An Efficient Scattered-Field Formulation for Objects in Layered Media Using the FVTD Method

A technique for efficiently simulating the scattering from objects in multilayered media is presented. The efficiency of the formulation comes from the fact that the sources for the scattered fields (SFs) only occur at the inhomogeneities and, therefore, the SFs impinging on the boundaries are more easily absorbed. To demonstrate the technique, a 1-D-finite-difference time-domain solution to the plane-wave propagation through a multilayered medium is used as an incident-field source for an SF formulation of the finite-volume time-domain method. Practical aspects of the application are discussed and numerical examples for scattering from canonical objects are presented to show the validity of the proposed technique. The simulation scheme described herein can be used for simulations of geophysical media with appropriate specifications of the dielectric properties of the media and the inhomogeneities.