MESH: A free electromagnetic solver for far-field and near-field radiative heat transfer for layered periodic structures

Abstract

We describe MESH (M ultilayer E lectromagnetic S olver for H eat transfer), a free software that combines rigorous coupled wave analysis (RCWA) and scattering matrix formalism to simulate the radiative heat transfer both in the near-field and far-field regimes for layered three-dimensional structures made of planar layers. Each layer can have in-plane one-dimensional or two-dimensional periodicity. In this paper, we provide detailed discussions of the algorithms of MESH, which enables it to be a flexible tool for different types of radiative heat transfer simulations. We also discuss aspects of the codes related to parallelization and user scripting. Program summaryProgram Title: MESHProgram Files doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/zx9v3bf3hf.1Licensing provisions: GNU General Public License 3 (GPL)Programming language: C, C++.External routines: Lua[1], Python[2] and LAPACK and BLAS linear-algebra software[3], and optionally MPI message-passing interface[4]. Armadillo[5] is already contained in MESH.Nature of problem: Far-field and near-field radiative heat transfer in layered periodic structures.Solution method: Fourier modal method (rigorous coupled wave analysis) and the scattering matrix method.[1] R. Ierusalimschy, L.H. de Figueiredo, W.C. Filho, Lua an extensible extension language, Software: Practice and Experience 26 (1996) 635652. http://www.lua.org.[2] Python Software Foundation. Available at http://www.python.org[3] MKL: https://software.intel.com/en-us/intel-mkl[4] T.M. Forum, MPI: A Message Passing Interface, in: Supercomputing 93, Portland, OR, 878883, 1993[5] Conrad Sanderson and Ryan Curtin. Armadillo: a template-based C++ library for linear algebra. Journal of Open Source Software, Vol. 1, pp. 26, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.21105/joss.00026