OSLO - Free Optical Design Software

Optical Design Software are widely used in optic industry and also in certain scientific optic fields. But in general, our research in nonlinear/ quantum optics does not require the assistance of optical design software. However, sometimes there are cases where one thinks that it would be not bad to design it proper (especially if you have to optimize). Most popular (and very good) optical design softwares are Code V and Zemax. But they are expensive and therefore quite often not purchased. However, there are other softwares and one of them is

OSLO, Optics Software for Layout and Optimization.

The version OSLO-EDU (for education) can be downloaded for free. But compared with other software demos or free version, OSLO-EDU still contains a lot of features which enables you to really work with it. Good and extensive introductions, manuals and examples exist and will help you to operate the software. But as with every software, you have to spend first a little bit time to learn it, depending what you want to design. OSLO is provided by the company Lambda Research Corporation. The link for the download page you can find here:

Download OSLO-EDU

on the same page you can also download 2 manuals. I hope for smaller optical design tasks this software will help you.


Lambda Research Corporation
OSLO Wikipedia
Code V
Zemax