Learning Forum

[arezoo.tahmasebi]

Dear Colleagues,
I have a query regarding the behaviour of a one-sided cylindrical lens array when illuminated by a Gaussian beam. In my Zemax simulation, the cylindrical lenses are oriented horizontally meaning that all cylindrical lenses are horizontally aligned. So, I anticipated observing a series of parallel lines aligned horizontally on the detector. However, the results showed a number of vertical lines on the detector, which was unexpected. 
Secondly,  I attempted to display the data on the detector in detector viewer 1 as Radiant intensity (angular distribution of power on the detector), which resulted in a square, and in detector viewer 2 as coherent irradiance (spatial distrbution of power on the detector), which produced a number of lines. If I were to utilise no detector in the laboratory and simply direct the light onto the lens to observe the output beam on the wall, for instance, what type of output beam geometry would be observed? Would it be a number of parallel lines or a square?

any help is greatly apprecieted.

Arezoo

[Niki Papachristou]

Hi Arezoo,

I think the best way to answer this question is to go through the definition of both Radiant intensity and coherent irradiance:

Radiant Intensity is the power per solid angle in steradians as a function of incident angle upon the detector, while Coherent Irradiance is coherent power per area as a function of spatial position on the detector (Help file: The Analyze Tab (non-sequential ui mode) » Detectors Group » Detector Viewer). Hence, if you are using a coherent source I would expect to see on the wall the results from the coherent irradiance.

For more information on the radiant intesity I would suggest to go through this post: How is radiant intensity defined?

Kind Regards,

Niki