A modular implementation of dispersive materials for time-domain simulations with application to gold nanospheres at optical frequencies

• Published in: Optics express Vol. 17; no. 17; pp. 15186 - 15200
• Main Authors: Baumann, D, Fumeaux, C, Hafner, C, Li, E P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 17.08.2009
• Subjects: Algorithms; Computer Simulation; Electromagnetic Fields; Gold - chemistry; Metal Nanoparticles - chemistry; Models, Statistical; Nanospheres - chemistry; Nanotechnology - methods; Optics and Photonics; Scattering, Radiation; Surface Plasmon Resonance; Time Factors
• ISSN: 1094-4087; 1094-4087
• DOI: 10.1364/OE.17.015186

The development of photonic nano-structures can strongly benefit from full-field electromagnetic (EM) simulations. To this end, geometrical flexibility and accurate material modelling are crucial requirements set on the simulation method. This paper introduces a modular implementation of dispersive materials for time-domain EM simulations with focus on the Finite-Volume Time-Domain (FVTD) method. The proposed treatment can handle electric and magnetic dispersive materials exhibiting multi-pole Debye, Lorentz and Drude models, which can be mixed and combined without restrictions. The presented technique is verified in several illustrative examples, where the backscattering from dispersive spheres is calculated. The amount of flexibility and freedom gained from the proposed implementation will be demonstrated in the challenging simulation of the plasmonic resonance behavior of two gold nanospheres coupled in close proximity, where the dispersive characteristic of gold is approximated by realistic values in the optical frequency range.