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Galaxy cluster scaling relations between Bolocam Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect and Chandra X-ray measurements

We present scaling relations between the integrated Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect (SZE) signal, Y{sub SZ}, its X-ray analogue, Y{sub X} ≡ M{sub gas} T{sub X}, and total mass, M{sub tot}, for the 45 galaxy clusters in the Bolocam X-ray SZ (BOXSZ) sample. All parameters are integrated within r{sub 2500}. Y{sub 2500} values are measured using SZE data collected with Bolocam, operating at 140 GHz at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory. The temperature, T{sub X}, and mass, M{sub gas,2500}, of the intracluster medium are determined using X-ray data collected with Chandra, and M{sub tot} is derived from M{sub gas} assuming a constant gas mass fraction. Our analysis accounts for several potential sources of bias, including selection effects, contamination from radio point sources, and the loss of SZE signal due to noise filtering and beam-smoothing effects. We measure the Y{sub 2500}–Y{sub X} scaling to have a power-law index of 0.84 ± 0.07, and a fractional intrinsic scatter in Y{sub 2500} of (21±7)% at fixed Y{sub X}, both of which are consistent with previous analyses. We also measure the scaling between Y{sub 2500} and M{sub 2500}, finding a power-law index of 1.06 ± 0.12 and a fractional intrinsic scatter in Y{sub 2500} at fixed mass of (25±9)%. While recent SZE scaling relations using X-ray mass proxies have found power-law indices consistent with the self-similar prediction of 5/3, our measurement stands apart by differing from the self-similar prediction by approximately 5σ. Given the good agreement between the measured Y{sub 2500}–Y{sub X} scalings, much of this discrepancy appears to be caused by differences in the calibration of the X-ray mass proxies adopted for each particular analysis.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Novel CO 2 -Selective Membranes for CO 2 Capture from <1% CO 2 Sources

The objective of this project is to develop a cost-effective design and fabrication process for a new membrane and its membrane modules that capture CO 2 from <1% CO 2 concentration sources. Synthesis of novel CO 2 -selective membranes using a cost-effective nanoporous polyethersulfone (PES) polymer support and coating a top layer of thin, highly selective, yet permeable amine-containing polymer membrane has been performed. Pilot-size membranes (about 14 inches in width, the change was made from lab-size membranes with about 6 inches by 6 inches to gain more progress) have been used to fabricate at least 3 pilot-size membrane modules (each about 14-inch long) for lab testing with the simulated gas mixture. The pilot membrane modules have been in commercial configurations, i.e., plate-and-frame (PF) and spiral-wound (SW), for a minimal pressure drop (<0.103 bar/meter (1.5 psi (pounds per square inch)/meter)). Both PF and SW modules fabricated gave similar performance and acceptable pressure drop results. We down-selected to the SW module for ease of manufacture.

2-stage process↗

A decam search for an optical counterpart to the LIGO gravitational-wave event GW151226

We report the results of a Dark Energy Camera optical follow-up of the gravitational-wave (GW) event GW151226, discovered by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory detectors. Our observations cover 28.8 deg{sup 2} of the localization region in the i and z bands (containing 3% of the BAYESTAR localization probability), starting 10 hr after the event was announced and spanning four epochs at 2–24 days after the GW detection. We achieve 5σ point-source limiting magnitudes of i≈21.7 and z≈21.5, with a scatter of 0.4 mag, in our difference images. Given the two-day delay, we search this area for a rapidly declining optical counterpart with ≳3σ significance steady decline between the first and final observations. We recover four sources that pass our selection criteria, of which three are cataloged active galactic nuclei. The fourth source is offset by 5.8 arcsec from the center of a galaxy at a distance of 187 Mpc, exhibits a rapid decline by 0.5 mag over 4 days, and has a red color of i−z≈0.3 mag. These properties could satisfy a set of cuts designed to identify kilonovae. However, this source was detected several times, starting 94 days prior to GW151226, in the Pan-STARRS Survey for Transients (dubbed as PS15cdi) and is therefore unrelated to the GW event. Given its long-term behavior, PS15cdi is likely a Type IIP supernova that transitioned out of its plateau phase during our observations, mimicking a kilonova-like behavior. We comment on the implications of this detection for contamination in future optical follow-up observations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Radiography of Dry Cask Storage for Used Nuclear Fuel

Since the U.S. currently only approves of storing used nuclear fuel in pools or dry casks, the demand for dry cask storage is on the rise due to the continuous operation of currently existing nuclear plants which are reaching or have reached the capacity of their used fuel pools. With the rising demand comes additional pressure to ensure the integrity of dry cask systems. Visual inspection is costly and man-power intensive, so alternative nondestructive testing techniques are desired to insure the continued safe and effective storage of fuel. Several approaches being investigated by the University of Florida and the larger multi-university Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP) Integrated Research Project (IRP) are gamma or neutron radiography, both transmission based and interior source emission. Additionally muon radiography is discussed. This work leverages the well-established techniques in medical image reconstruction and applies them to a significantly larger scale with additional considerations due to the dense nuclear materials which serves as effective shields for radiation. Emission source radiography relies on the radiation that is emitted from the used fuel. The main advantage of this technique is the passive nature of the measurement. The fuel is already emitting radiation and only detectors are needed. Transmission radiography uses an external source of radiation to penetrate the side of the cask. Challenges include selecting the external source spectrum to avoid overlap with the spectrum emitted from the fuel, and ensuring the radiation dose limits do not exceed those mandated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Benefits of this technique include better understanding of the source location allowing for clear image reconstruction, and isolation of the signal from surrounding radiation sources. Muon radiography takes advantage of the natural background flux coming from the interaction of the atmosphere with cosmic radiation. The technique is particularly effective at interrogating large dense objects as the highly energetic muons have smaller cross sections than most typical sources and energies used in nuclear engineering. The various techniques are discussed individually then the conclusion compares them. Finally, future work is identified.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Selection and Validation of Alternate Slag Sources for Saltstone Production - 16145

To stabilize low activity salt solution produced at the Savannah River Site (SRS) the salt waste is mixed with a combination of fly ash (FA), ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS), and ordinary Portland cement (OPC) to form a grout termed saltstone. Upon curing, the low activity waste is encapsulated within the hardened cementitious matrix. While the sources of the dry feed components have remained unchanged for several years, SRS was recently notified that its domestic source of GGBFS would no longer be available due to the shutdown of the steel making plant that produced the ferrous slag as a by-product. This shut-down follows a trend in the reduction of domestic ferrous slag sources. Alternate GGBFS vendors were sought and a program developed to validate the alternate sources for use in saltstone. GGBFS is primarily utilized in the construction industry as a replacement for OPC and the requirements of a GGBFS source, based on an American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standard, are predominantly limited to demonstrating that the GGBFS replacement will provide equivalent strength in comparison to the baseline OPC-based concrete. This affords the construction industry significant flexibility with respect to the GGBFS source that can be used. In contrast, GGBFS has a role of significantly more importance when utilized in saltstone. In particular, the reducing blast furnace environment under which GGBFS is produced yields reducing species, such as sulfide (S{sup 2-}) and ferrous iron (Fe{sup 2+}), which are believed to facilitate the long-term immobilization of redox sensitive contaminants (e.g. technetium-99 ({sup 99}Tc)). In addition, a change in GGBFS source has the potential to impact the rheological properties and the reactive heat generation of the grout, which may adversely affect the ability to pump the grout to a Saltstone Disposal Unit (SDU) and the temperatures attained within an SDU, respectively. As such, alternate GGBFS sources for the processing of saltstone require significantly more scrutiny than is prescribed by the ASTM standard. Four alternate GGBFS sources were evaluated. All four sources met the ASTM requirements, only one source was considered viable for use in saltstone based on preliminary evaluation. The other three sources will require a more intensive assessment to determine their potential applicability. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

THE SWIFT X-RAY TELESCOPE CLUSTER SURVEY. III. CLUSTER CATALOG FROM 2005-2012 ARCHIVAL DATA

We present the Swift X-ray Cluster Survey (SWXCS) catalog obtained using archival data from the X-ray telescope (XRT) on board the Swift satellite acquired from 2005 February to 2012 November, extending the first release of the SWXCS. The catalog provides positions, soft fluxes, and, when possible, optical counterparts for a flux-limited sample of X-ray group and cluster candidates. We consider the fields with Galactic latitude |b| > 20° to avoid high H I column densities. We discard all of the observations targeted at groups or clusters of galaxies, as well as particular extragalactic fields not suitable to search for faint extended sources. We finally select ∼3000 useful fields covering a total solid angle of ∼400 deg{sup 2}. We identify extended source candidates in the soft-band (0.5-2 keV) images of these fields using the software EXSdetect, which is specifically calibrated for the XRT data. Extensive simulations are used to evaluate contamination and completeness as a function of the source signal, allowing us to minimize the number of spurious detections and to robustly assess the selection function. Our catalog includes 263 candidate galaxy clusters and groups down to a flux limit of 7 × 10{sup –15} erg cm{sup –2} s{sup –1} in the soft band, and the logN-logS is in very good agreement with previous deep X-ray surveys. The final list of sources is cross-correlated with published optical, X-ray, and Sunyaev-Zeldovich catalogs of clusters. We find that 137 sources have been previously identified as clusters in the literature in independent surveys, while 126 are new detections. Currently, we have collected redshift information for 158 sources (60% of the entire sample). Once the optical follow-up and the X-ray spectral analysis of the sources are complete, the SWXCS will provide a large and well-defined catalog of groups and clusters of galaxies to perform statistical studies of cluster properties and tests of cosmological models.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Reuse of Selected Lignocellulosic and Processed Biomasses as Sustainable Sources for the Fabrication of Nanocellulose via Ni(II)-Catalyzed Hydrolysis Approach: A Comparative Study

This study investigates for the first time the feasibility of isolating nanocellulose from several selected feedstocks via a novel Ni(II)-hydrolysis process, including lignocellulosic biomasses (oil palm trunk, banana peel and coconut husk) and processed biomasses (newspaper, tissue paper and cotton linter), with an obtained gravimetric yield ranging from 59.6 to 86.2%. The isolation of nanocellulose products from these selected feedstocks was verified by the successive removal of most of their non-cellulosic components (lignin and hemicellulose) and cellulose amorphous regions, the increase in the crystallinity index and the nanoscale of the individual crystals. Most importantly, the resultant nanocellulose products rendered better thermal stability than that of corresponding original sources, which are highly potential to be utilized as the new renewable sources of reinforcement materials with potential applications in bio-nanocomposites and thermoplastics. Therefore, this work proves the viability of direct production of nanocellulose from a variety of cellulosic sources by using Ni(II)-based transition metal salt catalyst. The results suggested that the concept of waste to wealth could be well executed from the obtained nanocellulose, which are greatly potential for various industrial applications.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Evidence for Black Holes in Green Peas from WISE Colors and Variability

We explore the presence of active galactic nuclei (AGNs)/black holes in Green Pea galaxies (GPs), motivated by the presence of high-ionization emission lines such as He ii and [Ne iii] in their optical spectra. In order to identify AGN candidates, we used mid-infrared (MIR) photometric observations from the all-sky Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission for a sample of 1004 GPs. Considering only >5σ detections with no contamination from neighboring sources in AllWISE, we select 31 GPs out of 134 as candidate AGNs based on a stringent three-band WISE color diagnostic. Using multi-epoch photometry in W1 and W2 bands based on time-resolved unWISE coadd images, we find two sources exhibiting variability in both the WISE bands among 112 GPs with W1 ≤16 mag and no contamination from neighboring sources in unWISE. These two variable sources were selected as AGNs by the WISE three-band color diagnostic as well. Compared to variable AGN fractions observed among low-mass galaxy samples in previous studies, we find a higher fraction (~1.8%) of MIR variable sources among GPs, which demonstrates the uniqueness and importance of studying these extreme objects. Through this work, we demonstrate that MIR diagnostics are promising tools to select AGNs that may be missed by other selection techniques (including optical emission-line ratios and X-ray emission) in star formation-dominated, low-mass, low-metallicity galaxies.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Hydrologic Model Data for the East Fork Poplar Creek Watershed Simulated with the Advanced Terrestrial Simulator (ATS): Streamflow and Network Expansion–Contraction Dynamics

This dataset supports hydrologic modeling and stream network expansion–contraction analysis for the East Fork Poplar Creek (EFPC) Watershed in Tennessee. It includes a Jupyter notebook for model setup, model configuration files, simulation outputs, and derived products used to evaluate model performance and investigate stream dynamics under varying hydrologic conditions. The dataset was generated using the Watershed Workflow Python package and the Advanced Terrestrial Simulator (ATS), enabling integrated surface–subsurface hydrologic simulations using a stream-aligned mesh. Outputs include high-resolution time series of streamflow, active network length, water table depth, and related hydrologic variables. Also included are spatially explicit stream persistency indices and classifications of reaches as perennial or non-perennial. These data facilitate reproducibility and support further research on stream intermittency and variability in network extent.The model data archive is organized in following directories:1) model_setup_inputsContains the Watershed Workflow Jupyter notebooks (accessed through any open source code editor), selected input datasets, and resulting ATS input files, including XML files (access through any open source code editor), computational mesh (.exo files can be viewed using Paraview), and meteorological forcing files (.h5 files can be accessed through h5py python package and HDFView open source software). 2) model_outputsIncludes ATS simulation outputs relevant to this study. Time series of spatially integrated or averaged variables (e.g., streamflow, water table depth) are provided as CSV files. Select spatial fields (e.g., ponded depth and water table depth) are saved as pickled Python objects to reduce file size, and can be accessed through pickle package in Python. Key geometry objects from Watershed Workflow—such as the surface mesh and river tree—are also included to support analysis of streamflow persistency and expansion–contraction dynamics. These files can also be accessed through Watershed Workflow Python package.3) model_evaluationProvides observed streamflow time series and field survey-based flow regime classifications used to evaluate model performance. Jupyter notebooks for processing ATS outputs and comparing model predictions with observations to build confidence in the model prior to scientific analysis are also included.4) Q_L_relationshipsContains workflows for generating time series of discharge, active network length, and related hydrologic variables used in the stream network expansion–contraction analysis. Includes routines for delineating baseflow-dominated periods. For each catchment, notebooks and processed data (as pickled DataFrames accessed through Pandas Python package) are provided. 5) figure_scriptsProvides the Jupyter notebooks used to generate the figures presented in the paper.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

CENTAUR - The small- and wide-angle neutron scattering diffractometer/spectrometer for the Second Target Station of the Spallation Neutron Source

CENTAUR has been selected as one of the eight initial instruments to be built at the Second Target Station (STS) of the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It is a small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and wide-angle neutron scattering (WANS) instrument with diffraction and spectroscopic capabilities. This instrument will maximally leverage the high brightness of the STS source, the state-of-the-art neutron optics, and a suite of detectors to deliver unprecedented capabilities that enable measurements over a wide range of length scales with excellent resolution, measurements on smaller samples, and time-resolved investigations of evolving structures. Notably, the simultaneous WANS and diffraction capability will be unique among neutron scattering instruments in the United States. This instrument will provide much needed capabilities for soft matter and polymer sciences, geology, biology, quantum condensed matter, and other materials sciences that need in situ and operando experiments for kinetic and/or out-of-equilibrium studies. Beam polarization and a high-resolution chopper will enable detailed structural and dynamical investigations of magnetic and quantum materials. CENTAUR’s excellent resolution makes it ideal for low-angle diffraction studies of highly ordered large-scale structures, such as skyrmions, shear-induced ordering in colloids, and biomembranes. Additionally, the spectroscopic mode of this instrument extends to lower momentum transfers than are currently possible with existing spectrometers, thereby providing a unique capability for inelastic SANS studies.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Produced Water-Economic, Socio, Environmental Simulation Model (PW-ESEim) Model: Proof-of-Concept for Southeastern New Mexico

A proof-of-concept tool, the Produced Water-Economic, Socio, Environmental Simulation model (PW-ESESim), was developed to support ease of analysis. The tool was designed to facilitate head-to-head comparison of alternative produced water source, treatment, and reuse water management strategies. A graphical user interface (GUI) guides the user through the selection and design of alternative produced water treatment and reuse strategies and the associated health and safety risk and economic benefits. At the highest conceptual level, alternative water strategies include the selection of a source water (locally or regionally available produced water), treatment strategy (pre-treatment, physical, chemical, biological, desalination, and post-treatment processes) and product water purpose (e.g., irrigation, industrial processing, environmental). After selection of these details, the PW-ESESim output a number of key economic, societal, environmental, public/ecological health and safety metrics to support user decision-making; specific examples include, cost of treatment, improvements in freshwater availability, human and ecologic health impacts and growth in local jobs and the economy. Through the simulation of different produced water treatment and management strategies, tradeoffs are identified and used to inform fit-for-purpose produced water treatment and reuse management decisions. While the tool was initially designed using Southeastern New Mexico (Permian Basin) as a case study, the general design of the PW-ESESim model can be extended to support other oil and gas regions of the U.S.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Highly selective Si 3 N 4 /SiO 2 etching using an NF 3 /N 2 /O 2 /H 2 remote plasma. I. Plasma source and critical fluxes

Highly selective plasma etching of silicon nitride (Si 3 N 4 ), while not etching silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ), is a critical step in the fabrication of microelectronics devices. In many applications, this etching must be damage-free and isotropic, which then motivates the use of remote plasmas where the reactants interacting with the substrate are dominantly neutral species. In this paper and Paper II, mechanisms for highly selective Si 3 N 4 etching in remote plasmas are discussed based on results from experiments and simulations. It has been shown experimentally that high Si 3 N 4 /SiO 2 etch selectivity (≈380) can be achieved in the downstream effluent of an NF 3 /N 2 /O 2 /H 2 plasma. The authors found that H2 plays a principal role in the reaction mechanism as Si 3 N 4 /SiO 2 selectivity shows a sharp maximum as a function of the H2 flow rate. Based on this observation, and measured densities of F-atoms and H2 in the process chamber, a mechanism of selective Si 3 N 4 /SiO 2 etching is proposed in which HF molecules in vibrationally excited states accelerate etching reactions. A reaction mechanism for NF 3 /N 2 /O 2 /H 2 plasmas and its afterglow was developed to computationally determine the species densities and fluxes on the wafer level, validated by comparing with experimentally measured F-atom and H 2 densities. The calculated species densities and fluxes were used as input to an analytical model of Si 3 N 4 and SiO 2 etching based on the results of quantum chemistry simulations. This paper presents experimental results (etching data and species densities), the reaction mechanism for NF 3 /N 2 /O 2 /H 2 plasmas, and the results of simulations of gas phase chemistry. Quantum chemistry simulations of elementary etching reactions, description of the analytical model of Si 3 N 4 and SiO 2 etching, calculations of the etch rates, and Si 3 N 4 and SiO 2 selectivity with this model are presented in Paper II.

42 ENGINEERING↗

A SYSTEMATIC SEARCH FOR PERIODICALLY VARYING QUASARS IN PAN-STARRS1: AN EXTENDED BASELINE TEST IN MEDIUM DEEP SURVEY FIELD MD09

We present a systematic search for periodically varying quasars and supermassive black hole binary (SMBHB) candidates in the Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) Medium Deep Survey’s MD09 field. From a color-selected sample of 670 quasars extracted from a multi-band deep-stack catalog of point sources, we locally select variable quasars and look for coherent periods with the Lomb–Scargle periodogram. Three candidates from our sample demonstrate strong variability for more than ∼3 cycles, and their PS1 light curves are well fitted to sinusoidal functions. We test the persistence of the candidates’ apparent periodic variations detected during the 4.2 years of the PS1 survey with archival photometric data from the SDSS Stripe 82 survey or new monitoring with the Large Monolithic Imager at the Discovery Channel Telescope. None of the three periodic candidates (including PSO J334.2028+1.4075) remain persistent over the extended baseline of 7–14 years, corresponding to a detection rate of <1 in 670 quasars in a search area of ≈5 deg{sup 2}. Even though SMBHBs should be a common product of the hierarchal growth of galaxies, and periodic variability in SMBHBs has been theoretically predicted, a systematic search for such signatures in a large optical survey is strongly limited by its temporal baseline and the “red noise” associated with normal quasar variability. We show that follow-up long-term monitoring (≳5 cycles) is crucial to our search for these systems.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Source apportionment of VOCs, IVOCs and SVOCs by positive matrix factorization in suburban Livermore, California

Abstract. Gas- and particle-phase molecular markers provide highly specific information about the sources and atmospheric processes that contribute to air pollution. In urban areas, major sources of pollution are changing as regulation selectively mitigates some pollution sources and climate change impacts the surrounding environment. In this study, a comprehensive thermal desorption aerosol gas chromatograph (cTAG) was used to measure volatile, intermediate-volatility and semivolatile molecular markers every other hour over a 10 d period from 11 to 21 April 2018 in suburban Livermore, California. Source apportionment via positive matrix factorization (PMF) was performed to identify major sources of pollution. The PMF analysis identified 13 components, including emissions from gasoline, consumer products, biomass burning, secondary oxidation, aged regional transport and several factors associated with single compounds or specific events with unique compositions. The gasoline factor had a distinct morning peak in concentration but lacked a corresponding evening peak, suggesting commute-related traffic emissions are dominated by cold starts in residential areas. More monoterpene and monoterpenoid mass was assigned to consumer product emissions than biogenic sources, underscoring the increasing importance of volatile chemical products to urban emissions. Daytime isoprene concentrations were controlled by biogenic sunlight- and temperature-dependent processes, mediated by strong midday mixing, but gasoline was found to be the dominant and likely only source of isoprene at night. Biomass burning markers indicated residential wood burning activity remained an important pollution source even in the springtime. This study demonstrates that specific high-time-resolution molecular marker measurements across a wide range of volatility enable more comprehensive pollution source profiles than a narrower volatility range would allow.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Simulation of the Parameters of a Titanium-Tritide-Based Beta-Voltaic Cell

The simulation of β-voltaic power cells consisting of a combined β-source and a converter was performed. The TiT{sub 2} compound containing the radioactive tritium isotope was selected as the source. As the converter, structures based on semiconductor materials, most commonly used in developing power cells, i.e., Si, SiC, GaAs, were considered. Using the Monte Carlo method, the main source parameters were calculated, in particular, the maximum achievable short-circuit current was estimated.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗

Ion Source Development for Ultratrace Detection of Uranium and Thorium

A hot-cavity surface ionization source and a hot-cavity laser ion source are evaluated in terms of ionization efficiencies for generating ion beams of U and Th. The work is motivated by the need for more efficient ion sources for detecting ultratrace U and Th impurities in a copper matrix by mass spectrometry techniques such as accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). The performances of the ion sources are characterized using uranyl nitrate and thorium nitrate sample materials and sample sizes of 20 - 40 g of U or Th. For the surface source, the dominant ion beams observed are UO+ or ThO+ and ionization efficiencies of 2-4% have been obtained with W and Re cavities. Three-step resonant photoionization of U atoms is studied and an ionization efficiency of 8.7% has been obtained with the laser ion source. The positive ion sources promise more than an order of magnitude more efficient than conventional Cs-sputter negative ion sources used for AMS. In addition, the laser ion source is highly selective and effective in suppressing interfering and ions. Work is in progress to improve the efficiencies of both positive ion sources.

Liu, Yuan↗

A source of high-power pulses of elliptically polarized ultrawideband radiation

Here, we describe a source of high-power ultrawideband radiation with elliptical polarization. The source consisting of a monopolar pulse generator, a bipolar pulse former, and a helical antenna placed into a radioparent container may be used in tests for electromagnetic compatibility. In the source, the helical antenna with the number of turns N = 4 is excited with a high-voltage bipolar pulse. Preliminary, we examined helical antennas at a low-voltage source aiming to select an optimal N and to estimate a radiation center position and boundary of a far-field zone. Finally, characteristics of the source in the operating mode at a pulse repetition rate of 100 Hz are presented in the paper as well. Energy efficiency of the antenna is 0.75 at the axial ratio equal to 1.3. The effective potential of radiation of the source at the voltage amplitudes of the bipolar pulse generator equal to -175/+200 kV reaches 280 kV.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗