Differentiable eigendecomposition-free RCWA for full-tensor anisotropic photonics

Abstract

Full-tensor anisotropy transforms rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA) into a large, fully coupled non-Hermitian eigenproblem, making eigendecomposition expensive and difficult to differentiate. We introduce a differentiable, eigendecomposition-free RCWA framework for spatially patterned media with fully coupled permittivity tensors, using boundary fields rather than internal eigenmodes as the layer representation. A boundary-value cascade constructs scattering operators directly from these fields, enabling automatic differentiation and efficient GPU execution. Benchmarks against finite-element and transfer-matrix solutions show close agreement in scattering responses, while automatic-differentiation gradients agree with finite differences and enable topology optimization. At 529 Fourier harmonics, layer construction is 22.8 times faster than conventional eigendecomposition on the same GPU. Our framework offers a general computational route toward scalable forward modeling and inverse design in anisotropic photonic systems.