A High-Order Perturbation of Envelopes (HOPE) Method for Vector Electromagnetic Scattering by Periodic Inhomogeneous Media

Abstract: The scattering of electromagnetic waves by three--dimensional periodic structures is important for many problems of crucial scientific and engineering interest. Due to the complexity and three-dimensional nature of these waves, the fast, accurate, and reliable numerical simulations of these are indispensable for engineers and scientists alike. For this, High Order Spectral methods are frequently employed and here we describe an algorithm in this class. Our approach is perturbative in nature where we view the deviation of the permittivity from a constant value as the deformation and we pursue regular perturbation theory. This work extends our previous contribution regarding the Helmholtz equation to the full vector Maxwell equations, by providing a rigorous analyticity theory, both in deformation size and spatial variable (provided that the permittivity is, itself, analytic).