for beginners in thin-film optics. It starts with an antireflection coating on bare glass, then moves through mirrors, filters, beamsplitters, absorption analysis, and phase measurements. Each tutorial combines optical principles, software operation, and result interpretation around one practical result.
Read the tutorials in this order: reflectance, transmittance, and beam splitting → absorption and depth distribution → phase, dispersion, and ellipsometry.
Reflectance, Transmittance, and Beam Splitting
- Your First Thin-Film Design: From Bare Glass to Broadband AR
- A Mirror Made of Transparent Materials: Design a 99% DBR
- Select One Color Between Two Mirrors: A Fabry–Pérot Narrowband Filter
- How Do Thickness Errors Shift a Filter? Fabry–Pérot Sensitivity Analysis
- Split One Beam into Equal Halves: Design a 45° 50/50 Dielectric Beamsplitter
- Separate Blue-Green and Red Light: Design a 45° Dichroic Beamsplitter
- Are More Layers Better? Comparing Dichroic Performance and Structural Cost
Absorption and Depth Distribution
- Which Layer Absorbs the Light? Analyze and Optimize an a-Si Thin-Film Solar Cell
- Why Does the Optimized a-Si Cell Absorb More Light? Electric Field, Energy Flow, and Absorption Density
Phase, Dispersion, and Ellipsometry
- Effect of a Fabry–Pérot Filter on a Short Pulse: Phase, Delay, and Broadening
- How Do Ψ and Δ Reveal Thin-Film Changes? An Introduction to Ellipsometry
The table below summarizes the focus, optical principles, and software work for each tutorial.
| Project | Optical principles | Software skills |
|---|---|---|
| Broadband AR | Fresnel reflection, optical thickness, destructive interference | Structure, Optics, R/T, optimization |
| DBR mirror | Quarter-wave periodic stack, constructive interference, stopband | Layer Group, repeat count, spectral validation |
| Fabry–Pérot filter | Multiple-beam interference, resonance, linewidth | Mirror-symmetric ordering, fine wavelength step, FWHM |
| Fabry–Pérot sensitivity | Cavity thickness, reflection phase, peak shift | Fine-step Sweep, peak, FWHM, Q |
| 45° 50/50 beamsplitter | Target reflectance, oblique phase, polarization averaging | Point target, s/p and angle Sweep |
| 45° dichroic | Oblique incidence, s/p splitting, multi-objective trade-offs | Two-band targets, bounds, polarization checks |
| Dichroic trade-off | Pair count, band trade-offs, polarization splitting | Candidate optimization, bounds, total-thickness comparison |
| a-Si thin-film solar cell | Complex index, useful and parasitic absorption | R/T/A, Layer Absorption, Sweep, optimization |
| a-Si depth distribution | Standing waves, energy-flow decay, local absorption | Electric Field, Poynting Vector, Absorption Density |
| Fabry–Pérot dispersion | Transmission phase, group delay, group-delay dispersion | Phase, GD, GDD, trusted wavelength range |
| SiO₂ / Si ellipsometry | p/s amplitude ratio, phase difference, thickness sensitivity | Ψ, Δ, thickness Sweep |
After completing these tutorials, continue to Case Studies and apply the same methods to published devices and more complex coatings.