Educational software for analysis of diffraction experiences based on FDTD for acoustics and electromagnetics

Abstract

Interference and diffraction of waves are elementary topics in physics. These phenomena can be identified in different disciplines such as Optics and Acoustics. Due to equivalence between the acoustics equations and the TE polarization in Electromagnetism a unified treatment can be defined for both problems. The aim of the work presented here is to develop a simulation software that provides a virtual laboratory for studying a set of canonical problems in both Optics and Acoustics. The application is based on a MATLAB GUI that invokes different C++ executables that implements the FDTD for both Electromagnetics and Acoustics. This application can enhance the experience of optics and physics undergraduates giving the opportunity of simulating a wider range of situations that hardly can be considered in laboratory. Specifically, the software simulates the diffraction produced by a user-configurable number of slits in Optics and a set of different obstacles and barriers in Acoustics.