Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: I present a reduced-order approach for incorporating distributed thermal dynamics into nonlinear optical-microcavity simulations without repeatedly solving the time-dependent heat equation. A harmonic finite-element heat solve is used to obtain the thermal transfer function, which is introduced into the time domain through either a rational approximation or an impulse-response convolution. The method is validated against heat-equation-coupled finite-element simulations for prescribed TE1-mode heating and for nonlinear silicon microcavity dynamics. For the feed-forward TE1 tests up to 100 MHz and simplified cavity dynamics, the error remains below 4%. The reduced models reproduce the local self-pulsation dynamics, although long-time phase alignment is sensitive to the spatial definition of the thermal transfer function and to impulse-response truncation. These results establish a physics-based route for retaining multi-timescale thermal memory while substantially reducing the cost of coupled optical--thermal simulations.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Author: Nayak, Sudipta
Institution: Indian Institute of Science Bangalore
Topic: Photonic and Optical Devices
Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7202193585
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