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Ansys Lumerical RCWA 
Simulation of Multilayer Periodic Photonic Structures

Ansys Lumerical RCWA is ideal for rapid optical analysis of multilayer structures with periodic patterning such as gratings. 

SOLVE THE UNSOLVABLE

Rapid Analysis of Periodic Structures With Lumerical RCWA

Design multilayer structures with periodic variations quickly with Lumerical RCWA. Using a semi-analytical technique, RCWA is much faster than direct simulations of Maxwell’s equations. Designers can accurately capture interference effects and evaluate the transmitted and reflected optical fields under plane wave illumination. 

  • Rapid Prototyping
    Rapid Prototyping
  • Works with Plane-Wave illumination
    Works with Plane-Wave illumination
  • Ideal for periodic structures
    Ideal for periodic structures
  • Power and phase evaluation in grating orders
    Power and phase evaluation in grating orders
  • Interference effects
    Interference effects
  • Optical power transmittance and reflectance  
    Optical power transmittance and reflectance  
Ansys Lumerical STACK

Quick Specs

Lumerical RCWA offers an ideal solution for rapidly analyzing multilayer structures with periodic variations.

  • Captures all results for S and P polarizations
  • Plane-Wave Illumination
  • Calculates power and phase in grating orders
  • Calculates optical power transmittance and reflectance
  • Captures electric and magnetic fields
  • Captures Interference Effects

What's New

The 2023 R1 release includes new features in Ansys Lumerical RCWA to support the simulation of imaging, display, and AR/VR systems.

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New GUI for Ansys Lumerical RCWA

New GUI for RCWA solver simplifies the simulation setup with features such as interface position autodetection.

RCWA solver parameters and results accessible in the Optimization and Sweep utilities.

Ansys Zemax Interoperability for AR/VR applications Design
Ansys Zemax Interoperability for AR/VR applications Design

In addition to the dynamic link, there's a new static link between Lumerical RCWA and Zemax OpticStudio, enabling look up tables for the optimization of grating-based structures in optical systems simulated in OpticStudio.

Resources

See more Resources

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Webinar

Ansys Lumerical’s Component Level Tools

This webinar will start with an overview of the broad set of component level solvers it offers with an emphasis on FDTD and MODE. It will then show how these solvers can be used to simulate and optimize novel designs in a wide range of applications including micro-LEDs, augmented reality, magneto-optics and lasers.

Versatility Through Rapid Analysis of Periodic Multilayer Structures

Develop multilayer structures with periodicity and surface patterning with Lumerical RCWA. RCWA captures interference effects and evaluates the electric and magnetic fields inside the multilayer structure for plane wave illumination. Quickly obtain the optical response of a structure with the fraction of incident power transmitted and reflected and the power and phase of each grating order. The capabilities of RCWA make it an ideal solution for rapid prototyping of periodic structures such as diffraction gratings, metalenses, and photonic crystals.

 

Key Features

From capturing the electric and magnetic field distributions, to transmission and reflection and evaluation of power in each grating order, RCWA provides fast simulations of complex multilayer stacks with surface patterning.

  • RCWA Solver
  • Interoperability via Scripting

Based on the Rigorous Coupled Wave Analysis method, Lumerical RCWA complements Lumerical FDTD and STACK by providing a rapid simulation of light scattering for periodic and multilayer structures.

Lumerical RCWA tools are interoperable through the Lumerical scripting language, Python and Matlab APIs. 


Application Gallery

View all Photonics Applications

Ansys Lumerical RCWA
Application

Photonic Crystal Slab (RCWA)

This example demonstrates the essential functions of the RCWA solver. The reflection and transmission from a silicon photonic crystal slab are calculated, and the electric field inside the slab. The results with the different number of k-vectors will be compared to simulation results from the literature through convergence testing. Lastly, the reflection and transmission are calculated as frequency, incident angle, and polarization.

Ansys Lumerical RCWA
Application

Metalens – Zemax Interoperability

This example aims to design diffractive metalens consisting of cylindrical nanorods. The nanorods' radius and arrangement are tailored to create a desired phase profile on the metalens surface. The design is verified in Ansys FDTD, RCWA (Rigorous Coupled-Wave Analysis), and OpticStudio through near- and far-field analyses.


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RCWA Product Reference Manual

The RCWA reference manual provides detailed product descriptions of product features. 

Ansys software is accessible

It's vital to Ansys that all users, including those with disabilities, can access our products. As such, we endeavor to follow accessibility requirements based on the US Access Board (Section 508), Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and the current format of the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT).

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