Efficient gradient computation in optical system optimization

Computational Optics, vol. 8495, pp. 33

Abstract

In numerous applications within laser material processing and various other disciplines, achieving a specific irradiance distribution is a frequent objective. By optimizing the parameters of an optical system, light can be redirected to attain the desired irradiance distribution. In gradient descent-based approaches, a major challenge involves accurately and efficiently computing the objective function's gradient concerning these parameters. Algorithmic differentiable ray tracing provides a promising approach for this challenge. To calculate the gradient of the objective function, we derive a new mathematical expression that applies to a wide range of optical systems and can be evaluated using algorithmic differentiable ray tracing and automatic differentiation techniques. This novel methodology for calculating the gradient of the objective function is both computationally efficient and robust in its applicable domain. To validate our approach, we additionally provide numerical simulation results.

Authors 1

1. Martin Pflaum corresponding Aachen

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen Univ. (Germany)