Stop reading
about light.
Break it.
40 optical systems, from prisms to Bell tests, rendered in real-time 3D. Every ray traced. Every photon counted. No install, no licence, no lab booking.
Optics is taught with
a dead diagram.
A student sees a flat ray drawn on a slide, memorises Snell’s law, and forgets it by Friday. Real intuition comes from changing a number and watching the universe respond. Until now, that needed a $40,000 optical bench.
Textbook · Slides · Static GIFs
- Fixed angles, fixed outcomes
- Quantum optics explained with words only
- Wigner functions shown as one frozen image
- Lab access: 2 hours a week, if you’re lucky
Reach in. Turn the knob.
- Every parameter live, every ray recomputed
- Photons land one at a time, you watch the wave emerge
- Fock states with real negative Wigner regions
- Open on your phone, anywhere, right now
Malus’s law,
with depth.
Slide the middle polarizer. Watch intensity fall as cos²θ. In the simulator, that is one of dozens of 3D polarization scenes you can orbit, zoom and dissect.
I = I₀ · cos²θ
One photon at a time.
Watch the wave appear.
Each dot is a single photon. Alone, it looks random. Together, they draw interference fringes. Change the slit separation and the pattern rewrites itself.
A full bench.
Zero footprint.
Optical systems, ready to run
Biconvex to Fresnel lenses. Dove, wedge and retroreflector prisms. Mirror rooms, light pipes with total internal reflection, a raindrop that really makes the rainbow, a brilliant-cut diamond.
Violate classical physics
Rotate detectors and watch correlations break the classical bound. The experiment that won a Nobel, on your screen.
Photon bunching
Two photons enter a beamsplitter. Only one exit. Tune the delay and find the dip.
Wigner functions, alive
Fock states, squeezed vacuum, negative regions: the quantum signature, rendered.
Trap light in a box
Resonance, modes, standing waves. Move a mirror by nanometres.
Readouts that teach
A live equation panel narrates what you’re seeing. Move a slider, the maths updates beside it.
Output intensity I 0.50
Not another
applet farm.
| Textbook | Generic web applets | Quantum Optics Lab | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3D, orbit & zoom | No | Rarely | Always |
| Quantum experiments | Described | Separate sites | Bell, HOM, Wigner built in |
| Phone-first controls | n/a | Broken | Touch-native, 44px targets |
| Live equations | Static | None | Every scene |
| Equipment needed | A lab | A laptop | Just a browser tab |
Open it. Break something.
Learn why.
No tutorial wall. Four things to try the moment the Lab loads, each one a lesson no slide can teach.
Split white light
Open the prism. Drag the angle and watch seven colours fan out, with the live θ readout beside it.
Find the critical angle
Tilt a right-angle prism until light stops escaping. That is total internal reflection, felt by hand.
Fire single photons
Run the double slit. Dots land at random, then the fringes appear. Nobody forgets that.
Beat the classical bound
Open Bell / CHSH, rotate the detectors, and watch correlations that classical physics forbids.
Before you ask.
What is Quantum Optics Lab?
Quantum Optics Lab is a free, browser-based 3D simulator for geometric optics, polarization and quantum optics. It includes 40 optical systems plus experiments such as the double slit, Hong–Ou–Mandel interference, Bell/CHSH tests, optical cavities and Wigner functions.
Is Quantum Optics Lab free?
Yes. It is free to use and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY 4.0).
Do I need to install anything?
No. It runs in the browser, on desktop or phone.
Does it work on phones and tablets?
Yes. The controls are touch-first with large tap targets, and the settings panel collapses when you touch the 3D scene so the experiment gets the full screen.
Is the physics real or illustrative?
Rays are traced with Snell’s and Fresnel relations. Quantum scenes sample the actual probability distributions.
Who is it for?
Students, teachers, photonics newcomers, and curious people who want to see light behave.
Light is waiting.
Go bend it.
Every day without a bench is a day the physics stays on the page.
Launch the Lab