A comparison between the Shooting and Finite-Difference Method in solving a Nonlinear Boundary Value Problem found in the context of light propagation

Abstract

The shooting and finite-difference method are both numeric methods that approximate the solution of a BVP to a given accuracy. In this report both methods were implemented in Matlab and compared to each other on a BVP found in the context of light propagation in nonlinear dielectrics. It was observed that the finite-difference method is numerically more stable and converges faster than the shooting method.