PENELOPE is a Fortran Monte Carlo code for simulation of coupled electron-photon transport matter that allows a detailed interpretation of experimental results of electron spectroscopy and microscopy. PENEPMA is a dedicated main program of PENELOPE designed to simulate electron microanalysis experiments with x-ray detectors. PENELOPE implements an elaborate algorithm for electron transport that uses accurate cross-sections for elastic scattering and accounts for energy-straggling effects. Photon interactions are simulated in chronological succession, allowing the calculation of x-ray fluorescence in complex geometries.

Written in Python, the developed API allows the user to create a large series of PENEPMA simulations using object-oriented programming and to interpret efficiently the results from these simulations. These functionalities are also coupled with a graphical interface which implements the optimized simulation parameters indicated above, thus facilitating the setup of typical microanalysis simulations. The GUI removes the tedious steps of setting up the materials, geometry, simulation parameters and position of the detectors.