RETARDED TIME ABSORBING BOUNDARY-CONDITIONS

Over the past few years simulations of electromagnetic problems in three dimensions using the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method have become increasingly popular. A major problem in such simulations is the truncation of the computational domain. In the present paper a formulation of this boundary problem using retarded time values of the field inside the computational domain is suggested, and hence the name retarded time absorbing boundary condition (RT-ABC). This formulation allows the boundary to be situated in the near field of the problem and thereby reduces the necessary computational domain, and the present formulation allows error estimates for the numerically calculated fields.