Application Gallery

By default, mode source calculates mode at central frequency of the specified frequency range and then injects this mode at all frequencies, which is very effective in single-frequency and narrowband simulations. However, in broadband simulations, mode-mismatch errors increase as frequency range expands. In this example, the multi-frequency field of the mode source will be demonstrated using a copper wire with a thin dielectric coating operating in the broadband terahertz range.

Coaxial-fed rectangular patch antenna is a fundamental type of microstrip antenna composed of a dielectric substrate, a ground plane, and a conductive patch. Compared to traditional antennas, Coaxial-fed rectangular patch antennas are compact, lightweight, easy to integrate, cost-effective, and suitable for mass production. In this case, a rectangular patch antenna mounted on an infinite metal ground plane is simulated using FDTD, and its return loss and far-field directivity are calculated.

In 2007, Kaliteevski et al. successfully excited Tamm plasmon polaritons (TPPs) between metal and Bragg gratings. The TPPs can be directly excited since the dispersion curves of TPPs lie within the light cone. Additionally, both TE and TM polarized light can be stimulated in TPPs since there is no requirement for the angle of incidence. These characteristics make TPPs popular in the fields such as surface light enhancement, nonlinear optics, and lasers. This case will simulate and study this process.

Arrayed waveguide gratings (AWGs) are essential components in dense wavelength division multiplexed (DWDM) systems. As large-scale photonic integrated devices continue to evolve, the miniaturization design of AWGs has become an important topic. In this example, a 2.5D-FDTD solver in SimWorks Finite Difference Solutions was employed to simulate a saddle-shaped silicon nanowire AWG to investigate its output spectral response and loss.

In this case, the Woodpile-Lattice photonic crystal is constructed, and the FDTD solver is used to explore the energy bandstructure of the photonic crystal.

Integrated photonics has become a key enabling technology in fields such as optical communications, sensing, and signal processing. Among various photonic devices, microring resonators are widely used in applications such as filtering, modulation, and nonlinear optics due to their compact footprint, high quality factor, and excellent wavelength-selective properties. In this case, a microring resonator with a center wavelength of 1.55 μm and a free spectral range (FSR) of 3200 GHz is designed and simulated.

The grating coupler has emerged as crucial components in silicon nanophotonics. Addressing the coupling issue between optical fibers and waveguides has become a prominent research focus in recent years. Polarization splitting grating couplers in this case can simultaneously achieve polarization beam-splitting and light coupling functions, which enables the vertical grating coupling between fibers and Silicon-On-Insulator platform for various polarization states. This approach represents one of the most optimal solutions to tackle this issue.

One important issue of silicon photonic circuit is an interface between integrated waveguide devices and optical fibers or free-space optics. Grating couplers have the advantages of easy fabrication, high flexibility, and large alignment tolerance, which makes them the most important solution to solve the coupling issues. In this example, we simulate a focusing grating coupler to study its coupling capability.

Mie scattering is an effect that occurs when particles have a size comparable to or larger than the wavelength of the incident light. In this case, we use SimWorks Finite Difference Solutions to calculate the scattering field of a nanoparticle excited by a Total-field Scattered-field(TFSF) light source. The built-in analysis group of Far field from a closed box is then employed to compute the far-field scattering distribution of the particle.

Wire grid polarizer(WGP) is a type of polarizer composed of a metallic grating with a sub-wavelength period and typically made of metals such as gold, silver, aluminum. Due to their advantages, including compact structure, high brightness, high polarization extinction ratio (PER), wide field of view, and ease of integration, WGPs can be widely applied in various fields such as photoswitches, optical displays, and imaging systems. This case is based on the work of Ahn et al. By controlling the grating spacing, duty cycle, and Al grating height, the extinction ratio and transmission optical characteristics can be adjusted.