3-D FDTD Modeling of Electromagnetic Wave Propagation in Magnetized Plasma Requiring Singular Updates to the Current Density Equation

Abstract

A new finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) algorithm for electromagnetic wave propagation in magnetized plasma is proposed. This algorithm permits the use of two time step increments: one for Maxwell’s equations, ${\Delta t}$ , and the other for the current density equation derived from the Lorentz equation of motion, ${\Delta }{t}_{c}$ . A major advantage of this algorithm over previous approaches is that only a single update iteration is needed for the current density equation even when ${\Delta }{t}_{c} . This provides significant time savings that can make previously infeasibly long simulations now practical. The algorithm’s implementation is also relatively simple and it has relatively low memory requirements. The algorithm is validated against analytical results. A stability analysis is performed.