Perturbation approach applied to modal diffraction methods

Eigenvalue computation is an important part of many modal diffraction methods, including the rigorous coupled wave approach (RCWA) and the Chandezon method. This procedure is known to be computationally intensive, accounting for a large proportion of the overall run time. However, in many cases, eigenvalue information is already available from previous calculations. Some of the examples include adjacent slices in the RCWA, spectral-or angle-resolved scans in optical scatterometry and parameter derivatives in optimization. In this paper, we present a new technique that provides accurate and highly reliable solutions with significant improvements in computational time. The proposed method takes advantage of known eigensolution information and is based on perturbation method. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America