For the design of nanostructured semiconductor solar cells and photodetectors, optics modelling can be a useful tool that reduces the need of time-consuming and costly prototyping. We compare the performance of three of the most popular numerical simulation methods for nanostructure arrays: the Fourier modal method (FMM), the finite element method (FEM) and the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The difference between the methods in computational time can be three orders of magnitude or more for a given system. The preferential method depends on the geometry of the nanostructures, the accuracy needed from the simulations, whether we are interested in the total, volume-integrated absorption or spatially resolved absorption, and whether we are interested in broadband or narrowband response. Based on our benchmarking results, we provide guidance on how to choose the method.

对于纳米结构的半导体太阳能电池和光电探测器的设计，光学建模可以是一种有用的工具，可以减少耗时且昂贵的原型制作需求。我们比较了三种最流行的用于纳米结构阵列的数值模拟方法的性能：傅里叶模态方法（FMM），有限元方法（FEM）和时域有限差分法（FDTD）。对于给定的系统，两种方法之间的计算时间差异可能是三个数量级或更多。优先方法取决于纳米结构的几何形状，模拟所需的精度，我们是否对总的，体积积分的吸收或空间分辨的吸收感兴趣，以及我们对宽带响应还是窄带响应感兴趣。根据我们的基准测试结果，