A method and simulation apparatus for simulating laser propagation in a wave-optical manner within an area defined by elements, along with corresponding computer program products and storage media.

Abstract

This invention relates to a computer-implemented method for simulating the propagation of a laser beam (8) within a region (2) defined by an element (1) using wave optics. This region (2) is divided into a free region (3) and an edge region (4) adjacent to the element (1). In the corresponding simulation model, the electric field of the laser beam (8) is modeled using a unidirectional wave equation. In this simulation model, at least a portion of the wave equation within the edge region (4) is solved exactly using a finite difference method employing the matrix exponential function of the finite difference matrix operator. This invention also relates to a corresponding computer program, a computer-readable storage medium containing the program, and a simulation device for performing the method.

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