A new Monte Carlo application for complex sample geometries

NISTMonte is a new application for Monte Carlo simulation(1,2) of electron transport, X-ray generation and transmission in complex sample geometries. NISTMonte uses the Mott cross section(3,4) to model elastic scattering and the Joy-Luo expression(5) to model energy loss. The ionization cross section is modeled using the empirical expression of Casnati.(6) The mass absorption coefficients are those of Heinrich,(7) and the fluorescence yields are tabulated experimental values.(8) A defining characteristic of the application is the flexibility with which complex sample geometries may be defined. The application provides a set of basic building blocks that may be combined to build complex sample shapes. Furthermore, shapes may be embedded within shapes to model inhomogeneous samples or structured samples. The application imposes no artificial limits on the number of sample regions or on the number of elements within a material. A detailed description of the implementation and the results of various tests, including backscatter yields, will be presented to demonstrate the range of validity of the model and the implementation. The application has been developed in Java J2SE 1.4 for platform independence. The source code will be made available on the NIST web site or by contacting the author. Published in 2005 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.