Boundaryless finite-difference method for three-dimensional beam propagation

A two-dimensional optical field paraxial propagation scheme, in Cartesian and cylindrical coordinate systems, is proposed. This is achieved by extending the method originally proposed by Ladouceur [Opt. Lett. 21, 4 (1996)] for boundaryless beam propagation to two-dimensional optical wave fields. With this formulation the arbitrary choice of physical window size is avoided by mapping the infinite transverse dimensions into a finite-size domain with an appropriate change of variables, thus avoiding the energy loss through the artificial physical boundary that is usually required for the absorbing or the transparent boundary approach. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.