[OPTICAL REVIEW Vol. 6, No. 1 (1999) 28-36]
Three Dimensional Laser Simulation Code on a Desktop Personal Computer
Thierry BONTOUX, Yoshinori KATO and Masahiro NAKATSUKA
Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University, 2-6, Yamada-oka, Osaka, 565-0871 Japan
(Received August 24, 1998; Accepted October 14, 1998)
We present a new simulation code able to simulate the entire propagation of laser pulse, from the amplifiers level up to the focusing stage. This algorithm has some new characteristics that we intend to present. It computes the three-dimensional optical propagation equation using no approximation other than its picosecond expression. The stability has been carefully studied so that it can be applied to any geometry. This is a great improvement since, up to now only cylindrical geometry was accessible for accuracy. In this paper we also present a method using Fast Fourier Transform able to evaluate with a high accuracy, Fresnel's distribution of a focused laser pulse. The advantages provided by our algorithm are its rapidity and its high physical understanding of the focusing phenomena.
Key words : optical propagation equation, stability, picosecond pulse, 3-dimensional computation, Fresnel's distribution, fast Fourier transform