Comparison of Taylor finite difference and window finite difference and their application in FDTD

The finite difference time domain (FDTD) method is an important tool in numerical electromagnetic simulation. There are many ways to construct a finite difference approximation such as the Taylor series expansion theorem, the filtering theory, etc. This paper aims to provide the comparison between the Taylor finite difference (TFD) scheme based on the Taylor series expansion theorem and the window finite difference (WFD) scheme based on the filtering theory. Their properties have been examined in detail, separately. In addition, the formula of the generalized finite difference (GFD) scheme is presented, which can include both the TFD scheme and the WFD scheme. Furthermore, their application in the numerical solution of Maxwell's equations is presented. The formulas for the stability criterion and the numerical dispersion relation are derived and analyzed. In order to evaluate their performance more accurately, a new definition of error is presented. Upon it, the effect of several factors including the grid resolution, the Courant number and the aspect ratio of the cell on the performance of the numerical dispersion is examined.