Improved performance of numerical simulation algorithms for nanoscale electromagnetics

Abstract

The optical response of nanostructures that exhibit pronounced plasmonic effects is studied and analyzed. Various approaches to solve light scattering problems in the time domain and in the frequency domain, using both the domain and the boundary discretization methods were used. Far-field and near-field characteristics of plasmonic nanostructures are investigated with several numerical algorithms to study the shape effect and the effects of the illumination angles on the resonance behavior. Numerical results with high accuracy, reduced complexity and reduced computational time due to extensive use of semi-analytical solutions are obtained. This set of numerical experiments demonstrates significant differences in the performances of different numerical methods. We observed that even simple geometries of plasmonic nanostructures may pose severe problems for various methods. We identify a strong need to select and modify numerical simulation algorithms according to the plasmonic effects, in addition to the standard selection of numerical method according to the geometrical settings and length scales.