LuxCoreRender
[Feature request] Volume auto laser source
To simulate true lasers it would be pretty cool if one could draw a gain media volume like gas and then insert two mirrors. Light would then emerge from the gas but only emit it towards the mirrors. Then one could define a mirror to be OC via transparency.
Hello, could you clarify what exactly it is you are trying to achieve compared to the existing laser source, which is accessible as a subtype of the Area light?
If it is for visualisation of a laser, one could surely combine the modelling of a cavity (like a cross section model), together with a separate source after the OC mirror.< or is it for more scientific purposes that require certain processes to be modelled correctly?
If you need some other specific aspect of a laser, there will be no all-in-one solution. Gain medium action would need something like a fluorescence feature, in turn requiring full spectral capabilities. The action of a cavity requires something special, as there is no "knowledge" in the system now of something like a standing wave formation. And the 2D-gauss emission profile from your typical diode laser is caused by diffraction, which is not within the realm of pure geometric ray tracing.
Those are some reasons why I will say this needs to be defined more explicitly.
I think its still within the luxcore grasp. Currently you define a specific area or let's call it an item that becomes the source surface or volume for the laser. But what if we could align two mirrors around a cube that represented the laser medium but then the medium would only create laser light that bounced between the two mirrors and was able to exit the OC aperture. All other light that could bounce in the cavity but not exit could stay depending on number of bounces from media volume. So no special detraction or other light property. Just first mode geometry dictating where a beam would emerge from a confined volume of media... Be it a solid shape or a gas.
At the core really in a laser all media volume wants to make light...so imagine it as a box that wants to emit light, but then given two mirrors that light is trapped in bounces. Now allow the light to bounce a given number of times between mirrors and you've created a fake amplification that is good enough for a number of laser design related uses. Even better if somehow we could see beam lines/rays that did not need the complicated illumination aspect. Although it would be awesome to flip a switch and see either lines or light distribution. Or both.