Connection of Field Solvers: Microstructures and Lenses

Jena, 19 September 2019, EOS Topical Meeting on Diffractive Optics

Optical systems often consist of various types of components, very typically, of a combination of microstructures and lenses. Modeling such complex systems efficiently requires the application of different field solvers (e.g. Fourier modal method, local plane interface approximation). In this work, we present the connection of the two specific solvers mentioned above in the context of a field-tracing approach. We apply it to the simulation of a system for inspection of diffractive optical elements, e.g. gratings, with a high-numerical-aperture microscope. The (efficient) simulation is performed to show the difference in the image quality obtained with differently polarized illuminating light.