opticalmaterialspy

Python library with optical material properties.

The documentation can be found here.

This library provides a common interface to access the optical properties of materials. The main optical properties include:

• permittivity (and derivatives with respect to wavelength),
• refractive index (and derivatives with respect to wavelength),
• group velocity and group velocity refractive index,
• group velocity refractive index, and
• group velocity dispersion.

All properties are calculate from the Sellmeier equation of the material. In order to access all the above properties, minimally, the Sellmeier equation of the desired material should be added (if it isn't already). Many materials already exist as an example. The library can also use any material from refractiveindex.info by simply using the weblink of the desired material.

Installation

There are two main ways to install opticalmaterialspy.

• pip: pip3 install opticalmaterialspy or pip2 install opticalmaterialspy
• Arch Linux: yaourt -S python-opticalmaterialspy

Dependencies

If installing using the Arch Linux AUR package or via pip, dependencies will be automatically downloaded and installed; otherwise, one should ensure the following dependencies are installed:

• setuptools,
• numpy, and
• scipy.

Features

The main reasons to consider this library include:

• generic and simple interface for all materials,
• interfaces easily with refractiveindex.info,
• adding a new material only requires implementing one function,
• there is already a class written to generically accept a material from a text file, and
• intelligently works out what units the wavelengths being used are (see example).

Examples

Example 1: Optical parameters for SiO2

Python Script

import opticalmaterialspy as mat

m = mat.SiO2()

# Or to use SiO2 from refractiveindex.info...
# m = mat.RefractiveIndexWeb('https://refractiveindex.info/?shelf=main&book=SiO2&page=Malitson')

# Refractive index @ 1550nm.
print('n(1.55e-6m):', m.n(1.55e-6)) # Knows 1.55e-6 must be [m].
print('n(1.55um):', m.n(1.55)) # Knows 1.55 must be [um].
print('n(1550nm):', m.n(1550)) # Knows 1550 must be [nm].

# Group velocity refractive index @ 900nm.
print('n_gv(900nm):', m.ng(900))

# Group velocity dispersion @ 808nm.
print('GVD(0.808um):', m.gvd(0.808))

Output

n(1.55e-6m): 1.4440236217
n(1.55um): 1.4440236217
n(1550nm): 1.4440236217
n_gv(900nm): 1.46462460402
GVD(0.808um): 3.59254440673e-26

Contributions

If you add functionality, especially new materials, I'd appreciate you send me a pull request, or email the code to me so we can all benefit.