A wide angle propagation technique using an explicit finite difference scheme

A wide angle propagation technique is developed by explicitly solving a Taylor-series-expanded form of the scalar Helmholtz wave equation. The wave equation is numerically solved using a central explicit finite difference scheme. In this new wide angle propagation technique only a sparse matrix multiplication is needed to propagate an optical wave at each propagation step. The accuracy of the explicit finite difference wide angle beam propagation method is confirmed by analyzing the guided-wave devices which involve highly tilted waveguides and etched turning mirrors.<
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