Arthur K. Scholz

Large-scale Nanostructure Simulations from X-ray Scattering Data On Graphics Processor Clusters

X-ray scattering is a valuable tool for measuring the structural properties of materials used in the design and fabrication of energy-relevant nanodevices (e.g., photovoltaic, energy storage, battery, fuel, and carbon capture and sequestration devices) that are key to the reduction of carbon emissions. Although todays ultra-fast X-ray scattering detectors can provide tremendous information on the structural properties of materials, a primary challenge remains in the analyses of the resulting data. We are developing novel high-performance computing algorithms, codes, and software tools for the analyses of X-ray scattering data. In this paper we describe two such HPC algorithm advances. Firstly, we have implemented a flexible and highly efficient Grazing Incidence Small Angle Scattering (GISAXS) simulation code based on the Distorted Wave Born Approximation (DWBA) theory with C++/CUDA/MPI on a cluster of GPUs. Our code can compute the scattered light intensity from any given sample in all directions of space; thus allowing full construction of the GISAXS pattern. Preliminary tests on a single GPU show speedups over 125x compared to the sequential code, and almost linear speedup when executing across a GPU cluster with 42 nodes, resulting in an additional 40x speedup compared to using one GPU node. Secondly, for the structural fitting problems in inverse modeling, we have implemented a Reverse Monte Carlo simulation algorithm with C++/CUDA using one GPU. Since there are large numbers of parameters for fitting in the in X-ray scattering simulation model, the earlier single CPU code required weeks of runtime. Deploying the AccelerEyes Jacket/Matlab wrapper to use GPU gave around 100x speedup over the pure CPU code. Our further C++/CUDA optimization delivered an additional 9x speedup.