TFStudio

Optical thin-film coating design — physically correct, numerically stable, production-ready.

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 (Macleod §2.2, the convention used in the TMM).
Layer 1 = layer touching the substrate (first deposited).