Migrating from Pykat + Finesse 2¶

Many of the features from Pykat have been integrated directly into Finesse 3 and in some cases, expanded. This leads to some important difference in the usual recipes to produce an interferometer and start modelling, which are summarized below.

Creating a model¶

The pykat.finesse.Kat class has been replaced with the finesse.Model. Since Finesse 2 style KatScript is not the primary way to build new models now, you also have to call parse_legacy to parse Finesse 2 style scripts. For example:

from finesse import Model

# Create the empty model.
model = Model()

# Parse some components into the model.
model.parse_legacy(
    """
    l laser 2.5 0.0 0.0 input
    s s1 1 input n1
    m ITM 0.8 0.2 0.0 n1 n2
    s s2 70 n2 n3
    m ETM 0.999 1e-05 0.0 n3 n4
    xaxis ETM phi lin -95 95 1000
    """
)

There are two available functions for parsing Finesse 2 style KatScript: Model.parse_legacy() and Model.parse_legacy_file(). There are also two similar functions for parsing the newer Finesse 3 style script Model.parse() and Model.parse_file().

Warning

Not all functions are supported by this legacy parser! See Finesse 2 support for more details.

Major syntax changes¶

There have been a number of syntax changes and improvements in Finesse 3. Instead of an object’s optional attributes being defined via the attr command, it is now possible to define all attributes on the object definition line. This also means the numbered component types like m1, bs2, etc. are no longer needed. These changes mean the following code:

m1 ETM 5e-06 5e-05 0.0 nETM1 nETM2
attr EMAx Rcx 25
attr EMAx Rcy 20

can be replaced with:

m ETM T=1e-5 L=1e-6 Rc=10

Another new feature of Finesse 3 syntax is that it allows the use of arbitrary symbolic expressions with references to other parameters. This removes the need for the Finesse 2 set, func and put commands. An example of this syntax in the Finesse 2 (Section 3.5 of [10]) is shown in Finesse 3 form in this example.

The port and node system¶

In Finesse 2, each node needs to be uniquely and explicitly named. This requirement has been overcome in Finesse 3. Components now have one or more ports. For example, a mirror has two optical ports, corresponding to each surface. Each port then has multiple nodes. In the case of a mirror, each optical port has two nodes, corresponding to the input and output field at each side of the mirror.

model = Model()

# Create a laser and mirror.
model.parse(
    """
    l L0 P=1
    s s1 L0.p1 ETM.p1
    m ETM T=1e-5 L=1e-6 Rc=10
    """
)

# Grab the ETM nodes.
model.ETM.nodes

OrderedDict([('ETM.p1.i', <OpticalNode ETM.p1.i @ 0x7f6b94a984f0>),
             ('ETM.p1.o', <OpticalNode ETM.p1.o @ 0x7f6b94a987f0>),
             ('ETM.p2.i', <OpticalNode ETM.p2.i @ 0x7f6b94a98910>),
             ('ETM.p2.o', <OpticalNode ETM.p2.o @ 0x7f6b94a98a30>),
             ('ETM.mech.z', <SignalNode ETM.mech.z @ 0x7f6b94a98850>),
             ('ETM.mech.yaw', <SignalNode ETM.mech.yaw @ 0x7f6b94a98940>),
             ('ETM.mech.pitch', <SignalNode ETM.mech.pitch @ 0x7f6b94a989d0>),
             ('ETM.mech.F_z', <SignalNode ETM.mech.F_z @ 0x7f6b94a98820>),
             ('ETM.mech.F_yaw', <SignalNode ETM.mech.F_yaw @ 0x7f6b94a98d60>),
             ('ETM.mech.F_pitch',
              <SignalNode ETM.mech.F_pitch @ 0x7f6b94a98b80>)])

Inline expressions¶

In Finesse 3, expressions and functions can be specified inside parameter definitions. This removes the need for the func command:

m m2 R=m1.R*0.5 T=1-m1.R*0.5 phi=cos(l1.P/10)

Variables, constants and references¶

In Finesse 2, in order to make a parameter of one component track another, a combination of set and put commands would have to be used:

m m1 0.99 0.01 0 n1 n2
m m2 0.5 0.5 0 n3 n4

set refl m1 R
set trans m1 T
put m2 R $refl
put m2 T $trans

In Finesse 3, parameters can be referenced directly using their path:

m m1 0.99 0.01
m m2 R=m1.R T=m1.T

Running a model¶

Similar to Pykat, models can be run by calling the run() method on the model object. As before, this produces an output object, which can be plotted.

out = model.run()

Detector argument order¶

The order of arguments in the definition of detectors has changed. The nodes are now specified after the name of the detector, rather than at the end of the command.

Automatic conversion of Finesse 2 scripts¶

The kat3 convert command line program bundled with Finesse provides the ability to convert Finesse 2 style KatScript to Finesse 3 style. Note however that this is an experimental feature and does not support all forms of syntax yet. See its documentation for more information.