A Highly Accurate FDTD Model for Simulating Lorentz Dielectric Dispersion

A highly accurate and numerically stable model of Lorentz dielectric dispersion for the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method is presented. The coefficients of the proposed model are optimally derived based on the Maclaurin series expansion (MSE) method and it is shown that the model is much better than the other four reported models in implementing the Lorentz dielectric dispersion with error of relative permittivity several orders lower. The model's stability and performance are also analyzed when it is incorporated into the practical second- and fourth-order accurate FDTD algorithms for an exemplified Lorentz medium. Interestingly, we find that all the mentioned models show nearly the same performance in the second-order algorithm due to its large intrinsic numerical dispersion and the superiority of the proposed MSE model begins to be manifested in the higher-order, say, fourth-order FDTD algorithms as implied by the governing numerical dispersion equations.