Lumerical Provides Open Access to Simulation Engine

By DE Editors

Lumerical Solutions, a provider of optoelectronic design software, has released FDTD Solutions 8.0, its nanophotonic design environment based on the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique. Release 8.0 extends the material modeling capabilities of prior versions to include the ability to model liquid crystals and other spatially-varying anisotropic materials, and a Flexible Material Plugin (FMP) framework that enables researchers to model a wide variety of other materials, including nonlinear, magneto-optical, and saturable gain materials. 
 
The new FMP framework enables researchers to describe, via computer source code, a materials polarization and magnetization as a function of the electromagnetic field and other physical quantities. Modular FMPs can be combined with Lumericals proprietary Multi-Coefficient Materials (MCMs), providing an extensible design environment for modeling complex nanophotonic systems. 

To facilitate the development and sharing of these FMPs, they are written in native C/C++/FORTRAN computer source code and compiled into dynamically linked library plug-ins for FDTD solutions. This allows for the open, joint development of source code by collaborators, or the restricted sharing of binary material models coded by third-party developers. Validated FMPs developed by external parties that are shared with Lumerical will be included in standard, cross-platform build packages available to the photonics community.

For more information, visit Lumerical.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.