OptiRE module of OptiLayer Thin Film Software

OptiRE is intended for the post-production characterization (reverse engineering) of optical coatings based on spectral photometric or/and ellipsometric data. Reverse engineering provides a feedback for the design-production chain. Its main purpose is to discover errors in parameters of produced coatings, calibrate monitoring device and thus to help raise the quality of an optical coating production.

OptiRE provides a number of powerful options allowing extraction maximum information from the available experimental data, among them

data fitting
thickness errors There is a variety of auxiliary options making your work with experimental data and obtained results very flexible:

  • Import of experimental data, including import of multi-scan data;
  • A set of graphical options;
  • Spreadsheet reports;
  • Various options allowing you to modify data sheets and combine different measurements;
  • Analysis of BBM movies
Post-production characterization (Reverse Engineering) algorithms are based on the optimization of the discrepancy function estimating the closeness between measured spectral characteristic and the characteristic of the model coating with respect to the model parameters:

\[ DF^2(X)=\left(\frac 1L\sum\limits_{j=1}^L \frac{S(X;\lambda_j)-\hat{S}(\lambda_j)}{\Delta_j}\right)^2 \rightarrow \min,\]

where \(S\) is the model spectral characteristic of the coating, \(\hat{S}\) is the measurement characteristic, \(X\) is the vector of model parameters, \(\{\lambda_j\}, j=1,…,L\) is the wavelength grid, \(\Delta_j\) are measurement tolerances.

OptiLayer provides a wide set of optical coating models and very powerful algorithms as well as special mathematical tools such as Tikhonov’s regularization. Choosing of he model adequately describing your optical coating and verification of the results are not straightforward tasks. OptiLayer proposes various tools for reliable post-production characterization.

All our reverse engineering models and approaches have been carefully tested and verified in the frame of collaboration with researches from world leading laboratories and institutes. You can find many useful advises in our publications on characterization and on reverse engineering.

References:

  1. T. V. Amotchkina, M. K. Trubetskov, A. V. Tikhonravov, S. Schlichting, H. Ehlers, D. Ristau, D. Death, R. J. Francis, V. Pervak, Quality control of oblique incidence optical coatings based on normal incidence measurement data, Optics Express, Vol. 21, Issue 18, pp. 21508-21522 (2013).
  2. T.V. Amotchkina, M.K. Trubetskov, A.V. Tikhonravov, V. Pervak,  “Reverse engineering of an output coupler using broadband monitoring data and group delay measurements,” in Optical Interference Coatings, OSA Technical Digest (Optical Society of America, 2013), paper WB.2.
  3. T. Amotchkina, M. Trubetskov, V. Pervak, B. Romanov, and A. Tikhonravov, “On the reliability of reverse engineering results,” Appl. Opt. 51, 5543-5551 (2012).
  4. A. Tikhonravov, T. Amotchkina, M. Trubetskov, R. Francis, V. Janicki, J. Sancho-Parramon, H. Zorc, and V. Pervak. “Optical characterization and reverse engineering based on multiangle spectroscopy.” Appl. Opt. 51, 245-254 (2012).
  5. T.V. Amotchkina, M.K. Trubetskov, V. Pervak, S.Schlichting, H. Ehlers, D. Ristau, and A.V. Tikhonravov. “Comparison of algorithms used for optical characterization of multilayer optical coatings.” Appl. Opt. 50, 3389-3395 (2011).
  6. T. Amotchkina, M. Trubetskov, V. Pervak, and A. Tikhonravov. “Design, production and reverse engineering of two-octave antireflection coatings.” Appl. Opt. 50, 6468-6475 (2011).
  7. S. Wilbrandt, O. Stenzel, N. Kaiser, M. K. Trubetskov, and A. V. Tikhonravov, “On-line Re-engineering of Interference Coatings,” in Optical Interference Coatings, OSA Technical Digest (CD) (Optical Society of America, 2007), paper WC10.
  8. A. V. Tikhonravov, M. K. Trubetskov, V. Pervak, F. Krausz, and A. Apolonski, “Design, Fabrication and Reverse Engineering of Broad Band Chirped Mirrors,” in Optical Interference Coatings, OSA Technical Digest (CD) (Optical Society of America, 2007), paper WB4.
  9. J. Oliver, A. Tikhonravov, M. Trubetskov, I. Kochikov, and D. Smith, “Real-Time characterization and optimization of e-beam evaporated optical coatings,” in Optical Interference Coatings, OSA Technical Digest Series (Optical Society of America, 2001), paper ME8.

Look our video examples

Look our video examples at YouTube

OptiLayer videos are available here:
Overview of Design/Analysis options of OptiLayer and overview of Characterization/Reverse Engineering options.

The videos were presented at the joint Agilent/OptiLayer webinar.