%0 Journal Article
%T B-Calm: an Open-Source Multi-Gpu-Based 3D-FDTD with Multi-Pole Dispersion for Plasmonics
%A Pierre Wahl
%A Dany Sebastien Ly Gagnon
%A Christof Debaes
%A Jurgen Van Erps
%A Nathalie Vermeulen
%A David A. B. Miller
%A Hugo Thienpont
%J PIER
%@ 1070-4698
%D 2013
%I 
%R 10.2528/PIER13030606
%X Numerical calculations based on finite-difference timedomain (FDTD) simulations for metallic nanostructures in a broad optical spectrum require an accurate modeling of the permittivity of dispersive materials. In this paper, we present the algorithms behind BCALM (Belgium-CAlifornia Light Machine), an open-source 3D-FDTD solver simultaneously operating on multiple Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) and efficiently utilizing multi-pole dispersion models while hiding latency in inter-GPU memory transfers. Our architecture shows a reduction in computing times for multi-pole dispersion models and an almost linear speed-up with respect to the amount of used GPUs. We benchmark B-CALM by computing the absorption efficiency of a metallic nanosphere in a broad spectral range with a six-pole Lorentz model and compare it with Mie theory and with a widely used Central Processing Unit (CPU)-based FDTD simulator.
%U http://www.jpier.org/pier/pier.php?paper=13030606