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| Project Title | Kinetic Monte Carlo study of crystal growth |
| Summary | The goal of the project is to develop a viable three dimensional kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) model for the growth of quantum dots that captures the properties of heteroepitaxy. We will start with a 2D lattice model and move on to an off-lattice 3D model. |
| Job Description | The off-lattice KMC method requires a potential for modeling the interaction between particles. The student will investigate several potentials and the necessary approximations required for speedup. In addition, the student will investigate a few optimisation algorithms required for "dynamics" in the KMC algorithm. These will involve substantial programming and tests in serial and in parallel. |
| Use of Blue Waters | We will use Blue Waters primarily for running the KMC algorithm in parallel. In previous work on 2D off-lattice KMC, we found the force computation and optimization to be the most cpu intensive. We anticipate an 8-fold increase in computational cost in 3D. We will counter the increased computational cost by parallelising the force-computation and optimization routines. We anticipate using a modest (about 512) number of processors. Additionally, we will take advantage of the resources offered by Blue Waters to run large simulations of our project over several test variables. |
| Conditions/Qualifications | Must be an undergraduate at Bates College. Should have completed the Calculus sequence and a course in linear algebra. Must have some programming experience, preferably in Fortran or C. |
| Start Date | 06/01/2017 |
| End Date | 05/31/2018 |
| Location | Bates College, Department of Mathematics, Lewiston, ME |
| Interns | Benjamin Eckardt
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