Relaxation of the Courant Condition in the Explicit Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method With Higher-Degree Differential Terms

A new explicit and nondissipative finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method in two and three dimensions is proposed for the relaxation of the Courant condition. The third-degree spatial difference terms with second- and fourth-order accuracies are added with coefficients to the time-development equations of FDTD(2,4). Optimal coefficients are obtained by a brute-force search of the dispersion relations, which reduces phase velocity errors but satisfies the numerical stabilities as well. The new method is stable with large Courant numbers, whereas the conventional FDTD methods are unstable. The new method also has smaller numerical errors in the phase velocity than conventional FDTD methods with small Courant numbers.