Reference
The files EpiSolve reads and writes, a summary of the menus and keyboard shortcuts, and a note on what has been checked against known results.
01The project file
When you Save a device, it is written as a .pjson file — a plain-text JSON file holding the whole run: the layer table, and every setting from the form around it, including the boundary condition, the temperature, the carrier mode, and the C–V and Schrödinger options. One file therefore reproduces the entire structure and the way it was solved, not just the layers.
Because it is plain text, a project file is portable and easy to share. It is readable, and can be opened in a text editor to see what it contains, but it is best edited through the application, which keeps the settings consistent with one another. The .json extension is also accepted when opening.
02The other files
Three kinds of file come out of EpiSolve, and it helps to keep them distinct:
- The device — the .pjson project file above. This is the only one you can reopen and edit.
- An answer — a results report saved as plain .txt from Save Results…, or plotted data and images from the plot window. A one-way record, not a reloadable device. See Copying, Saving and Exporting.
- Shared reference data — the materials database, a separate JSON file edited outside the application through Reveal Materials File. It underlies every device rather than belonging to one. See The Materials Database.
03Menus and shortcuts
The File menu holds the structure commands:
- New Ctrl+N, Open Ctrl+O, Save Ctrl+S and Save As Ctrl+Shift+S.
- Open Recent and Open Example reach the recent files and the bundled structures.
- Exit Ctrl+Q on Windows and Linux; on macOS the same command sits under the application menu.
In the layer table, the selected cells can be cut, copied and pasted with Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V, and whole rows moved that way; the Add Layer, Insert Layer and Delete Layer buttons do the same by hand. About, under Help, reports the version.
On macOS, use Command (⌘) wherever Ctrl is shown. The shortcuts are otherwise the same across platforms.
04What has been validated
The results are checked against known answers, and the checks ship with the tool. The bound-state solver is validated against analytic solutions and the nextnano tutorial cases; the C–V output against analytic Mott–Schottky and MOS results. The example structures whose names begin with validation are exactly those cases, so you can open one and reproduce the comparison yourself.
The solver has also been cross-checked against Professor Greg Snider’s independent 1dpoi — the 1-D Poisson solver EpiSolve grew out of — by translating the same structures into its input and comparing what the two produce. Across the bundled structures its model can express, the band profiles agree to a fraction of a meV, and the C–V sweeps agree closely through the depletion region.
