Experience with ray-tracing simulations at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility

The ESRF is the first operational third-generation synchrotron radiation hard-x-ray source. Since the beginning of its construction (1988), the ray-tracing technique proved to be an essential computer tool for beamline optics design. The optical systems of most beamlines have been simulated by ray tracing in order to optimize the optics, fully understand their properties, and check if operation performances were as expected. In this paper, a short compilation of the experience with ray tracing and optics simulation codes at the ESRF, as well as some other in-house developments, is presented. copyright 1996 American Institute of Physics