Comparison between tangentially continuous vector finite elements for eigenvalue problems in 3D cavities

We present a performance comparison between two vector finite elements for solving Maxwell's equations in 3D cavities. The finite elements are two popular tangentially continuous finite elements which have demonstrated their efficiency in electromagnetic field computation: the first order tetrahedral element (edge element) and the second order hexahedral element. The study involves the modeling of resonators of different shapes (rectangular and cylindrical cavities). For both elements, numerical accuracy is checked against the number of unknowns.