OpenFilters: open-source software for the design, optimization, and synthesis of optical filters

The design of optical filters relies on powerful computer-assisted methods. Many of these methods are provided by commercial programs, but, in order to adapt and improve them, or to develop new methods, one needs to create his own software. To help people interested in such a process, we decided to release our in-house software, called OpenFilters, under the GNU General Public License, an open-source license. It is programmed in Python and C++, and the graphical user interface is implemented with wxPython. It allows creation of multilayer and graded-index filters and calculation of reflection, transmission, absorption, phase, group delay, group delay dispersion, color, ellipsometric variables, admittance diagram, circle diagram, electric field distribution, and generation of reflection, transmission, and ellipsometric monitoring curves. It also provides the refinement, needle, step, and Fourier transform methods.