Workshop Course Description

Day 1: Introduction to the current release of FDTD Solutions

Description:

The first day of the course is all about starting to use the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method to model wavelength-scale optical devices and phenomena. This training session gives hands-on experience using FDTD Solutions to create simulations and analyze results step-by-step.

Topics:

• Overview of the FDTD method and when it should be applied
• How to efficiently obtain steady state, continuous wave results from a time domain method
• Using the GUI Layout Editor effectively
• Treating design problems efficiently with the FDTD Solutions workflow
• Review of different types of optical sources
• Choosing monitors to obtain spatial, time and wavelength-dependent data
• Analyzing data and plotting results
• Scripting commands (review of basic commands, and introduction to new commands in current release)
• Questions and answers

Workshop Portion:

• Simple example
• Getting Started examples
• Advanced example
• User-supplied examples
• Questions and answers

Day 2: Advanced applications of FDTD Solutions

Description:

Gain greater understanding of the more advanced features of FDTD Solutions and its state-of-the-art parallel computational engine. In this session, you will learn how to take advantage of the optimized engine to speed up your simulations and increase your productivity. This training session will treat advanced application examples.

Topics:

• Scripting language for parameter sweeps and design optimization
• Far field analysis with the GUI and using scripting
• Advanced boundary conditions
• Dispersive and anisotropic materials
• Interoperability with ASAP and user-defined sources
• Importing structures from external files
• Coherence and polarization in FDTD and how to obtain incoherent, unpolarized results
• Parallel Computation
• Applying the features to an advanced example

Workshop:

• Advanced examples
• User-supplied examples
• Questions and answers