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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.

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At least 253 records · Page 14
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

Fabrication and characterization of ZnO:In thin film as photoanode for DSSC using natural fruit dyes

Dye synthesized solar cell (DSSC) is the third generation solar cell and is considered as low cost solar cell as it does not involved neither complicated fabrication process nor expensive materials. DSSC is made of two conductive glasses, photoanode, counter electrode, electrolyte and dye. Previously, majority of the researchers have been using titanium dioxide and ruthenium as the photoanode and dye respectively. This project is carried out to produce a lower cost DSSC by using natural fruit as the dye and exploring the potential of zinc oxide (ZnO) and indium (In) as the photoanode. The morphology of the thin film surfaces were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy which shows that the increment of indium dopant changes the rough surface texture of the thin film and directly reduces the empty spaces between the particles. Theoretically, this structure can help to reduce the light reflection on the solar cell surface. The thin ZnO:In films are immersed in 3 different fruit dyes (plum, apple and orange). The electrical properties of the DSSCs are displayed in the I-V curves and from this research, it shows that the highest efficiency of DSSC is gained from the dopant combination of ZnO{sub 0.8}In{sub 0.2} for all the dyes. The best efficiency of this research is the DSSC using plum dye with 0.34% compared to apple dye and orange dye which give 0.23% and 0.19% respectively.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Weak and strong coupling equilibration in nonabelian gauge theories

In this study, we present a direct comparison studying equilibration through kinetic theory at weak coupling and through holography at strong coupling in the same set-up. The set-up starts with a homogeneous thermal state, which then smoothly transitions through an out-of-equilibrium phase to an expanding system undergoing boost-invariant flow. This first apples-to-apples comparison of equilibration provides a benchmark for similar equilibration processes in heavy-ion collisions, where the equilibration mechanism is still under debate. We find that results at weak and strong coupling can be smoothly connected by simple, empirical power-laws for the viscosity, equilibration time and entropy production of the system.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Strongly vs. weakly coupled in-medium showers: energy stopping in large-Nf QED

Abstract Inside a medium, showers originating from a very high-energy particle may develop via medium-induced splitting processes such as hard bremsstrahlung or pair production. During shower development, two consecutive splittings sometimes overlap quantum mechanically, so that they cannot be treated independently. Some of these effects can be absorbed into an effective value of a medium parameter known as$$ \hat{q} $$ q ̂ . Previous calculations (with certain simplifying assumptions) have found that, after adjusting the value of$$ \hat{q} $$ q ̂ , the leftover effect of overlapping splittings is quite small for purely gluonic large-N c showers but is very much larger for large-N f QED showers, at comparable values ofNα. Those works did not quite make for apples-to-apples comparisons: the gluon shower work investigated energy deposition from a gluon-initiated shower, whereas the QED work investigated charge-deposition from an electron-initiated shower. As a first step to tighten up the comparison, this paper investigates energy deposition in the QED case. Along the way, we develop a framework that should be useful in the future to explore whether the very small effect of overlapping splitting in purely gluonic showers is an artifact of having ignored quarks.

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2018

Weak and Strong Connectivity Regimes for a General Time Elapsed Neuron Network Model

For large fully connected neuron networks, we study the dynamics of homogenous assemblies of interacting neurons described by time elapsed models. Under general assumptions on the firing rate which include the ones made in previous works (Pakdaman et al. in Nonlinearity 23(1):55–75, 2010; SIAM J Appl Math 73(3):1260–1279, 2013, Mischler and Weng in Acta Appl Math, 2015), we establish accurate estimate on the long time behavior of the solutions in the weak and the strong connectivity regime both in the case with and without delay. Our results improve (Pakdaman et al. 2010, 2013) where a less accurate estimate was established and Mischler and Weng (2015) where only smooth firing rates were considered. Our approach combines several arguments introduced in the above previous works as well as a slightly refined version of the Weyl’s and spectral mapping theorems presented in Voigt (Monatsh Math 90(2):153–161, 1980) and Mischler and Scher (Ann Inst H Poincaré Anal Non Linéaire 33(3):849–898, 2016).

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2018

Streamlined Monte Carlo simulation of environmental gamma-ray backgrounds for radiation detector sensitivity comparisons

In a recent effort to compare the detection sensitivity of a variety of gamma radiation detectors applied to in-situ and lightly shielded field laboratory scenarios, the authors found that a lack of “apples-to-apples” background measurements with the different detectors presented significant challenges in the detection sensitivity calculations. To overcome this hurdle, Monte Carlo modeling of the terrestrial environmental gamma radiation and experimental measurements were undertaken. Inspired by the work of Vojtyla to reduce the computing burden of modeling bremsstrahlung emitted from the surface of lead, a related approach was taken to define a gamma-ray surface source that would adequately represent the emission of natural gamma-rays from the earth’s surface. This work will present the definition of a surface source that is based on the potassium, uranium, and thorium content of a local soil, and provide a comparison to experimental in-situ gamma measurements.

Keillor, Martin E.↗
DOE OSTI2021

On the Strong Convergence of Forward-Backward Splitting in Reconstructing Jointly Sparse Signals

We consider the problem of reconstructing an infinite set of sparse, finite-dimensional vectors, that share a common sparsity pattern, from incomplete measurements. This is in contrast to the work (Daubechies et al., Pure Appl. Math. 57(11), 1413–1457, 2004), where the single vector signal can be infinite-dimensional, and (Fornasier and Rauhut, SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 46(2), 577613, 2008), which extends the aforementioned work to the joint sparse recovery of finite number of infinite-dimensional vectors. In our case, to take account of the joint sparsity and promote the coupling of nonvanishing components, we employ a convex relaxation approach with mixed norm penalty ℓ 2,1 . This paper discusses the computation of the solutions of linear inverse problems with such relaxation by a forward-backward splitting algorithm. However, since the solution matrix possesses infinitely many columns, the arguments of Daubechies et al. (Pure Appl. Math. 57(11), 1413–1457, 2004) no longer apply. As such, we establish new strong convergence results for the algorithm, in particular when the set of jointly sparse vectors is infinite.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2018

Some new preconditioned generalized AOR methods for solving weighted linear least squares problems

In this paper, we propose some new preconditioned GAOR methods for solving weighted linear least squares problems and discuss their comparison results. Comparison results show that the convergence rates of the new preconditioned GAOR methods are better than those of the preconditioned GAOR methods presented by Shen et al. (Appl Math Mech Engl Ed 33(3):375–384, 2012) and Wang et al. (J Appl Math, doi: 10.1155/2012/563586 , 2012) whenever these methods are convergent. Finally, numerical experiments are provided to confirm the theoretical results obtained in this paper.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2018

Hermite analogs of the lowest order Raviart–Thomas mixed method for convection–diffusion equations

The Raviart–Thomas mixed finite-element method of the lowest order (Raviart and Thomas in mixed finite-element methods for second-order elliptic problems, Lecture Notes in mathematics, Springer, New York, 1977) commonly known as the RT{sub 0} method, is a well-established and popular numerical tool to solve diffusion-like problems providing flux continuity across inter-element boundaries. Douglas and Roberts extended the method to the case of more general second-order boundary-value problems including the convection–diffusion equations (cf. this journal Douglas in Comput Appl Math 1:91–103; 1982). The main drawback of these methods, however, is the poor representation of the primal variable by piecewise constant functions. The Hermite analog of the RT{sub 0} method for treating pure diffusion phenomena proposed in Ruas (J Comput Appl Math, 246:234–242; 2013) proved to be a valid alternative to attain higher order approximation of the primal variable while keeping intact the matrix structure and the quality of the discrete flux variable of the original RT{sub 0} method. Non-trivial extensions of this method are studied here that can be viewed as Hermite analogs of the two Douglas and Roberts’ versions of the RT{sub 0} method, to solve convection–diffusion equations. A detailed convergence study is carried out for one of the Hermite methods, and numerical results illustrate the performance of both of them, as compared to each other and to the corresponding mixed methods.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2023

The histone demethylase KdmB is part of a trimeric protein complex and mediates virulence and mycotoxin production in Penicillium expansum

Epigenetic modification of chromosome structure has increasingly been associated with alterations in secondary metabolism and sporulation defects in filamentous fungal pathogens. Recently, the epigenetic reader protein SntB was shown to govern virulence, spore production and mycotoxin synthesis in the fruit pathogen Penicillium expansum. Through immunoprecipitation-coupled mass spectrometry, we found that SntB is a member of a protein complex with KdmB, a histone demethylase and the essential protein RpdA, a histone deacetylase. Deletion of kdmB phenocopied some but not all characteristics of the ΔsntB mutant. KdmB deletion strains exhibited reduced lesion development on Golden Delicious apples and this was accompanied by decreased production of patulin and citrinin in host tissue. In addition, ΔkdmB mutants were sensitive to several cell wall stressors which possibly contributed to the decreased virulence observed on apples. In conclusion, slight differences in spore production and germination rates of ΔkdmB mutants in vitro did not impact overall diameter growth in culture.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

The effect of food vehicles on in vitro performance of pantoprazole sodium delayed release sprinkle formulation

Certain patient populations, including children, the elderly or people with dysphagia, find swallowing whole medications such as tablets and capsules difficult. To facilitate oral administration of drugs in such patients, a common practice is to sprinkle the drug products (e.g., usually after crushing the tablet or opening the capsule) on food vehicles before consumption which improves swallowability. Thus, evaluation of the impact of food vehicles on the potency and stability of the administered drug product is important. Here, the aim of the current study was to evaluate the physicochemical properties (viscosity, pH, and water content) of common food vehicles used for sprinkle administration (e.g., apple juice, applesauce, pudding, yogurt, and milk) and their impacts on the in vitro performance (i.e., dissolution) of pantoprazole sodium delayed release (DR) drug products. The food vehicles evaluated exhibited marked difference in viscosity, pH and water content. Notably, the pH of the food as well as the interaction between food vehicle pH and drug-food contact time were the most significant factors affecting the in vitro performance of pantoprazole sodium DR granules. For example, the dissolution of pantoprazole sodium DR granules sprinkled on food vehicles of low pH (e.g., apple juice or applesauce) for short durations remained unchanged compared with the control group (i.e., without mixing with food vehicles). However, use of high pH food vehicles (e.g., milk) with prolonged contact time (e.g., 2h) resulted in accelerated pantoprazole release, drug degradation and loss of potency. Overall, a thorough assessment of physicochemical properties of food vehicles and formulation characteristics are a necessary part of the development of sprinkle formulations.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

Single occupancy spectroelectrochemistry of freely diffusing flavin mononucleotide in zero-dimensional nanophotonic structures

Zero-mode waveguides (ZMW) have the potential to be powerful confinement tools for studying electron transfer dynamics at single molecule occupancy conditions. Flavin mononucleotide contains an isoalloxazine chromophore, which is fluorescent in the oxidized state (FMN) while the reduced state (FMNH 2 ) exhibits dramatically lower light emission, i.e. a dark-state. This allows fluorescence emission to report the redox state of single FMN molecules, an observation that has been used previously to study single electron transfer events in surface-immobilized flavins and flavoenzymes, e.g. sarcosine oxidase, by direct wide-field imaging of ZMW arrays. Single molecule electron transfer dynamics have now been extended to the study of freely diffusing molecules using fluorescence measurements of Au ZMWs under single occupancy conditions. The Au in the ZMW serves both as an optical cladding layer and as the working electrode for potential control, thereby accessing single molecule electron transfer dynamics at μM concentrations. Consistent with expectations, the probability of observing single reduced molecules increases as the potential is scanned negative, E appl < E eq , and the probability of observing emitting oxidized molecules increases at E appl > E eq . Different single molecules exhibit different electron transfer properties as reflected in the position of E eq and the distribution of E eq among a population of FMN molecules. Two types of actively-controlled electroluminescence experiments were used: chronofluorometry experiments, in which the potential is alternately stepped between oxidizing and reducing potentials, and cyclic potential sweep fluorescence experiments, analogous to cyclic voltammetry, these latter experiments exhibiting a dramatic scan rate dependence with the slowest scan rates showing distinct intermediate states that are stable over a range of potentials. These states are assigned to flavosemiquinone species that are stabilized in the special environment of the ZMW nanopore.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2012

Monte Carlo simulations of electron thermalization in alkali iodide and alkaline-earth fluoride scintillators

A Monte Carlo model of electron thermalization in inorganic scintillators, which was developed and applied to CsI in a previous publication [Wang et al., J. Appl. Phys. 110, 064903 (2011)], is extended to another material of the alkali halide class, NaI, and to two materials from the alkaline-earth halide class, CaF{sub 2} and BaF{sub 2}. This model includes electron scattering with both longitudinal optical (LO) and acoustic phonons as well as the effects of internal electric fields. For the four pure materials, a significant fraction of the electrons recombine with self-trapped holes and the thermalization distance distributions of the electrons that do not recombine peak between approximately 25 and 50 nm and extend up to a few hundreds of nanometers. The thermalization time distributions of CaF{sub 2}, BaF{sub 2}, NaI, and CsI extend to approximately 0.5, 1, 2, and 7 ps, respectively. The simulations show that the LO phonon energy is a key factor that affects the electron thermalization process. Indeed, the higher the LO phonon energy is, the shorter the thermalization time and distance are. The thermalization time and distance distributions show no dependence on the incident {gamma}-ray energy. The four materials also show different extents of electron-hole pair recombination due mostly to differences in their electron mean free paths (MFPs), LO phonon energies, initial densities of electron-hole pairs, and static dielectric constants. The effect of thallium doping is also investigated for CsI and NaI as these materials are often doped with activators. Comparison between CsI and NaI shows that both the larger size of Cs{sup +} relative to Na{sup +}, i.e., the greater atomic density of NaI, and the longer electron mean free path in NaI compared to CsI contribute to an increased probability for electron trapping at Tl sites in NaI versus CsI.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Spectral monodromy of non-self-adjoint operators

In the present paper, we build a combinatorial invariant, called the “spectral monodromy” from the spectrum of a single (non-self-adjoint) h-pseudodifferential operator with two degrees of freedom in the semi-classical limit. Our inspiration comes from the quantum monodromy defined for the joint spectrum of an integrable system of n commuting self-adjoint h-pseudodifferential operators, given by S. Vu Ngoc [“Quantum monodromy in integrable systems,” Commun. Math. Phys. 203(2), 465–479 (1999)]. The first simple case that we treat in this work is a normal operator. In this case, the discrete spectrum can be identified with the joint spectrum of an integrable quantum system. The second more complex case we propose is a small perturbation of a self-adjoint operator with a classical integrability property. We show that the discrete spectrum (in a small band around the real axis) also has a combinatorial monodromy. The main difficulty in this case is that we do not know the description of the spectrum everywhere, but only in a Cantor type set. In addition, we also show that the corresponding monodromy can be identified with the classical monodromy, defined by J. Duistermaat [“On global action-angle coordinates,” Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 33(6), 687–706 (1980)].

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Squeezed states and Hermite polynomials in a complex variable

Following the lines of the recent paper of J.-P. Gazeau and F. H. Szafraniec [J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 44, 495201 (2011)], we construct here three types of coherent states, related to the Hermite polynomials in a complex variable which are orthogonal with respect to a non-rotationally invariant measure. We investigate relations between these coherent states and obtain the relationship between them and the squeezed states of quantum optics. We also obtain a second realization of the canonical coherent states in the Bargmann space of analytic functions, in terms of a squeezed basis. All this is done in the flavor of the classical approach of V. Bargmann [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 14, 187 (1961)].

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Temperature dependence of the radiative recombination coefficient in crystalline silicon from spectral photoluminescence

The radiative recombination coefficient B(T) in crystalline silicon is determined for the temperature range 90–363 K, and in particular from 270 to 350 K with an interval of 10 K, where only sparse data are available at present. The band-band absorption coefficient established recently by Nguyen et al. [J. Appl. Phys. 115, 043710 (2014)] via photoluminescence spectrum measurements is employed to compute the values of B(T) at various temperatures. The results agree very well with literature data from Trupke et al. [J. Appl. Phys. 94, 4930 (2003).] We present a polynomial parameterization describing the temperature dependence of the product of B(T) and the square of the intrinsic carrier density. We also find that B(T) saturates at a near constant value at room temperature and above for silicon samples with relatively low free carrier densities.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Physical principles of microwave assisted magnetic recording

While the basic physics of Microwave Assisted Magnetization Reversal (MAMR) phenomenon is well established both theoretically and experimentally, its application in a practical magnetic recording environment was so far studied primarily with the help of micromagnetic recording models. In this work, we instead attempt to use analytical formulation and simple numerical models to understand the main challenges as well as benefits that are associated with such a system. It appears that the main difference between the previously introduced theory [G. Bertotti et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 724 (2001); K. Rivkin et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 153104 (2008); S. Okamoto et al., J. Appl. Phys. 107, 123914 (2010).] and recording environment is that both the RF and DC magnetic fields are applied at a substantial angle to the anisotropy axis. While the associated symmetry breaking prevents one from describing the reversal process explicitly, it is possible to approximate the solutions well enough to satisfactorily match numerical models both in the case of wire and Spin Torque Oscillator generated RF fields. This approach allows for physical explanation of various effects associated with MAMR such as high gradient of writeable anisotropy and reduction of track width, and offers a clear guidance regarding future optimization of MAMR recording.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Radiation induced effects on mechanical properties of nanoporous gold foams

Previously, it was demonstrated that due to a high surface-to-volume ratio, nanoporous materials display radiation tolerance. The abundance of surfaces, which are perfect sinks for defects, and the relation between ligament size, defect diffusion, and time combine to define a window of radiation resistance [Fu et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 101, 191607 (2012)]. Outside this window, the dominant defect created by irradiation in Au nanofoams are stacking fault tetrahedra (SFT). Molecular dynamics computer simulations of nanopillars, taken as the elemental constituent of foams, predict that SFTs act as dislocation sources inducing softening, in contrast to the usual behavior in bulk materials, where defects are obstacles to dislocation motion, producing hardening. In this work we test that prediction and answer the question whether irradiation actually hardens or softens a nanofam. Ne ion irradiations of gold nanofoams were performed at room temperature for a total dose up to 4 dpa, and their mechanical behavior was measured by nanoindentation. We observe that hardness increases after irradiation, a result that we analyze in terms of the role of SFTs on the deformation mode of foams.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Characterization of electron-beam recorded microdomain patterns on the nonpolar surface of LiNbO{sub 3} crystal by nondestructive methods

We report on characterization of the electron-beam fabricated planar domain gratings on the nonpolar (Y-) surface of LiNbO{sub 3} crystals performed with the use of AFM and confocal second harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy. The dependence of domain formation on the irradiation conditions was investigated. The relation of domain thicknesses to the electron penetration depth is experimentally proved. In particular, the possibility of controlling the thickness of planar domains by varying acceleration electron-beam voltages is demonstrated. The observed specificity of SHG is analyzed in the framework of the Kleinman-Boyd theory [G. D. Boyd and D. A. Kleinman, J. Appl. Phys. 39, 3597 (1968)] and Uesu approach [Kaneshiro et al., J. Appl. Phys. 104, 054112 (2008); Kaneshiro et al., J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 27, 888 (2010)] extended in our case to reflection geometry. The calculations performed predict the dependence of SHG conversion efficiency η on the domain thickness, which is in a qualitative agreement with the experiment. It is shown that planar domains on top of the nonpolar surface always enhance the value of η as compared with the bare surface.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗