PLOT-FIELD 

&SIGNAL: PLOT-FIELD


functions

All functions in the description of the PLOT-FIELD command (f1,\ f2\ ...\ f6) may depend on the following set of variables:

Symbol Meaning Note
X, Y, Z Position R, PHI for polar cells
EX, EY, EZ, E E-field at (x,y,z) ER, EPHI for polar cells
EWX, EWY, EWZ, EW Weighting at (x,y,z) EWR, EWPHI for polar cells
BX, BY, BZ, B B-field at (x,y,z) only if there is a B-field
VDX, VDY, VDZ, VD Local e- drift velocity VDR, VDPHI for polar cells
TIME_E Drift time for electrons -
TIME_ION Drift time for ions -
STATUS_E Drift status for electrons a number, not a string
STATUS_ION Drift status for ions a number, not a string
Q_E Charge induced by an e- -
Q_ION Charge induced by an ion -

Other variables can be added on request.

Additional information on:


CONTOUR

Produces a plot of the lines of equal function values.

Contours are drawn in the part of the viewing plane that is located within the current AREA box.

The contours are labelled with the function value if the LABEL option is on (which is by default the case).

If you request AUTOMATIC scaling of the range, contours are drawn at decent function heights covering the range of the function on the AREA. The number of contours is used to compute a rough distance between two contours; the distance is rounded downwards. The number of contours actually drawn may therefore be larger than the number you request.

Contours are plotted starting from their crossings with a regular GRID covering the AREA. Very small contours are not found if the grid is course. It is therefore usually preferable to use a fine grid for contours, even though plotting the contours takes more time.

You may also wish to optimise the CONTOUR-PARAMETERS, especially if your AREA is very small or highly non-isometric.

The contours are drawn with the representation CONTOUR-NORMAL and are labelled with CONTOUR-LABELS.

[The default function is Q_E, the charge induced on the read-out electrode by an electron drifting from (x,y,z). The contour range is by default adjusted automatically. By default, about 20 contours are plotted.]


GRAPH

The function is evaluated on the track or on the curve specified with the ON keyword.

The geometric aspects of the track, if used, should be set by means of the TRACK command before calling PLOT-FIELD. Other aspects of the track, such as the clustering model, are not used in the present context.

A curve should be parametrised in terms of T which will run from 0 to 1. All 3 coordinates of the curve should be specified. Note that ON expects only one argument, the parametrisation should therefore be enclosed in quotes, e.g.

'cos(pi*t),sin(pi*t),0'
would be appropriate to describe a semi-circle in the z=0 plane.

The SCALE option can be used to force a vertical scale in the plot, this can for instance be useful if you intend to overlay various graphs.

If you select the PRINT option, then the values plotted in the graph will also be printed out. Re-routing of the output (> file) can be used to write the values to a file.

The number of sampling points can be set with N.

[The default function is Q_E, the charge induced on the read out electrode by an electron drifting from (x,y,z). The default number of sampling points is MXLIST, 200 or 1000 depending on the compilation parameters.]


HISTOGRAM

The function is sampled over a GRID of points in the part of the current viewing plane that is located inside the AREA box. The function values are entered in an histogram.

This kind of plot can be useful to estimate for instance the spread in drift time over a given region.

The automatic search for proper binning (AUTOMATIC) uses the first few entries to set the range. Since the grid is scanned in a regular sequence, these entries are not necessarily representative for the entire sample, in particular if the number of bins is small compared to the grid size. See AUTOSCALE for details on the automatic binning procedure.

[The default function is Q_E, the charge induced on the read out electrode by an electron drifting from (x,y,z). The default preset to 100 and the range is by default chosen automatically.]


SURFACE

The function is sampled over a GRID of points in the part of the current viewing plane that is located inside the AREA box. The function values are presented as a three dimensional plot.

The plot is first rotated by \φ degrees around the z-axis and then tilted by \θ degrees from the z-axis.

This plot is decorative but it is generally agreed upon that it is hard to extract any meaningful information from it ...

[The default function is Q_E, the charge induced on the read out electrode by an electron drifting from (x,y,z). The default viewing angles are 30\° and 60\°. The viewing angles are remembered from one call to the next.]


VECTOR

This plot shows the flow of a 3-vector sampled on a GRID of points in the part of the current viewing plane that is located inside the AREA box. The vectors are projected onto the current viewing plane.

The z-component is set to 0, if not explicitly specified. For other than (x,y) views, this may give incorrect impressions.

The vectors are normalised in 3 dimensions when they are plotted - the length of the vectors shown does not contain information on the magnitude of the quantity that is plotted. A vector that appears point like has no component in the viewing plane.

It is advisable to have roughly equal ranges in view of the scaling that is performed on the vectors.

The vectors are plotted using the FUNCTION-1 representation. The appearance of the arrow is influence by the ARROW-TIP-ANGLE and ARROW-TIP-LENGTH settings.

[The default functions are EWX, EWY, EWZ, i.e. the weighting field.]


GROUP

This is followed by the number of a read-out group. Signals are summed over the elements that compose a read-out group - signals for the individual members are not stored.

Read-out groups are formed with the SELECT command. SELECT without arguments will show how the groups are composed.

[By default, all sense wire groups are plotted.]


TIME-WINDOW

Specifies the time window over which the charges Q_E and Q_ION are to be integrated.

The lower time limit may be specified as START, the upper time limit as END (or INFINITY).

[When no time window is given, the charge is integrated from the moment the particle starts to drift until the moment it stops. The time window is reset each time PLOT-FIELD is called.]


RUNGE-KUTTA-DRIFT-LINES

Requests the use of the Runge_Kutta_Fehlberg algorithm for computing drift-lines.

Runge Kutta integration is easier to use than Monte Carlo stepping in that the integration parameters are more tolerant.

The parameters controlling the accuracy are adjusted for chambers that are several centimetres large. When studying much smaller structures, at the \μm scale, one may wish to request more accuracy.

The Runge Kutta algorithm is well suited for smooth fields, such as those obtained with analytic potentials. The field computed from field maps is sometimes not even continuous, and one should in such cases prefer the Monte Carlo algorithm.

[The initial default is RUNGE-KUTTA-DRIFT-LINES.]


MONTE-CARLO-DRIFT-LINES

Requests Monte_Carlo calculation of a drift path, instead of a Runge_Kutta_Fehlberg integration.

This option is particularly interesting used in conjunction with drifting from a TRACK and on which clusters are generated with HEED.

When using this option, care has to be taken that the step size has been set to a value appropriate to the chamber, see in particular the step_size as set with the INTEGRATION-PARAMETERS command.

[The initial default is RUNGE-KUTTA-DRIFT-LINES.]


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Formatted on 21/01/18 at 16:55.