A General Differentiable Ray-Wave Framework for Hybrid Refractive-Diffractive System Modeling and Optimization

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Cheng, Jiazhou, Gao, Margaret, Shao, Yixuan, Mao, Chenkai, Milster, Tom D., Fan, Jonathan A.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Cheng, Jiazhou
Gao, Margaret
Shao, Yixuan
Mao, Chenkai
Milster, Tom D.
Fan, Jonathan A.
author_facet Cheng, Jiazhou
Gao, Margaret
Shao, Yixuan
Mao, Chenkai
Milster, Tom D.
Fan, Jonathan A.
contents Hybrid optical systems combining refractive and diffractive optical responses have the potential to support new types of optical behavior, but they are difficult to model and optimize due to the disparate spatial scales and physics exhibited by ray and wave phenomena. In this work, we present a differentiable ray-wave framework that serves as a general model for hybrid refractive-diffractive optical systems and that operates as a plug-and-play module within standard ray tracing pipelines. Our model uniquely applies to both planar and curvilinear diffractive surfaces and can accommodate arbitrary holographic diffractive profiles with high spatial frequency responses. We analyze ray-wave modeling regimes that optimally account for the spatial frequency properties and spatial curvature of the diffractive surfaces, and we demonstrate the gradient-based end-to-end optimization of hybrid refractive-diffractive systems featuring planar and conformal diffractive surfaces. We anticipate that these modeling capabilities will enable new classes of hybrid optical systems relevant to computational imaging and display applications.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_15418
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A General Differentiable Ray-Wave Framework for Hybrid Refractive-Diffractive System Modeling and Optimization
Cheng, Jiazhou
Gao, Margaret
Shao, Yixuan
Mao, Chenkai
Milster, Tom D.
Fan, Jonathan A.
Optics
Signal Processing
Computational Physics
Hybrid optical systems combining refractive and diffractive optical responses have the potential to support new types of optical behavior, but they are difficult to model and optimize due to the disparate spatial scales and physics exhibited by ray and wave phenomena. In this work, we present a differentiable ray-wave framework that serves as a general model for hybrid refractive-diffractive optical systems and that operates as a plug-and-play module within standard ray tracing pipelines. Our model uniquely applies to both planar and curvilinear diffractive surfaces and can accommodate arbitrary holographic diffractive profiles with high spatial frequency responses. We analyze ray-wave modeling regimes that optimally account for the spatial frequency properties and spatial curvature of the diffractive surfaces, and we demonstrate the gradient-based end-to-end optimization of hybrid refractive-diffractive systems featuring planar and conformal diffractive surfaces. We anticipate that these modeling capabilities will enable new classes of hybrid optical systems relevant to computational imaging and display applications.
title A General Differentiable Ray-Wave Framework for Hybrid Refractive-Diffractive System Modeling and Optimization
topic Optics
Signal Processing
Computational Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.15418