TFStudio

What is TFStudio?

TFStudio is a desktop application for designing, analyzing and synthesizing multilayer optical thin-film coatings. It implements the Transfer Matrix Method (TMM) following Macleod’s Thin-Film Optical Filters (5th ed.) and a full synthesis stack (Damped Least Squares refinement, Sullivan & Dobrowolski numerical needle, Tikhonravov gradual evolution).

This site is the reference manual. Every tool window inside the app has a ? button that opens the matching page here.

Design

Build the layer stack, pick materials, set targets. See Design Editor.

Analyze

Spectra, color, admittance, E-field, sensitivity, tolerancing. Start with Optical Evaluation.

Synthesize

Refinement, Needle, Gradual Evolution, Structural. See Optimization Methods.

Simulate

Broadband / monochromatic monitoring, process deposition. See BBM Simulator.

Conventions used throughout this manual

• Wavelength in nanometres (nm).
• Angle of incidence (AOI) measured from the surface normal, degrees.
• Polarization s (TE), p (TM), or avg = ½(R_s + R_p).
• Sign convention of the complex refractive index: ñ = n + ik (k ≥ 0 for absorbing media), with the time-harmonic factor exp(−iωt). This is the complex conjugate of Macleod’s ñ = n − ik / exp(+iωt) form (§2.2); results are identical, phases carry the opposite sign.
• Layer 1 = layer touching the substrate (first deposited).