Numerical calculation library for diffraction integrals using the graphic processing unit: the GPU-based wave optics library

In optics, several diffraction integrals, such as the angular spectrum method and the Fresnel diffraction, are used for calculating scalar light propagation. The calculation result provides us with the optical characteristics of an optical device, the numerical reconstruction image from a hologram, and so forth. The acceleration of the calculation commonly uses the fast Fourier transform; however, in order to analyze a three-dimensional characteristic of an optical device and compute real-time reconstruction from holograms, recent computers do not have sufficient computational power. In this paper, we develop a numerical calculation library for the diffraction integrals using the graphic processing unit (GPU), the GWO library, and report the performance of the GWO library. The GPU chip allows us to use a highly parallel processor. The maximum computational speed of the GWO library is about 20 times faster than a personal computer.