Calculating corner singularities by boundary integral equations

Accurate numerical solutions for electromagnetic fields near sharp corners and edges are important for nanophotonics applications that rely on strong near fields to enhance light-matter interactions. For cylindrical structures, the singularity exponents of electromagnetic fields near sharp edges can be solved analytically, but in general the actual fields can only be calculated numerically. In this paper, we use a boundary integral equation method to compute electromagnetic fields near sharp edges, and construct the leading terms in asymptotic expansions based on numerical solutions. Our integral equations are formulated for rescaled unknown functions to avoid unbounded field components, and are discretized with a graded mesh and properly chosen quadrature schemes. The numerically found singularity exponents agree well with the exact values in all the test cases presented here, indicating that the numerical solutions are accurate. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America