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Release notes

What's new in each PhotonHub release. For every detail, see the full changelog.

Upgrade with pip install --upgrade photonhub.

0.1.7 (2026-11-02)

Far-field recording, projection and labelled analysis.

  • Declare a far-field box or plane and project its recorded fields by name.
  • Explore radiation on angle, direction-cosine or Cartesian grids, including fields at a finite distance.
  • Read labelled far-field results, gain, scattering and polarization, with built-in plots.
  • Solve bent waveguide modes with the Yee method and absorbing layers.
  • Let cloud GPU calls resolve a GPU and the installed solver build, or keep selecting both explicitly.

Before you upgrade: re-run far-field and fitted-domain comparisons, and read saved results with their saved simulation. S-matrix ports now use your coordinates; remove manual origin subtraction and name the frame of a hand-built port. A new solver corrects absolute Bloch readings; older solvers keep their earlier scale. Keep solver builds consistent when comparing runs or resuming studies. Cloud GPU defaults need a local solver reporting a full build id and service approval for that build; pass an approved build with solver= explicitly when keeping an older solver. The flat far-field result attributes remain available with deprecation warnings. Open planes and boxes over substrates can have substantial pattern and cone-power error; higher-index substrate accuracy has not been established. Read the far-field limits before using those results. Ludwig-3 polarization warns and keeps NaN amplitudes near the direction opposite its boresight; choose boresight="-z" for downward emission and partition full-sphere calculations.

0.1.6 (2026-10-21)

Broadband inverse design, faster setup, and design studies.

  • Optimize a device across a band of wavelengths at two simulations per gradient, and shape guide widths and polygon outlines with a gradient you can check.
  • Scenes with many structures set up much faster, and a long local setup shows its progress.
  • Run design studies (sweeps, corners, Monte Carlo) locally or in the cloud, with spend limits.
  • Import gdsfactory components and export compact models as Touchstone files.
  • Simulate the index change from an imported temperature or carrier-density map, on the CPU solver.

Before you upgrade: some readings change, for example at bend ports and rotated ring ports, and for modes solved with absorbing layers. Re-run anything you compare with 0.1.5. Optimizations take a different path: optimize now defaults to L-BFGS-B, and an L-BFGS-B re-run ends at a different design. A source inside the boundary layers is now refused, and many of the names deprecated in 0.1.2 are removed.

0.1.5 (2026-09-28)

Exact gradients for inverse design.

  • Inverse design follows the exact gradient, in physical units, at two simulations per step.
  • Mode launches deliver the power you ask for.
  • The examples gallery is searchable.
  • Cloud GPU runs are open to invited testers (from 2026-10-02).

Before you upgrade: inverse-design results change, since gradients now have a physical scale. Absolute powers from some mode launches fall; transmission and other ratios do not change.

0.1.4 (2026-09-27)

Ports and a simpler setup.

  • Name your ports, then read transmission and reflection from them directly.
  • Declare the device, mesh and run length; PhotonHub fits the simulation box.
  • Local CPU runs also wait for the recorded spectrum to settle before they stop.
  • By default, a cloud run is quoted first and runs only within your spending limit.
  • Setup problems are reported before anything runs or bills.

Before you upgrade: many readings change. Re-run anything you compare with 0.1.3, above all S-matrices with off-centre ports and simulations with symmetry planes, which now report the whole device's power.

Earlier versions

0.1.3 and earlier are withdrawn. Upgrade if you have one installed.