means of three numerical examples, the functional showed

better agreement with the reference results than the traditional scheme, in which the feeding point impedance is computed directly from the ratio of the feeding point voltage and
current. Variational-based methods offer a new and more
accurate way of deriving important circuit parameters from
FDTD simulations.
REFERENCES
1. J. G. Maloney, G. S. Smith, and R. R. Scott, Jr., Accurate
Computation of the Radiation from Simple Antennas Using the
Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method, IEEE Trans. Antennas
Propagat., Vol. 38, July 1990, pp. 10591068.
2. R. Luebbers, L. Chen, T. Uno, and S. Adachi, FDTD Calculation
of Radiation Patterns, Impedance, and Gain for Monopole Antenna on a Conducting Box, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat.,
Vol. 40, Dec. 1992, pp. 15771583.
3. R. F. Harrington, Time-Harmonic Electromagnetic Fields,
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1961, pp. 348355.
4. C. A. Balanis, Antenna Theory, Analysis and Design, Harper &
Row, New York, 1982.
5. J. D. Kraus, Antennas, McGraw-Hill, Singapore, 1988.
6. K. H. Lau, Gap Problem in King-Middleton Second-Order Theory for Dipole Admittance Calculations, Electron. Lett., Vol. 20,
Apr. 1984, pp. 340342.
7. K. R. Umashankar, A. Taflove, and B. Beker, Calculation and
Experimental Validation of Induced Currents on Coupled Wires
in an Arbitrary Shaped Cavity, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat.,
Vol. AP-35, Nov. 1987, pp. 12481257.
8. P.-Y. Zhao, J. Litva, and K.-L. Wu, A New Stable and Very
Dispersive Boundary Condition for the FD-TD Method, IEEE
MTT-S Int. Microwa e Symp. Dig., Vol. 1, 1994, pp. 3538.
1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
CCC 0895-2477r98

PERFECTLY MATCHED LAYERS FOR

THE TRUNCATION OF FINITEELEMENT MESHES IN LAYERED
HALF-SPACE GEOMETRIES AND
APPLICATIONS TO ELECTROMAGNETIC
SCATTERING BY BURIED OBJECTS
1

S. Caorsi and M. Raffetto

Department of Electronics
University of Pavia
I-27100 Pavia, Italy
2
Department of Biophysical and Electronic Engineering
University of Genoa
I-16145 Genoa, Italy

Recei ed 13 May 1998

ABSTRACT: In this paper, the use of perfectly matched layers as
finite-element mesh truncation tools is in estigated in situations of importance for electromagnetic scattering problems due to buried objects.
1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 19:
427434, 1998.
Key words: finite-element method; perfectly matched layer; truncation

of meshes in layered half-space geometries; electromagnetic scattering by

buried objects
INTRODUCTION

In order to solve an electromagnetic scattering problem by

using the finite-element method, one has to face the problem
of bounding the domain where the numerical technique is
applied. This problem is usually overcome by introducing a
fictitious surface, and by calculating on that surface the right
boundary conditions. Among the possible techniques for providing these conditions, there are exact ones, which couple
the finite-element method with some integral methods to
produce the so-called hybrid methods w13x, and approximate
ones which enforce on the boundary a condition of absorption of the outgoing waves. Among these latter techniques,
the recently proposed perfectly matched layer w4x PML., and
the successive improvements w5x, have the best characteristics
when applied to canonical scattering problems in which the
scatterer is embedded in a homogeneous infinite medium and
is illuminated by a plane wave. These characteristics and the
corresponding performances are now well documented w68x.
Nonplanar PMLs are investigated in w9x.
However, as far as the finite-element method with the
PML truncation scheme is considered, very few results have
been published when the scattering problem to be solved is
given by an inhomogeneity embedded in a possibly layered
half space in finite-difference time-domain computation, an
analogous problem has been considered in w10x.. The unbounded region, in this case, is inhomogeneous, and it is
necessary to bound the region where the numerical technique
is applied by inhomogeneous PMLs. This problem is of
particular interest in the analysis of electromagnetic scattering by buried objects w1113x. Moreover, in the frequency
domain an example in the time domain is given in w10x., the
problem of having to deal with an incident field generated by
a line source has rarely been considered in the context of
finite-element mesh truncation. However, this source can
have an important application in the two-dimensional applications to buried objects.
The purpose of this paper is to provide an investigation of
the performances of PMLs in this context in order to validate
the use of the PML for finite-element mesh truncation, even
for the solution of electromagnetic scattering from buried
objects.
MATHEMATICAL FORMULATION

Planar anisotropic PMLs w5x have been proved to be able to

absorb, without reflections, any plane wave, whatever its
frequency, angle of incidence, and polarization are. Due to
the fact that all antennas ideally radiate in free space, and in
most scattering problems the external medium is the vacuum,
the dielectric characteristics of anisotropic PMLs often have
been proposed for the truncation of an infinite free-space
region. Its extension to the case of a planar interface between
an arbitrary isotropic homogeneous medium and a PML is
quite obvious. As a matter of fact, if the medium is characterized by a relative dielectric permittivity r s r1 , a relative
magnetic permeability r s r1 , and an electronic conductivity e s 1 the magnetic conductivity m being zero in all
physical media., by using the formulas provided in w5x after
having substituted 0 with 0 r1 y j 1r 0 .. and 0 with
0 r1 , one obtains the following diagonally anisotropic PML
it is assumed, as in w5x, that the z-axis is normal to the

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 19, No. 6, December 20 1998

427

interface .:
r1 a y

r s

1
0

r1 a y

r s r1

r1 bq

e s 0

1
0

1
0

r1 a q

NUMERICAL RESULTS

1
0

r1 bq

1
0

1
a2 q b 2

0
0
a
a2 q b 2

m s 0 r1

0
a

a
0

buried objects, the unbounded region to be truncated by the

PML is inhomogeneous as a consequence of the airground
interface. By directly using the formulas indicated above for
the truncation of each medium, one determines an inhomogeneous PML since its dielectric characteristics depend on
those of the dielectric medium to be truncated. Moreover, in
many important cases, for electromagnetic scattering by
buried objects, the ground is made up of different layers, thus
determining a multilayer PML. Consequently, and this is the
target of the present paper, it is important to establish the
good behavior and the performances of these highly inhomogeneous PMLs.
All results provided in the next section are calculated by
truncating the PMLs with perfect magnetic conductors, and
by modeling the corner regions of the PMLs as indicated
in w6x.

b
0

0
b

y r1 bq
0
0
yb
a qb
2

1
0

1
a2 qb 2

1.

These relations are useful to provide a finite-element mesh

generator with the right physical parameters.
When one has to deal with a scattering problem due to

In this section, we would like to provide some results in order

to validate the PML technique for the truncation of finiteelement meshes, even in the case of inhomogeneous unbounded regions and waves generated by electric line sources,
as these are the typical situations of interest in the scattering
due to buried objects.
Let us first check the performances of PMLs in the case of
an electric line source radiating in the free space. The domain where the finite-element method is applied is a square
2 m on a side and the working frequency is 1 GHz. The
solution is calculated for different source positions along the
y-axis see the geometry of the problem shown in Fig. 1. in

Figure 1 Amplitudes of the electric fields along the y-axis. The numerical FEMPML solutions are compared to the analytical ones
for different positions of the source

428

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 19, No. 6, December 20 1998

order to verify if the source can be located near the PML.

This being the target, we have calculated the solutions by
using noncritical values of the other parameters: a PML
thickness of 0.2 m thicker than the minimum values of
0.1 % 0.2 0 already proved to work fine w7x. and a s b s 1
as suggested in w7x.. The solutions are always compared to
the analytic ones.
The electric line source is simulated in all of our numerical calculations by creating a small hole in the finite-element
mesh, and by enforcing on this internal boundary a nonzero
tangential component of the magnetic field. The amplitudes
of the electric currents in the numerical simulations are
always equal to the electric currents used in the analytical
ones.
In Figure 1, the amplitudes of the electric fields calculated
numerically along the y-axis are shown and are compared
with the analytical solutions. This figure shows that the performances are excellent, and more importantly, that they do
not depend on the distance of the source from the PML since
this distance is greater than or equal to 0r3..
Let us now introduce an inhomogeneity in the unbounded
domain, and let us check the functionality of inhomogeneous
PMLs. The domain where the finite-element method is applied is a square 2 m on a side. The truncation of the domain
is done by using a PML 0.2 m thick. In the half space
characterized by y ) 0, the medium is the free space; in
y - 0, we have considered a lossless medium with r s 9 and
r s 1. In all of these simulations, we have assumed that
a s b and that the source is always located at x s 0.0,
y s 0.5. In Figure 2, the results calculated at 500 MHz for

different values of a s b are shown. In particular, Figure 2a.

shows the amplitude of the electric field calculated along the
straight line characterized by y s 0.5; Figure 2b. shows the
amplitude of the electric field calculated along the y-axis.
Analogously, Figures 3 and 4 show the amplitude of the
electric field along the y-axis at 1 and 1.5 GHz as the
thickness being fixed, the performances of the inhomogeneous PML need to be investigated at different frequencies.
The numerical results are compared to the analytical solutions calculated by using the half-space Greens function w12x.
As can be seen from Figure 2, at 500 MHz, a value of
a s b s 0.5 is not sufficient to suppress reflection from the
perfect magnetic conductor used to truncate the PML. A
value of a s b s 1.0 provides reliable results at the different
frequencies. At 1.5 GHz, a value of a s b s 2.0 introduces a
significant standing wave since the signal that the layer used
to truncate the domain is not perfectly matched anymore.
It is important to note, however, that the mesh is always
generated by using 10,000 equally spaced points, and this
implies that at 1.5 GHz, there are about 3 12 elements per
wavelength in the dielectric. This does not respect the rule of
thumb which recommends the use of ten elements per wavelength. This being a possible source of errors, note that even
in this case, the results are acceptable if a s b s 1.0.
As a final example, in order to investigate the possible
effects of multilayer PML interfaces, let us consider a multilayer circular cylinder for which the scattering of electromagnetic waves generated by electric line sources admits analytical solutions w14x. We would like to compare these solutions
to the results calculated by using the FEM with the PML

Figure 2 Comparison of the analytical solution with the numerical results calculated by using different values of a s b. f s 500
MHz. a. along the line y s 0.5 m. b. along the y-axis

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 19, No. 6, December 20 1998

429

Figure 2

Figure 3

430

Continued

Comparison of analytical solution and numerical ones along the y-axis at a frequency of 1 GHz

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 19, No. 6, December 20 1998

Figure 4

Comparison of the numerically calculated solutions with the analytical one at 1.5 GHz along the y-axis

indicated in Figure 5. Of course, the two solutions cannot, in

general, be compared as the FEMPML technique cannot
produce the interference due to the reflections occurring at
interfaces not present in the domain where the numerical
technique is applied. This can be easily understood by considering the cylinder shown in Figure 5 without the two internal
layers. In this case, below the upper airdielectric interface,
the FEMPML should not calculate a standing wave if the
PML works fine., whereas the analytical simulator should
calculate a standing-wave pattern of the field due to the
reflections at the dielectricair interface not present in the
domain of numerical investigation. However, this difference
in the model is reduced if the cylinder is lossy as the different
reflected waves should be partially absorbed. Thus, we have
considered a lossy cylinder. The dielectric characteristics are
typical for problems of scattering due to buried objects. In
particular, we have considered an external layer 0.9 m - r F
1 m. of rocks r s 10, r s 1, and s 3 10y3 Srm., an
intermediate layer 0.1 m - r F 0.9 m. of soil r s 20, r s
1, and s 5 10y2 Srm., and an innermost layer the buried
object. of salt water r F 0.1 m, r s 81, r s 1, and s 3
Srm.. The FEMPML domain is 1 m wide and 2 m high, the
PML is 0.2 m thick, and the source is at x s 0.0, y s 1.15.
The distance between the source and the PML is at least
0.3 m. The mesh is created by using 100 points along the
x-axis and 200 points along the y-axis. Each small square is
then divided into two triangles by using the positive slope
diagonal.

In Figure 5, the numerical solution calculated at 1.0 GHz

along the y-axis is compared to the analytical one. There is
a very good agreement between the two plots. Analogously,
in Figure 6, the two solutions, calculated along the line y s
1.15 m, are compared. In this case, too, the agreement is
excellent. Finally, to conclude the analysis of the performances of inhomogeneous PMLs, the phases of the fields
whose amplitudes are shown in Figures 5 and 6 are reported
in Figures 7 and 8, respectively. In Figure 8, the two plots
almost overlap outside the PML. In Figure 7, there is a good
agreement between the two solutions only for y ) 0.8, where
the reflections introduced by the analytical model we have
considered are significantly reduced thanks to the lossy characteristics of the dielectrics involved.
Note that these good results, in terms of both amplitude
and phase, are obtained by truncating the finite-element
mesh with quite inhomogeneous PMLs, one side being made
up of five different anisotropic materials.
CONCLUSION

The performances of PMLs as tools for the truncation of

finite-element meshes have been investigated in situations
typically encountered in the solution of electromagnetic scattering problems due to buried objects. An electric line source
has been considered in all simulations, this being the case of
major interest for two-dimensional simulations. The obtained
results confirm that the PML technique is a quite efficient
mesh truncation tool, even in the case of inhomogeneous and

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 19, No. 6, December 20 1998

431

Figure 5 Amplitude of the electric field along the y-axis. The numerical results are compared with the analytical solution calculated
by using a multilayer circular cylinder model

Figure 6

432

Amplitude of the electric field along the line y s 1.15 m

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 19, No. 6, December 20 1998

Figure 7

Figure 8

Phase of the electric field along the y axis

Phase of the electric field along the line y s 1.15 m

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 19, No. 6, December 20 1998

433

layered infinite regions for which multilayer PMLs are needed.

It turns out that it can be used to solve scattering problems
due to buried objects, with very good numerical performances.
REFERENCES
1. X. Yuan, D. R. Lynch, and J. W. Strohbehn, Coupling of the
Finite Element and Moment Methods for Electromagnetic Scattering from Inhomogeneous Objects, IEEE Trans. Antennas
Propagat., Vol. 38, Mar. 1990, pp. 386393.
2. S. Caorsi, A. Massa, and M. Raffetto, Critical Frequencies for
Solving Electromagnetic Problems by the MomentrFinite Element Method, Microwa e Opt. Technol. Lett., Vol. 11, Mar.
1996, pp. 222228.
3. J. D. Collins, J. L. Volakis, and J. M. Jin, A Combined Finite
Element-Boundary Integral Formulation for Solution of TwoDimensional Scattering Problems via CGFFT, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., Vol. 38, Nov. 1990, pp. 18521858.
4. J. P. Berenger, A Perfectly Matched Layer for the Absorption
of Electromagnetic Waves, J. Comput. Phys., Vol. 114, Oct.
1994, pp. 185200.
5. Z. S. Sacks, D. M. Kingsland, R. Lee, and J.-F. Lee, A Perfectly
Matched Anisotropic Absorber for Use as an Absorbing Boundary Condition, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., Vol. 43, Dec.
1995, pp. 14601463.
6. J.-Y. Wu, D. M. Kingsland, J.-F. Lee, and R. Lee, A Comparison of Anisotropic PML to Berengers PML and Its Application
to the FEM for EM Scattering, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat.,
Vol. 45, Jan. 1997, pp. 4050.
7. D. M. Kingsland, J. Gong, J. L. Volakis, and J. F. Lee, Performance of an Anisotropic Artificial Absorber for Truncating Finite-Element Meshes, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., Vol. 44,
July 1996, pp. 975982.
8. M. I. Aksun and G. Dural, Comparative Evaluation of Absorbing Boundary Conditions Using Greens Functions for Layered
Media, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., Vol. 44, Feb. 1996, pp.
152156.
9. M. Kuzuoglu and R. Mittra, Investigation of Nonplanar Perfectly Matched Absorbers for Finite-Element Mesh Truncation,
IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., Vol. 45, Mar. 1997, pp. 474486.
10. J. Fang and Z. Wu, Generalized Perfectly Matched Layer for
the Absorption of Propagating and Evanescent Waves in Lossless
and Lossy Media, IEEE Trans. Microwa e Theory Tech., Vol. 44,
Dec. 1996, pp. 22162222.
11. G. A. Ellis and I. C. Peden, An Analysis Technique for Buried
Inhomogeneous Dielectric Objects in the Presence of an AirEarth Interface, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing, Vol. 33,
May 1995, pp. 535540.
12.. L. Chommeloux, C. Pichot, and J. C. Bolomey, Electromagnetic
Modeling for Microwave Imaging of Cylindrical Buried Inhomogeneities, IEEE Trans. Microwa e Theory Tech., Vol. MTT-34,
Oct. 1986, pp. 10641076.
13. Y. Leviatan and Y. Meyouhas, Analysis of Electromagnetic
Scattering from Buried Cylinders Using a Multifilament Current
Model, Radio Sci., Vol. 25, Nov.Dec. 1990, pp. 12311244.
14. R. P. Parrikar, A. A. Kishk, and A. Z. Elsherbeni, Scattering
from an Impedance Cylinder Embedded in a Nonconcentric
Dielectric Cylinder, Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng., Vol. 138, Pt. H, Apr.
1991, pp. 169175.
1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
CCC 0895-2477r98

SMALL PERTURBATION ANALYSIS

OF OBLIQUE INCIDENCE
IN DIELECTRIC GRATINGS
Ruey Bing Hwang1 and Dar Kun Jen 2
1
National Center for High-Performance Computing
Hsinchu, Taiwan, R.O.C.
2
Department of Communication Engineering
National Chaio Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
Recei ed 18 May 1998; re ised 8 July 1998
ABSTRACT: In this paper, the method of first-order perturbation is
proposed to in estigate the plane-wa e scattering by dielectric gratings
with a small modulation index at oblique incidence. Under the assumption of small perturbation, the cross coupling between the fields of the
polarizations (TE and TM) due to the oblique incidence can be represented by the TE and TM transmission lines fed by distributed current
and (or) oltage sources, respecti ely. The results show good agreement
with that obtained by a rigorous formulation. 1998 John Wiley &
Sons, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 19: 434437, 1998.
Key words: dielectric gratings; periodic structure; small perturbation
1. INTRODUCTION

The analysis of plane-wave scattering by dielectric gratings

using a rigorous formulation has been studied well w1x for the
last two decades. Recently, several researchers have employed the approximate methods successfully. An approximate solution in terms of boundary diffraction coefficients
was published w2x, and the generalization of the boundary
diffraction method for volume gratings was studied w3x.
Extensive numerical calculations and complicated physical
pictures are used in rigorous theory. Thus, using the first-order
approximation may make the problem easier to comprehend.
Although much research has been devoted to exploring the
approximate method for the scattering of a plane wave by
dielectric gratings, little attention has been paid to the condition of oblique plane-wave incidence.
This paper extends our previous work w4x, plane-wave
scattering by unslanted holographic gratings at principal-plane
incidence, to that of the general condition of oblique planewave incidence. Thus, it becomes necessary to consider the
three-dimensional 3-D. boundary-value problem which requires the simultaneous presence of mixed polarization.
The transmission-line network is used to model the original structure. The cross coupling between the fields of the
two polarizations TE and TM. due to the oblique incidence
can be decoupled and represented by the TE and TM transmission-line networks, under the assumption of small perturbation. We observed that it approaches the results obtained
from rigorous treatments while retaining the simplicity of
perturbation methods. Moreover, this approach provides a
description of the electromagnetic fields in terms of two
transverse transmission-line networks, which bring considerable physical insight into the overall behavior concerning the
dielectric gratings.
2. STATEMENT OF PROBLEM AND
BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The scattering of a plane wave by a periodic dielectric layer is

depicted in Figure 1. A plane wave is obliquely incident at an
arbitrary elevation angle of inc and at an azimuthal angle
inc , upon a dielectric grating, which is shown in Figure 2.

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