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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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NASA NTRS1981

A binary coherent optical receiver for the free-space channel

The structure of a coherent binary optical MAP receiver was derived and the effects of background radiation and phase estimation errors on receiver performance were evaluated. It was found that random phase errors do not affect the performance of the coherent receiver significantly, as long as the standard deviation of the phase error remains less than roughly 0.14 radians (or 8 degrees). It was also shown that background radiation is effectively suppressed by the optical homodyne receiver: Significant deterioration in receiver performance is observed only in the presence of extremely intense background fields. The most notable characteristic of the binary optical homodyne receiver therefore appears to be its ability to achieve quantum limited performance in high background environments, provided that sufficiently accurate estimates of the received phase can be obtained.

Vilnrotter, V. A.↗

NASA NTRS2005

Laser Remote Sensing at NASA

NASA is developing active remote sensors to monitor the health of Planet Earth and for exploration of other planets. Development and deployment of these remote sensors can have a huge economic impact. Lasers for these active remote sensors span the spectral range from the ultraviolet to the mid infrared spectral regions. Development activities range from quantum mechanical modeling and prediction of new laser materials to the design, development, and demonstration be deployed in the field.

Barnes, Norman P.↗

NASA NTRS2017

Parallels in Communication and Navigation Technology and Natural Phenomenon

The premise is more than art imitates life, or technology imitates nature it is a nascent step to see how we might be unwittingly inspired and influenced. An example that might immediately come to mind is a starling murmuration (a phenomenon called scale-free correlation) and Intels recent Coachella music festival drone performance. Superconductivity is a macroscopic manifestation of a quantum phenomenon - choreographed electrons (i.e. an electron murmuration) that enable astonishing devices. There is indeed an intimate connectedness between biology and electromagnetism. Our brains are complex neural circuits generating magnetic fields with a magnitude around 100 femtoTesla (roughly one billion times weaker than a typical magnet used to tack notes to a refrigerator door). Migratory birds navigate by orienteering with respect to the Earth's magnetic field. Electromagnetic field therapy is used in orthopedics to aid in bone repair. The electric eel generates a large electric field for self-defense. Sharks apparently detect extremely weak electric fields for finding prey. And so on. There are similarities between the way a field of wheat responds to a breeze and the natural restoring forces of a semiconductor crystal. And waves in a slowly moving river can lap backwards against a peninsular shoreline mimicking a diffraction effect. Getting back to the introductory sentence and mysterious links over cosmic distances, in August 2016, China launched the Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS) satellite. The technology is based on a non-linear crystal that produces pairs of entangled photons whose attributes apparently remain entwined regardless of how far apart they are separated. This paper will, no doubt superficially, attempt to enumerate and examine these types of connections and parallelisms.

Romanofsky, Robert↗

NASA NTRS1989

Semiclassical approach to atomic and molecular interactions

A general approach, combining quantum and classical mechanics, is used to determine the electron position and velocity distributions in atoms and atomic ions (positive and negative). The Hartree-Fock electronic wave functions and the classical central field approximation are used for evaluation of the dynamic properties of the localized electrons. The distributions, which are of fundamental importance in applications of the binary encounter approximation to description of atomic and ionic collissions, are obtained in the form of simple analytical expressions. The quantum-classical distributions of this work are compared with several other distributions in Ne, Ar, and Al atoms in the ground state.

Kunc, Joseph A.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Transverse conductivity of a relativistic plasma in oblique electric and magnetic fields

Resistive tearing in a primary candidate for flares occurring in stressed magnetic fields. Its possible application to the strongly magnetized environments (Hz about 10 to the 12th G) near the surface of neutron stars, particularly as a mechanism for generating the plasma heating and particle acceleration leading to gamma-ray bursts, has motivated a quantum treatment of this process, which requires knowledge of the electrical conductivity sigma of a relativistic gas in a new domain (i.e., that of a low-density n/e/) plasma in oblique electric and magnetic fields. This paper discusses the mathematical formalism for calculating sigma and present numerical results for a wide range of parameter values. The results indicate that sigma depends very strongly on both the applied electric and magnetic fields.

Melia, Fulvio↗

NASA NTRS1986

One-photon pair annihilation in magnetized relativistic plasmas

In supersonic magnetic fields, electron-positron pairs may annihilate into single photons producing spectral features above 1 MeV. The paper calculates the exact one-photon annihilation rate in the general case where pairs may annihilate from excited Landau states, extending the previous studies which were restricted to pairs in the ground state. Asymptotic expressions for annihilation spectra and rates in the limit of large pair quantum numbers are also derived. It is found that the rate of annihilation from excited states can exceed the rate from the ground state by orders of magnitude in fields less than about 2 x 10 to the 12th G. This allows one-photon annihilation to be competitive with the two-photon process at typical neutron star field strengths. Annihilation spectra from a Maxwellian pair plasma at transrelativistic temperatures show fine structure near threshold on a scale (h/2pi)omega sub B as the result of contributions from individual pair states, which blend into a smooth continuum at higher energies.

Harding, A. K.↗

NASA NTRS1972

On the estimation and detection for optical turbulent channels.

Consideration of the problem of filtering and detecting signals received through a turbulent channel at optical frequencies. Adopting the semiclassical method of quantum mechanics, application is made to the direct detection of a single-path optical communication channel where the received field is assumed to be the coherent signal field degraded by the atmospheric turbulence with a signal-independent, additive, zero-mean Gaussian background radiation.

Harger, R. O.↗

NASA NTRS1974

Geodesic synchrotron radiation in the Kerr geometry by the method of asymptotically factorized Green's functions

The scalar, electromagnetic, and gravitational geodesic-synchrotron-radiation (GSR) spectra are determined for the case of a test particle moving on a highly relativistic circular orbit about a rotating (Kerr) black hole. It is found that the spectral shape depends only weakly on the value of the angular-momentum parameter (a/M) of the black hole, but the total radiated power drops unexpectedly for a value of at least 0.95 and vanishes as the value approaches unity. A spin-dependent factor (involving the inner product of the polarization of a radiated quantum with the source) is isolated to explain the dependence of the spectral shape on the spin of the radiated field. Although the scalar wave equation is solved by separation of variables, this procedure is avoided for the vector and tensor cases by postulating a sum-over-states expansion for the Green's function similar to that found to hold in the scalar case. The terms in this sum, significant for GSR, can then be evaluated in the geometric-optics approximation without requiring the use of vector or tensor spherical harmonics.

Chrzanowski, P. L.↗

NASA NTRS1976

Theoretical L-shell Coster-Kronig energies 11 or equal to z or equal to 103

Relativistic relaxed-orbital calculations of L-shell Coster-Kronig transition energies have been performed for all possible transitions in atoms with atomic numbers. Hartree-Fock-Slater wave functions served as zeroth-order eigenfunctions to compute the expectation of the total Hamiltonian. A first-order approximation to the local approximation was thus included. Quantum-electrodynamic corrections were made. Each transition energy was computed as the difference between results of separate self-consistent-field calculations for the initial, singly ionized state and the final two-hole state. The following quantities are listed: total transition energy, 'electric' (Dirac-Hartree-Fock-Slater) contribution, magnetic and retardation contributions, and contributions due to vacuum polarization and self energy.

Chen, M. H.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Increased Spectral Response for Charge-Coupled Devices

Significant improvement in charge-coupled-device (CCD) spectral sensitivity is demonstrated over remarkable range. Improvement in quantum efficiency, in conjunction with CCD low-read-noise floor (less than 4e) opens up new scientific opportunities in fields of biology, nuclear science, laboratory plasma diagnositcs, and host of other physical and astronomical applications in the UV, X-UV, and X-ray regimes.

Janesick, J. R.↗

NASA NTRS1989

X-ray calibration of a virtual phase 1024 x 1024 CCD

Results are presented on a calibration with X-rays of a front-illuminated virtual phase CCD with a 1024 x 1024 pixel array, performed as a part of the Solar-A preparation, which is a joint Japanese-U.S.-UK space project scheduled for a launch in August 1991. In the experiment, absolute quantum efficiency (QE) of a virtual CCD was measured at 14 wavelengths between 5.4 and 67.7 A, and its flat field responses to the illumination by C-K and Al-K X-rays were investigated together with its imaging properties in visible light. Higher than expected QE measurements were obtained at soft X-ray and EUV wavelengths; these are considered to be caused by fluorescence occurring in the absorbing layers on the CCD-entrance aperture.

Catura, R. C.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Future regional/commuter challenges

Technological advances in the next ten years will represent a continuum of the steady improving state-of-the-art in all the major disciplines. In the past there was a number of step changes in technology, but no known really large quantum jumps are envisioned at present which could be readily applied to short haul aircraft. The one exception in the field of aerodynamics might be the application of natural laminar flow on short haul and laminar flow control on long haul aircraft. The aim in the 1990's will be to single out the major areas where advances will contribute to overcome important constraints such as fuel conservation, noise, airspace and airport saturation, and surface transportation competition.

Harvey, W. Don↗

NASA NTRS1992

Localization of one-photon state in space and Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox in spontaneous parametric down conversion

An experiment on one-photon state localization in space using a correlation technique in Spontaneous Parametric Down Conversion (SPDC) process is discussed. Results of measurements demonstrate an idea of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) paradox for coordinate and momentum variables of photon states. Results of the experiment can be explained with the help of an advanced wave technique. The experiment is based on the idea that two-photon states of optical electromagnetic fields arising in the nonlinear process of the spontaneous parametric down conversion (spontaneous parametric light scattering) can be explained by quantum mechanical theory with the help of a single wave function.

Penin, A. N.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Non classical effects in planar waveguides

The quantum description of light propagation inside a planar waveguide is given. In particular, the description describes the behavior of the field inside a directions coupler. Nonclassical effects are presented and discussed.

Bertolotti, M.↗

NASA NTRS1999

Resonant Transmissive Modulator Construction for Use in Beam Steering Array

An agile electronically configurable optical beam steering device for use in directional free-space transmission of optical signals is described. The device design employs an array of tunable resonant transmissive modulators constructed from multi-layered stacks of electro-optically active dielectric materials. Each modulator may be individually configured to transmit an optical signal with a specific amount of phase and group velocity modulation. The resulting diffractive interactions between modulator outputs provide a method for directional optical signal transmission. Of particular focus within this presentation is the optimized design of the individual modulator. It is widely known that periodic multi-layered stacks of dielectric materials exhibit reflective and transmissive resonances as described by the stack's transmission function. If an electric field is applied normal to the stack's layers, phenomena such as the electro-optic effect and/or the quantum-confined Stark effect may be employed to change the effective refractive index within the stack. This refractive index change alters the stack's transmission function and modulates the phase and group velocity of the transmitted optical signal. By varying the parameters that describe the stack's specific construction and operation, such as number of layers within the stack, refractive indexes of stack materials, layer thicknesses, and combinations of periodic verses non-periodic layer repetitions, custom transmittance functions may be generated. The transmitted optical signal carrier frequency and bandwidth must be carefully selected to maximize transmission and to minimize absorption. A computational optimization of the variables describing the stack's construction strives to maximize the amount of optical signal modulation verses applied voltage. Trade-offs between methods of increasing device performance verses the limitations of fabrication technologies are considered.

Keys, Andrew S.↗

NASA NTRS2003

Investigations of Relatively Easy To Construct Antennas With Efficiency in Receiving Schumann Resonances: Preparations for a Miniaturized Reconfigurable ELF Receiver

Relatively little is known about the cavity between the Earth and the ionosphere, which opens opportunities for technological advances and unique ideas. One effective means to study this cavity is with extremely low frequency (ELF) antennas. Possible applications of these antennas are global weather prediction, earthquake prediction, planetary exploration, communication, wireless transmission of power, or even a free energy source. The superconducting quantum interference device SQUID) and the coil antenna are the two most acceptable receivers discovered for picking up ELF magnetic fields. Both antennas have the potential for size reduction, allowing them to be portable enough for access to space and even for personal ware. With improvements of these antennas and signal processing, insightful analysis of Schumann resonance (SR) can give the science community a band of radio frequency (RF) signals for improving life here on Earth and exploring beyond.

Farmer, Brian W.↗

NASA NTRS2007

Optical Magnetometer Incorporating Photonic Crystals

According to a proposal, photonic crystals would be used to greatly increase the sensitivities of optical magnetometers that are already regarded as ultrasensitive. The proposal applies, more specifically, to a state-of-the-art type of quantum coherent magnetometer that exploits the electromagnetically-induced-transparency (EIT) method for determining a small change in a magnetic field indirectly via measurement of the shift, induced by that change, in the hyperfine levels of resonant atoms exposed to the field.

Kulikov, Igor↗

NASA NTRS2016

Li-Doped Ionic Liquid Electrolytes: From Bulk Phase to Interfacial Behavior

Ionic liquids have been proposed as candidate electrolytes for high-energy density, rechargeable batteries. We present an extensive computational analysis supported by experimental comparisons of the bulk and interfacial properties of a representative set of these electrolytes as a function of Li-salt doping. We begin by investigating the bulk electrolyte using quantum chemistry and ab initio molecular dynamics to elucidate the solvation structure of Li(+). MD simulations using the polarizable force field of Borodin and coworkers were then performed, from which we obtain an array of thermodynamic and transport properties. Excellent agreement is found with experiments for diffusion, ionic conductivity, and viscosity. Combining MD simulations with electronic structure computations, we computed the electrochemical window of the electrolytes across a range of Li(+)-doping levels and comment on the role of the liquid environment. Finally, we performed a suite of simulations of these Li-doped electrolytes at ideal electrified interfaces to evaluate the differential capacitance and the equilibrium Li(+) distribution in the double layer. The magnitude of differential capacitance is in good agreement with our experiments and exhibits the characteristic camel-shaped profile. In addition, the simulations reveal Li(+) to be highly localized to the second molecular layer of the double layer, which is supported by additional computations that find this layer to be a free energy minimum with respect to Li(+) translation.

molecular dynamics↗