opticalCoatingEditor

Optical coating editor UI component

Since R2026a

Description

Add-On Required: This feature requires the Optical Design and Simulation Library for Image Processing Toolbox add-on.

An optical coating editor UI component enables an app user to interactively edit the layers of an optical coating and tune its performance parameters, such as transmission, reflection, and absorption power coefficients. For more information about the interactions that the optical coating editor UI component enables, see Optical Coating Editor Interactions. Properties of the OpticalCoatingEditor object control the appearance and behavior of the UI component.

Creation

You can create a OpticalCoatingEditor object using the opticalCoatingEditor function described below.

Syntax

coatingEditor = opticalCoatingEditor

coatingEditor = opticalCoatingEditor(PropertyName=Value)

Description

coatingEditor = opticalCoatingEditor creates an optical coating editor in a new figure. The UI component enables you to edit and visualize the layer structure and optical performance of optical coatings from the coating library and MATLAB^® workspace. You can integrate the editor in your own custom apps.

coatingEditor = opticalCoatingEditor(PropertyName=Value) specifies OpticalCoatingEditor sets writable properties of the optical coating editor UI component using one or more optional name-value arguments. For example, opticalCoatingEditor(Coating=SiO2Coat) opens the optical coating SiO2Coat in the optical coating editor and visualizes the coating properties and performance.

Output Arguments

coatingEditor — Optical coating editor UI component

OpticalCoatingEditor object

Optical coating editor UI component, returned as an OpticalCoatingEditor object.

Properties

Coating Settings

Coating — Coating to edit

[] (default) | opticalCoating object

Coating to edit in the optical coating editor, specified as an opticalCoating object.

NumWavelengthSamples — Number of sampled wavelengths

100 (default) | positive integer

Number of sampled wavelengths in the spectral response plots, specified as a positive integer.

NumAngleSamples — Number of sampled angles

90 (default) | positive integer

Number of sampled incident angles in the spectral response plots, specified as a positive integer. Increase the NumAngleSamples value to improve transmittance, reflection, and absorbance plot smoothness at the expense of higher computation time and memory usage.

LightDirection — Incident light direction

"medium2substrate" (default) | "substrate2medium"

Incident light direction with respect to the coating, specified as one of these options:

• "medium2substrate" — Incoming incident light rays travel from the direction of the medium through the substrate.

• "substrate2medium" — Incoming incident light rays travel from the direction of the substrate through the medium.

Editor Settings

Editable — Editable state of coating editor

"on" (default) | on/off logical value

Editable state of coating editor, represented as "on" or "off", or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of "on" is equivalent to true, and "off" is equivalent to false. You can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

• "on" — The optical coating editor displays controls for setting the name, wavelength range, incident angle range, layer materials, and layers of the optical coating.

• "off" — The optical coating editor hides all controls except the Flip Light button and Heatmap for parameter."

Position

Position — UI component size and location, excluding margins

[0 0 1 1] (default) | 4-element vector

UI component size and location excluding the margins, specified as a 4-element vector of the form [left bottom width height]. The values of left and bottom specify the location of the lower-left corner of the UI component, and width and height specify its dimensions in the x- and y-directions, respectively. By default, MATLAB measures the values in units normalized to the container. To change the units, set the Units property.

InnerPosition — Inner size and location

Read-only: [0 0 1 1] (default) | 4-element vector

This property is read-only.

Inner size and location, represented as a 4-element vector of the form [left bottom width height]. This property is equivalent to the Position property.

OuterPosition — Size and location including labels and margin

[0 0 1 1] (default) | 4-element vector

Size and location including the labels and margin, specified as a 4-element vector of the form [left bottom width height]. The values of left and bottom specify the location of the lower-left corner of the UI component, and width and height specify its dimensions in the x- and y-directions, respectively. By default, MATLAB measures the values in units normalized to the container. To change the units, set the Units property.

Units — Units of measurement

"normalized" (default) | "inches" | "centimeters" | "characters" | "points" | "pixels"

Units of measurement, specified as one of these options.

Units Value	Description
"normalized" (default)	Normalized with respect to the container, which is typically a figure or panel. The lower-left corner of the container maps to (0, 0) and the upper-right corner maps to (1, 1).
"inches"	Inches.
"centimeters"	Centimeters.
"characters"	Based on the default uicontrol font of the graphics root object. Character width = width of the letter x. Character height = distance between the baselines of two lines of text.
"points"	Typography points. One point equals 1/72 inch.
"pixels"	Pixels. On Windows® and Macintosh systems, the size of a pixel is 1/96 inch. This size is independent of your system resolution. On Linux® systems, the size of a pixel is determined by your system resolution.

Layout — Layout options

empty LayoutOptions array (default) | GridLayoutOptions object

Layout options, specified as a GridLayoutOptions object. This property specifies options for components that are children of grid layout containers. If the component is not a child of a grid layout container (for example, it is a child of a figure or panel), then this property is empty and has no effect. However, if the component is a child of a grid layout container, you can place the component in the intended row and column of the grid by setting the Row and Column properties of the GridLayoutOptions object.

For example, this code places an optical coating editor in the third row and second column of its parent grid.

g = uigridlayout([4 3]);
editor = opticalCoatingEditor(Parent=g);
editor.Layout.Row = 3;
editor.Layout.Column = 2;

Interactivity

Visible — State of visibility

"on" (default) | on/off logical value

State of visibility, specified as "on" or "off", or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of "on" is equivalent to true, and "off" is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

• "on" — Display the object.

• "off" — Hide the object without deleting it. You can still access the properties of an invisible UI component.

To make your app start faster, set the Visible property to "off" for all components that do not need to appear at startup.

Changing the size of an invisible container triggers the SizeChangedFcn callback when it becomes visible.

Changing the Visible property of a container does not change the values of the Visible properties of child components. This is true even though hiding the container causes the child components to be hidden.

ContextMenu — Context menu

empty GraphicsPlaceholder array (default) | ContextMenu object

Context menu, specified as a ContextMenu object created using the uicontextmenu function. Use this property to display a context menu when you right-click on an area of the component that does not contain any underlying UI components or graphics objects.

To display a context menu when you right-click on any portion of the custom UI component, write code to set the ContextMenu property of all underlying UI components and graphics objects whenever the ContextMenu property of your custom component is set.

Color and Styling

BackgroundColor — Background color

[0.9608 0.9608 0.9608] (default) | RGB triplet | hexadecimal color code | 'r' | 'g' | 'b' | ...

Background color, specified as an RGB triplet, a hexadecimal color code, or one of the color options listed in the table.

Color Name	Short Name	RGB Triplet	Hexadecimal Color Code	Appearance
"red"	"r"	[1 0 0]	"#FF0000"
"green"	"g"	[0 1 0]	"#00FF00"
"blue"	"b"	[0 0 1]	"#0000FF"
"cyan"	"c"	[0 1 1]	"#00FFFF"
"magenta"	"m"	[1 0 1]	"#FF00FF"
"yellow"	"y"	[1 1 0]	"#FFFF00"
"black"	"k"	[0 0 0]	"#000000"
"white"	"w"	[1 1 1]	"#FFFFFF"

Callbacks

CoatingChangedFcn — Coating change callback

"" (default) | function handle | cell array | character vector

Coating change callback, specified as one of these values:

• Function handle.

• Cell array in which the first element is a function handle. Subsequent elements in the cell array are the arguments to pass to the callback function.

• Character vector containing a valid MATLAB expression (not recommended). MATLAB evaluates this expression in the base workspace.

For more information about specifying a callback as a function handle, cell array, or character vector, see Callbacks in App Designer.

The CoatingChangedFcn callback executes when the user selects a new coating using the optical coating editor UI component.

This callback function can access your selected coating as you interact with the optical coating editor. MATLAB passes this information in a CoatingChanged event as the second argument in the callback function. In App Designer, the argument is named event. You can get the object properties using dot notation. For example, event.PreviousValue gets the previously selected coating.

The CoatingChangedFcn callback does not execute when the user reselects the currently selected coating. The callback also does not execute when you change the Coating property programmatically.

SizeChangedFcn — Size change callback

"" (default) | function handle | cell array | character vector

Size change callback, specified as one of these values:

• Function handle.

• Cell array in which the first element is a function handle. Subsequent elements in the cell array are the arguments to pass to the callback function.

• Character vector containing a valid MATLAB expression (not recommended). MATLAB evaluates this expression in the base workspace.

For more information about specifying a callback as a function handle, cell array, or character vector, see Callbacks in App Designer.

The SizeChangedFcn callback executes when:

• The component becomes visible for the first time.

• The component is visible while its size changes.

• This component becomes visible for the first time after its size changes. This situation occurs when the size changes while the component is invisible, and then it becomes visible later.

CreateFcn — Object creation function

"" (default) | function handle | cell array | character vector

Object creation function, specified as one of these values:

• Function handle.

• Cell array in which the first element is a function handle. Subsequent elements in the cell array are the arguments to pass to the callback function.

• Character vector containing a valid MATLAB expression (not recommended). MATLAB evaluates this expression in the base workspace.

For more information about specifying a callback as a function handle, cell array, or character vector, see Callbacks in App Designer.

This property specifies a callback function to execute when MATLAB creates the object. MATLAB initializes all property values before executing the CreateFcn callback. If you do not specify the CreateFcn property, then MATLAB executes a default creation function.

Setting the CreateFcn property on an existing component has no effect.

If you specify this property as a function handle or cell array, you can access the object that is being created using the first argument of the callback function. Otherwise, use the gcbo function to access the object.

DeleteFcn — Deletion function

"" (default) | function handle | cell array | character vector

Object deletion function, specified as one of these values:

• Function handle.

• Cell array in which the first element is a function handle. Subsequent elements in the cell array are the arguments to pass to the callback function.

• Character vector containing a valid MATLAB expression (not recommended). MATLAB evaluates this expression in the base workspace.

For more information about specifying a callback as a function handle, cell array, or character vector, see Callbacks in App Designer.

This property specifies a callback function to execute when MATLAB deletes the object. MATLAB executes the DeleteFcn callback before destroying the properties of the object. If you do not specify the DeleteFcn property, then MATLAB executes a default deletion function.

If you specify this property as a function handle or cell array, you can access the object that is being deleted using the first argument of the callback function. Otherwise, use the gcbo function to access the object.

ButtonDownFcn — Button down callback

"" (default) | function handle | cell array | character vector

Button down callback, specified as one of these values:

• Function handle.

• Cell array in which the first element is a function handle. Subsequent elements in the cell array are the arguments to pass to the callback function.

• Character vector containing a valid MATLAB expression (not recommended). MATLAB evaluates this expression in the base workspace.

For more information about specifying a callback as a function handle, cell array, or character vector, see Callbacks in App Designer.

The ButtonDownFcn callback executes when you click the OpticalCoatingEditor object.

Callback Execution Control

Interruptible — Callback interruption

"on" (default) | on/off logical value

Callback interruption, specified as "on" or "off", or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of "on" is equivalent to true, and "off" is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

This property determines if a running callback can be interrupted. There are two callback states to consider:

• The running callback is the currently executing callback.

• The interrupting callback is a callback that tries to interrupt the running callback.

Whenever MATLAB invokes a callback while another callback is running, the newly invoked callback attempts to interrupt the running callback. The Interruptible property of the object that owns the running callback determines if interruption is allowed.

• A value of "on" allows other callbacks to interrupt the callbacks of the object. The interruption occurs at the next point where MATLAB processes the queue, such as when there is a drawnow, figure, uifigure, getframe, waitfor, or pause command.

  • If the running callback contains one of those commands, then MATLAB stops the execution of the callback at that point and executes the interrupting callback. MATLAB resumes executing the running callback when the interrupting callback completes.

  • If the running callback does not contain one of those commands, then MATLAB finishes executing the callback without interruption.

• A value of "off" blocks all interruption attempts. The BusyAction property of the object that owns the interrupting callback determines if the interrupting callback is discarded or put into a queue.

Note

Callback interruption and execution behave differently in these situations:

• If the interrupting callback is a DeleteFcn or SizeChangedFcn callback, then the interruption occurs regardless of the Interruptible property value.

• If the running callback is currently executing the waitfor function, then the interruption occurs regardless of the Interruptible property value.

• Timer objects execute according to schedule regardless of the Interruptible property value.

When an interruption occurs, MATLAB does not save the state of properties or the display. For example, the object returned by the gca or gcf command might change when another callback executes.

BusyAction — Callback queuing

"queue" (default) | "cancel"

Callback queuing, specified as "queue" or "cancel". The BusyAction property determines how MATLAB handles the execution of interrupting callbacks. There are two callback states to consider:

• The running callback is the currently executing callback.

• The interrupting callback is a callback that tries to interrupt the running callback.

Whenever MATLAB invokes a callback while another callback is running, the newly invoked callback attempts to interrupt the running callback. The Interruptible property of the object that owns the running callback determines if interruption is permitted. If interruption is not permitted, then the BusyAction property of the object that owns the interrupting callback determines if it is discarded or put in the queue. These are the possible values of the BusyAction property:

• "queue" — Puts the interrupting callback in a queue to be processed after the running callback finishes execution.

• "cancel" — Does not execute the interrupting callback.

BeingDeleted — Deletion status

on/off logical value

Deletion status, represented as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

MATLAB sets the BeingDeleted property to "on" when the DeleteFcn callback begins execution. The BeingDeleted property remains set to "on" until the component object no longer exists.

Before querying or modifying an object, check the value of the BeingDeleted property of the object to verify that it is not about to be deleted.

Parent/Child

Parent — Parent container

Figure object (default) | Panel object | Tab object | GridLayout object

Parent container, specified as a Figure, Panel, Tab, or GridLayout object. By default, the parent container is a new Figure object.

Children — UI component children

empty GraphicsPlaceholder array

UI component children, returned as an empty GraphicsPlaceholder array. Custom UI components have no children. Setting this property has no effect.

HandleVisibility — Visibility of object handle

"on" (default) | "callback" | "off"

Visibility of the object handle, specified as "on", "callback", or "off".

This property controls the visibility of the object in the list of children for its parent. When an object is not visible in the list of children for its parent, it is not returned by functions that obtain objects by searching the object hierarchy or querying properties. These functions include get, findobj, clf, and close. Objects are valid even if they are not visible. If you can access an object, you can set and get its properties, and pass it to any function that operates on objects.

HandleVisibility Value	Description
"on"	The object is always visible.
"callback"	The object is visible from within callbacks or functions invoked by callbacks, but not from within functions invoked from the command line. This option blocks access to the object at the command line, but allows callback functions to access it.
"off"	The object is invisible at all times. This option is useful for preventing unintended changes to the UI by another function. Set the HandleVisibility to "off" to temporarily hide the object during the execution of that function.

Identifiers

Type — Type of UI component object

Read-only: "optics.ui.opticalcoatingeditor"

This property is read-only.

Type of UI component object, represented as the character vector "optics.ui.opticalcoatingeditor".

Tag — Object identifier

"" (default) | character vector | string scalar

Object identifier, specified as a character vector or string scalar. You can specify a unique Tag value to serve as an identifier for an object. When you need access to the object elsewhere in your code, you can use the findobj function to search for the object based on the Tag value.

UserData — User data

[] (default) | array

User data, specified as any MATLAB array. For example, you can specify a scalar, vector, matrix, cell array, character array, table, or structure. Use this property to store arbitrary data on an object.

If you are working in App Designer, create public or private properties in the app to share data instead of using the UserData property. For more information, see Share Data Within a Single App Designer App.

Examples

Create Optical Coating Editor

Create an optical coating editor in a UI figure.

fig = uifigure;
hCoating = opticalCoatingEditor(Parent=fig)

hCoating = 
  OpticalCoatingEditor with properties:

                 Coating: [1×1 opticalCoating]
    NumWavelengthSamples: 100
         NumAngleSamples: 90
          LightDirection: "medium2substrate"
                Editable: on
       CoatingChangedFcn: ''
                Position: [0 0 1 1]

  Show all properties

The optical coating editor allows an app user to edit an existing coating or create a custom optical coating, and view its optical response.

Set and Access Optical Coating Editor Properties

Create a broadband anti-reflective (AR) optical coating.

ocBBAR = opticalCoating(Name="BBAR_4l", ...
    CoatingMaterial = ["TiO2" "SiO2"], ...
    LayerMaterialIndex = [1 2 1 2], ...
    ThicknessUnit = "nm", ...
    LayerThickness = [14.6 36.5 129.1 95.5]);

Create an optical coating in a UI figure, and specify the optical coating to edit as the broadband AR coating, ocBBAR.

fig = uifigure(Position=[250 50 650 700]);
hCoating = opticalCoatingEditor(Parent=fig,Coating=ocBBAR);

Edit Optical Coating

To create an optical layer using a new material, in the Layer Materials section of the optical coating editor, click the plus button. In the name column of the Layer Materials table, select the newly added material and, from the drop-down list, and select Al2O3. Then, in the Layers section, click the plus button to add an Al2O3 layer on top of the topmost SiO2 layer. Change the thickness of the layer to 60 nm by specifying the value in the Thickness value as 60.

Access Edited Optical Coating

Extract the edited optical coating from the OpticalCoatingEditor object.

editedBBAR = hCoating.Coating

editedBBAR = 
  opticalCoating with properties:

                  Name: "BBAR_4l"
    IncidentAngleRange: [0 15]
       WavelengthRange: [300 800]
     PrimaryWavelength: 587.5618
                Medium: [1×1 opticalMaterial]
             Substrate: [1×1 opticalMaterial]
      CoatingMaterials: [3×1 opticalMaterial]
    LayerMaterialIndex: [1 2 1 2 3]
        LayerThickness: [14.6000 36.5000 129.1000 95.5000 60]
         ThicknessUnit: "nm"
             NumLayers: 5
        TotalThickness: 335.7000

Create Optical Response Visualization App

Create an app that visualizes the reflectance, or power reflection coefficient, of a user-defined optical coating, updating the plot in real time as the user edits the coating in the app.

In a file named coatingResponseApp.m, write a function that implements the app:

• Define an optical coating input argument oc.

• Define the range of angles and wavelengths for which you want to plot the spectral response using the variables angles and lambda, respectively.

• Create a UI figure and grid layout. Position the opticalCoatingEditor in the first column of the UI figure, and a surface plot of Ra, the average power reflection coefficient, in the second column.

• Set the CoatingChangedFcn property of the editor to a callback function, updateRaPlot, that updates the Coating property of the OpticalCoatingEditor when you create or edit an optical coating. For more information about callbacks, see Create Callbacks for Apps Created Programmatically.

function coatingResponseApp(oc)

arguments
    oc (1,1) opticalCoating
end

angles = 0:1:45;
lambda = 400:10:600;

fig = uifigure(Name="Coating Optical Response Visualizer",Position=[200 50 1000 700]);
mainGrid = uigridlayout(fig,[1 2]);
mainGrid.ColumnWidth = {"2x","1x"};
h = opticalCoatingEditor(Parent=mainGrid,Coating=oc);
ax = uiaxes(mainGrid);
ax.Title.String = "Reflection Power Coefficient";
ax.XLabel.String = "Wavelength (nm)";
ax.YLabel.String = "Incident Angle (deg)";
ax.ZLabel.String = "Ra";
ax.PlotBoxAspectRatio = [1 1 1];

coeffs = fresnelCoefficients(h.Coating,IncidentAngles=angles,Wavelengths=lambda);
hLiveSurf = surf(ax,lambda,angles,coeffs.Ra)

h.CoatingChangedFcn = @(hObj,~) updateRaPlot(hObj,hLiveSurf,angles,lambda);
    function updateRaPlot(h,hLiveSurf,angles,lambda)
        coeffs = fresnelCoefficients(h.Coating,IncidentAngles=angles,Wavelengths=lambda);
        set(hLiveSurf,"ZData",coeffs.Ra)
    end
end

Create a broadband anti-reflective (AR) optical coating.

ocBBAR = opticalCoating(Name="BBAR_4l", ...
    CoatingMaterial = ["TiO2", "SiO2"], ...
    LayerMaterialIndex = [1 2 1 2], ...
    ThicknessUnit = "nm", ...
    LayerThickness = [14.6 36.5 129.1 95.5]);

Launch the app and specify the broadband AR coating ocBarr as an input.

coatingResponseApp(ocBBAR)

More About

Events

To receive notification from the OpticalCoatingEditor object when you select a new coating, set up a listener for the CoatingChanged event. You can specify a callback function that executes when you select a new coating. When the OpticalCoatingEditor object notifies your application through the listener, it returns data specific to the event.

Event Name	Trigger	Event Data	Event Attributes
CoatingChanged	A new optical coating has been selected, either through the UI or programmatically using the SelectedCoating property.	None	NotifyAccess: private ListenAccess: public

Optical Coating Editor Interactions

Feature	Editor Interaction	Description
Name		Enter or edit the name of the coating in the Name field.
Incident Light Angle Range		Range of incident angles for which to compute performance parameters. Adjust the positions of the sliders to modify the angle range. Units are in degrees.
Wavelength		Adjust the wavelength range, and the primary wavelength, by setting the values in the Min, Max, Primary fields to specify the minimum, maximum, and primary wavelength values, respectively. Units are in nanometers.
Select layer materials		View the layer materials in the coating, and their corresponding indices of refraction Nd and Abbe numbers Vd. Select materials by checking the box next to each material name. To use a new material in the coating, click the plus button, and select the material in the dropdown. To add materials to the library of available coating materials, use the addCoatingMaterial function.
Modify layers and layer thickness		View the list of the coating layers, their materials, and their current order in the coating, as well as their thicknesses in Units. Add layers, change the material and thickness of any layer in the coating, and select layers to then copy or delete. Modify the layer thickness by entering it in its corresponding Thickness field. By default, units are in quarter-wavelengths.
Visualize coating layers		View the schematic of the layer stack in the coating, including the layer names and thicknesses. The order of the layers places the substrate at the bottom and the medium at the top. Press the Flip Light button to flip the incident light direction.
Change incident light direction		Press the Flip Light button to flip the incident light direction.
Heatmap performance parameter selection		Use Heatmap for to select a performance parameter for which to generate a heatmap of the incident angle against wavelength. By default, the optical coating picker plots a heatmap of the average reflection coefficient Ra. You can select from these performance parameters for which to plot a heatmap: Rs — Transmission power coefficient for s-polarized incident light Rp — Reflection power coefficient for p-polarized incident light Ra — Average reflection power coefficient, computed as (Ra+Rp)/2) Ts — Transmission power coefficient for s-polarized incident light Tp — Transmission power coefficient for p-polarized incident light Ta — Average transmission power coefficient, computed as (Ts+Tp)/2 As — Absorption power coefficient, for s-polarized incident light Ap — Absorption power coefficient, for p-polarized incident light The electric fields of s-polarized and p-polarized incident light are perpendicular and parallel to the plane of incidence, respectively.
Heatmap of T/R/A for incident angles and wavelengths		Heatmap plot of incident angle against wavelength for the selected performance parameter. Click the figure, or drag the point at which the blue lines cross, to select a value of incident angle and wavelength. The plots of the T/R/A against wavelength and T/R/A against incident angle update to reflect the selected point on the heatmap.
T/R/A against wavelength		Plot of performance parameters against wavelength response for the incident angle that you choose using the heatmap.
T/R/A against incident angle		Plot of performance parameters against incident angle response for the wavelength that you choose using the heatmap.

Alternative Functionality

The OpticalCoatingEditor object enables an app user to edit existing coatings, create new coatings, and visualize optical coating performance parameters. To create a UI component that enables you to view the properties and optical response of an existing optical coating without editing it, use the OpticalCoatingPicker object, instead.

Version History

Introduced in R2026a