# Nanobeam cavity — resonant wavelength and Q

<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>cavity</span><span>resonance</span><span>quality_factor</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 [`NanobeamCavity.ipynb`](https://github.com/flexcompute/tidy3d-notebooks/blob/c37c785d52e9258c9d048a781524b8e8d7c758ca/NanobeamCavity.ipynb), pinned at commit `c37c785d52e9`.

::::{grid} 1

:::{grid-item-card} Open the complete executed tutorial →
:link: ../notebooks/nanobeam_cavity
: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

The official cubic lattice/radius taper is retained with four constant mirror cells per side and eight tapered cells total. A broadband Ey dipole excites the cavity, a time-domain point monitor records its 3 ps ringdown, and the same local pole extractor analyzes Tidy3D and FDTDX signals.

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 **180 × 86 × 160 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 |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| `wavelength_um` | 1.56871 | 1.58801 | 0.0193015 | 0.02294 | <span class="metric-pass">PASS</span> |
| `Q` | 3.513e+04 | 2.998e+04 | 5145.42 | 1.149e+04 | <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_nanobeam_cavity
```

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

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