Efficient nonuniform schemes for paraxial and wide-angle finite-difference beam propagation methods

Efficient nonuniform schemes, based on the generalized Douglas (GD) scheme, are developed for the finite-difference beam propagation method (FD-BPM). For a two-dimensional (2-D) problem, two methods are presented: a computational space method and a physical space method. In the former, the GD scheme is employed, after replacing a nonuniform grid in the physical space with a uniform one in the computational space. In the latter, the GD scheme is directly extended to a nonuniform grid in the physical space. We apply these two methods to paraxial and wide-angle FD-BPM's. The fourth-order accuracy is achieved in the transverse direction, provided that the grid growth factor between two adjacent grids is r=1+O(/spl Delta/x). For the paraxial BPM, the reduction in the truncation error is demonstrated through modal calculations of a graded-index waveguide using an imaginary distance procedure. For the wide-angle BPM, the propagating field in a tilted waveguide is analyzed to show the effectiveness of the present scheme. As an application of the physical space method, an adaptive grid is introduced into the multistep method.