Boundary element approximation for Maxwell's eigenvalue problem

We introduce a new method for computing eigenvalues of the Maxwell operator with boundary finite elements. On bounded domains with piecewise constant material coefficients, the Maxwell solution for fixed wave number can be represented by boundary integrals, which allows to reduce the eigenvalue problem to a nonlinear problem for determining the wave number along with boundary and interface traces. A Galerkin discretization yields a smooth nonlinear matrix eigenvalue problem that is solved by Newton's method or, alternatively, the contour integral method. Several numerical results including an application to the band structure computation of a photonic crystal illustrate the efficiency of this approach. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.