The power of RHEED at your fingertips, combined with k-Space simulation software. Simulate and visualize RHEED patterns with expressive and intuitive controls.
kSA RHEED-Sim, the new RHEED simulation software from k-Space, gives you full control over the key parameters that dictate changes in your RHEED pattern. It’s a powerful visual tool you can start using immediately.
Render RHEED patterns for arbitrary crystal surfaces. Define the crystal surface and your experimental parameters, including the screen size and position, image resolution, electron beam energy, and more. kSA RHEED-Sim renders the predicted pattern based on the physics that govern the electron beam diffraction at the surface.
- Simulate RHEED patterns based on the crystal surface and other experimental parameters.
- Visualize the surface and bulk crystal to help understand the mechanisms of RHEED.
- Control key parameters to observe their impact on the RHEED pattern.
- Keep control over all parameters within easy reach with a compact interface.
- Available as a standalone application or integrated with the kSA 400 Analytical RHEED System.
Simulate RHEED patterns for a broad range of crystal surfaces with complete control over the parameters that affect the pattern. Easily and rapidly produce RHEED patterns and different visualizations to explore and understand the behavior of RHEED under different conditions.
Additional features of kSA RHEED-Sim include:

- Visualize the 2D surface structure relative to the incident electron beam. See it update live as parameters are changed.
- Visualize the 3D crystal structure for predefined or generated presets.
- Approximate the effect of surface reconstruction.
- Load a large variety of pre-set crystal surfaces.
- Define new surfaces to simulate from bulk crystal data loaded from CIF files or generated manually.
- Overlay your simulation output with other RHEED image data.
- Perform dynamic simulations of changing phenomena.
- Simulate a 500×500 output pattern in ~100 ms.
- Choose from a selection of color palettes to customize the RHEED image output.
- Supports 8-bit, 12-bit, and 16-bit images for simulation output and overlays.
- Save all outputs and visualizations as images or in kSA image/movie formats using the kSA 400.

kSA RHEED-Sim is capable of simulating any crystal surface that can be defined by a periodic 2D surface lattice. Simulation possibilities range from basic simulated RHEED patterns of common structures, to complex patterns produced by reconstructions or complex surfaces, to dynamic simulations of changing phenomena.

Simulations to try:
- Load preset surface data and produce the simulated RHEED pattern, such as GaAs along the 110 plane.
- Define and simulate new surfaces based on complex crystal structures loaded from CIF files. Simply load the bulk crystal structure from the file, define which planes to produce surfaces on, then generate the new surface definition.
- Simulate surface reconstructions, such as the 7×7 reconstruction of Si 111.
- Simulate intensity oscillations during epitaxial growth, controlling the growth rate, frame rate, and capture time of the simulation.
- Simulate sweeping a chosen parameter through a range of values, controlling the parameter choice, start value, end value, and step size.
- Overlay the simulation output with experimental RHEED data to directly compare streak spacings and other properties.
- Match the experimental parameters between the simulation and experimental data to also fit 2D surface lattice parameters (unit cell definition and surface orientation) to the overlaid image data.

These are just some of the RHEED simulations you can generate with kSA RHEED-Sim.
Simulate from preset data
Select from a collection of preset surface data based on the bulk crystal and corresponding surface plane. Simulate the RHEED diffraction pattern produced by such a surface.
Example: GaAs cut along the 110 plane.
Simulate from CIF crystal data
Define and simulate new surfaces based on complex crystal structures loaded from CIF files. Simply load the bulk crystal structure from the file, define which planes to produce surfaces on, and generate the new surface definition.
Example: Ca14GaAs11 cut along 100 plane.
Simulate surface reconstructions
Approximate the impact of surface reconstructions on the resulting RHEED Pattern. The simulation approximates the surface restructuring by accounting for the scaling periodicities.
Example: 7×7 reconstruction of Si cut along 111 plane.
Compare simulated and experimental RHEED images
Overlay the simulation output with experimental RHEED data to directly compare streak spacings and other properties. The experimental and lattice parameters can be adjusted to properly align data.
Example: Simulated (green) and experimental (red) data are overlaid for MgO cut along 001 plane.
Fit lattice parameters
Match the experimental parameters between the simulation and loaded RHEED data to also fit 2D surface lattice parameters (unit cell side lengths, unit cell angle, and surface orientation) to the overlaid image data.
Example: Overlay of two sets of simulated data (NaCl 100 observed along 1,1 direction, with the simulation in green offset by 1°). The fitted parameters listed are for the loaded simulated data in red, and align with known parameters within 0.02% error (this accuracy may vary depending on the data).
Simulate intensity oscillations
Define epitaxial growth conditions and simulate the intensity oscillations observed in the RHEED pattern. Control the growth rate, frame rate, and capture time of the simulation to produce a simulated video.
Example: Si cut along 111 plane, grown at 1.5 monolayers per second over 10 seconds.
Simulate parameter sweeps
Sweep a chosen parameter through a range of values, producing a video with each frame corresponding to each value in the sweep. Control the parameter choice, start value, end value, and step size of the sweep.
Example: SiC (4H polymorph) cut along 110 plane, varying the surface orientation from 0° to 360°.