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| Everyone who works with coherent (or partially
coherent) light can benefit from the program. With GLAD,
the user is able to model both simple optical systems and
highly complicated, multiple laser configurations. The
code is designed to analyze all types of beam trains and
laser devices including the effects of diffraction,
active media, apertures, lenses and mirrors, and
aberration. In GLAD, optical beams are represented by by complex amplitude using rectangular computer arrays. This is the most general and powerful approach. Old methods such as geometrical ray tracing, gaussian ray propagation, ABCD methods, and rotationally symmetric propagation methods can not compare in power and versatility. GLAD has been applied to a wide variety of the most advanced physical optics modeling applications including commercial laser systems, laser research experiments, stable and unstable laser design, transient laser response, photolithography, high-performance phase plates for beam control, diffraction effects, and single and multiple mode waveguides. |