SMD Tool

A free optics software to help engineers build and simulate metalenses 13000x faster than FDTD.

Designing a metalens was labor-intensive, primarily because of the large number of unitcells. Simulating a metalens using FDTD poses another challenge since it requires a substantial amount of computing power and time, hours or days depending on lens size.

SMD Tool (Simple Metalens Design Tool) was developed to remove these barriers and help researchers, students, or anyone new to the field realize their ideas or get familiar with the technology.

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Release Notes

v1.29.00 Apr 14, 2024

  • Unitcell Arranger

    • Decimal precision modified

  • Lens Simulator

    • New feature: Imaging Mode.

    • Focusing Mode

      • Bug fix

      • y resolution customizable

      • UI simplified

v1.28.00 Mar 17, 2024

  • Target Phase Generator

    • Both extra and target phases are exported

  • Unitcell Arranger

    • Sign convention of unitcell phase changed so users can directly use the phase of S-parameter S21

    • Minor improvements

  • Lens Simulator

    • Notification message changed regarding subwavelength requirement

v1.27.70 Mar 3, 2024

  • Unitcell Arranger

    • Crash issue fixed

    • Option to arrange unitcells for a single polarization (Pol X), providing up to 2X faster processing for polarization-independent lenses

  • Lens Simulator

    • A single polarization (Pol X) can be simulated, providing results up to 2X faster for polarization-independent lenses

    • Simulation ranges are now adjustable (Iy and Iyz)

    • Intensity data (Iy and Iyz) export are now available for metalens arrays

    • Minor improvements

v1.27.21 Feb 25, 2024

  • Target Phase Generator

    • Bug fix: entered L/p was not read as an integer in some cases

    • Improved display of decimals in file names of Large Lens data

v1.27.20 Feb 23, 2024

  • General

    • Minor improvements

  • Lens Simulator

    • New feature: simulation of metalens arrays (i.e. fly-eye lenses)

    • Exported intensity values are rounded, leading to smaller file sizes of .csv

v1.27.00 Feb 10, 2024

  • Target Phase Generator

    • New feature: extremely large dataset (>> 1 million unitcells) can be processed in Large Lens mode

    • Processing time now gets notified

    • Default setting of 'Export phase data' changed to True

    • 'µm' notation added for focal spot position (xf, yf) in UI

  • Unitcell Arranger

    • New feature: extremely large dataset (Large Lens) is processed with enhanced memory efficiency

    • Processing time now gets notified

    • % progress is now displayed during GDS generation

    • Processing speed and memory efficiency improved

    • Minor improvements

v1.26.01 Jan 21, 2024

  • Bug fix: For versions 1.25.01 through 1.26.00, Unitcell Arranger didn't run processing or incorrect unitcells could have been arranged if the transmittance range in Unitcell Arrangement Criteria was smaller than the transmittance range in the unitcell data (.csv). Versions v1.25.00 and older are unaffected by this bug.

v1.26.00 Jan 13, 2024

  • Main Interface

    • Visual description simplified

  • Lens Simulator

    • New feature: Simulation with circular lens aperture

    • Intensity computation ranges and resolution modified

    • Focus is traced at oblique incidence and displayed on yz-plane

    • Focusing efficiency calculation disabled for focal spots near the lens edge

    • UI simplified

v1.25.24 Jan 1, 2024

  • Lens Simulator

    • Allows output of simulated intensity data along y-axis and on yz-plane for post-processing by users.

    • Minor improvements.

v1.25.23. Dec 26, 2023

  • Lens Simulator

    • Faster simulation with optimized computation ranges for reduced xy- and yz-planes.

    • Focal diameter (circular area) is used to obtain focusing efficiency for small Gaussian beams.

    • Minor improvements.

v1.25.22. Nov 12, 2023

  • UI modified.

  • Refractive index (n) is added to file names when saving data.

  • Minor improvements.

v1.25.21. Oct 29, 2023

  • Unitcell Arranger

    • File name modified when saving data into Metalens__.csv.

v1.25.20. Oct 19, 2023

  • Lens Simulator

    • New features: focusing efficiency & FWHM are provided.

    • 1D intensity plots are now displayed along the y-direction at all incidence angles (previously along x-direction only at normal incidence).

  • Minor improvements.

v1.25.10. Oct 6, 2023

  • Lens Simulator new feature

    • Beam diameter of Gaussian incident light is now customizable.

v1.25.02. Oct 3, 2023

  • Lens Simulator errors fixed.

v1.25.01. Oct 3, 2023

  • Unitcell Arranger

    • Improved UI stability, unitcell arrangement speed, and memory efficiency.

  • Lens Simulator:

    • improved memory efficiency.

v1.25.00. Oct 1, 2023

  • Lens Simulator new features

    • Intensity simulation along the optics-axis (yz-plane).

    • 1D intensity plot along the x-axis.

    • Customize simulation settings such as accuracy, plot resolution, and plot area.

    • Customize incident angle and refractive index of incident medium.

    • Different intensity profiles of incident light (uniform or Gaussian).

  • Keyboard shortcuts added.

v1.24.00. Sep 9, 2023

  • Lens Simulator bug fix

    • Error occurred when the number of rows in Metalens__.csv was larger than a certain size.

  • Unitcell Arranger new feature

    • Metalens pattern export in GDS format. Supported unitcell shapes (top view) are currently: square, rectangle, and circle.

v1.23.35. Sep 4, 2023

  • Icon path issue fixed

v1.23.33b. Sep 3, 2023

  • First release of SMD Tool!

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