Applications of the wave packet method to resonant transmission and reflection gratings (Q1883508)

Scattering of femtosecond laser pulses on resonant transmission and reflection gratings made of dispersive (Drude metals) and dielectric materials is studied by a time-domain numerical algorithm for Maxwell's theory of linear passive (dispersive and absorbing) media. The algorithm is based on the Hamiltonian formalism in the framework of which Maxwell's equations for passive media are shown to be equivalent to the first-order equation, \(\partial\Psi/\partial t=\mathcal H\Psi\), where \(\mathcal H\) is a linear differential operator (Hamiltonian) acting on a multi-dimensional vector \(\Psi\) built of the electromagnetic inductions and auxiliary matter fields describing the medium response. The initial value problem is then solved by means of a modified time leapfrog method in combination with the Fourier pseudospectral method applied on a non-uniform grid that is constructed by a change of variables and designed to enhance the sampling efficiency near medium interfaces. Boundary conditions at medium interfaces are not fixed in the algorithm, but rather medium parameters are allowed to have spatial discontinuities so that the correct boundary conditions are enforced dynamically, similarly to the wave packet method for quantum mechanical systems with discontinuous potentials. Several approaches try to explain why a periodic thin-film metallic grating can transmit more light at certain wavelengths than the projected area of the holes in the grating would suggest, while at other wavelengths transmission is almost fully blocked. Since all suggested approaches produce essentially identical predictions for the transmission and reflection coefficients (the far field) of the slit grating, the authors argue that it would be necessary to have a closer look at the details of electromagnetic field dynamics in the vicinity of the grating. So they apply their algorithm to scattering of a wideband electromagnetic pulse on various transmission and reflection slit gratings. Their time-domain algorithm allows one to observe in detail the formation and decay of long-living resonant excitations of electromagnetic fields as well as the formation of resonant transmission and reflection wave fronts.