Space charge simulation captures the coupling between electric fields and continuous high current particle beams passing through them. Beams are discretised into representative particle trajectories carrying quantised currents, which lead to an iteratively determined self-consistent distribution of electric field and trajectories.
Beams may enter the model from electrodes simulating thermionic emission, field effect emission or emission from the surface of a plasma. Alternatively, the user may specify the beam current density distribution at an input face or define a set of individual "beamlets".
The effect of a superimposed magnetic field distribution may also be taken into account when the trajectories are determined.