An Explicit Discontinuous Galerkin Time-Domain Scheme to Simulate Kerr Nonlinearity

A discontinuous Galerkin time-domain (DGTD) method is formulated and implemented to analyze transient electromagnetic field interactions in a medium with Kerr nonlinearity. The (nonlinear) Maxwell equations in conservative form are discretized using a DG scheme that employs the Harten-Lax-van Leer numerical flux to facilitate the information exchange between discretization elements. A slope limiter is introduced into the DGTD method to prevent generation of non-physical oscillations in the solution and maintain the stability of the explicit time marching. Numerical examples, which demonstrate the applicability and the accuracy of the proposed method, are presented.