MuFinder: A program to determine and analyse muon stopping sites

TL;DR

MuFinder is a user-friendly software tool that simplifies the calculation and analysis of muon stopping sites in materials, enhancing the accessibility and routine use of muon-site computations in muon-spin spectroscopy experiments.

Contribution

The paper introduces MuFinder, a GUI-based program that streamlines muon site calculations, including structure relaxation and local magnetic field analysis, making these techniques accessible to non-experts.

Findings

MuFinder enables easy calculation of muon stopping sites.

The program facilitates connection between theoretical sites and experimental data.

It promotes routine use of muon-site calculations in research.

Abstract

Significant progress has recently been made in calculating muon stopping sites using density functional theory. The technique aims to address two of the most common criticisms of the muon-spin spectroscopy ($\mu^+$SR) technique, namely, where in the sample does the muon stop, and what is its effect on its local environment. We have designed and developed a program called MuFinder that enables users to carry out these calculations through a simple graphical user interface (GUI). The procedure for calculating muon sites by generating initial muon positions, relaxing the structures, and then clustering and analysing the resulting candidate sites, can be done entirely within the GUI. The local magnetic field at the muon site can also be computed, allowing the connection between the muon sites obtained and experiment to be made. MuFinder will make these computations significantly more accessible to non-experts and help to establish muon site calculations as a routine part of $\mu^+$SR experiments.