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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 37 records · Page 2

Observing Charge Separation Distance in Organic Donor-Acceptors with Photoinduced Absorption Detected Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

The debatable role of charge transfer states in photoinduced charge separation to useful free carriers has been a long-standing controversy in the field of organic solar cells. In this work, varying charge-pair distances are measured in sensitized donor-acceptor thin films using a photoinduced absorption-detected magnetic resonance (PADMR) technique where nearest-neighbor charge transfer states are identified by their strong magnetic dipole-coupling relative to more distant charges. Correlation with the direct measurement of free carriers using time-resolved microwave conductivity has corroborated a distributed-range electron transfer model in which charges generated at longer distances become free carriers, while shorter transfer distances give only bound charge transfer states that cannot separate to generate photocurrent.

charge transfer↗

Convective Influence and Transport Pathways Controlling the Tropical Distribution of Carbon Monoxide at 100 Hpa

Trajectory calculations with convective influence diagnosed from geostationary-satellite cloud measurements are used to evaluate the relative importance of different Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL) transport pathways for establishing the distribution of carbon monoxide (CO) at 100 hPa as observed by the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) on board the Aura satellite. Carbon monoxide is a useful tracer for investigating TTL transport and convective influence because the CO lifetime is comparable to the time require for slow ascent through the TTL (a couple of months). Offline calculations of TTL radiative heating are used to determine the vertical motion field. The simple trajectory model does a reasonable job of reproducing the MLS CO distributions during Boreal wintertime and summertime. The broad maximum in CO concentration over the Pacific is primarily a result of the strong radiative heating (indicating upward vertical motion) associated with the abundant TTL cirrus in this region. Sensitivity tests indicate that the distinct CO maximum in the Asian monsoon anticyclone is strongly impacted by extreme convective systems with detrainment of polluted air above 360 K potential temperature. The relative importance of different CO source regions will also be discussed.

Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL)↗

Cavity Quantum Eliashberg Enhancement of Superconductivity

Driving a conventional superconductor with an appropriately tuned classical electromagnetic field can lead to an enhancement of superconductivity via a redistribution of the quasiparticles into a more favorable nonequilibrium distribution—a phenomenon known as the Eliashberg effect. Here, we theoretically consider coupling a two-dimensional superconducting film to the quantized electromagnetic modes of a microwave resonator cavity. As in the classical Eliashberg case, we use a kinetic equation to study the effect of the fluctuating, dynamical electromagnetic field on the Bogoliubov quasiparticles. We find that when the photon and quasiparticle systems are out of thermal equilibrium, a redistribution of quasiparticles into a more favorable nonequilibrium steady state occurs, thereby enhancing superconductivity in the sample. Here, we predict that by tailoring the cavity environment (e.g., the photon occupation and spectral functions), enhancement can be observed in a variety of parameter regimes, offering a large degree of tunability.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Overcoming the fundamental limit of quantum transduction via intraband entanglement

A quantum transducer converts an input signal to an output probe at a distant frequency band while maintaining the quantum information with high fidelity, which is crucial for quantum networking and distributed quantum sensing and computing. In terms of microwave–optical quantum transduction, the state-of-the-art quantum transducers suffer low transduction efficiency from weak nonlinear coupling, wherein increasing pump power to enhance efficiency inevitably leads to thermal noise from heating. Moreover, we reveal that the efficiency-bandwidth product of a cavity electro-optical or electro-optomechanical transducer is fundamentally limited by pump power and nonlinear coupling coefficient, irrespective of cavity engineering efforts. To overcome this fundamental limit, we propose to noiselessly boost the transduction efficiency by consuming intraband entanglement (e.g., microwave–microwave or optical–optical entanglement in the case of microwave–optical transduction). Via a squeezer–coupler–antisqueezer sandwich structure, the protocol enhances the transduction efficiency to unity in the ideal lossless case, given an arbitrarily weak pump and nonlinear coupling. In practical cavity systems, our entanglement-assisted protocol surpasses the non-assisted fundamental limit of the efficiency-bandwidth product and reduces the threshold cooperativity for positive quantum capacity by a factor proportional to two-mode squeezing gain. Given a fixed cooperativity, our approach increases the broadband quantum capacity by orders of magnitude. The entanglement-assisted advantage is robust to ancilla loss and cavity detuning.

Shi, Haowei [Southern California U.] (ORCID:000000↗

Implementing phase-covariant cloning in circuit quantum electrodynamics

An efficient scheme is proposed to implement phase-covariant quantum cloning by using a superconducting transmon qubit coupled to a microwave cavity resonator in the strong dispersive limit of circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED). By solving the master equation numerically, we plot the Wigner function and Poisson distribution of the cavity mode after each operation in the cloning transformation sequence according to two logic circuits proposed. The visualizations of the quasi-probability distribution in phase-space for the cavity mode and the occupation probability distribution in the Fock basis enable us to penetrate the evolution process of cavity mode during the phase-covariant cloning (PCC) transformation. With the help of numerical simulation method, we find out that the present cloning machine is not the isotropic model because its output fidelity depends on the polar angle and the azimuthal angle of the initial input state on the Bloch sphere. The fidelity for the actual output clone of the present scheme is slightly smaller than one in the theoretical case. The simulation results are consistent with the theoretical ones. This further corroborates our scheme based on circuit QED can implement efficiently PCC transformation.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Collective strong coupling with homogeneous Rabi frequencies using a 3D lumped element microwave resonator

We design and implement 3D-lumped element microwave cavities that spatially focus magnetic fields to a small mode volume. They allow coherent and uniform coupling to electron spins hosted by nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond. We achieve large homogeneous single spin coupling rates, with an enhancement of more than one order of magnitude compared to standard 3D cavities with a fundamental resonance at 3 GHz. Finite element simulations confirm that the magnetic field distribution is homogeneous throughout the entire sample volume, with a root mean square deviation of 1.54%. With a sample containing 10{sup 17} nitrogen vacancy electron spins, we achieve a collective coupling strength of Ω = 12 MHz, a cooperativity factor C = 27, and clearly enter the strong coupling regime. This allows to interface a macroscopic spin ensemble with microwave circuits, and the homogeneous Rabi frequency paves the way to manipulate the full ensemble population in a coherent way.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

A Nonlinear Optimal Control Problem Arising from a Sterilization Process for Packaged Foods

In this paper we study an optimization problem arising from a sterilization process for packaged foods by using a microwave heating method. The goal of the optimal control is to find the optimal frequency function such that the temperature profile at the final stage has a relative uniform distribution in the food product. The underlying state variables are electric, magnetic fields and temperature which satisfy the coupled nonlinear Maxwell’s system and a nonlinear heat equation. The control variable for the system is chosen to be the electric frequency function. We show that there exists an optimal frequency which minimizes the cost functional. Moreover, an optimality condition is also derived.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

A measurement concept for hot-spot BRDFs from space

Several concepts for canopy hot-spot measurements from space have been investigated. The most promising involves active illumination and bistatic detection that would allow hot-spot angular distribution (BRDF) measurements from space in a search-light mode. The concept includes a pointable illumination source, such as a laser operating at an atmospheric window wavelength, coupled with a number of high spatial-resolution detectors that are clustered around the illumination source in space, receiving photons nearly coaxial with the reto-reflection direction. Microwave control and command among the satellite cluster would allow orienting the direction of the laser beam as well as the focusing detectors simultaneously so that the coupled system can function like a search light with almost unlimited pointing capabilities. The concept is called the Hot-Spot Search-Light (HSSL) satellite. A nominal satellite altitude of 600 km will allow hot-spot BRDF measurements out to about 18 degrees phase angle. The distributed are taking radiometric measurements of the intensity wings of the hot-spot angular distribution without the need for complex imaging detectors. The system can be operated at night for increased signal-to-noise ratio. This way the hot-spot angular signatures can be quantified and parameterized in sufficient detail to extract the biophysical information content of plant architectures.

Reflectivity↗

Microwave-Assisted Heating for Gasification

Compared to traditional heating, microwave-assisted heating enhances catalyst activity, selectivity and stability. These features are essential in gasification to improve the process outcome while mitigating the generation undesirable by-products such as char. To study the effect of microwaves on fluidized bed reactors, the electromagnetics module of COMSOL and MFiX are coupled using file input/output wherein external calls are made to COMSOL from MFiX. The particle bed heating rates and temperature distributions are investigateed in the case of a monodisperse bed of magnetite particles subjected to single mode transverse electric and magnetic fields in reacting and non-reacting conditions. The effect of inlet gas velocity on the heating rate of particle is also explored in this work.

Koneru, Rahul Babu↗

Application of a Machine Learning Algorithm in Generating an Evapotranspiration Data Product From Coupled Thermal Infrared and Microwave Satellite Observations

Land surface evapotranspiration (ET) is one of the main energy sources for atmospheric dynamics and a critical component of the local, regional, and global water cycles. Consequently, accurate measurement or estimation of ET is one of the most active topics in hydro-climatology research. With massive and spatially distributed observational data sets of land surface properties and environmental conditions being collected from the ground, airborne or space-borne platforms daily over the past few decades, many research teams have started to use big data science to advance the ET estimation methods. The Geostationary satellite Evapotranspiration and Drought (GET-D) product system was developed at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 2016 to generate daily ET and drought maps operationally. The primary inputs of the current GET-D system are the thermal infrared (TIR) observations from NOAA GOES satellite series. Because of the cloud contamination to the TIR observations, the spatial coverage of the daily GET-D ET product has been severely impacted. Based on the most recent advances, we have tested a machine learning algorithm to estimate all-weather land surface temperature (LST) from TIR and microwave (MW) combined satellite observations. With the regression tree machine learning approach, we can combine the high accuracy and high spatial resolution of GOES TIR data with the better spatial coverage of passive microwave observations and LST simulations from a land surface model (LSM). The regression tree model combines the three LST data sources for both clear and cloudy days, which enables the GET-D system to derive an all-weather ET product. This paper reports how the all-weather LST and ET are generated in the upgraded GET-D system and provides an evaluation of these LST and ET estimates with ground measurements. The results demonstrate that the regression tree machine learning method is feasible and effective for generating daily ET under all weather conditions with satisfactory accuracy from the big volume of satellite observations.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Cooperative Light Emission in the Presence of Strong Inhomogeneous Broadening

We study photon emission by an ensemble of two-level systems, with strong inhomogeneous broadening and coupled to a cavity mode whose frequency has linear time dependence. The analysis shows that, regardless of the distribution of energy level splittings, a sharp phase transition occurs between the weak and strong cooperative emission phases near a critical photonic frequency sweeping rate. The associated scaling exponent is determined. We suggest that this phase transition can be observed in an ensemble of negatively charged NV - centers in diamond interacting with a microwave half-wavelength cavity mode even in the regime of weak coupling and at strong disorder of two-level splittings.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Coplanar waveguide feeds for phased array antennas

The design and performance is presented of the following Coplanar Waveguides (CPW) microwave distribution networks for linear as well as circularly polarized microstrip patches and dipole arrays: (1) CPW/Microstrip Line feed; (2) CPW/Balanced Stripline feed; (3) CPW/Slotline feed; (4) Grounded CPW/Balanced coplanar stripline feed; and (5) CPW/Slot coupled feed. Typical measured radiation patterns are presented, and their relative advantages and disadvantages are compared.

Simons, Rainee N.↗

Coplanar waveguide feeds for phased array antennas

The design and performance is presented of the following coplanar waveguides (CPW) microwave distribution networks for linear as well as circularly polarized microstrip patches and dipole arrays: (1) CPW/microstrip line feed; (2) CPW/balanced stripline feed; (3) CPW/slotline feed; (4) grounded CPW/balanced coplanar stripline feed; and (5) CPW/slot coupled feed. Typical measured radiation patterns are presented, and their relative advantages and disadvantages are compared.

Simons, Rainee N.↗

Optimization of energy transfer in microwave electrothermal thrusters

Results are presented from preliminary tests conducted to evaluate the performance of a prototype microwave electrothermal thruster. The primary component of the device is a microwave resonant cavity. The device produces stable axial plasmas within a pressurized section of the cavity with the plasma positioned in the inlet region of the nozzle. Plasma stability is enhanced by axial power coupling, an optimal distribution of electric power density within the cavity, and a propellant gas flow which has a large vortical velocity component. The thruster has been operated with a number of propellant gases: helium, nitrogen, ammonia, and hydrogen. Plasmas can be formed in a reliable manner at cavity pressures of 1 kPa and incident power levels ranging from 50 W to 350 W, depending on the gas used, and can be operated at pressures up to 300 kPa at power levels up to 2200 W. Ideal performance results of vacuum Isp and thermal efficiency vs. specific power are presented for each gas. Representative results of this preliminary work are: He - Isp = 625 s, eta-thermal = 90 percent; N2 - Isp = 270 s, eta-thermal = 41 percent; NH3 - Isp = 475 s, eta-thermal= 55 percent; H2 - Isp = 1040 s, eta-thermal = 53 percent.

Sullivan, D. J.↗

Limits on axion–photon coupling or on local axion density: Dependence on models of the Milky Way’s dark halo

The μV-scale axion is a compelling cold dark matter candidate. The Axion Dark Matter eXperiment (ADMX) searches for axions by stimulating the decay of galactic dark matter halo axions into detectable microwave photons by their conversion in a resonant cavity permeated by a strong, static magnetic field. The signal depends on properties of the Milky Way’s dark matter halo; the choice of halo model has significant implications for the sensitivity of direct detection searches, e.g., ADMX. This work explores the sensitivity of the data taken by ADMX from 2008 to 2010 to various dark matter halo models. New models for the phase-space distribution of local axions are considered; the analysis demonstrates that certain assumptions about the dark matter halo improve limits on axion–photon coupling. In addition, new ADMX data covering 860–892 MHz are included in the analysis.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

EM and beam dynamics modeling of CCL with CST Studio

The 800-MeV proton linac at LANSCE consists of a drift-tube linac, which brings the beam to 100 MeV, followed by a coupled-cavity linac (CCL). Each of 44 CCL modules contain multiple tanks, and it is fed by a single 805-MHz klystron. CCL tanks are multi-cell blocks of identical re-entrant sidecoupled cavities, which are followed by drifts with magnetic quadrupole doublets. Bridge couplers – special cavities displaced from the beam axis – electromagnetically couple CCL tanks over such drifts. We have developed 3D CST models of CCL tanks of the LANSCE linac. Their electromagnetic analysis is performed using MicroWave Studio. Beam dynamics is modeled with Particle Studio for bunch trains with realistic beam distributions using the CST calculated RF fields and quadrupole magnetic fields to determine the output beam parameters.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Coplanar waveguide feeds for phased array antennas

The design and performance of the following coplanar waveguide (CPW) microwave distribution networks for linear as well as circularly polarized microstrip patches and printed dipole arrays is presented: (1) CPW/microstrip line feed; (2) CPW/balanced stripline feed; (3) CPW/slotline feed; (4) grounded CPW (GCPW)/balanced coplanar stripline feed; and (5) CPW/slot coupled feed. Typical measured radiation patterns are presented, and their relative advantages and disadvantages are compared.

Simons, Rainee N.↗

Electromagnetic simulation of helicon plasma antennas for their electrostatic shield design

A detailed electromagnetic parametric analysis of the helicon antenna (half Nagoya type) is shown at 13.56 MHz using a CST Microwave Studio 2012. The antenna is used to excite plasma inside a dielectric cylinder similar to a commercial reactor. Instead of focusing on the plasma state, the authors focus on the penetration and the three dimensional distribution of electric fields through the dielectric wall. Our aim is to reduce capacitive coupling which produces unwanted longitudinal and radial electric fields. Comparison of the helicon antenna electromagnetic performance under diverse boundary conditions shows that one is allowed to use vacuum simulations without plasma present in the cylinder, or approximate the plasma as a column of gyrotropic material with a tensor dielectric permittivity and with a sheath of a few millimeters in order to qualitatively predict the electric field distribution, thus avoiding a full plasma simulation. This way the analysis of the full problem is much faster and allows an optimal shield design. A detailed study of various shields shows that one can reduce the radial and axial fields by more than 1 order of magnitude compared to the unshielded antenna, while the azimuthal field is reduced only by a factor of 2. Optimal shield design in terms of pitch and spacing of openings is determined. Finally, an experimental proof of concept of the effect of shielding on reduced wall sputtering is provided, by monitoring the roughness created during oxygen plasma etching of an organic polymer.

42 ENGINEERING↗