An explicit fourth-order staggered finite-difference time-domain method for Maxwellʹs equations

A new explicit fourth-order accurate staggered finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) scheme is proposed and applied to electromagnetic wave problems. It is fourth-order accurate in both space and time, conditionally stable, and highly efficient (with respect to Yeeʹs scheme) and still retains much of the original simplicity of Yeeʹs scheme. Both extension to perfectly matched layers and modification to deal with dielectric interfaces and perfectly conducting boundaries of the scheme have also been presented. Numerical examples are shown to illustrate the efficiency of the method.