How to Work with the Programmable Function & Example (Cylindrical Lens)

Providing maximum versatility for your optical simulations is one of our most fundamental objectives. In this tutorial we explain how to work with the Programmable Function, which can also be thought of as an idealised component acting in a single plane: the workflow entails defining a position-dependent, complex-valued function on the x, y plane, which is then multiplied onto the incoming field. We use the example of an ideal cylindrical lens to go through the whole process in detail.