Development of software for the computation of the properties of electrostatic electro-optical devices via both the direct ray tracing and paraxial approximation techniques. #

MPhys Final Year Project Dissertation by Andrew Jackson #

Abstract #

This project concerns the development of software designed to simulate electro-optical devices; the potential being calculated via the finite element method, and the optical behaviour determined by paraxial and direct ray racing. The direct ray tracing technique, previously only used for finite difference grids, has been developed by using new interpolation techniques (to cope with the variability in mesh point distribution inherent in the finite element technique), and also by testing various different integration algorithms under these conditions. The new software has been found to be act as a useful tool for visualisation of lens behaviour, and has been found to give reasonable quantitative results for the predicted lens properties in comparison to the paraxial approximation and to the results published in the literature for the standardised two-tube electron lens.