No Arabic abstract
Ion Beam Analysis (IBA) comprises a set of analytical techniques suited for material analysis, many of which are rather closely related. Self-consistent analysis of several IBA techniques takes advantage of this close relationship to combine different Ion Beam measurements in a unique model to obtain an improved characterization of the sample. This approach provides a powerful tool to obtain an unequivocal and reliable model of the sample, increasing confidence and reducing ambiguities. Taking advantage of the recognized reliability and quality of the simulations provided by SIMNRA, we developed a multi-process program for a self-consistent analysis based on SIMNRA calculations. MultiSIMNRA uses computational algorithms to minimize an objective function running multiple instances of SIMNRA. With four different optimization algorithms, the code can handle sample and setup parameters (including correlations and constraints), to find the set of parameters that best fits simultaneously all experimental data.
Ion-conducting solid electrolytes are widely used for a variety of purposes. Therefore, designing highly ion-conductive materials is in strongly demand. Because of advancement in computers and enhancement of computational codes, theoretical simulations have become effective tools for investigating the performance of ion-conductive materials. However, an exhaustive search conducted by theoretical computations can be prohibitively expensive. Further, for practical applications, both dynamic conductivity as well as static stability must be satisfied at the same time. Therefore, we propose a computational framework that simultaneously optimizes dynamic conductivity and static stability; this is achieved by combining theoretical calculations and the Bayesian multi-objective optimization that is based on the Pareto hyper-volume criterion. Our framework iteratively selects the candidate material, which maximizes the expected increase in the Pareto hyper-volume criterion; this is a standard optimality criterion of multi-objective optimization. Through two case studies on oxygen and lithium diffusions, we show that ion-conductive materials with high dynamic conductivity and static stability can be efficiently identified by our framework.
We study the novel problem of blackbox optimization of multiple objectives via multi-fidelity function evaluations that vary in the amount of resources consumed and their accuracy. The overall goal is to approximate the true Pareto set of solutions by minimizing the resources consumed for function evaluations. For example, in power system design optimization, we need to find designs that trade-off cost, size, efficiency, and thermal tolerance using multi-fidelity simulators for design evaluations. In this paper, we propose a novel approach referred as Multi-Fidelity Output Space Entropy Search for Multi-objective Optimization (MF-OSEMO) to solve this problem. The key idea is to select the sequence of candidate input and fidelity-vector pairs that maximize the information gained about the true Pareto front per unit resource cost. Our experiments on several synthetic and real-world benchmark problems show that MF-OSEMO, with both approximations, significantly improves over the state-of-the-art single-fidelity algorithms for multi-objective optimization.
SIMNRA is widely adopted by the scientific community of ion beam analysis for interpretation of nuclear scattering analysis. Taking advantage of its recognized reliability and quality of the simulations, we developed a computer program that use parallel sessions of SIMNRA to perform self-consistent analysis for energy spectra of a given sample obtained using different techniques or experimental setups. In this paper, we present a result using MultiSIMNRA on self-consistent analysis for a multielemental thin film produced by magnetron sputtering. The results demonstrate the potentialities of the self-consistent analysis and its feasibility when using MultiSIMNRA.
Parameterization of interatomic forcefields is a necessary first step in performing molecular dynamics simulations. This is a non-trivial global optimization problem involving quantification of multiple empirical variables against one or more properties. We present EZFF, a lightweight Python library for parameterization of several types of interatomic forcefields implemented in several molecular dynamics engines against multiple objectives using genetic-algorithm-based global optimization methods. The EZFF scheme provides unique functionality such as the parameterization of hybrid forcefields composed of multiple forcefield interactions as well as built-in quantification of uncertainty in forcefield parameters and can be easily extended to other forcefield functional forms as well as MD engines.
Particle accelerators are invaluable tools for research in the basic and applied sciences, in fields such as materials science, chemistry, the biosciences, particle physics, nuclear physics and medicine. The design, commissioning, and operation of accelerator facilities is a non-trivial task, due to the large number of control parameters and the complex interplay of several conflicting design goals. We propose to tackle this problem by means of multi-objective optimization algorithms which also facilitate a parallel deployment. In order to compute solutions in a meaningful time frame a fast and scalable software framework is required. In this paper, we present the implementation of such a general-purpose framework for simulation-based multi-objective optimization methods that allows the automatic investigation of optimal sets of machine parameters. The implementation is based on a master/slave paradigm, employing several masters that govern a set of slaves executing simulations and performing optimization tasks. Using evolutionary algorithms as the optimizer and OPAL as the forward solver, validation experiments and results of multi-objective optimization problems in the domain of beam dynamics are presented. The high charge beam line at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator Facility was used as the beam dynamics model. The 3D beam size, transverse momentum, and energy spread were optimized.