COMSOL Day: Optics & Photonics
See what is possible with multiphysics modeling
Optical analysis is crucial for predicting the performance of communication systems, sensors, laser components, cameras, lithography systems, plasmonic metamaterials, photonic crystals, and much more. It helps engineers to develop and implement innovative ideas and find optimal configurations to increase bandwidth or spatial resolution. By introducing modeling and simulation early in the design process, the cost of testing can be reduced and the behavior of devices can be understood, even in operational conditions that can only be represented virtually.
With COMSOL Multiphysics®, efficient calculations are ensured at every length scale — from subwavelength to optically large — using dedicated algorithms and modeling strategies, including full-wave simulation as well as ray tracing and other approximations. The software's multiphysics modeling capabilities can be used to accurately represent real-world scenarios that involve effects such as temperature variations, mechanical stress, deformation, or the modulation of light by electrical fields.
This COMSOL Day will showcase how multiphysics modeling can be used in optics- and photonics-based industries to inspire new product ideas, optimize designs, and deepen understanding. Through technical presentations, COMSOL engineers and experienced keynote speakers from the industry and academic sphere will provide insights into the possibilities and how-tos of optical simulations.
Schedule
Optics and photonics serve as enabling technologies in various industries, including communication, medical technology, sensor development, quantum computing, and manufacturing. In these fields, simulation helps accelerate and reduce the cost of R&D of optical components, which can range in size from the subwavelength scale to optically large. Utilizing multiphysics analysis is an important aspect of R&D in this area, as it involves accounting for electro-optical, stress-optical, and plasmonic effects, in addition to ubiquitous thermal effects in optical systems.
COMSOL Multiphysics® is widely used in the optics industry due to its unique modeling capabilities. It enables users to predict and optimize photonic and optical components effectively, understanding and harnessing multiphysics couplings to develop superior products. Additionally, COMSOL Multiphysics® includes the Application Builder, the Model Manager, and COMSOL Compiler™, providing a robust ecosystem for collaborative work across departments and structured, efficient management of simulation projects.
This session gives an overview of using COMSOL Multiphysics® for effective model development and highlights the creation of standalone simulation apps, which extend access to simulation technology to a broader range of users and applications.
Andrea Barbiero, Toshiba Europe Ltd
Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are among the most promising candidates for generating quantum light, but optimizing their performance requires careful engineering of the surrounding photonic environment. Integrating QDs into semiconductor nanocavities, such as bullseye resonators, is key to achieving efficient photon extraction from the high-refractive-index semiconductor matrix. In this talk, Andrea Barbiero will present a methodology for designing bullseye resonators. He will demonstrate how the COMSOL Multiphysics® software and its Wave Optics Module add-on product are used to optimize key figures of merit, including Purcell enhancement and photon collection efficiency. Additionally, he will show how simulations can help in evaluating the impact of fabrication imperfections.
Brian Vohnsen, University College Dublin, Ireland
In this talk, Brian Vohnsen will review some of his work on ocular optics and related work on optics of the retinal photoreceptors. He will discuss the first steps into his use of the COMSOL Multiphysics® software for simulations from the anterior eye and keratoconus, to full optical and mechanical models of the eye and myopia progression. This will be followed by work on the photoreceptors where Vohnsen will discuss the classical Stiles–Crawford effects in the context of waveguiding and of directional antennas. Ultimately, such knowledge may feed into improved ophthalmic products along with a deeper understanding of the optics of the human eye.
The design and optimization of optical waveguides is essential within the telecommunications industry as well as in foundational research. The growing demand for higher bandwidth has resulted in copper-based signal transmission increasingly being replaced by fiber optical technologies with either single-mode or multimode transmission. Nowadays, optical experiments turn to fiber-based sensors and nanostructured waveguides to enable integrated optical devices on mm-sized chips. Careful design is required, and using simulation has become crucial.
The Wave Optics Module, an add-on to COMSOL Multiphysics®, enables the optimization of step-index fibers, microstructured fibers, photonic crystal fibers, and optical waveguides for minimizing losses and mode mixing. Models can be formulated in the frequency domain as well as in the time domain. Furthermore, the software provides unique multiphysics capabilities to account for stress-optical effects, thermal expansion, and more.
Join us in this session to learn about modeling and optimization of waveguides in COMSOL Multiphysics®, the Wave Optics Module, and the Optimization Module.
Nathan Roche, LumOptica Ltd
Laser filamentation is a topic of significant interest due to its many potential applications, such as terahertz generation, remote sensing, and its ability to overcome beam spread due to diffraction. This phenomenon results from nonlinear optical effects occurring over the propagation of intense femtosecond laser pulses in transparent media. Propagation dynamics of such a laser pulse can be modeled using the nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE). A variant of the NLSE has been implemented in COMSOL Multiphysics® using coefficient form PDEs.
Optical systems are often required to operate in harsh environments, such as at high altitudes, in space, and underwater, where they are subjected to structural loads and extreme temperatures. In a similar way, optical devices in high-powered laser and nuclear applications are subjected to extreme conditions.
The most accurate way to fully capture these environmental effects is through numerical simulation using structural-thermal-optical performance (STOP) analysis — a quintessential multiphysics problem. COMSOL Multiphysics® features unique STOP analysis capabilities where thermal expansion and refractive index distribution can be fully coupled with changes to the ray optics trajectories, which is essential for laser-based manufacturing and the like.
In this session, we will show how to use the Ray Optics Module to combine ray-tracing simulations with structural and thermal analyses to form fully self-consistent STOP models.
The emerging technology of plasmonics uses the collective oscillation of charges in metals or along metal–dielectric interfaces. It has tremendous innovation potential within optical technologies like biophotonic sensing, microscopy, communications, and color filters.
With the Wave Optics Module, users can study optical effects in nanoparticles, wire gratings, surface plasmon polaritons, metamaterials, and even 2D materials like graphene. Additionally, exotic phenomena can be modeled when plasmonic effects are combined with periodic structures to form metamaterials.
Join us in this session to learn how to analyze plasmonic designs and explore effects like cloaking and extraordinary optical transmission.
The Semiconductor Module, an add-on to COMSOL Multiphysics®, can be used for understanding, designing, and refining semiconductor devices and materials through modeling and simulation. The module is based on drift–diffusion equations and can include density-gradient contributions for quantum confinement effects. The Semiconductor Module enables the modeling and simulation of a large variety of semiconductor devices, such as metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs), solar cells, photodiodes, and LEDs, among others. In addition, by being customizable, it enables the analysis of novel semiconductor designs, including organic semiconductor devices.
The module also contains Schrödinger Equation and Schrödinger-Poisson interfaces, which are particularly useful for modeling quantum-confined systems, such as quantum wells, quantum wires, and quantum dots. Additionally, the Semiconductor Module offers functionality for modeling the interplay between drift diffusion, electromagnetic wave propagation, and thermal effects in semiconductors. This unique multiphysics capability enables self-consistent simulation of optoelectronic devices.
This session will provide you with a chance to learn more about the capabilities of the Semiconductor Module for semiconductor physics and multiphysics modeling. We will also demonstrate the ease of use of the software for these types of modeling.
Register for COMSOL Day: Optics & Photonics
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COMSOL Day Details
November 26, 2024 | 10:00 a.m. GMT (UTC+00:00)
Invited Speakers
Andrea Barbiero is a senior research scientist at Toshiba Europe Ltd in Cambridge, UK. His research focuses on the design, fabrication, and optimization of quantum light sources at telecommunication wavelengths based on semiconductor quantum dots. His work plays a key role in the development of innovative hardware for quantum communication technologies and fiber-based quantum networks.
Barbiero holds a PhD in physics from the University of Sheffield, earned as a Marie Curie fellow while working at Toshiba's Quantum Information Group, and a master's degree in engineering physics from the Polytechnic University of Milan.
Brian Vohnsen, a FARVO and Optica fellow, is an associate professor of optical physics at University College Dublin, Ireland. He is on the ARVO annual meeting committee and publications committee and also serves as the Optica division chair of Vision and Color. He has had several editorial roles, including topical editor for Optics Letters, advisory editor for Papers in Physics, and guest editor for a number of special journal issues. Vohnsen has a special interest in photoreceptor optics and the Stiles–Crawford effects both in vision and in novel ophthalmics. At the UCD School of Physics, he is co-chair of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion committee and a Research Integrity Champion.
Nathan Roche received his undergraduate degree in physics from the University of Liverpool. After graduating, he worked as a laser production engineer before continuing on to postgraduate research in medical particle accelerators at the University of Manchester. Nathan has been in his current role as an optical research physicist at LumOptica Ltd for three years, where he works on a combination of highly theoretical and practical hands-on optics & photonics R&D projects.