Logarithmically complex rigorous Fourier space solution to the 1D grating diffraction problem

Abstract

The rigorous solution of the grating diffraction problem is a fundamental step in many scientific fields and industrial applications ranging from the study of the fundamental properties of metasurfaces to the simulation of lithography masks. Fourier space methods, such as the Fourier Modal Method, are established tools for the analysis of the electromagnetic properties of periodic structures, but are too computationally demanding to be directly applied to large and multiscale optical structures. This work focuses on pushing the limits of rigorous computations of periodic electromagnetic structures by adapting a powerful tensor compression technique called the tensor train decomposition. We have found that the millions and billions of numbers produced by standard discretization schemes are inherently excessive for storing the information about diffraction problems required for computations with a given accuracy, and we show that a logarithmically growing amount of information is sufficient for reliable rigorous solution of the Maxwell's equations on an example of large period multiscale 1D grating structures.