Electron ray tracing by means of resistor network and digital computer

The problem of calculating electron trajectories in an electrostatic field is solved in two steps. First, the potential distribution for a given electrode configuration is found by means of a high precision resistor network. The second step requires a series of numerical calculations using the above potential values to determine the electron trajectories. All mathematical operations have been programmed for an IBM 709 digital computer. Three different mathematical methods are presented and compared. To check their accuracy test problems involving simple electrode configurations, for which the trajectories can be calculated analytically, were used. The error of a trajectory is defined by , where δ is the maximum transverse deviation of a trajectory from its correct position and is the length of the trajectory. Using the most accurate of the three methods for an electron in a homogeneous electric field between parallel planes the average error was . With the electric field between concentric spheres the average error was . The method of ray tracing described can be used for two-dimensional and axially symmetric fields. Space charge and magnetic fields can be taken into account. The time for calculating one trajectory over the whole length of the resistor network (50 units) is approximately 25 s.