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Fiber Optics Software

RP Fiber Calculator – a convenient tool for calculations on optical fibers:

• Define index or doping profiles with the graphical user interface.
• Calculate the guided modes and all their properties.

• Calculate how much power of a laser beam is launched into the modes.
• Simulate light propagation within the fiber and coupling of light from one fiber to another.

The basic version of this software is offered for free!

RP Fiber Power – the versatile Fiber Optics Software

An Amazing Tool

This amazing tool is extremely helpful for the development of passive and active fiber devices.

Watch our quick video tour!

Single-mode and Multi­mode Fibers

Calculate mode properties such as

• amplitude distributions (near field and far field)
• effective mode area
• effective index
• group delay and chromatic dispersion

Also calculate fiber coupling efficiencies; simulate effects of bending, nonlinear self-focusing or gain guiding on beam propagation, higher-order soliton propagation, etc.

Arbitrary Index Profiles

A fiber's index profile may be more complicated than just a circle:

Here, we "printed" some letters, translated this into an index profile and initial optical field, propagated the light over some distance and plotted the output field – all automated with a little script code.

Fiber Couplers, Double-clad Fibers, Multicore Fibers, …

Simulate pump absorption in double-clad fibers, study beam propagation in fiber couplers, light propagation in tapered fibers, analyze the impact of bending, cross-saturation effects in amplifiers, leaky modes, etc.

Fiber Amplifiers

For example, calculate

• gain and saturation characteristics (for continuous or pulsed operation)
• energy transfers in erbium-ytterbium-doped amplifier fibers
• influence of quenching effects, amplified spontaneous emission etc.

in single amplifier stages or in multi-stage amplifier systems, with double-clad fibers, etc.

Fiber-optic Telecom Systems

For example,

• analyze dispersive and nonlinear signal distortions
• investigate the impact of amplifier noise
• optimize nonlinear management and the placement of amplifiers

Find out in detail what is going on in such a system!

Fiber Lasers

For example, analyze and optimize the

• power conversion efficiency
• wavelength tuning range
• Q switching dynamics
• femtosecond pulse generation with mode locking

for lasers based on double-clad fiber, with linear or ring resonator, etc.

Ultrafast Fiber Lasers and Amplifiers

For example, study

• pulse formation mechanisms
• impact of nonlinearities and chromatic dispersion
• parabolic pulse amplification
• feedback sensitivity
• supercontinuum generation

Apply any sequence of elements to your pulses!

… and even Bulk Devices

For example, study

• Q switching dynamics
• mode-locking behavior
• impact of nonlinearities and chromatic dispersion
• influence of a saturable absorber
• chirped-pulse amplification
• regenerative amplification

RP Fiber Power is an extremely versatile tool!

Mode Solver

For example, calculate

• amplitude and intensity profiles
• effective mode areas
• cut-off wavelengths
• propagation constants
• group velocities
• chromatic dispersion

All this is calculated with high efficiency!

Beam Propagation

Propagate optical field with arbitrary wavefronts through fibers. These may be asymmetric, bent, tapered, exhibit random disturbances, etc.

See our demo video for numerical beam propagation.

Laser-active Ions

Work with the standard gain model, or define your own level scheme!

Can include different ions, energy transfers, upconversion and quenching effects, complicated pumping schemes, etc.

Multiple Pump and Signal Waves, ASE

Define multiple pump and signal waves and many ASE channels – each one with its own transverse intensity profile, loss coefficient etc.

The power calculations are highly efficient and reliable.

Simple Use and High Flexibility Combined

For simpler tasks, use convenient forms:

Script code is automatically generated and can then be modified by the user. A powerful script language gives you an unparalleled flexibility!

High-quality Documentation and Competent Support

The carefully prepared comprehensive documentation includes a PDF manual and an interactive online help system.

Competent technical support is provided: the developer himself will help you and make sure that any problem is solved!

Our support is like included technical consulting.

Boost your competence, efficiency and creativity!

• Stop fishing in the dark! Develop a clear quantitative understanding of your devices.
• Explore the effects of possible design changes on your desk.
• That way, get most efficient in the lab.
• Find optimized solutions efficiently, minimizing time to market.
• Get new ideas by playing with your models.

Efficiency and success of
R & D are not a matter of chance.

Evolution of the spectrum of an ultrashort pulse in a fiber. The spectrum becomes very wide at the right end; this is called supercontinuum generation.

This diagram has been made with the RP Fiber Power software.

Pulse energy from a regenerative amplifier, when the number of resonator round-trips per amplification cycle is varied. Such instabilities (involving several bifurcations) can be well studied with a numerical model.

This diagram has been made with the RP Fiber Power software.

Intensity distribution in a fiber at megawatt power levels. The Kerr nonlinearity destabilizes the initially launched LP₁₁ mode.

This diagram has been made with the RP Fiber Power software.

Intensity evolution of the LP₁₁ mode in a tapered fiber. In the tapered region, most of the light is lost into the fiber cladding

This diagram has been made with the RP Fiber Power software.

Evolution of output power and gain when an Yb-doped fiber laser is switched on. One can see the relaxation oscillations, with convergence towards the steady state. Each red or gray segment corresponds to 0.2 μs.

This diagram has been made with the RP Fiber Power software.

Evolution of the intensity pattern of pump light in a double-clad fiber. After some distance, the pump absorption in the fiber core leads to a "hole" in the pump light pattern.

This diagram has been made with the RP Fiber Power software.

Resonator Design Software

RP Resonator – an extremely flexible resonator design software:

• script-based definition of resonator structures: arbitrary parametrization
• calculate all mode properties of interest
• analyze alignment sensitivities
• automatic optimization with user-defined figure of merit
• generation of arbitrary plots

Further features:

• comprehensive documentation (PDF and online)
• competent technical support

Use RP Resonator to drive your resonator design capabilities to perfection!

Thin-film Optics Software

RP Coating is a most versatile software for thin-film design. Analyze and optimize a wide range of devices:

• dielectric mirrors, including dichroic and dispersive mirrors
• AR coatings
• filters (including rugate filters)
• thin-film polarizers
• VECSELs

Further features:

• extreme flexibility due to scripting: arbitrary parametrization e.g. of chirped layer structures, definition of arbitrary figure of merits for numerical optimization, generation of arbitrary plots
• comprehensive documentation (PDF and online)
• competent technical support

Use RP Coating to quickly become a thin-film expert!

Color-coded reflectivity of a Bragg mirror as a function of wavelength and angle of the incident beam.

This diagram has been made with the RP Coating software.

Color-coded field penetration in a Bragg mirror as a function of wavelength.

This diagram has been made with the RP Coating software.

Color-coded field penetration in an etalon structure as a function of wavelength.

This diagram has been made with the RP Coating software.

Evolution of the reflectivity spectrum of a Bragg mirror during fabrication.

This diagram has been made with the RP Coating software.

A femtosecond pulse hits a Gires--Tournois interferometer (GTI).

This diagram has been made with the RP Coating software.

Field penetration into a rugate filter.

This diagram has been made with the RP Coating software.

Numerical Pulse Propagation

RP ProPulse can simulate pulse propagation in many devices:

• in the resonators of actively or passively mode-locked lasers
• in synchronously pumped OPOs
• in optical fibers, e.g. for pulse compression or soliton studies

Further features:

• interactive pulse display
• great flexibility due to scripting
• comprehensive documentation
• competent technical support

Use RP ProPulse to acquire a full understanding of your devices!

Evolution of the spectrum of a third-order soliton pulse.

This diagram has been made with the RP ProPulse software.

Numerical Modeling

Developing devices or systems in photonics requires a comprehensive quantitative understanding – otherwise, it becomes inefficient, waisting time and money.

Numerical modeling is often the most efficient way towards results:

• understand quantitatively how optical power is converted, how high intensities are or need to be, etc.
• check the influence of design changes or possible detrimental effects
• understand strange experimental observations
• find optimized designs more reliably and faster

How to Get Your Modeling Done?

You can either do it yourself, using our powerful simulation software, or use competent technical consultancy.

Note: software from RP Photonics comes with competent technical support – consultancy is included!

Laser Design Services

The quality of a laser product is largely determined by its design and not just by the used parts.

Developing a good design requires a high technical competence and experience. Dr. Paschotta from RP Photonics offers can greatly help by

• analyzing and amending our design goals, and working out complete design specifications
• identifying the best suited technology (e.g. bulk or fiber laser)
• working out a solid design, often based on numerical modeling
• identifying possible problems early on, which allows for efficient solutions
• giving you further advice as needed when you test your prototypes

Note: with a trial-and-error approach you may waste a lot of time and resources. (Also consider time to market!) Therefore, competent help is the key for cost-efficient and lower-risk developments.

You may also involve us only if you got into trouble, but coming earlier is usually better.

Technical Writing

In the laser and photonics industry, there is a lot to write:

• A clearly written user manual belongs to every high-quality product.
• A research proposal (e.g., for an SBIR project) needs to be convincing in all respects.
• Venture capital firms need to be properly informed on the developed technology, its potentials and limitations, competing approaches, etc.

Get competent help!

You may try to write yourself, but keep in mind that involving a top expert such as Dr. Paschotta from RP Photonics can have many advantages:

• He is most experienced in writing, producing high-quality documents efficiently.
• He may bring in new perspectives and ideas.
• You save time which you can spend on other things.

Just contact RP Photonics to find out what we can do for you!

Evaluation of Technologies

In the laser and photonics industry, it is often essential to obtain competent evaluations of certain technologies:

• A CTO of a laser company needs to know whether some new technical idea is worthwhile pursuing. Maybe there are some hidden problems?
• A user of lasers is told about a great new laser architecture – but will it really serve her needs?
• Venture capital firms need to find out what the potentials and limitations of certain technologies are. We call that applying due diligence.

Get help!

Involving a top expert such as Dr. Paschotta into technology evaluations can have many advantages:

• He has a good overview on many technologies and their potentials and limitations.
• His analytic mind allows him to develop a balanced perspective, taking into account all relevant aspects.
• He is well trained in writing useful reports.
• He may bring in new perspectives and ideas.

Just contact RP Photonics to find out what we can do for you!

Independent Advice on Products

If you buy things like laser crystals, optical fibers or whole laser systems, many questions can arise:

• What length and doping level should I choose?
• What is the best suited material?
• How do these product specifications relate to my requirements?

Get help!

You need an expert

• who is technically very competent,
• who takes care to analyze your needs,
• who can identify possibly critical issues,
• and who gives you impartial advice, not influenced by possible commissions, for example.

This is one of the offers of RP Photonics. Such work costs something, but far less than what you can waste by buying the wrong things. Just contact us before making critical purchase decisions!

Encyclopedia of Laser Physics and Technology

You know this famous encyclopedia from our website. This is a free service of RP Photonics to the worldwide photonics community.

The encyclopedia is also available as a two-volume print version. Don't you think that it would deserve a place in your institute or group library?

Click on the image to get to Wiley-VCH, were you can order the book.

RP Photonics Buyer's Guide

On our website, you find not only the famous encyclopedia, but also the RP Photonics Buyer's Guide:

• Find suppliers for many hundreds of photonics products.
• Enjoy high-quality product information (checked listings) and the convenient user interface.
• Use high-quality technical information of the encyclopedia nearby.
• Be assured that your privacy is respected.

Is it actually surprising that you find the best buyer's guide at the same place as the best photonics information source?

Photonics Newsletters --
get high quality information,
not the usual advertisements!

You have too little time for reading all kinds of newsletters? You are tired of the common ad distribution? Sure – but what we offer is different:

• The Photonics Spotlight presents high-quality information on technical and scientific aspects of laser technology and general photonics.
• The RP Photonics Software News present news and useful hints on software – for example, about the use and application of our software products, new features, updates and upgrades, and on algorithms.

We won't flood you with e-mails!

Our newsletters appear only about once per month, and they carry valuable information. You will not regret to register!

Interesting Articles

We offer a huge selection of interesting articles on laser technology and photonics. Some examples:

• What makes a good physics model?
• Shortages of rare earth materials – a problem for photonics?
• Mediation in disputes on laser technology
• Avoiding trouble with laser specifications
• Beam quality limit for multimode fibers
• Frequency doubling and the reverse process
• Conflicting definitions of s and p polarization
• Femtosecond fiber amplifiers: unlimited peak power?
• Far from maturity: the photonics industry
• Tutorial on passive fiber optics
• Tutorial on fiber amplifiers

Most of these articles belong to our newsletters, which appear about once per month. You will not regret to register!

Another idea: select a random article from the Encyclopedia of Laser Physics and Technology!

Shortages of rare earth materials – a problem for photonics?

Photonics heavily depends on the supply of rare earth materials in various areas – think of laser crystals, active fibers and LEDs, for example. It is hard to see how such things could be done without rare earth materials. And those have recently been subject to enormous price increases and were even involved in a trade war.

Is that now a reason for serious concerns in the area of photonics? Do we need to undertake serious recycling efforts? Our Photonics Spotlight article analyzes the situation.

Receiving the Photonics Spotlight via our newsletter might be a good idea …

How to Fight Fraud in Science?

We occasionally read about scientific fraud – things like fabricated or manipulated measurement results – which is utterly unfair and also undermines the trust of the public in science and its results.

How to fight that problem?

• Do we need to tell young scientists more clearly that fraud is evil?
• Do supervisors have to stop trusting the results of their coworkers?
• Does the pressure to produce results inevitably favor fraud?
• Where exactly lies the responsibility, if something goes wrong?

Unfortunately, the discussion of fraud often misses essential aspects. Our Photonics Spotlight article on science fraud digs deeper. It suggests that the risk of fraud is close to zero where supervisors do a responsible job. Relations to a more widespread problem – corrupt authorship practices – are also identified.

Trouble with Specifications

Specifications for lasers and other photonics products are essential for the process of buying such things. Nevertheless, many do not properly deal with them:

• Many product specifications by suppliers lack quality – they are incomplete, not sufficiently clear, etc.
• Buyers are often not aware of what they really need. For example, they forget essential requirements.

Various problems can arise:

• Due to a lack of clarity, tedious communications between supplier and buyer are required.
• Product specifications raise expectations which cannot be met.
• Conflicts can arise over such issues.

Our Photonics Spotlight article and our encyclopedia article on laser specifications give you important hints. In case of doubt, contact RP Photonics to get competent and impartial advice.

Tutorials on Fiber Optics

See our comprehensive fiber optics tutorials:

Passive Fiber Optics:

• guiding light in single-mode and multimode fibers
• fiber ends and joints, propagation and coupling losses
• couplers and splitters
• polarization issues, chromatic dispersion, nonlinearities, pulse propagation
• fiber accessories and tools

Fiber Amplifiers:

• laser-active dopants, gain and pump absorption
• double-clad fibers, pulse amplification
• ASE, noise issues, multi-stage amplifiers

Two very comprehensive and useful resources!

Business Disputes

Occasionally, serious disputes arise, e.g. when a company purchases a laser from some supplier. Conflicting views may occur concerning questions as:

• Is the beam quality consistent with the somewhat vague specifications?
• Is it normal that the laser pulses exhibit substantial timing jitter?
• Should it be considered as acceptable that the laser stays within specifications only if its alignment is optimized quite often by the user?

Mediation

Going to court is usually the last thing you want to do – but how else to resolve a conflict?

Mediation is a much more attractive approach. Only, you need to find a mediator

• who fully understands the technical matters, and
• who can be trusted to be impartial and fair.

Dr. Paschotta from RP Photonics offers such services. Your chance is to reach a fair resolution with far less time and money than at court.

See also our Spotlight article on this matter.

Staff Training

Up-to-date technical know-how is the key to success in modern photonics. RP Photonics offers high quality training courses at your location:

• Courses on basic, intermediate or advanced topics – exactly tailored to your needs and already existing knowledge.
• Boost the competence of your whole team within just a few days!
• Use the opportunity to ask all the questions you have been carrying around.
• Stimulate new ideas, motivate the whole team and establish a potentially vital contact with the instructor, a top expert in the field.

Your Course Instructor

Dr. Paschotta from RP Photonics

• is known as a top expert in laser technology, fiber optics and nonlinear optics,
• can explain complicated things in helpful ways,
• analyzes and addresses your needs, and
• is a highly respected and trustworthy partner.

Could there be a better investment for a high-tech company?

New Advertising Opportunities

This website belongs to the most popular ones in the area of photonics – this is largely due to the famous Encyclopedia of Laser Physics and Technology. See some statistical data.

There are various opportunities for advertising on our website:

• Get an ad package and enhanced product entries for improved listings in our buyer's guide.
• You can have a kind of extra-wide skyscraper banner which is displayed in this column.

See our media guide:

You have found the Best Place for Your Banner – Here!

Make your

• photonics product,
• company or organization,
• publication or event

well known with an extra-wide
skyscraper banner which will be displayed here (with a given probability per page view).

A Quiz Question

taken from the Photonics Quiz:

(one of the questions …)

After selecting your answer(s) and pressing this button, find the explanations on the left side.

Send us nice photographs!

If you have nice photographs of laser devices, measurement equipment, optical components, etc., which are suitable for illustrating aspects in our encyclopedia articles, you are welcome to send them to us!

Researchers may also have photographs or drawings of experimental setups, microscope images and the like.

Such materials should of course help to illustrate aspects of general interest, rather than only very specialized matters. We also do not accept pictures which are primarily advertising.

Of course, we always acknowledge the source of an image in the figure caption, so that you get your proper credit.

Field Guide on Lasers

Enjoy a compact introduction to laser technology:

• basic principles
• laser beams
• laser resonators
• various types of lasers
• Q switching and mode locking
• frequency conversion
• laser safety

This book soon became a bestseller among the SPIE Field Guides.

Field Guide on Laser Pulse Generation

Learn a lot on pulse generation with lasers:

• basic on optical pulses
• Q switching
• cavity dumping
• gain switching
• mode locking
• amplification of ultrashort pulses
• pulse characterization

Enjoy a compact booklet, authored by a top expert on laser pulses.

Field Guide on Fiber Optics

A quick introduction to fiber optics:

• basics of optical fibers
• fiber nonlinearities and their effects
• passive fibers for data transmission
• photonic crystal fibers
• large mode area fibers
• passive fiber-optic components
• active fiber devices: fiber amplifiers and lasers

Note that we have also published a free tutorial on fiber optics!

How PhD Students Should Get Supported by Supervisors

A recent article in the Photonics Spotlight discusses the responsibilities of supervisors (professors and senior research assistance).

Some key statements:

• Even if PhD students can carry out most of the work in a research project, vital inputs are needed from supervisors particularly in the planning phase and when a crisis occurs.
• A helpful supervisor does not only benefit the supported students, but contributes to the effectiveness of the whole research team.
• If serious engagement were the condition of authorship of supervisors, supervisors would be more likely to do their job.
• A substantial risk for science fraud arises only in a serious crisis – and is in that case strongly dependent on how the supervisor performs!

Free Tutorial: Modeling of Fiber Amplifiers and Lasers

We have published a new tutorial which discusses the modeling of fiber amplifiers and lasers. It addresses many questions:

• What is a model?
• Should one use power propagation or field propagation?
• How to simulate the behavior of laser-active ions?
• How to calculate steady-state solutions?
• How to simulate dynamical behavior and ultrashort pulse propagation?
• What aspects are important for the decision whether to develop own modeling software or use commercial software?

Read the tutorial!

Short-term Software Licenses Available

Do you need simulation software (such as our RP Fiber Power) only during a short-term project?

Or do you want to test such software very thoroughly before fully committing to it?

RP Photonics is now offering a solution: software licenses which are valid for a limited time.

Our conditions are very fair:

• Pay only 5% of the amount for a permanent license for one month.
• When switching over to a permanent license directly thereafter, get the already paid money fully deducted!
• If you decide for that only later on, still get two thirds deducted.

We are confident that you will like our software and finally decide for permanent licenses.

Fiber Optics Software
with Further Improved
User Interface

In RP Fiber Power V6, one can use nice custom forms, which can be
tailored to specific applications.

Users can make such forms themselves, or get them from RP Photonics within the technical support. The latter is like buying a custom software for every purpose – but without spending a lot of money every time!

Beginners can now get started very easily, even if they need quite special calculations!

The Transparent Laser

The dream of each laser developer, and not only of each laser scientist: have a transparent laser, where you can look into any components and see e.g.

• optical intensities
• excitation densities of laser-active ions

… and this at any location and time, with arbitrary resolution!

If you had this, finally you could

• fully understand what goes on in your laser,
• quickly identify and fix any problems, and
• make faster progress
  while saving a lot of money.

Absolutely marvelous, but only a dream?!?

Good news: such transparent lasers can be made! See our presentation:

Traffic on this Website

This website is enormously popular. The page views of the encyclopedia and the buyer's guide in the last 12 months:

Total: 2'070'963 page views within 12 months.

See also our detailed published data. They are no surprise in the light of the extraordinary Google ranking.

Obviously, it would be a good idea to advertise your photonics products on this site – with enhanced entries in the buyer's guide and with banners at this place here.

Promote Your White Papers and Videos

White papers and videos are great instruments for creating an interest in your technology and demonstrating the capabilities of a company. But how to publicize them, reaching the right audience?

Our suggestion: place a preview in a suitable encyclopedia article! For example, the paper preview shown above would well fit into our articles on laser diodes and diode bars.

Stand up for Science!

It is acceptable that some don't know much about photons, biological evolution or global warming.

But we don't want bigot ignorants to make political decisions and educate our children!

For example, global warming is not a matter of political opinion, but a fact. Ruthless profiteers are leading astray uneducated people, seducing them to take utterly irresponsible positions. But we cannot risk catastrophic climate changes! Science tells us it is high time to act. Read, for example, the IPCC Synthesis Report 2014.

Stand up for science (perhaps by joining a March for Science) – it's our future!

Debugging Is Now Fun!

The software products which are supporting our script language (e.g. RP Fiber Power and RP Coating) have now got a powerful debugger!

It works even within expressions, not only after each command!

The RP Photonics Software News keep you informed.