The STACK simulation object is a component of the STACK product, and requires a STACK license. The STACK simulation object also requires a license of the FDTD GUI. The simulation object is basically a graphical equivalent to the stackdipole, stackpurcell, stackrt and stackfield script commands.
The STACK object allows you to define a 1D multi-layer stack and illumination properties such as wavelength and type of source (planewave or dipole). You can then analyze the structure in a variety of ways, including reflection and transmission for plane wave illumination, spatial field profile within the stack, Purcell factor, far field emission pattern, etc.
Layers
The layer table allows defining the layers and their properties, thickness, material or refractive index. Note if a material is selected, the STACK solver will use interpolated data from the material database and not the multicoefficient fit.
The Full Wavelength Optical Thickness (FWOT) is defined as:
$$ FWOT = \frac{ thickness \times refractive\ index }{ wavelength } $$
In addition to the physical layout of the structure, the STACK - Simulation Object shows the location of the plane wave source (white line) and monitors (yellow line for the transmission, reflection is recorded at the source position).
Their positions is determined by the thickness of the first and last layers.
Note: reflection and transmission coefficient will be affected by the position of source and monitors when placed in an absorbing material.
RT, Field, Dipole and Purcell tabs
Each of these tabs allows to define properties specific to the stackrt, stackfield, stackdipole and stackpurcell script commands, respectively.
Illumination settings (incident angle for plane wave or position for dipole) can be copied from one tab to another, using the "Copy values from ..." button. The wavelength/frequency settings are common to all tabs.
Script and results
The results from the calculation can be visualized directly from the STACK object, or can be send to the script workspace. Additionally, the generated script can be exported to the script editor.