Time-Resolved FDTD and Experimental FTIR Study of Gold Micropatch Arrays for Wavelength-Selective Mid-Infrared Optical Coupling

Accurate Nonstandard Path Integral Models for Arbitrary Dielectric Boundaries in 2-D NS-FDTD Domains

An efficient path integral (PI) model for the accurate analysis of curved dielectric structures on coarse grids via the two-dimensional nonstandard finite-difference time-domain (NS-FDTD) technique is introduced in this paper. In contrast to previous PI implementations of the perfectly electric conductor case, which accommodates orthogonal cells in the vicinity of curved surfaces, the novel PI model employs the occupation ratio of dielectrics in the necessary cells, providing thus a straightforward and instructive means to treat an assortment of practical applications. For its verification, the reflection from a flat plate and the scattering from a cylinder using the PI model are investigated. Results indicate that the featured methodology can enable the reliable and precise modeling of arbitrarily shaped dielectrics in the NS-FDTD algorithm on coarse grids.

Graphene Hybrid Metasurfaces for Mid-Infrared Molecular Sensors

We integrated graphene with asymmetric metal metasurfaces and optimised the geometry dependent photoresponse towards optoelectronic molecular sensor devices. Through careful tuning and characterisation, combining finite-difference time-domain simulations, electron-beam lithography-based nanofabrication, and micro-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, we achieved precise control over the mid-infrared peak response wavelengths, transmittance, and reflectance. Our methods enabled simple, reproducible and targeted mid-infrared molecular sensing over a wide range of geometrical parameters. With ultimate minimization potential down to atomic thicknesses and a diverse range of complimentary nanomaterial combinations, we anticipate a high impact potential of these technologies for environmental monitoring, threat detection, and point of care diagnostics.

A Nonstandard Path Integral Model for Curved Surface Analysis

The nonstandard finite-difference time-domain (NS-FDTD) method is implemented in the differential form on orthogonal grids, hence the benefit of opting for very fine resolutions in order to accurately treat curved surfaces in real-world applications, which indisputably increases the overall computational burden. In particular, these issues can hinder the electromagnetic design of structures with electrically-large size, such as aircrafts. To alleviate this shortcoming, a nonstandard path integral (PI) model for the NS-FDTD method is proposed in this paper, based on the fact that the PI form of Maxwell’s equations is fairly more suitable to treat objects with smooth surfaces than the differential form. The proposed concept uses a pair of basic and complementary path integrals for H-node calculations. Moreover, to attain the desired accuracy level, compared to the NS-FDTD method on square grids, the two path integrals are combined via a set of optimization parameters, determined from the dispersion equation of the PI formula. Through the latter, numerical simulations verify that the new PI model has almost the same modeling precision as the NS-FDTD technique. The featured methodology is applied to several realistic curved structures, which promptly substantiates that the combined use of the featured PI scheme greatly improves the NS-FDTD competences in the case of arbitrarily-shaped objects, modeled by means of coarse orthogonal grids.