An effective method to calculate RHEED rocking curves from nanoheteroepitaxial systems

We report a simulation program which facilitates the calculation of changes in the intensity of specular reflection of electron beams in RHEED experiments for thin epitaxial films deposited on crystalline surfaces. It has been shown that the amplitude of the RHEED intensity oscillations greatly depends on the glancing angle of the incident electron beam, the coverages of the growing layers and the model of the scattering potential. The usefulness of the program has been tested on a well-known system of Ag grown on a Si(111) surface. The obtained experimental and computational results correspond closely. The presented algorithm, together with properly modified input data, can be applied to other systems of crystalline ultrathin layer and substrate. It also enables the implementation and tests of different combinations of the scattering potentials of the crystal, and can be applied to interpret experimental RHEED rocking curves. The previous version of this program (AETW_v1_0) may be found at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpc.2014.07.003.