Note: This discussion is about an older version of the COMSOL Multiphysics® software. The information provided may be out of date.

Discussion Closed This discussion was created more than 6 months ago and has been closed. To start a new discussion with a link back to this one, click here.

Far-field calculations bug in COMSOL version 4.1

Please login with a confirmed email address before reporting spam

For those of you doing calculations of far-field in RF module, please be aware of the fact that it works correctly only for vacuum case. I have compared scattering cross-sections of gold nanoparticles with Mie and it works very well for vacuum around the particle. However, the moment you switch to different medium, the scattering cross-sections of Mie and COMSOL differ significantly. COMSOL support told me that it will be fixed in next release in May or June. If you need the correct results right now, here are some workarounds

1) Going few lambda away from the scatterer and integrating scattered field usually gives good results, but the number of mesh points is huge.

2) Introducing very thin vacuum layer around the scatterer and integrating far-field on the surface in the middle of this vacuum layer works well, but the mesh requirements are again huge.

3) Let's say you need solution for lambda0=800nm in water n_w=1.33. You can run the simulation for lambda0/1.33 with n_w=1 and change the permittivity of gold from e_re(f)-i*e_im(f) to 1/(1.33^2)*(e_re(f/1.33)-i*e_im(f/1.33)). This results in equivalent problem and built-in Stratton-Chu far-field works well.

Might be a bug in other versions of COMSOL too. I would check it if I were you.

Hope this helps.

Martin

0 Replies Last Post 22 mar 2011, 05:28 GMT-4
COMSOL Moderator

Hello Martin Ploschner

Your Discussion has gone 30 days without a reply. If you still need help with COMSOL and have an on-subscription license, please visit our Support Center for help.

If you do not hold an on-subscription license, you may find an answer in another Discussion or in the Knowledge Base.

Note that while COMSOL employees may participate in the discussion forum, COMSOL® software users who are on-subscription should submit their questions via the Support Center for a more comprehensive response from the Technical Support team.