The aperiodic Fourier modal method in contrast-field formulation for simulation of scattering from finite structures

This paper extends the area of application of the Fourier modal method (FMM) from periodic structures to aperiodic ones, in particular for plane-wave illumination at arbitrary angles. This is achieved by placing perfectly matched layers at the lateral sides of the computational domain and reformulating the governing equations in terms of a contrast field which does not contain the incoming field. Due to the reformulation, the homogeneous system of second-order ordinary differential equations from the original FMM becomes non-homogeneous. Its solution is derived analytically and used in the established FMM framework. The technique is demonstrated on a simple problem of planar scattering of TE-polarized light by a single rectangular line.