OmniTick Interactive Physical Optics Simulation Engine · optics.omnitick.online
Optics Pulse is an open, high-performance, interactive optical physics sandbox created by OmniTick. Hosted natively on the subdomain optics.omnitick.online, the platform was developed to remove barriers in physical science education by replacing expensive or archaic desktop software with a sleek, instant-loading web simulator.
Traditional ray-tracing simulations frequently rely on heavy server rendering or cumbersome installs. Optics Pulse executes 100% locally in your browser using hardware-accelerated HTML5 Canvas 2D contexts and modular Vanilla JavaScript. No data is harvested, no user queries are transmitted to external servers, and zero advertisements obstruct your laboratory workbench.
When a light ray crosses an interface between two isotropic dielectric media with refractive indices $n_1$ and $n_2$, its speed changes according to $v = c/n$. This change in phase velocity causes the ray to bend according to the law discovered by Willebrord Snellius:
When moving from air ($n \approx 1.0003$) into crown glass ($n \approx 1.52$), the ray bends toward the surface normal ($\theta_2 < \theta_1$). Conversely, when exiting glass into air, the ray bends away from the normal.
In physical media, the speed of light is frequency-dependent. This material property, known as dispersion, is accurately described across visible optical wavelengths by Augustin-Louis Cauchy's empirical formula:
Shorter wavelengths (such as blue and violet, $\lambda \approx 400\text{nm}$) experience higher refractive indices and bend more dramatically upon entering a triangular glass prism than longer wavelengths (such as red, $\lambda \approx 650\text{nm}$). Optics Pulse models this phenomenon by decomposing white laser beams into seven discrete spectral components, recreating Isaac Newton’s celebrated 1666 prism experiment.
When light propagates through an optically denser medium ($n_1 > n_2$) toward an interface, there exists a specific angle of incidence known as the critical angle ($\theta_c$) where the refracted ray emerges parallel to the boundary ($\theta_2 = 90^\circ$):
For any angle of incidence $\theta_1 > \theta_c$, refraction ceases and 100% of incident optical power is reflected internally without transmission loss. This fundamental mechanism underpins all modern fiber optic telecommunications, medical endoscopes, and optical waveguides.
Curved lenses manipulate wavefronts through precise surface curvature. The focal length ($f$) of a biconvex or biconcave lens with front curvature radius $R_1$ and rear curvature radius $R_2$ is governed by the Lensmaker's equation:
Biconvex lenses possess positive focal lengths, focusing collimated parallel beams into a real focal point. Biconcave lenses possess negative focal lengths, diverging incoming parallel beams so they appear to emanate from a virtual focal point.
A beam splitter consists of a partially silvered or dielectric-coated optical cube that divides an incident laser beam into two orthogonal components: a reflected path ($50\%$) and a transmitted path ($50\%$). By steering these two beams with mirrors, researchers construct Michelson Interferometers, Mach-Zehnder Interferometers, and Sagnac gyroscopes capable of measuring nanometer displacements and gravitational wave strains.
Click on any component on the workbench, then drag the cyan circular rotation handle attached to its perimeter, use the Rotation slider in the Inspector panel, or press the [R] key to rotate in 15° increments.
Select any Laser Emitter on the workbench. In the Inspector panel, choose between broadband White light, Red (650nm), Green (532nm), or Violet (405nm), and adjust the optical power or parallel beam count.
Yes! Click the Snapshot button in the top navigation bar to instantly generate and download a clean, high-DPI PNG image of your current optical breadboard arrangement.
[R] Rotate 15° · [D] Duplicate component · [Del] / [Backspace] Delete · [Esc] Deselect.