VectorWaves

VectorWaves provides a framework for generating, computing, and analyzing fully three-dimensional electromagnetic fields and their topology through discrete plane-wave expansions.

Installation

pip install vectorwaves

For additional features, you can install the optional dependencies:

To install,

pip install vectorwaves[extra]

Features

• Physics-oriented configuration system with numpy, numba, and CuPy (GPU) backends.
• Exact non-paraxial 3D propagation via Fibonacci-sphere discrete plane-wave expansions.
• Monochromatic and polychromatic sources with arbitrary envelopes, structured light support.
• Stochastic process generation for speckle-like fields.
• Fully analytic computation of E-fields, B-fields, spatial derivatives.
• Topological polarization analysis: C, Cᵀ, and Lᵀ point finding with 3D line tracing.

Quick Example

import vectorwaves as vw

# Generate a tightly-focused Laguerre-Gaussian beam
config = vw.get_config()
config.source.k_space.laguerre_gauss(p=1, l=2, sigma_k_perp=1)
config.source.randomize.off()

# Construct the beam and visualize its plane-wave modes
beam = vw.setup_beam(config)

# Requires matplotlib, included with  'viz' extra
beam.plot_kspace_3d(plot_type='matplotlib_scatter')

For tutorials and examples, please refer to the official documentation. Source code is available on GitHub.

Citing

If you use VectorWaves in your research, please cite it:

@software{soni_vectorwaves,
  author  = {Soni, Mayank},
  title   = {VectorWaves},
  year    = {2026},
  doi     = {10.5281/zenodo.21762335},
  url     = {https://github.com/M-Soni-Physics/VectorWaves}
}