Phonon focussing patterns: Monte Carlo simulation of the motion of ballistic phonon beams in cubic crystals

Abstract

We present a full end-user version of the program MCFOC which simulates ballistic phonon transport of quasimomentum and energy in crystalline media of cubic symmetry, media which have many important technological applications and are extensively studied. The program produces phonon energy and quasimomentum focussing patterns on an arbitrary oriented lattice plane and for a sample having the form of a perpendicular parallelepiped. The results of simulations can be applied to the analysis of experimental data obtained in heat pulse experiments. The program contains facilities allowing the user to measure distances and angles on the patterns, the total (integrated) signal of a detector of the rectangle form and also intensity scans along chosen straight lines. The program permits one to interrupt the simulated experiment, and to continue it later. The program includes a simple input data editor, which allows for the creation of up to 10 data files.