Skip to content

Did You Know? Optical Path Length and Time of Flight

Did you know TracePro features an OPL / Time-of-Flight Plot? OPL stands for optical path length. This is the distance a ray will travel from a source to a selected surface in an optical system. Time-of-flight is the time it takes a ray to travel from the source to the selected surface. The OPL/Time-of-Flight Plot is in the Analysis menu in TracePro.

Optical Path Length and Time-of-Flight are essential metrics in many types of optical systems, including LiDAR, laser range finders, absorption spectroscopy, and multi-pass gas cell. In LiDAR and laser range finder systems, the time-of-flight is used to calculate the distance to a target.

OPL and ToF, LiDAR ToF, 2.   OPL and ToF, LiDAR ToF

In absorption spectroscopy and multi-pass gas cells, the optical path length is used to calculate the absorption of a sample.

 

OPL and ToF, Absorption Spectroscopy White Cell, 2

Optical path length information is also available in Incident Ray Table.

OPL and ToF, White Cell, OPL, 2

See it in Action!