THE FINITE-DIFFERENCE TIME-DOMAIN METHOD APPLIED TO ANISOTROPIC MATERIAL

The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method has received considerable attention recently. The popularity of this method stems from the fact that it is not limited to a specific geometry and it does not restrict the constitutive parameters of a scatterer. Furthermore, it provides a direct solution to problems with transient illumination, but can also be used for harmonic analysis. However, researchers have limited their investigations to materials that are either isotropic or that have diagonal permittivity, conductivity, and permeability tensors. In this paper, we derive the necessary extension to the FDTD equations to accommodate nondiagonal tensors. Excellent agreement between FDTD and exact analytic results is obtained for a one-dimensional anisotropic scatterer.