High‐order accurate FDTD method based on split‐step scheme for solving Maxwell's equations

Abstract

AbstractA new split‐step finite difference time domain (SS‐FDTD) method with high‐order accuracy is presented, which is proven to be unconditionally stable and has four substeps. The numerical dispersion error and the numerical anisotropic error of the proposed method are reduced than the alternating direction implicit finite difference time domain method, the conventional SS‐FDTD method and the SS‐FDTD method based on the Strang‐splitting scheme. The proposed method has new splitting forms, which is different from the SS‐FDTD method based on the exponential evolution operator. At each time step, an important aspect is that the proposed method produces 33% reduction of the total number of arithmetic operators than the SS‐FDTD method based on the exponential evolution operator. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 51: 562–565, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.24100