An FDFD eigenvalue formulation for computing port solutions in FDTD simulators

At the pre- and post-processing stages of a finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation, important tasks are carried out that require knowledge of the port data (propagation constants, fields, impedances, and so on) of the problem structure. This paper introduces a 2D finite-difference frequency-domain (FDFD) eigenvalue formulation specifically tailored for the computation of port data to be used in conjunction with the 3D-FDTD method. A key feature of the proposed FDFD scheme is that it leads to the same numerical dispersion equation as that of the 3D-FDTD method. This means that, for a given frequency, the numerical propagation constants and mode patterns calculated by the two methods are identical. This is desirable for preserving the accuracy of the FDTD simulation.