Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Glass crystallization”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 199 records · Page 11
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1985

Heat treatment of bulk gallium arsenide using a phosphosilicate glass cap

n-type bulk GaAs crystals, capped with chemically vapor-deposited phosphosilicate glass, were heat treated at temperatures in the range of 600 to 950 C. Measurements on Schottky diodes and solar cells fabricated on the heat-treated material, after removal of a damaged surface layer, show an increase in free-carrier concentration, in minority-carrier-diffusion length, and in solar-cell short-circuit current. The observed changes are attributed to a removal of lifetime-reducing acceptorlike impurities, defects, or their complexes.

Mathur, G.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Computer Modeling of Thermal Convection in Melts to Explain Glass Formation in Low Gravity and on Earth

Experiments conducted up to this time on glass forming melts in the low gravity environment of space show that glasses prepared in low-g are more chemically homogeneous and more resistant to crystallization than the comparable glasses prepared at 1-g on Earth. This result is somewhat surprising and opposite to the accepted concept on glass formation for a melt. A hypothesis based on "shear thinning" of a melt, a decrease in viscosity with increasing shear stress, is proposed as an explanation for the observed low-gravity results. This paper describes detailed simulation procedures to test the role of thermal convection in introducing shear stress in glass forming melts, using a lithium disilcate melt as a model. The simulation system in its idealized version consists of a cylinder that is heated at one end and cooled at the other with gravity acting in a transverse direction to the thermal gradient. The side wall of the cylinder is assumed to be insulating. The governing equations of motion and energy are solved using variable properties for viscosity (Arrehenius and non-Arrehenius behaviors) and density (constant and temperature dependent). Other parametric variables in the calculations include gravity level and gravity vector orientation. The shear stress in the system are then computed as a function of gravity from the calculated values of maximum melt velocity, and its effect on melt viscosity (shear thinning) is predicted. Also included and discussed are the modeling efforts related to other potential convective processes in glass forming melts and their possible effects on melt viscosity.

Ray, Chandra S.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Melting of Ni40Pd40P20 glass

Upon reheating, most glassy metal alloys crystallize at a temperature not far removed from the glass temperature Tg and far below the liquidus temperature T1. It has been reported by Kui et al. (1984) that the alloy Ni40Pd40P20, which exhibits a scaled glass temperature of about 0.68, has been melt quenched, under a flux of dehydrated B2O3, to a glass at rates as low as 1 deg/s. Here some specimens of this alloy, when similarly fluxed during reheating, have been reheated to temperatures within 50 deg of T1 and 280 deg above Tg at rates of about 2.5 deg/s, and then cooled again to Tg, without crystallization. From this behavior it is inferred that the steady frequency of homogeneous nucleation of crystals in the alloy is less than 0.1/cu cm s.

Kui, H. W.↗
NASA NTRS1985

X-ray diffraction studies of phase transformations in heavy-metal fluoride glasses

Powder X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry studies of the crystallization properties of five ZrF4-based glass compositions have indicated that the crystalline phase in Zr-Ba-La-Pb fluoride glass is beta-BaZrF6; no such identification of crystal phases was obtainable, however, for the other glasses. Reversible polymorphic phase transformations occur in Zr-Ba-La-Li and Zr-Ba-La-Na fluoride glasses, upon heating to higher temperatures.

Bansal, N. P.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Matrix glass vs. intruded glass in lunar breccia 15286

The viscous flow and crystallization behavior of the matrix composition of breccia 15286 have been determined in the 1159-1307 C and 644-770 C temperature ranges. The Shaw (1972) model and, to a slightly lesser extent, the semiempirical Bottinga and Weill (1972) model describe the variation of viscosity with temperature. The crystal growth rate has been determined over the temperature range 821-1185 C. Time-temperature-transformation, logarithmic cooling, and continuous cooling curves were constructed; a nucleation barrier of 60 kT at a relative undercooling of 0.2 is assumed. It is estimated that the matrix of 15286 breccia cooled at a rate greater than 80 K/min through the glass transition region. The increase in density that occurs when the matrix glass is annealed suggests that the breccia was formed by cooling from the molten state rather than by direct shock-induced transition from crystal to glass. Viscous sintering under continuous cooling and logarithmic cooling conditions is analyzed.

Handwerker, C. A.↗
NASA NTRS1974

Lunar deposits of possible pyroclastic origin

Orange glass droplets sampled from the Apollo 17 site were found to be both chemically and texturally homogeneous. None of these droplets, which are of possible pyroclastic origin, contained shock-damaged crystals which are common in glass produced by meteorite impacts. Black droplets are apparently the partially crystallized equivalents of the orange glass. Since chemically and texturally homogeneous glass droplets are known to form in terrestrial lava fountains of basaltic melt, the orange glasses from Apollo 11 and 17 sites and the green glasses from the Apollo 15 site may have formed in lava fountains of low-viscosity lunar basaltic magmas.

Heiken, G. H.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Coordination chemistry of iron in glasses contributing to remote-sensed spectra of the moon

Ferric iron and tetrahedrally coordinated Fe(2+) ions are identified using Moessbauer and electronic absorption spectroscopic measurements of synthetic glasses equilibrated at P(O2) less than 10 to the -11 atm, simulating the Luna 24 brown glass and Apollo 15 green glass compositions. The presence of 10-20% ferric iron in these low Ti glasses is a result of the absence of Ti(3+) ions. In the brown glass absorption spectra, tetrahedral Fe(3+) and Fe(2+) ions induce an extension of the oxygen-metal charge transfer band into the visible region further than in the green glass containing predominantly octahedral Fe(2+) and Fe(3+) ions. Whereas the glass one-micron band originates from crystal field transitions in octahedral Fe(2+), the glass two-micron band is now positively correlated with tetrahedral Fe(2+) rather than with Fe(2+) ions in pyroxene M2-like sites in the glass structure. The tetrahedral Fe(2+) do not, however, substitute for Si(4+) in glass network-forming sites, instead occurring as network modifiers in larger tetrahedral interstices. The effect of temperature is to induce a pronounced red-shift of the oxygen-iron charge transfer absorption edge, especially for the brown glass, and to intensify significantly the tetrahedral Fe(2+) crystal field two micron band.

Dyar, M. D.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Dynamic crystallization experiments bearing on the origin of textures in impact-generated liquids

Dynamic crystallization experiments on a synthetic glass of 14310 composition show that the density and distribution of crystals present at the initiation of cooling can drastically affect the texture of the crystallized product. Experiments were performed in one-atmosphere gas-mixing furnaces at an oxygen fugacity slightly below iron-wustite, and precooling crystallization, cooling history, and melt history were systematically varied. When cooled from a complete liquid, the experimental charges were porphyritic with 1-2 mm phenocrysts set in a very fine-grained matrix (less than 0.1 mm). This result suggests that 14310 did not cool from a complete melt. When cooled from a crystal-liquid mixture, the experimental charges had widely varying textures depending on the density and distribution of crystals that act as nucleation sites. It is suggested that the close spatial association of widely divergent textures in the matrices of some breccias and rocks might arise in this manner; local variations in cooling rates are not required.

Lofgren, G. E.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Kinetics of crystal nucleation and growth in Pd(40)Ni(40)P(20) glass

Samples of Pd(40)Ni(40)P(20) glass, produced by cooling the melt at 1 or 800 K/s, are heated in a differential scanning calorimeter to determine the crystallization kinetics. Optical microscopy shows that eutectic crystallization proceeds both by growth from the surface of the samples and by the growth of spherical regions around preexisting nuclei in the interior. A modified Kissinger (1957) analysis is used to obtain the activation energy for crystal growth (3.49 eV). The steady state homogeneous nucleation frequency at 590 K is about 10 million/cu m per sec. This is estimated to be the maximum nucleation frequency: it is too low to account for the observed population of quenched-in nuclei, which are therefore presumed to be heterogeneous. The major practical obstacle to glass formation in this system is heterogeneous nucleation.

Drehman, A. J.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Liquid Structures and Physical Properties -- Ground Based Studies for ISS Experiments

Studies of electrostatically-levitated supercooled liquids have demonstrated strong short- and medium-range ordering in transition metal and alloy liquids, which can influence phase transitions like crystal nucleation and the glass transition. The structure is also related to the liquid properties. Planned ISS experiments will allow a deeper investigation of these results as well as the first investigations of a new type of coupling in crystal nucleation in primary crystallizing liquids, resulting from a linking of the stochastic processes of diffusion with interfacial-attachment. A brief description of the techniques used for ground-based studies and some results relevant to planned ISS investigations are discussed.

Kelton, K. F.↗
NASA NTRS1994

A Chebyshev Collocation Method for Moving Boundaries, Heat Transfer, and Convection During Directional Solidification

Free and moving boundary problems require the simultaneous solution of unknown field variables and the boundaries of the domains on which these variables are defined. There are many technologically important processes that lead to moving boundary problems associated with fluid surfaces and solid-fluid boundaries. These include crystal growth, metal alloy and glass solidification, melting and name propagation. The directional solidification of semi-conductor crystals by the Bridgman-Stockbarger method is a typical example of such a complex process. A numerical model of this growth method must solve the appropriate heat, mass and momentum transfer equations and determine the location of the melt-solid interface. In this work, a Chebyshev pseudospectra collocation method is adapted to the problem of directional solidification. Implementation involves a solution algorithm that combines domain decomposition, finite-difference preconditioned conjugate minimum residual method and a Picard type iterative scheme.

Zhang, Yiqiang↗
NASA NTRS1975

Calculated diffusion coefficients and the growth rate of olivine in a basalt magma

Concentration gradients in glass adjacent to skeletal olivines in a basalt have been examined by electron probe. The glass is depleted in Mg, Fe, and Cr and enriched in Si, Al, Na, and Ca relative to that far from olivine. Ionic diffusion coefficients for the glass compositions are calculated from temperature, ionic radius and melt viscosity, using the Stokes-Einstein relation. At 1170 C, the diffusion coefficient of Mg(2+) ions in the basalt is 4.5 billionths sq cm per sec. Comparison with measured diffusion coefficients in a mugearite suggests this value may be 16 times too small. The concentration gradient data and the diffusion coefficients are used to calculate instantaneous olivine growth rates. Growth necessarily preceded emplacement such that the composition of the crystals plus the enclosing glass need not be that of a melt. The computed olivine growth rates are compatible with the rate of crystallization deduced for the Skaegaard intrusion.

Donaldson, C. H.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Quenching and disruption of lunar KREEP lava flows by impacts

The results of a reexamination of petrography of the Apollo 15 KREEP basalts are reported. Several of the basalts contain yellow residual glasses which cross-cut the crystallized phases; some show more extreme disruption. The features of the glasses appear to be compatible only with impact disruption, ejection, and quenching from actively crystallizing flows, indicating a high impact flux immediately after the impact that formed the Imbrium basin. No other example of impacts into active lava flows is known in the solar system.

Ryder, Graham↗
NASA NTRS1974

Development of improved amorphous materials for laser systems

Crystallization calculations were performed in order to determine the possibility of forming a particular type of laser glass with the avoidance of devitrification in an outer space laboratory. It was demonstrated that under the homogenuous nucleating conditions obtainable in a zero gravity laboratory this laser glass may be easily quenched to a virtually crystal-free product. Experimental evidence is provided that use of this material as a host in a neodymium glass laser would result in more than a 10 percent increase in efficiency when compared to laser glass rods of a similar composition currently commercially available. Differential thermal analysis, thermal gradient oven, X-ray diffraction, and liquidus determination experiments were carried out to determine the basics of the crystallization behavior of the glass, and small-angle X-ray scattering and splat-cooling experiments were performed in order to provide additional evidence for the feasibility of producing this laser glass material, crystal free, in an outer space environment.

Neilson, G. F.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Supercooling on the lunar surface - A review of analogue information

Terrestrial analog studies of the phase petrology of supercooled melts and rapid crystal growth are reviewed for possible light shed on lunar crystallization, supercooling, and petrogenic processes, in particular rapid consolidation of lavas extruded on the lunar surface, and impact liquids. Crystallization of major constituent minerals (olivine, pyroxene, plagioclase) in dendritic or skeletal forms is found much more characteristic of lunar igneous rocks than of terrestrial counterparts. Olivine and pyroxene occur often as skeletal phenocrysts, and their stage of crystallization is crucial to the genesis and cooling history of porphyritic lavas. Widespread occurrence of glass and of immature radiate crystallization, particularly of highly zoned pyroxenes and zoned plagioclase, is noted.

Donaldson, C. H.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Experimental and Petrological Constraints on Lunar Differentiation from the Apollo 15 Green Picritic Glasses

Phase equilibrium experiments on the most magnesian Apollo 15C green picritic glass composition indicate a multiple saturation point with olivine and orthopyroxene at 1520 C and 1.3 GPa (about 260 km depth in the moon). This composition has the highest Mg# of any lunar picritic glass and the shallowest multiple saturation point. Experiments on an Apollo 15A composition indicate a multiple saturation point with olivine and orthopyroxene at 1520 C and 2.2 GPa (about 440 km depth in the moon). The importance of the distinctive compositional trends of the Apollo 15 groups A, B, and C picritic glasses merits the reanalysis of NASA slide 15426,72 with modern electron microprobe techniques. We confirm the compositional trends reported by Delano (1979, 1986) in the major element oxides SiO2, TiO2, Al2O3, Cr2O3, FeO, MnO, MgO, and CaO, and we also obtained data for the trace elements P2O5, K2O, Na2O, NiO, S, Cu, Cl, Zn, and F. Petrogenetic modeling demonstrates that the Apollo 15 A-B-C glass trends could not have been formed by fractional crystallization or any continuous assimilation/fractional crystallization (AFC) process. The B and C glass compositional trends could not have been formed by batch or incremental melting of an olivine + orthopyroxene source or any other homogeneous source, though the A glasses may have been formed by congruent melting over a small pressure range at depth. The B compositional trend is well modeled by starting with an intermediate A composition and assimilating a shallower, melted cumulate, and the C compositional trend is well modeled by a second assimilation event. The assimilation process envisioned is one in which heat and mass transfer were separated in space and time. In an initial intrusive event, a picritic magma crystallized and provided heat to melt magma ocean cumulates. In a later replenishment event, the picritic magma incrementally mixed with the melted cumulate (creating the compositional trends in the green glass data set), ascended to the lunar surface, and erupted as a fire fountain. A barometer created from multiple saturation points provides a depth estimate of other glasses in the A-B-C trend and of the depths of assimilation. This barometer demonstrates that the Apollo 15 A-B-C trend originated over a depth range of approx.460 km to approx.260 km within the moon.

Elkins-Tanton, Linda T.↗