Papers for

camera lens manufacturers

Papers whose findings have a practical use for this group, as judged from the abstract. Open a paper to read what it means in practice.

Differentiable ray-wave method improves mixed optics simulation accuracy

DiffRayve: Differentiable Ray-Wave Method for Polarized and Unpolarized Diffractive-Refractive Optical Systems

Abstract: Current deep optics simulations struggle to balance high fidelity with computational efficiency, particularly for complex polarized and diffractive systems. To address this, we introduce a fully differentiable Shooting and Bouncing Ray (SBR) algorithm that simultaneously models geometric and physical optics fields. Unlike standard wave optics methods, our approach enables accurate, gradient-based optimization of polarized compound refractive-diffractive systems without the computational cost of full-wave simulations. We validate our method against analytical Fraunhofer diffraction patterns and state-of-the-art Fourier optics and wave optics methods. We showcase the practical utility of our differentiable engine through one application: designing a wide field-of-view achromatic lens with multiple Diffractive Optical Elements (DOEs).

Mon 14 SeptComputational Engineering, Finance, and Science

The gist

Simulating light in complex lenses that include bending, diffraction, and polarization effects is hard and slow. The authors introduce a new method that models both ray tracing and wave behavior together, allowing fast and accurate calculations. This method can also calculate gradients, which helps design better lenses with multiple diffractive elements. They tested their approach against known diffraction patterns and existing simulation methods to confirm its accuracy. One practical use they show is designing wide-angle lenses that reduce color blur.

Open → 2609.16404v1