A new theoretical method for diffraction gratings and its numerical application

The paper that founded the C method. Instead of describing a grating as a corrugated boundary between two flat media, it changes coordinates so that the profile itself becomes a coordinate plane; Maxwell's equations written in that curvilinear system have coefficients that no longer depend on the transverse position, and the diffraction problem turns into an eigenvalue problem that is solved once per profile. The method handles deep, smooth profiles of any shape without a staircase approximation, which is why it remains the tool of choice for sinusoidal and other continuous corrugations.

All three Chandezon codes in MC Grating rest on this formulation; the multilayer form that the codes actually implement came two years later, in Chandezon et al. 1982.

Implemented in

Chandezon Collinear, Chandezon Conical, Chandezon Crossed

Cited on

About MC Grating Software · The C method (Chandezon) · Les équations de Maxwell sous forme covariante · Publications

Bibliography

Reference [1]

Full text

A new theoretical method for diffraction gratings and its numerical application (PDF, 598 KB)

© 1980 IOP Publishing. This copy is hosted for the convenience of MC Grating users; the version of record is the publisher's, at the DOI above.

MC Grating is Windows software that computes diffraction gratings by the modal method and the C method. The download page has the current release, which runs in demo mode without a license key.