Exploitation of Omnidirectional Reflectivity

We propose to provide both frequency domain and time domain capabilities for the modeling of electromagnetic (EM) waves in dielectric media with the goal of accurate modeling of omnidirectional reflectors. Omnidirectional reflectors, constructed withlayers of dielectrics, reflect electromagnetic radiation is 100% efficiency for all incident angles and polarizations. The Phase I effort will carry this out through a two-pronged approach. To provide time-domain modeling capabilities, we extend theVORPAL EM modeling code of the University of Colorado to allow use of higher-order algrorithms (beyond standard FDTD on the Yee mesh.) We will then carry out a number of numerical experiments for scattering of light off of omnidirectional reflectors. Toprovide frequency-domain modeling capabilities, we will generalize the Photon Band Gap Structure Simulator of MIT to 3D and include the ability to analyze surface waves. For both cases we will investigate surface waves and carry out rigorous erroranalyses. The Phase II effort will then be to extend the software to facilitate the definition of Photon Band Gap structures, to harden the algorithms and software through extensive testing, and to provide a graphical user interface to the software. Theresulting modeling code suite with a GUI will be a powerful and attractive tool for designing a wide variety of military, commercial and scientific devices, including lasers, microwave tubes, and waveguides. This code will run on PC's with Windows 95/NT,making it accessible to the great majority of potential customers, and on the full spectrum of Unix platforms, making it the design code of choice for scientists and engineers working on large-scale simulations. The entire application will be objectoriented so the code can be readily modified and extended in presently unforeseen ways to meet the needs of future users and the challenges of future design efforts.