# Dielectric metasurface absorber — periodic THz resonator

<span class="validation-badge">validated · 2026-08-28</span>

<div class="case-meta"><span>forward</span><span>resolution 1</span><span>device</span><span>real_world</span><span>metasurface</span><span>periodic</span><span>dispersive</span><span>lossy</span><span>tidy3d_golden</span><span>official_notebook</span></div>

This case compares a local FDTDX result with pinned reference data generated by Tidy3D. The originating Tidy3D example is [`DielectricMetasurfaceAbsorber.ipynb`](https://github.com/flexcompute/tidy3d-notebooks/blob/c37c785d52e9258c9d048a781524b8e8d7c758ca/DielectricMetasurfaceAbsorber.ipynb), pinned at commit `c37c785d52e9`.

::::{grid} 1

:::{grid-item-card} Open the complete executed tutorial →
:link: ../notebooks/metasurface_absorber
:link-type: doc
:class-card: device-ladder-card

Parameters → exact geometry → voxelized material → local FDTDX run → simulated field → quantitative analysis. Every code cell and retained output is visible, and the `.ipynb` source is downloadable.
:::

::::

This page is the compact benchmark record. The linked notebook is the primary scientific documentation and contains the actual simulation evidence.


## What is exercised

One 330 um periodic cell contains the official notebook's 106 um-radius, 85 um-tall Drude-silicon cylinder on an 8 um lossy-PDMS film. Three CW simulations sample 0.5, 0.6, and 0.7 THz. An empty-cell reference normalizes plane-wave power; reflected and transmitted flux give A = 1 - R - T.

This case runs at its declared full benchmark resolution (resolution factor 1.0).

## Reconstruction choices

The official device dimensions, material stack, excitations, and measured observable are retained where they determine the physics. The local scene uses **66 × 66 × 200 cells** and the common port/source normalization machinery. Geometry is rasterized as connected material before placement when touching polygons would otherwise introduce grid-snapping seams.

The field panel above is explicitly a schematic of the device and propagation path. The curves and scalar values in the result panel are executed benchmark outputs: solid circles are FDTDX; dashed crosses are the frozen Tidy3D reference.


## Recorded result

| Metric | Observed / error | Reference / limit | Error | Effective budget | Result |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| `R` | 0.00984941 | 0.12 | 0.00984941 | 0.12 | <span class="metric-pass">PASS</span> |
| `T` | 0.00774224 | 0.12 | 0.00774224 | 0.12 | <span class="metric-pass">PASS</span> |
| `A` | 0.00816895 | 0.15 | 0.00816895 | 0.15 | <span class="metric-pass">PASS</span> |

The table is rendered from `progress.json`; it is not a hand-written success claim. For metrics that report an error directly, the “observed” column repeats that error and the reference column is the acceptance threshold.

## Reproduce

```bash
uv run fdtdx-bench run --case device_metasurface_absorber
```

Implementation and provenance: `benchmarks/cases/device_metasurface_absorber/case.yaml`, `benchmarks/cases/device_metasurface_absorber/run.py`, `benchmarks/goldens/device_metasurface_absorber.npz`.

[Return to the example atlas](../index.md)