A higher order FDTD method in Integral formulation

Abstract

We present a fourth-order (4, 4) finite-difference time-domain (FDTD)-like algorithm based on the integral form of Maxwell's equations. The algorithm, which is called the integro-difference time-domain (IDTD) method, achieves its fourth-order accuracy in space and time by taking into account the spatial and temporal variations of electromagnetic fields within each computational cell. In the algorithm, the electromagnetic fields within each cell are represented by space and time integrals (or integral averages) of the fields, i.e., the electric and magnetic fluxes (D,B) are represented by the surface-integral average, and the electric and magnetic fields (E,H) by the line and time integral average. In order to relate the integral average fields in the staggered update equations, we have obtained constitutive relations for these fields. It is shown that the IDTD update equations combined with the constitutive relations are fourth-order accurate both in space and time. The fourth-order correction terms are represented by the modified coefficients in the update equations; the numerical structure remains the same as the conventional second-order update equations and more importantly does not require the storage of field variables at the previous time steps to obtain the fourth-order accuracy in time. Furthermore, the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) stability criteria of this fourth-order algorithm turns out to be identical to the stability limits of conventional second-order FDTD scheme based on differential formulation.