Optimization of the particle pusher in a diode simulation code

The particle pusher in Sandia's particle-in-cell diode simulation code has been rewritten to reduce the required run time of a typical simulation. The resulting new version of the code has been found to run up to three times as fast as the original with comparable accuracy. The cost of this optimization was an increase in storage requirements of about 15%. The new version has also been written to run efficiently on a CRAY-1 computing system. Steps taken to affect this reduced run time are described. Various test cases are detailed