lockin_thermal_wave — OPTICS lockin op

• Data kinds: image2d → video

• Call: import fullseye as fs; fs.ledger.lockin_thermal_wave(depth, thermal_diffusivity, f_heat, frames_per_period, n_periods, nonuniformity=None) -> 'np.ndarray' (to call the implementation directly, import lockin; lockin.lockin_thermal_wave(depth, thermal_diffusivity, f_heat, frames_per_period, n_periods, nonuniformity=None) -> 'np.ndarray'; from the registry, opsoptics.get("lockin_thermal_wave"))

Usage

Steady-state surface temperature of a plate heated by a sinusoidal flux, per pixel -> image sequence (T, H, W).

A layer of thickness depth (m; a pixel over a flat-bottom void has the void depth, a sound pixel the plate thickness) with an insulated back face is heated by a flux q cos(2 pi f_heat t). The one-dimensional heat equation gives the complex surface temperature T = q coth(sigma L) / (e sqrt(omega) sqrt(j)) with sigma = (1 + j) / mu, mu = sqrt(2 alpha / omega) (thermal diffusion length), omega = 2 pi f_heat and effusivity e. The output is in units of q / (e sqrt(omega)) and frame k is Re(T exp(j 2 pi k / frames_per_period)): the phase of a deep (L >> mu) pixel is -45 degrees, a shallow void is later (towards -90) and brighter. nonuniformity is an optional positive map that multiplies the whole signal (uneven heating or emissivity:

it changes the amplitude map and leaves the phase map alone). The transient of the first periods is not modelled.

Family-wide input contract (fail-closed)

Every optics op validates its input before computing (nothing slips through silently):

• Units are baked into the argument name — _mm / _um / _deg / _mrad. Confusing mm with µm does not crash; it yields a plausible-looking wrong answer, so the name prevents it. Nothing here guesses the unit from the magnitude.

• Strings raise ValueError — float('50') succeeds, so an unparsed configuration value would slip through as a length (measured: thin_lens('50', '200') returned a plausible 66.667 mm). bool is refused too, as the implicit promotion True == 1.

• complex / masked arrays raise ValueError (real-valued slots only; silently dropping the imaginary part or peeling off the mask is refused). NaN/Inf raises ValueError on every input.

• Division by zero and its relatives are refused by name: focal length 0, radius of curvature 0, refractive index <= 0, a fully opaque aperture (all zeros, so the normalisation is 0/0), a PSF whose sum is <= 0, a Stokes vector with S0 = 0, and an object sitting at the front focal point (the image is at infinity).

• Only two ops return a non-finite value, and both state it as a contract: depth_of_field returns far_mm = inf beyond the hyperfocal distance (that is what the hyperfocal distance means), and gaussian_beam returns wavefront_radius_mm = inf at the waist (the radius of curvature of a plane wavefront). Both also return a finite companion (far_is_infinite / curvature_per_mm). Any other silent NaN/Inf is detected internally and raises ValueError — "float64 overflowed" and "the answer is infinite" are different claims, so the first is never returned wearing the face of the second.

• Size caps: generated grids are capped by optics.MAX_GRID (4096); supplied fields/PSFs/apertures by optics.MAX_FIELD_ELEMENTS (2^24); ABCD element chains by optics.MAX_SYSTEM_ELEMENTS (1024); Zernike by MAX_ZERNIKE_TERMS (512) / MAX_ZERNIKE_ORDER (40) / MAX_ZERNIKE_BASIS (2^25). This closes, fail-closed, the paths where a small argument triggers a huge internal allocation (measured: n_max=40 × 4096² needs 108 GB).

• Physically impossible states are refused too: a Stokes vector with degree of polarisation > 1, negative transmittance, negative intensity, and invalid Zernike indices such as n-|m| odd.

Detailed usage guide

• optics_imaging family guide

References (sample data, literature)

• Sample-data catalog (download URLs / licences) — 2-D uses skimage.data (BSD/public domain) plus synthetic images; 3-D lists download URLs for real data sources (Stanford, PDS, …).

• Operator provenance and references — the sources of the research/methods this op family came from.

• The canonical algorithm (author, year) and its uses are named in the family usage guide above.

Runnable examples (verified samples that actually call this op)

• poc_lockin_imaging — py -3.11 examples/poc_lockin_imaging.py

• poc_thermal_drift_metrology — py -3.11 examples/poc_thermal_drift_metrology.py

Ops the type connects to (they accept video as input)

lockin_demodulate · lockin_amplitude · lockin_phase · lockin_separate · pixel_shift_merge · pixel_shift_motion_mask

Same category (lockin)

lockin_demodulate · lockin_amplitude · lockin_phase · lockin_noise_floor · lockin_walsh_codes · lockin_separate · lockin_ring_synthesize · lockin_ring_normals


*Provenance: lockin.py — OPTICS operator registry. This per-op note is generated by tools/opdocs.py md (do not hand-edit).*

© 2026 Kazufumi Furuse — Fullseye operator documentation. Licensed under Apache-2.0.