The numerical dispersion relation and stability analysis of PLCDRC-FDTD method for anisotropic magnetized plasma

Abstract

This letter presents a numerical dispersion relation of the piecewise linear current density recursive convolution (PLCDRC) finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) for anisotropic magnetized plasma. The numerical dispersion error and dissipation error caused by the PLCDRC-FDTD method are investigated by comparing the real part and imaginary of numerical wave number with these of analytic wave number. The stability and the relationships between the numerical dispersion, dissipation errors and different parameters (i.e., EM wave frequency, plasma frequency, and electron gyrofrequency) are studied. Numerical results indicate that the stability requirement of the PLCDRC-FDTD scheme for magnetized plasma media is more restrictive than that of FDTD in non-dispersive dielectrics. That is the reason the time step size needs to be below the Courant limit for magnetized plasma FDTD method. Meanwhile, it is apparent that numerical error can be reduced when the simulation parameters are selected accurately.