Electron Gun Plasma Simulation in Ansys Charge Plus Software

This tutorial walks you through building and running a plasma (particle) simulation of an electron gun inner-vacuum region using the Particle in Cell (PIC) solver. It covers the end-to-end workflow: setting domain and solver options, defining an electron species and vacuum material, applying electromagnetic boundary conditions (including ramped voltages for stability), configuring a thermionic surface emission source, creating an appropriate mesh (with local refinement near the filament), running the simulation (including multi-process/HPC considerations), and post-processing results both in the internal visualization and in ParaView via HDF5 output.

Learning Outcomes:

Following completion of this workshop, you will be able to:

• Explain the purpose and scope of an electron gun plasma simulation using the PIC solver and identify the main workflow stages. 
• Configure domain settings for PIC runs, including timestep considerations, PIC particle count, and PIC substepping/max iterations. 
• Define plasma species (single electron source) and set up initialization appropriate for emission-driven injection. 
• Assign body materials correctly (vacuum assignment to the geometry using the material library). 
• Apply Electromagnetic boundary conditions for key electrodes (Ground, Wehnelt, Lens, Filament) and understand why ramping is used for stability. 
• Set up a thermionic (surface) emission source, including correct surface selection and key physical inputs (work function and temperature). 
• Create an appropriate mesh strategy using the Discovery mesh engine and direct mesh groups (global and locally refined regions). 
• Post-process PIC results: visualize electron density/momentum, generate time plots, and optionally use ParaView via HDF5 output and the provided reader plugin.

Prerequisites:

• Ansys Charge Plus Getting Started course

Please note: These training materials were developed and tested in the 2025R2 release.