PPPL-3744 is available in pdf format (280 KB).

Simulating Photons and Plasmons in a Three-dimensional Lattice

Authors: A. Pletzer and G. Shvets

Date of PPPL Report: September 2002

Presented at: the Electrical Transport and Optical Properties of Inhomogeneous Media (ETOPIM) Conference in Snowbird, Utah, July 15-19, 2002.

Three-dimensional metallic photonic structures are studied using a newly developed mixed finite element-finite difference (FE-FD) code, Curly3d. The code solves the vector Helmholtz equation as an eigenvalue problem in the unit cell of a triply periodic lattice composed of conductors and/or dielectrics. The mixed FE-FD discretization scheme ensures rapid numerical convergence of the eigenvalue and allows the code to run at low resolution. Plasmon and photonic band structure calculations are presented.