# NanoComp/meep

free finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) software for electromagnetic simulations

Repository: https://github.com/NanoComp/meep
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/meep
Language: C++
License: GPL-2.0
License Family: copyleft
Last push: 2026-08-26T19:44:47+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 93/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 80, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4541, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 55, "gap_med": 75, "n_releases_24m": 6}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1750, forks 798 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:31.127905+00:00)

## What it is
Meep is a free, open-source finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation package for solving Maxwell's equations in 1D, 2D, 3D, and cylindrical coordinates. It is scriptable via Python, Scheme, or C++ APIs and supports MPI-based distributed parallelism for large-scale electromagnetic simulations.

## Use cases
- simulate light propagation through photonic crystal structures
- model electromagnetic wave scattering from nanostructures
- compute transmission and reflection spectra of waveguides
- design and optimize metasurfaces and antennas
- simulate resonant modes and quality factors of optical cavities
- model dispersive and nonlinear optical materials
- run parallel FDTD simulations on HPC clusters

## When to choose
- you need accurate time-domain electromagnetic simulation with a permissive workflow and Python scripting
- you want to model complex materials including anisotropic, dispersive, nonlinear, or gyrotropic media
- you need MPI-parallel simulations across 1D/2D/3D geometries
- you are doing photonics, metamaterials, or nanooptics research on a budget

## When to avoid
- you need frequency-domain-only solvers with simpler setup (consider FEniCS or commercial tools)
- you require circuit-level RF/EM simulation rather than full-wave FDTD
- you need a GUI-driven commercial-grade workflow with vendor support
- your problem is better served by finite-element methods for irregular geometries

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: simulation, graphics, math, developer-tools
- domain: simulation
- platform: windows, python, cpp, cross-platform
- tags: fdtd, electromagnetics, photonics, nanophotonics, wave-propagation, scientific-computing, mpi-parallel, physics, research, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- NanoComp/meep (main) score 93

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:31.127905+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:28:34.580233+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/NanoComp/meep (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:31.127905+00:00, sha 9eee7fd98905)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.