FDTD Computational Electromagnetics Modeling of Spatial Optical Solitons

The frontier for computing and telecommunications holds the prospects for a significant development in terms of speed and capability. This is clearly apparent in the wealth of research findings in nanophotonics technology over the last ten years. Electronic-based processors and traditional transmission lines find an ultimate limit on their capability as frequencies are pushed higher. Moving to an all-optical processor architecture where operation at micron- and smaller wavelengths would offer incredible speed capabilities approaching the speed of light. The primary limitations to realize important optical computing technologies would be manipulating and generating lightwave signals on the nanometer scale.;Whereas analytical methods can reveal tradeoffs in simplified problems of optical signal processing, and prototype experimentation can demonstrate real-world behavior of designs, these represent two extremes of the design process in terms of time and cost. The best solution between these is that of a computational model, offering deeper insight to the complex physics of the problem but still performed in a virtual environment. The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method is a computational electromagnetic modeling tool that powerfully analyzes practical photonics problems by iterative solution of Maxwell's equations directly. It holds an advantage over other methods of computation (e.g., method of moments) in that it can show the evolution of transient effects, show broadband physical behavior, and conveniently accommodate complex material properties.;This thesis summarizes research on FDTD applied to nanophotonics, specifically to the problem of light manipulation on the nanometer scale. Exploiting nonlinearity in optics is an attractive endeavor because light beams---known as solitons---can be made to retain their transverse profile over long propagation distances, overcoming diffraction. This offers the ability to preserve signal quality and ease the manipulation process in optical switching applications. In this work we explore the application of specialized FDTD nonlinear optics algorithms to modeling the control and exotic phenomena of spatial solitons. For the first time FDTD is used to simulate unique soliton guided optics problems of interest, as well as soliton interaction with metals. This work is very relevant and useful towards the quest for progressing an all-optical computing architecture.