Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “ALIGNMENT”

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 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

The energy level alignment at metal–molecule interfaces using Wannier–Koopmans method

We apply a recently developed Wannier-Koopmans method (WKM), based on density functional theory (DFT), to calculate the electronic energy level alignment at an interface between a molecule and metal substrate. We consider two systems: benzenediamine on Au (111), and a bipyridine-Au molecular junction. The WKM calculated level alignment agrees well with the experimental measurements where available, as well as previous GW and DFT + Σ results. These results suggest that the WKM is a general approach that can be used to correct DFT eigenvalue errors, not only in bulk semiconductors and isolated molecules, but also in hybrid interfaces.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Oxygen-promoted catalyst sintering influences number density, alignment, and wall number of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes

A lack of synthetic control and reproducibility during vertically aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) synthesis has stifled many promising applications of organic nanomaterials. Oxygen-containing species are particularly precarious in that they have both beneficial and deleterious effects and are notoriously difficult to control. In this paper, we demonstrated diatomic oxygen's ability, independent of water, to tune oxide-supported catalyst thin film dewetting and influence nanoscale (diameter and wall number) and macro-scale (alignment and density) properties for as-grown vertically aligned CNTs. In particular, single- or few-walled CNT forests were achieved at very low oxygen loading, with single-to-multi-walled CNT diameters ranging from 4.8 ± 1.3 nm to 6.4 ± 1.1 nm over 0–800 ppm O 2 , and an expected variation in alignment, where both were related to the annealed catalyst morphology. Morphological differences were not the result of subsurface diffusion, but instead occurred via Ostwald ripening under several hundred ppm O 2 , and this effect was mitigated by high H 2 concentrations and not due to water vapor (as confirmed in O 2 -free water addition experiments), supporting the importance of O 2 specifically. Further characterization of the interface between the Fe catalyst and Al 2 O 3 support revealed that either oxygen-deficit metal oxide or oxygen-adsorption on metals could be functional mechanisms for the observed catalyst nanoparticle evolution. Finally, taken as a whole, our results suggest that the impacts of O 2 and H 2 on the catalyst evolution have been underappreciated and underleveraged in CNT synthesis, and these could present a route toward facile manipulation of CNT forest morphology through control of the reactive gaseous atmosphere alone.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Centroid stabilization for laser alignment to corner cubes: designing a matched filter

Automation of image-based alignment of National Ignition Facility high energy laser beams is providing the capability of executing multiple target shots per day. One important alignment is beam centration through the second and third harmonic generating crystals in the final optics assembly (FOA), which employs two retroreflecting corner cubes as centering references for each beam. Beam-to-beam variations and systematic beam changes over time in the FOA corner cube images can lead to a reduction in accuracy as well as increased convergence durations for the template-based position detector. A systematic approach is described that maintains FOA corner cube templates and guarantees stable position estimation.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS2010

Aligning for Innovation - Alignment Strategy to Drive Innovation

With the sudden need for innovation that will help the country achieve its long-term space exploration objectives, the question of whether NASA is aligned effectively to drive the innovation that it so desperately needs to take space exploration to the next level should be entertained. Authors such as Robert Kaplan and David North have noted that companies that use a formal system for implementing strategy consistently outperform their peers. They have outlined a six-stage management systems model for implementing strategy, which includes the aligning of the organization towards its objectives. This involves the alignment of the organization from the top down. This presentation will explore the impacts of existing U.S. industrial policy on technological innovation; assess the current NASA organizational alignment and its impacts on driving technological innovation; and finally suggest an alternative approach that may drive the innovation needed to take the world to the next level of space exploration, with NASA truly leading the way.

Johnson, Hurel↗
DOE OSTI2019

Epitaxial Growth and Band Alignment of p-NiO/n-Fe2O3 Heterojunction on Al2O3(0001)

Fe2O3 is one of the promising oxide semiconductors as photoanodes for photoelectrochemical water splitting, but its efficiency is still limited by the short diffusion length of photo-excited carriers. Using the internal electric field formed at a p-n heterojunction (HJ) is an efficient strategy to mitigate such limitation. Accordingly, the interfacial atomic structure and band alignment are the most crucial parameters for efficiency optimization. In this work, we report on the epitaxial growth and determination of the band energy alignment of NiO/Fe2O3 p-n heterojunction grown on Al2O3(0001) substrate by pulsed laser deposition. We show that high crystalline quality NiO(111) thin films can be grown on Fe2O3(0001) with epitaxial relationships of [1 ¯11]NiO||[0001 ¯ ]Fe2O3(out-of-plane), [1 ¯1 ¯0]NiO||[011 ¯0]Fe2O3 and [1 ¯12 ¯ ]NiO||[21 ¯1 ¯0]Fe2O3(in-plane). The rotation of NiO hexagons by 30° can effectively reduce the lattice mismatch from ~17.4% to ~1.58%. High resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy reveals that valence and conduction band offset of NiO/Fe2O3 heterojunction are 0.7 eV and 2.3 eV with an upward band bending potential of 0.23 eV for Fe2O3 and a downward band bending potential of 0.32 eV for NiO, respectively. This kind of interfacial band alignment not only facilitates the charge separation, but lowers the overpotentials for oxygen evolution reaction.

Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting, Oxide Semico↗
DOE OSTI2020

Robust control of the minima of high-order harmonics by fine-tuning the alignment of CO 2 molecules for shaping attosecond pulses and probing molecular alignment

In a recent paper, we reported that the position and depth of the minima in the harmonic spectra of CO 2 molecules can be dramatically manipulated by a slight change of the degree of alignment, thus providing a convenient method of shaping attosecond pulses which could lead to the splitting of a typical single attosecond burst into two. Here, we demonstrate that harmonic minima can also be dramatically controlled by changing the pump-probe angles to shape attosecond pulses. In the meanwhile, since the pump-probe angle-dependent harmonic spectra are very sensitive to the degree of alignment, harmonic spectra can also be used to calibrate the alignment distribution of molecules. In this work we identify such robust control of harmonic generation is due to the optical property of CO 2 and the coherent harmonic emission from the oriented molecules. The photoionization transition dipoles (PITDs) of CO 2 exhibit deep minima that change rapidly with molecular orientations accompanied by large phase changes of π in PITDs, thus leading to strong interference when the dipoles are added up coherently.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Giant terahertz polarization rotation in ultrathin films of aligned carbon nanotubes

For easy manipulation of polarization states of light for applications in communications, imaging, and information processing, an efficient mechanism is desired for rotating light polarization with a minimum interaction length. Here, we report giant polarization rotations for terahertz (THz) electromagnetic waves in ultrathin ( ∼ <#comment/> 45 n m ), high-density films of aligned carbon nanotubes. We observed polarization rotations of up to ∼ <#comment/> 20 ∘ <#comment/> and ∼ <#comment/> 110 ∘ <#comment/> for transmitted and reflected THz pulses, respectively. The amount of polarization rotation was a sensitive function of the angle between the incident THz polarization and the nanotube alignment direction, exhibiting a “magic” angle at which the total rotation through transmission and reflection becomes exactly 90°. Our model quantitatively explains these giant rotations as a result of extremely anisotropic optical constants, demonstrating that aligned carbon nanotubes promise ultrathin, broadband, and tunable THz polarization devices.

Baydin, Andrey (ORCID:0000000225673506)↗
NASA NTRS2016

Silicon Alignment Pins: An Easy Way to Realize a Wafer-To-Wafer Alignment

A silicon alignment pin is used to align successive layers of components made in semiconductor chips and/or metallic components to make easier the assembly of devices having a layered structure. The pin is made as a compressible structure which can be squeezed to reduce its outer diameter, have one end fit into a corresponding alignment pocket or cavity defined in a layer of material to be assembled into a layered structure, and then allowed to expand to produce an interference fit with the cavity. The other end can then be inserted into a corresponding cavity defined in a surface of a second layer of material that mates with the first layer. The two layers are in registry when the pin is mated to both. Multiple layers can be assembled to create a multilayer structure. Examples of such devices are presented.

Jung-Kubiak, Cecile↗
DOE OSTI2015

Theoretically informed Monte Carlo simulation of liquid crystals by sampling of alignment-tensor fields

A theoretically informed coarse-grained Monte Carlo method is proposed for studying liquid crystals. The free energy functional of the system is described in the framework of the Landau-de Gennes formalism. The alignment field and its gradients are approximated by finite differences, and the free energy is minimized through a stochastic sampling technique. The validity of the proposed method is established by comparing the results of the proposed approach to those of traditional free energy minimization techniques. Its usefulness is illustrated in the context of three systems, namely, a nematic liquid crystal confined in a slit channel, a nematic liquid crystal droplet, and a chiral liquid crystal in the bulk. It is found that for systems that exhibit multiple metastable morphologies, the proposed Monte Carlo method is generally able to identify lower free energy states that are often missed by traditional approaches. Importantly, the Monte Carlo method identifies such states from random initial configurations, thereby obviating the need for educated initial guesses that can be difficult to formulate.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Sub-5 nm, globally aligned graphene nanoribbons on Ge(001)

Graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) hold great promise for future electronics because of their edge and width dependent electronic bandgaps and exceptional transport properties. While significant progress toward GNR devices has been made, the field has been limited by difficulties achieving narrow widths, global alignment, and atomically pristine GNR edges on technologically relevant substrates. A recent advance has challenged these limits by using Ge(001) substrates to direct the bottom-up growth of GNRs with nearly pristine armchair edges and widths near ∼10 nm via atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition. In this work, the growth of GNRs on Ge(001) is extended to ultra-high vacuum conditions, resulting in the realization of GNRs with widths narrower than 5 nm. Armchair graphene nanoribbons oriented along Ge 〈110〉 surface directions are achieved with excellent width control and relatively large bandgaps. The bandgap magnitude and electronic uniformity of these sub-5 nm GNRs are well-suited for emerging nanoelectronic applications.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2017

Impact of baryonic physics on intrinsic alignments

We explore the effects of specific assumptions in the subgrid models of star formation and stellar and AGN feedback on intrinsic alignments of galaxies in cosmological simulations of "MassiveBlack-II" family. Using smaller volume simulations, we explored the parameter space of the subgrid star formation and feedback model and found remarkable robustness of the observable statistical measures to the details of subgrid physics. The one observational probe most sensitive to modeling details is the distribution of misalignment angles. We hypothesize that the amount of angular momentum carried away by the galactic wind is the primary physical quantity that controls the orientation of the stellar distribution. Finally, our results are also consistent with a similar study by the EAGLE simulation team.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Electronic Structure and Band Alignment of LaMnO 3 /SrTiO 3 Polar/Nonpolar Heterojunctions

The behavior of polar LaMnO3 (LMO) thin films deposited epitaxially on non-polar SrTiO3(001) (STO) is dictated by both the LMO/STO band alignment and the chemistry of the Mn cation. Using in situ x-ray photoelectron spectros-copy (XPS), we directly measure the valence band offset (VBO) of LMO/STO heterojunctions as a function of thickness, and find that the VBO is 2.5 eV for thicker (= 3 u.c.) films. We find no evidence of a built-in potential in LMO films of any thickness. Measurements of the Mn valence by Mn L-edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and by spatially-resolved electron energy loss spectra in scanning transmission electron microscopy images (STEM-EELS) reveal that Mn2+ is present at the LMO surface, but not at the LMO/STO interface. These results are corroborated by DFT simula-tions that confirm a VBO of approximately 2.5 eV for both ideal and intermixed interfaces. We propose a model for the behavior of polar / non-polar LMO/STO heterojunctions in which the built-in potential is alleviated by the formation of oxygen vacancies at the LMO surface.

Kaspar, Tiffany C.↗