Modal spectral element method with modified Legendre polynomials to analyze binary crossed gratings

In a previous paper, a modal spectral element method (SEM), the originality of which comes from the use of a hierarchical basis built with modified Legendre polynomials, was shown to be very powerful for the analysis of lamellar gratings. In this work, keeping the same ingredients, the method has been extended to the general case of binary crossed gratings. The geometric versatility of the SEM is illustrated with gratings whose patterns are not aligned with the boundaries of the elementary cell. The method is validated by a comparison to the Fourier modal method (FMM) in the case of anisotropic crossed gratings and with the FMM with adaptive spatial resolution in the case of a square-hole array in a silver film.