<p>This paper presents an adaptive finite element algorithm to address the challenges of solving the Helmholtz equation in complex optical geometries. The adaptivity loop is constructed using a posteriori error estimator, built by evaluating the recovered gradient based on the polynomial preserving recovery method. A description of the error estimation accompanies this methodology. A series of numerical tests are performed to prove the robustness of the adaptive finite element algorithm based on the proposed mesh refinement criteria. The results show a reduction in the computation cost and an improvement in the accuracy of the solution. The adaptive approach’s notable speed in getting more accurate solutions enables it to deal with the complex problems of optical wave propagation.</p>