Nonreflecting Boundary Conditions for Maxwell's Equations

Abstract

Exact nonreflecting boundary conditions are derived for the time dependent Maxwell equations in three space dimensions. These conditions hold on a spherical surfaceB, outside of which the medium is assumed to be homogeneous, isotropic, and source-free. They are local in time and nonlocal onB, and they do not involve high-order derivatives. Thus, they are easy to incorporate into finite difference or finite element methods. These boundary conditions are similar to the exact nonreflecting boundary conditions for the scalar wave equation which yield high numerical accuracy.