Model-Driven Development for scientific computing. Computations of RHEED intensities for a disordered surface. Part II

Abstract

Modelling, simulation, and visualisation together create the third branch of human knowledge on equal footing with theory and experiment. Model-Driven Development (MDD) has been proposed as a means to support the software development process through the use of a model-centric approach. The objective of this paper is to address the design of an architecture for scientific application that may execute as multithreaded computations, as well as implementations of the related shared data structures. New version program summary Program title: Growth09 Catalogue identifier: ADVL_v3_0 Program summary URL: http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/ADVL_v3_0.html Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: Standard CPC licence, http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.html No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 30 940 No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 3 119 488 Distribution format: tar.gz Programming language: Embarcadero Delphi Computer: Intel Core Duo-based PC Operating system: Windows XP, Vista, 7 RAM: more than 1 GB Classification: 4.3, 7.2, 6.2, 8, 14 Catalogue identifier of previous version: ADVL_v2_1 Journal reference of previous version: Comput. Phys. Comm. 180 (2009) 1219 Subprograms used: Cat Id Title Reference ADUY_v4_0 RHEED1DProcess CPC 999 (9999) 9999 Does the new version supersede the previous version?: No Nature of problem: Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is a technique for epitaxial growth via the interaction of one or several molecular or atomic beams that occurs on a surface of a heated crystalline substrate. Reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) is an important in situ analysis technique, which is capable of giving quantitative information about the growth process of thin films and its control. The analysis of RHEED intensity oscillations has two purposes. One is to control the film growth, and the other is to understand the mechanism of the film growth using the MBE through the analysis of surface morphology as a function of time. Such control allows the development of structures where the electrons can be confined in space, giving quantum wells or even quantum dots. Such layers are now a critical part of 3 many modern semiconductor devices, semiconductor lasers, light-emitting diodes and new devices for the magnetic storage industry. Solution method: The present paper reports a practical and pragmatic approach for MDD technology [1] that has been used during design of the Growth09 program. Growth09 is a numerical model that uses multithreaded and partially nested transactions for simulation of epitaxial growth of thin films. Reasons for new version: Responding to user feedback the program has been upgraded to a standard that allows a slave process, carrying out computations of the RHEED intensities for a disordered surface, to be run. Also, functionality and documentation of the program have been improved. Summary of revisions: 1. The MDD technology has been used to design a computer model that allows the user to carry out numerical calculations layers coverage during the growth of thin epitaxial films, surface roughness, and the RHEED intensities for a disordered surface. This computer model can be applied to interpret the experimental data in real time [2]. 2. The logical structure of the Platform-Specific Model of the Growth06_v2 program has been modified according to the scheme shown in Fig. 1*. The class diagram in Fig. 1* is a static view of the main platform-specific elements of the Growth09 application architecture. Fig. 2* provides a dynamic view by showing the creation and destruction simplistic sequence diagram. Fig. 3* presents the Growth09 use case model. 3. As can be seen in Figs. 1–3* the Growth09 has been designed as a master program for the slave RHEED1DProcess (see A. Daniluk, Model-Driven Development for scientific computing. Computations of RHEED intensities for a disordered surface. Part I). 4. The slave RHEED1DProcess can be run as separate thread of the Growth09. Fig. 4* depicts the Platform-Specific Model for the development elements of the new distribution. *The figures mentioned can be downloaded, see “Supplementary material” below. Unusual features: The program is distributed in the form of main project Growth09.dproj, with associated files, and should be compiled using Embarcadero RAD Studio 2010 along with Together visual modelling platform. The program should be compiled with English/USA regional and language options. Additional comments: This version of the GROWTH program is designed to run in conjunction with the RHEED1DProcess (ADUY_v4_0) program. It does not replace the previous, stand alone, GROWTH06-v2 (ADVL_v2_1) version. Running time: The typical running time is machine and user-parameters dependent.