Efficient Iterative Time-Domain Beam Propagation Methods for Ultra Short Pulse Propagation: Analysis and Assessment

The time-domain beam propagation method (TD-BPM) has been implemented and analyzed using several iterative numerical techniques to model the propagation of ultra short pulses in optical structures. The methods depend on one-way non-paraxial time domain propagation that use Pade approximant formulation. Several numerical tests showed that the iterative TD-BPM techniques are very stable and converge using few iterations. From accuracy assessment compared to the FDTD, it has been observed that the longitudinal and the temporal steps sizes can be a number of orders of magnitude larger than the FDTD step sizes with little percentage difference. Computer performance analysis showed the TD-BPM is well suited for long dielectric structures interaction of short and ultra short pulse propagation.