Efficient finite-element-based time-domain beam propagation analysis of optical integrated circuits

In this paper, a novel numerically efficient time-domain beam propagation method based on the versatile finite element method (FETDBPM) is presented for the analysis of arbitrarily shaped optical integrated circuits. Lumping the global mass matrix into a diagonal matrix, an explicit full band finite-element time-domain propagation algorithm that needs only matrix-vector multiplication at each time step is derived. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed FETDBPM is demonstrated through the analysis of propagation in different photonic integrated structures.