Measurement, Simulation, and Compact Modeling of Complex Electron Dynamics

Abstract

Systems containing large numbers of electrons can exhibit surprisingly complex and rich dynamics. In this dissertation, we ask: What is the minimum necessary detail in measurement or data-driven modeling and simulation to capture complex dynamics manifesting from these systems? To answer this, we integrate experiment, simulation, and theory to understand their complex dynamics. In this dissertation, we examine two such systems: (i) a superparamagnetic tunnel junction (SMTJ) and (ii) charged-particle beam dynamics. We first consider the deterministic-stochastic behavior of a constant-current driven SMTJ, where we create a measurement-driven overdamped Langevin model capturing statistical properties of the device. We show both how this model captures device statistics across time scales and how it can be refined to capture higher-order behavior. We next examine the centroid motion of a charged-particle beam and propose a method for understanding and predicting it using an interpretable, data-driven approach whose output is directly identifiable to terms in underlying low-dimensional evolution equations. We derive the evolution equations solely on the basis of data—with no recourse to an underlying first principles model. We compare and contrast our methodology with both a machine learning technique and a first principles model, and we show that we can learn interpretable equations for nonlinear beam dynamics at lower computational cost while achieving comparable accuracy. Lastly, we investigate the phase space evolution of a charged-particle beam. Accurate knowledge of the phase space at beam creation is crucial for understanding and predicting beam dynamics. We measure a velocity space modulation to initialize the phase space of first principle simulations and capture beam statistics and internal beam structure­­­­­­­­­­­­—resembling a cruciform—with high fidelity. This contrasts with both employed first principles models—which do not account for beam structure as they assume a uniform beam cross section—and simulations using ideal phase space distributions. Finally, we demonstrate sensitivity to beam and lattice parameters varied within experimental measurement error.