A Tight-binding Approach for Computing Subwavelength Guided Modes in Crystals with Line Defects

Abstract

In this paper, we develop an accurate and efficient framework for computing subwavelength guided modes in high-contrast periodic media with line defects, based on a tight-binding approximation. The physical problem is formulated as an eigenvalue problem for the Helmholtz equation with high-contrast parameters. By employing layer potential theory on unbounded domains, we characterize the subwavelength frequencies via the quasi-periodic capacitance matrix. Our main contribution is the proof of exponential decay of the off-diagonal elements of the associated full and quasi-periodic capacitance matrices. These decay properties provide error bounds for the banded approximation of the capacitance matrices, thereby enabling a tight-binding approach for computing the spectral properties of subwavelength resonators with non-compact defects. Various numerical experiments are presented to validate the theoretical results, including applications to topological interface modes.