Achieving the Highest Accuracy With the BEM

The high accuracy that can be achieved by the Boundary Element Method when it is used to solve the Laplace and Poisson equations for electrostatic systems is discussed. Applications to charged particle optics are described, with the emphasis on the commercial CPO programs [1]. The BEM is a charge-based method and so is ideally suitable for systems that include space-charge and/or cathodes. It can deal easily with electrodes of very different sizes. These and other properties of the BEM are illustrated by a range of benchmark tests.