Simulation of ion trajectories using the surface-charge method on a special purpose computer

We have developed a fast and accurate method for calculating an electric field using the surface-charge method accelerated by a special purpose computer. This method can derive the three-dimensional electric field generated by an elaborate electrode geometry. The calculated field is consistent with a simple analytical model for a cylindrical capacitor. As an example of the application of the method, the ion trajectory of a multi-turn time-of-flight mass spectrometer (MULTUM II) is simulated. The results are in good agreement with experiments.