Virtual Lab
Learn physics by playing with it. Each experiment runs in your browser, with the explanation alongside.
Fiber Coupling: Steer a Laser into a Single-Mode Fiber
Turn two mirror mounts and steer a laser beam into a 5 µm fiber core. An interactive simulator that shows why fiber coupling needs both the right angle and the right position, and how beam walking gets you there.
Open the simulation →Magneto-Optical Trap: Catch Atoms with Light, Then Let Them Fly
Simulate a rubidium magneto-optical trap atom by atom: tune the lasers and the magnetic field, load atoms from the vapour, switch the beams off to watch them fly and fall, and measure the temperature by release and recapture.
Open the simulation →Bose-Einstein Condensates: Solve the Gross-Pitaevskii Equation and Watch One Expand
Find the ground state of a rubidium condensate by solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equation in your browser, then switch off the trap and watch it expand. See the Thomas-Fermi profile, the famous aspect-ratio flip and the phase of the wave function.
Open the simulation →Zernike Polynomials, Explained Interactively: What Each Term Does to Your Optics
Pick a Zernike term and watch the wavefront, interferogram and focal spot change. Learn what tilt, defocus, astigmatism, coma, trefoil and spherical aberration mean, and how RMS error and Strehl ratio are linked.
Open the simulation →Gaussian Beams: Waist, Rayleigh Range and M², Explained Interactively
See a laser beam from the side and in cross-section, and how its waist, Rayleigh range, divergence and M² decide how small it can be focused and how far it stays collimated.
Open the simulation →Lens Aberrations: An Interactive Guide
Six ways a lens gets light wrong, and a simulator to see each one: spherical aberration, coma, astigmatism, field curvature, distortion and chromatic aberration.
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