Efficient simulation of unidirectional pulse propagation in high-contrast nonlinear nanowaveguides

This work demonstrates an improved method to simulate long-distance femtosecond pulse propagation in highcontrast nanowaveguides. Different from typical beam propagation methods, the foundational tool here is capable of simulating strong spatiotemporal waveform reshaping and extreme spectral dynamics. Meanwhile, the ability to fully capture effects due to index contrast in the transverse direction is retained, without requiring a decomposition of the electric field in terms of waveguide modes. These simulations can be computationally expensive, however, so cost is reduced in the improved method by considering only the waveguide core. Fields in the cladding are then properly accounted for through a boundary condition suitable for the case of total internal reflection.