Perfectly matched layer method in the finite-difference time-domain and frequency-domain calculations

A complex-coordinate method known under the guise of the perfectly matched layer (PML) method for treating unbounded domains in computational electrodynamics is related to similar techniques in fluid dynamics and classical quantum theory. It may also find use in electronic-structure finite-difference simulations. Straightforward transfer of the PML formulation to other fields does not seem feasible, however, since it is a unique feature of electrodynamics - the natural invariance - that allows analytic trick of complex coordinate scaling to be represented as pure modification of local material parameters within thin layers of space adjacent to the computational domain boundaries, i.e., the PMLs.