EM Explorer - 3D FDTD EM Solver

About EM Explorer

EM Explorer is a 3D electromagnetic (EM) solver for scattering problems of periodic structures illuminated by arbitrary incident fields including planewaves, Gaussian beams and focused Hi-NA beams. It can simulate both complex dielectric and complex magnetic materials including left-handed materials (LHM) that have a negative refractive index. EM Explorer is largely based on the same method of Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD). Therefore it inherits most of FDTD's advantages and disadvantages. The advantages include simple & robust numerical algorithm, versatility for nearly any geometries, and good scalability of computing resources as a function of simulation volume size. The disadvantages are numerical dispersion and stability constraint due to the finite difference (FD) approximation to Maxwell's equations and explicit time marching algorithm.

EM Explorer is available in both GUI (graphical user interface) version and console version on Windows. Both 32-bit and 64-bit applications are available. Note not all features in the GUI version are available in the console version, or vice versa. The key features in the GUI version include

MFC-based graphical user interface

Geometry-based meshing methods

Absorbing and lossless dielectric and magnetic materials including negative index materials

Planewave excitation of arbitrary angle and polarization

Periodic boundary condition in xy and absorbing boundary condition in z

Sub-cell resolution and numerical dispersion correction

Real-time data visualization

Near-field output of complex E- and H-fields (amplitude/phase), intensity, Poynting vector, etc...

Post-processing: reflected and transmitted field diffraction spectrum calculations

Multi-core/processor support via OpenMP

The key features in the console version include

TCL (Tool Command language) based user interface

Geometry-based meshing methods and direct meshing methods

Absorbing and lossless dielectric and magnetic materials including negative index materials

Planewave, Gaussian beam and focused Hi-NA beam excitations

Arbitrary excitation fields via user-specified external data files

Soft and hard point sources

Periodic boundary condition in xy and absorbing boundary condition in z

Sub-cell resolution and numerical dispersion correction

Convergence monitor

Near-field output of complex E- and H-fields (amplitude/phase), intensity, Poynting vector, etc...

Post-processing: reflected and transmitted field diffraction spectrum calculations

Near-field to far-field transformation

Additional simulation engines: full-vector doubly-telecentric lens simulation engine, film stack simulation engine, etc...

Multi-core/processor support via OpenMP

64-bit support for very large simulations in EM Explorer Pro