# Medium

Dispersionless medium.

# Name

name: Optional unique name for medium.

# Thermal Properties

This section appears when the task group includes a Heat solver and is omitted from a standalone FDTD task.

# Medium Type

type: Selects the thermal model under Medium Type.

Type: string

Options:

  • FluidSpec: The Heat solver does not solve for temperature in regions that use this medium.
  • SolidSpec: The Heat solver uses the solid thermal model.

Default: SolidSpec for a new medium in a Heat simulation.

# Thermal Conductivity

conductivity: Thermal conductivity. This field is shown when Medium Type is SolidSpec.

Type: floating-point number

  • Unit: W/(μm·K)
  • Constraint: greater than 0
  • Required field

NOTE

The editor has no inputs for heat capacity (capacity) or density (density). When you create a medium in a Heat simulation, the editor sets capacity to 1. To set other values, use the Python interface. See Thermal Properties for the API fields.

# Optical Properties

# Permittivity

permittivity: Relative permittivity.

Type: floating-point number

  • Unit: unitless
  • Constraint: greater than or equal to 1
  • Default: 1

# Conductivity

conductivity: Electric conductivity. Defined such that the imaginary part of the complex permittivity at angular frequency omega is given by conductivity/omega.

Type: floating-point number

  • Unit: S/μm
  • Constraint: greater than or equal to 0
  • Default: 0

# Advanced

# Allow gain

allow_gain: Enable gain medium. Caution: simulations with gain medium are unstable and are likely to diverge. Simulations with this option enabled are still charged even if they diverge. Monitor data up to the divergence point is still returned and can be useful in some cases.

Type: boolean

Default: False

# Appearance

Appearance settings control the medium’s face color and transparency in the model view. They do not change the optical properties.

← CustomMedium →