Benchmarking five numerical simulation techniques for computing resonance wavelengths and quality factors in photonic crystal membrane line defect cavities

TL;DR

This paper compares five advanced numerical simulation methods for accurately calculating resonance wavelengths and quality factors in photonic crystal membrane line-defect cavities, highlighting their suitability for complex geometries.

Contribution

It systematically evaluates and benchmarks five numerical techniques for computing key optical properties of photonic crystal cavities, providing guidance on their accuracy and applicability.

Findings

Some methods outperform others in accuracy for complex geometries

Computational uncertainties are systematically estimated for each method

Certain techniques are more suitable for high-Q cavity simulations

Abstract

We present numerical studies of two photonic crystal membrane microcavities, a short line-defect cavity with relatively low quality ($Q$) factor and a longer cavity with high $Q$. We use five state-of-the-art numerical simulation techniques to compute the cavity $Q$ factor and the resonance wavelength $\lambda$ for the fundamental cavity mode in both structures. For each method, the relevant computational parameters are systematically varied to estimate the computational uncertainty. We show that some methods are more suitable than others for treating these challenging geometries.