On the suitability of rigorous coupled-wave analysis for fast optical force simulations

Optical force responses underpin nanophotonic actuator design, which requires a large number of force simulations to optimize structures. Commonly used computation methods, such as the finite-difference time-domain method, and finite element methods, are resource intensive and require large amounts of calculation time when multiple structures need to be compared during optimization. This research demonstrates that performing optical force calculations on 2D-periodic structures using the rigorous coupled-wave analysis method is typically on the order of 10 times faster than other approaches and with sufficient accuracy to suit optical design purposes. Moreover, this speed increase is available on consumer grade laptops, avoiding the need for a high performance computing resource.