These and many other optical systems can now be modeled and analyzed in DIFFRACT. From the simplest system consisting of a single optical element, to complex systems with tens of optical surfaces, lenses, mirrors, gratings, polarization optics, etc., the fascinating world of classical coherent optics is yours to explore.

Here is a list of the menu options presently available in DIFFRACT:

Many of the above items themselves provide a multitude of choices to select from. For instance, the Polarization_Element could be a quarter-wave plate, a half-wave plate, a Soleil-Babinet compensator, a polarizer, or a leaky polarizing beam-splitter. The Multilayer option allows the user to simulate a structure having an arbitrary number of layers: metals, dielectrics, birefringent crystals, anisotropic plastics, and magneto-optically active layers are allowed. One can thus tailor the Multilayer to represent a Faraday rotator, a uniaxial or a biaxial crystal slab, a dielectric mirror, an anti-reflection coated surface, a Fabry-Perot resonator, and countless other devices. Within the Ray_Trace option it is possible to model an arbitrary system consisting of lenses, mirrors, and apertures, with the provision that each optical surface be flat, spherical, conical, or aspherical.

The user may select any number of optical elements from the menu of DIFFRACT, place them in various spatial relations to each other, and investigate the properties of a coherent beam of light as it propagates through such a system. The possibilities are endless.