Abstract
We describe an event-based approach to simulate the propagation of an electromagnetic plane wave through dielectric media. The basic building block is a deterministic learning machine that is able to simulate a plane interface. We show that a network of two of such machines can simulate the propagation of light through a plane parallel plate. With properly chosen parameters this setup can be used as a beam splitter. The modularity of the simulation method is illustrated by constructing a Mach-Zehnder interferometer from plane parallel plates, the whole system reproducing the results of wave theory. A generalization of the event-based model of the plane parallel plate is also used to simulate a periodically stratified medium. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 726-734 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Computer Physics Communications |
Volume | 182 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Mar-2011 |
Keywords
- Computer simulation
- Event-by-event simulation
- Interference
- Optics