Parallel Simulation of Electron-Solid Interactions for Electron-Microscopy Modeling

S. J. Plimpton, J. R. Michael, A. D. Romig, Jr., J of SuperComputing, 6, 139- 151 (1992).

A parallel implementation of a Monte Carlo algorithm for modeling the scattering of electrons in solids and the resulting X-ray production is described. Two important issues for accurate and fast parallel simulation are discussed - random number generation and load-balancing. Timing results for the parallel simulation are given which show even modest sized parallel machines can be competitive with conventional vector supercomputers for Monte Carlo trajectory simulations. Examples of parallel calculations performed to analyze specimen composition data and to characterize electron microscope performance are briefly highlighted.

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