Comparative evaluation of absorbing boundary conditions using Green's functions for layered media

Absorbing boundary conditions are comparatively studied using the Green's functions of the vector and scalar potentials for multilayer geometries and general sources. Since the absorbing boundaries are introduced as additional layers with predefined reflection coefficients into the calculation of the Green's functions, this approach provides an absolute measure of the effectiveness of different absorbing boundaries. The Green's functions are calculated using different reflection coefficients corresponding to different absorbing boundaries and compared to those obtained with no absorbing boundary. It is observed that the perfectly matched layer (PML) is by far the best among the other absorbing boundary conditions whose reflection coefficients are available.