kahr-alpha/aether

An optics simulation suite for Windows and Linux, including a raytracer, a FDTD solver and various tools.

Aether

Aether is an open-source optical simulations suite, coded in C++ for Windows and Linux, born out of the research and needs at the L2n laboratory in France, which is part of the University of Technology of Troyes.

It is an evolving project and might be subject to numerous changes.

Features

GUI

• FDTD simulations
• Raytracing
• Multilayer's optical response
• Graphical fit of data
• Human assisted planar modes solver
• Mie theory: cross-sections calculation
• Graphical samples organizer
• For the classroom:
  • visualisation of the ellipsometric concepts
  • 2D SEM particles simulation

CLI

• FDTD simulations
• FDFD simulations (2D)
• Raytracing
• Multilayer's optical response

A bit of history

The oldest roots of the software originate back in 2008 with personnal rendering projects.

This was followed two years later by an internship at the L2n on the ADI-FDTD method, which served as the basis for the FDTD module. Concurrent development happened through the OpenSource Gneiss project (now obsolete), dedicated to rendering space scenes.

The FDTD code was then developed during a PhD under the ANR MetaPhotonique project, together with some basic tools.

A few years later under the TurboPET project, the raytracing core was coded by integrating Gneiss' original raytracer into Aether.

Since then, many improvements have been added, like the GUI, and from 2015 onwards several upgrades were designed to accomodate the Limule project, a proprietary software coded for the In-Fine joint laboratory.

In 2021 the aim was to finally launch it as an OpenSource project of its own.

Past fundings

The following fundings have contributed directly and indirectly to the project:

• The University of Technology of Troyes
• The ANR MetaPhotonique project
• A Région Champagne-Ardenne PhD grant
• The Eurostars TurboPET project
• The BISONS RAPID project
• The ANR DECISIoN project
• The SURYS society through the In-Fine joint laboratory

aether's Issues

CLI access to Selene analysis tools is needed

The FDTD GUI needs to be able to handle structures with arguments

Aether crash when loading a script into the materials library

The crash is due to a comparison between the new script path, and file paths of materials that have been created on the fly and are empty.

Compile error

When trying to compile with GUI the compilation stops with the following error:

/home/jromero/builds/Aether/src/GUI/Materials/gui_material_selector.cpp: In member function ‘void MaterialSelector::allocate_effective_materials()’:
/home/jromero/builds/Aether/src/GUI/Materials/gui_material_selector.cpp:266:52: error: ISO C++ forbids taking the address of an unqualified or parenthesized non-static member function to form a pointer to member function.  Say ‘&MaterialSelector::evt_effective_material’ [-fpermissive]
  266 |         eff_mat_1_selector->Bind(EVT_MAT_SELECTOR,&evt_effective_material,this);
      |                                                    ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/home/jromero/builds/Aether/src/GUI/Materials/gui_material_selector.cpp:267:52: error: ISO C++ forbids taking the address of an unqualified or parenthesized non-static member function to form a pointer to member function.  Say ‘&MaterialSelector::evt_effective_material’ [-fpermissive]
  267 |         eff_mat_2_selector->Bind(EVT_MAT_SELECTOR,&evt_effective_material,this);
      |                                                    ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/home/jromero/builds/Aether/src/GUI/Materials/gui_material_selector.cpp: In member function ‘void MaterialSelector::allocate_effective_materials(const Material&, const Material&)’:
/home/jromero/builds/Aether/src/GUI/Materials/gui_material_selector.cpp:288:52: error: ISO C++ forbids taking the address of an unqualified or parenthesized non-static member function to form a pointer to member function.  Say ‘&MaterialSelector::evt_effective_material’ [-fpermissive]
  288 |         eff_mat_1_selector->Bind(EVT_MAT_SELECTOR,&evt_effective_material,this);
      |                                                    ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/home/jromero/builds/Aether/src/GUI/Materials/gui_material_selector.cpp:289:52: error: ISO C++ forbids taking the address of an unqualified or parenthesized non-static member function to form a pointer to member function.  Say ‘&MaterialSelector::evt_effective_material’ [-fpermissive]
  289 |         eff_mat_2_selector->Bind(EVT_MAT_SELECTOR,&evt_effective_material,this);
      |                                                    ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FDTD sensors can be saved wrong in the GUI

The Sel::Object class needs to be split into subclasses

The FDFD mode needs a GUI

Optimization target based on hit counts needed for Selene

FDTD/FDFD materials are broken in the CLI

Selene needs to handle general polynomial surfaces of revolution

The Bruggeman effective model needs to be extented to more than two materials

Main problem: doing so involves solving complex polynomials of degrees above 2. An efficient way of doing that needs to be devised.

The FDTD structure design needs to be able to handle parameters

Need for new scattering models

The implementation of the Lambertian, Guassian and ABg scattering models has been requested. ( see https://support.zemax.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500005575662-What-scattering-models-are-available-in-OpticStudio- )

3D views should display an overlay of the axes

Better Linux OpenGL framerate

Right now the framerate for OpenGL windows is forced on Ubuntu to half that of Windows.

It seems related to the wxWidgets messages queue as they are used as the refresh clock.