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At least 505 records · Page 28

Traces of charge density waves in NbS 2

Among transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD), NbS 2 is often considered as the archetypal compound that does not have a charge density wave (CDW) in any of its polytypes. By comparison, close isoelectronic compounds such as NbSe 2 , TaS 2 , and TaSe 2 all have CDW in at least one polytype. Here we report traces of CDW in the 2H polytype of NbS 2 , using diffuse x-ray scattering measurements at 77 K and room temperature. We observe 12 extremely weak satellite peaks located at ±13.9° from → a* and → b* around each Bragg peak in the (h,k,0) plane. These satellite peaks are commensurate with the lattice via 3 → q– → q'= → a*, where → q' is the 120° rotation of → q, and define two √13a × √13a superlattices in real space. These commensurate wave vectors and tilt angle are identical to those of the CDW observed in the 1T polytype of TaS 2 and TaSe 2 . In conclusion, to understand this similarity and the faintness of the peaks, we discuss possible sources of local 1T polytype environment in bulk 2H-NbS 2 crystals.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Diffuse boosted cosmic neutrino background

Energetic cosmic rays scatter off the cosmic neutrino background throughout the history of the Universe, yielding a diffuse flux of cosmic relic neutrinos boosted to high energies. We calculate this flux under different assumptions of the cosmic-ray flux spectral slope and redshift evolution. The nonobservation of the diffuse flux of boosted relic neutrinos with current high-energy neutrino experiments already excludes an average cosmic neutrino background overdensity larger than ∼10 4 over cosmological distances. We discuss the future detectability of the diffuse flux of boosted relic neutrinos in light of neutrino overdensity estimates and cosmogenic neutrino backgrounds.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

Representational analysis of extended disorder in atomistic ensembles derived from total scattering data

With the increased availability of high-intensity time-of-flight neutron and synchrotron X-ray scattering sources that can access wide ranges of momentum transfer, the pair distribution function method has become a standard analysis technique for studying disorder of local coordination spheres and at intermediate atomic separations. In some cases, rational modeling of the total scattering data (Bragg and diffuse) becomes intractable with least-squares approaches, necessitating reverse Monte Carlo simulations using large atomistic ensembles. However, the extraction of meaningful information from the resulting atomistic ensembles is challenging, especially at intermediate length scales. Representational analysis is used here to describe the displacements of atoms in reverse Monte Carlo ensembles from an ideal crystallographic structure in an approach analogous to tight-binding methods. Rewriting the displacements in terms of a local basis that is descriptive of the ideal crystallographic symmetry provides a robust approach to characterizing medium-range order (and disorder) and symmetry breaking in complex and disordered crystalline materials. Lastly, this method enables the extraction of statistically relevant displacement modes (orientation, amplitude and distribution) of the crystalline disorder and provides directly meaningful information in a locally symmetry-adapted basis set that is most descriptive of the crystal chemistry and physics.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Electron energy balance and ionization in the channel of a stationary plasma thruster

The paper presents results of numerical simulations of the electron dynamics in the field of the azimuthal and longitudinal waves excited in the channel of a stationary plasma thruster (SPT). The simulations are based on the experimentally determined wave characteristics. The simulation results show that the azimuthal wave displayed as ionization instability enhances electron transport along the thruster channel. It is established that the electron transport rate in the azimuthal wave increases as compared to the rate of diffusion caused by electron scattering from neutral atoms in proportion to the ratio between the times of electron− neutral collisions responsible for ionization and elastic electron scattering, respectively. An expression governing the plasma conductivity is derived with allowance for electron interaction with the azimuthal wave. The Hall parameter, the electron component of the discharge current, and the electron heating power in the thruster channel are calculated for two model SPTs operating with krypton and xenon. The simulation results agree well with the results of experimental studies of these two SPTs.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Electronic Structures and Magnetic Properties of Transition Metal Doped CsPbI{sub 3} Perovskite Compounds by First-Principles Calculation

Transition metal doped cesium lead halide (CsPbI{sub 3}) perovskite compounds were studied for application in photovoltaic solar cells. Electronic structures, chemical shifts of {sup 207}Pb and {sup 127}I-NMR, vibration modes in infrared and Raman spectra of transition metals (Mn{sup 2+}, Fe{sup 2+} or Cu{sup 2+})-doped CsPbI{sub 3} perovskite compounds were studied by the first-principles calculation using density functional theory. The CsPb(Fe)I{sub 3} perovskite crystals had a slight perturbation of crystal field in the coordination structure. The electron density distribution was delocalized on the 5p orbital of I atom, the 3d orbital of Fe atom and the 6p orbital of Pb atom. The first excited process was based on ligand metal charge transfer from the 5p orbital on I atom to the 3d orbital of Fe atom. The chemical shifts of {sup 127}I-NMR were associated with the electron correlation of electron-nuclear spin interaction and nuclear quadrupole interactions based on electron field graduate. The asymmetric vibrations of Pb–I bonds stretching mode related to electron conductivity with scattering of the carrier diffusion as phonon effectiveness. The slight perturbation of the coordination structure in the CsPb(Fe)I{sub 3} perovskite crystal will improve the photovoltaic and optical properties.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Cascade Transformer Based on the Volume Coil for Power Transmission under High Voltage

The use of an electronic cooling system at the High Intensity heavy ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF) accelerator complex, which is being developed at the Institute of Modern Physics (China), to improve the efficiency of ion injection into the accelerator and reduce the spread of ion pulses in the beam has been proposed. Electron cooling of the ion beam was carried out due to the interaction of ions with a continuous electron beam with a current of up to 3 A, energy of up to 450 keV, and energy stability at the level of 10{sup –4} or better. The electron beam energy recuperation was carried out at the expense of a power source with a power of 5–15 kW, which was located at the top of a high-voltage column—a high-voltage terminal. The operation of a prototype of power transmission system, which was based on a cascade transformer with a volumetric coil, has been considered. Such a transformer has a relatively low scattering inductance, which can significantly reduce the number of capacitors to compensate for it. It has been shown that this design made it possible to transfer power of up to 40 kW at small dimensions of the transformer and heat dissipation in it was not more than 10 kW.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Electron Ion Collider Strong Hadron Cooling Injector and ERL

Intra-beam Scattering (IBS) and other diffusion mechanisms in the EIC Hadron Storage Ring (HSR) degrade the beam emittances during a store, with growth times of about 2 hours at the nominal proton energies of 275GeV, 100 GeV, and 41 GeV. Strong Hadron Cooling (SHC) can maintain good hadron beam quality and high luminosity during long collision stores. A novel cooling method ’ Coherent electron Cooling (CeC) ’ is chosen as the baseline SHC method, due to its high cooling rates. An Energy Recovery Linac (ERL) is used to deliver an intense high-quality electron beam for cooling. In this paper, we discuss the beam requirements for SHC-CeC and describe the current status of the injector and ERL designs. Two designs of injector and ERL will be presented: one for dedicated SHC and another one for SHC with precooler.

Wang, E.↗

NXREFINE

NXRefine implements a complete workflow for both data acquisition and reduction of single crystal diffuse x-ray scattering collected as a series of area detector frames during continuous sample rotation. The data are stored in HDF5 files, which conform to the NeXus data format standard. These files contain a comprehensive set of metadata, including the incident wavelength, powder calibration scans used to define detector distances, beam centers, and yaw, pitch, and roll corrections. Automated peak searches of the three-dimensional data arrays define a set of Bragg peaks that are used to define an orientation matrix, defined according to Busing and Levy, which is then used to transform the data from angular coordinates to reciprocal space coordinates using the CCTW program. Multiple rotations at different detector translations and offset rotation axes are combined to ensure that there are no gaps in the reconstructed data, and allow the construction of masks to eliminate detector artifacts due to Compton scattering within the sensor layers. Finally, the data can be transformed into 3D-ΔPDF maps using the punch-and-fill method after symmetrization.

OSBORN, RAYMOND↗

Explosive Soot Challenge (Final Report)

This project assembled a broad ensemble of modeling and experimentation tools to study the morphological and optical properties of detonation soots in explosive fireballs. A gram-scale hemispherical high explosive was studied in a low-pressure controlled environment using in-situ experimentation with diffusely illuminated visible absorption spectroscopy, particle sizing through light scattering techniques, and post-test collections with subsequent morphological analysis. Hydrocode modeling was performed to replicate the detonation flow observations, and subsequent aerosol kinetics models provided particle size distributions and extinction coefficients from the hydrocode results. Experimentally observed soot morphologies agreed with expectation from the literature - a bimodal distribution was found, brought upon by the particles growing to a size where their inertia and fluid wakes are non-negligible. The aerosol kinetics model did not replicate the observed bimodal size distribution for lack of a coagulation kernel to represent the behavior. To recover particulate optical properties, a spectrally resolved absorption spectroscopy method termed Spectral diffuse back-illuminated extinction imaging (SBI-EI) was developed and implemented on two explosive types. Inverting the absorption spectra using a Kramers-Kronig consistent method yielded the complex index of refraction for the soots produced by the explosives. This method resulted in an unrealistic index of refraction for one of the two explosives, and this is suspected to be due to the model neglecting scattering brought upon by the large particle sizes observed. In addition to the core work, three additional studies were performed in parallel. These investigated the impact of scattering on diffuse absorption spectroscopy, studied how soots oxidate and sublimate in a well-controlled shock tube, and laid the theoretical groundwork for a new collision kernel to replicate the bimodal size distribution from the observations. Summaries of these efforts are included at the end of this report.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗

Lithium Transport in an Amorphous Li x Si Anode Investigated by Quasi-elastic Neutron Scattering

Here, we demonstrate the room temperature mechanochemical synthesis of highly defective Li x Si anode materials and characterization of the Li transport. We probed the Li + self-diffusion using quasi-elastic neutron scattering (QENS) to measure the Li self-diffusion in the alloy. Li diffusion was found to be significantly greater (3.0 × 10 –6 cm 2 s –1 ) than previously measured crystalline and electrochemically made Li–Si alloys; the energy of activation was determined to be 0.20 eV (19 kJ mol –1 ). Amorphous Li–Si structures are known to have superior Li diffusion to their crystalline counterparts; therefore, the isolation and stabilization of defective Li–Si structures may improve the utility of Si anodes for Li-ion batteries.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Multicomponent diffusion in molten salt LiF-BeF{sub 2}: Dynamical correlations and Maxwell–Stefan diffusivities

Applying Green–Kubo formalism and equilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, we have studied the dynamic correlation, Onsager coeeficients and Maxwell–Stefan (MS) Diffusivities of molten salt LiF-BeF{sub 2}, which is used as coolant in high temperature reactor. All the diffusive flux correlations show back-scattering or cage dynamics which becomes pronouced at higher temperature. Although the MS diffusivities are expected to depend very lightly on the composition due to decoupling of thermodynamic factor, the diffusivity Đ{sub Li-F} and Đ{sub Be-F} decreases sharply for higher concentration of LiF and BeF{sub 2} respectively. Interestingly, all three MS diffusivities have highest magnitude for eutectic mixture at 1000K (except Đ{sub Be-F} at lower LiF mole fraction) which is desirable from coolant point of view. Although the diffusivity for positive-positive ion pair is negative it is not in violation of the second law of thermodynamics as it satisfies the non-negative entropic constraints.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

The diffuse galactic far-ultraviolet sky

We present an all-sky map of the diffuse Galactic far ultraviolet (1344-1786 Å) background using Galaxy Evolution Explorer data, covering 65% of the sky with 11.79 arcmin{sup 2} pixels. We investigate the dependence of the background on Galactic coordinates, finding that a standard cosecant model of intensity is not a valid fit. Furthermore, we compare our map to Galactic all-sky maps of 100 μm emission, N {sub H} {sub I} column, and Hα intensity. We measure a consistent low level far-UV (FUV) intensity at zero points for other Galactic quantities, indicating a 300 photons cm{sup –2} s{sup –1} sr{sup –1} Å{sup –1} non-scattered isotropic component to the diffuse FUV. There is also a linear relationship between FUV and 100 μm emission below 100 μm values of 8 MJy sr{sup –1}. We find a similar linear relationship between FUV and N {sub H} {sub I} below 10{sup 21} cm{sup –2}. The relationship between FUV and Hα intensity has no such constant cutoff. For all Galactic quantities, the slope of the linear portion of the relationship decreases with Galactic latitude. A modified cosecant model, taking into account dust scattering asymmetry and albedo, is able to accurately fit the diffuse FUV at latitudes above 20°. The best fit model indicates an albedo, a, of 0.62 ± 0.04 and a scattering asymmetry function, g, of 0.78 ± 0.05. Deviations from the model fit may indicate regions of excess FUV emission from fluorescence or shock fronts, while low latitude regions with depressed FUV emission are likely the result of self-shielding dusty clouds.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Effect of superbanana diffusion on fusion reactivity in stellarators

Fusion reactivity is usually obtained using a Maxwellian distribution. However, energy-dependent radial diffusion can modify the energy distribution. Superbanana diffusion is energy-dependent and occurs in nonaxisymmetric magnetic confinement devices, such as stellarators, because of ripple-trapped particles which can take large steps between collisions. In this paper, the D-T fusion reactivity is calculated using a non-Maxwellian energy distribution obtained by solving the Fokker-Planck equation numerically, including radial superbanana diffusion as well as energy scattering. The ions in the tail of the distribution, with energies larger than thermal, which are most needed for fusion, are depleted by superbanana diffusion. In this paper, it is shown that the D-T fusion reactivity is reduced by tail ion depletion due to superbanana diffusion, by roughly a factor of 0.5 for the parameters used in the calculation.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Cosmic Rays in Intermittent Magnetic Fields

The propagation of cosmic rays in turbulent magnetic fields is a diffusive process driven by the scattering of the charged particles by random magnetic fluctuations. Such fields are usually highly intermittent, consisting of intense magnetic filaments and ribbons surrounded by weaker, unstructured fluctuations. Studies of cosmic-ray propagation have largely overlooked intermittency, instead adopting Gaussian random magnetic fields. Using test particle simulations, we calculate cosmic-ray diffusivity in intermittent, dynamo-generated magnetic fields. The results are compared with those obtained from non-intermittent magnetic fields having identical power spectra. The presence of magnetic intermittency significantly enhances cosmic-ray diffusion over a wide range of particle energies. We demonstrate that the results can be interpreted in terms of a correlated random walk.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Scattered-light uniformity imager for diagnosing laser absorption asymmetries on OMEGA

Light scattered from a target is the most-direct measurement for diagnosing laser absorption in a direct-drive implosion. Observations from OMEGA implosions show much larger scattered-light asymmetries than predictions. A new instrument has been developed to absolutely measure the scattered-light intensity and nonuniformity for the purpose of diagnosing the asymmetry. The scattered-light uniformity imager (SLUI) diagnostic records the variation in scattered-light intensity over a transmission diffuser using a charge-coupled device (CCD)/lens assembly. At the standard operating position, an 11.3° (f/2.5) cone of light is collected. A stray light baffle, debris shield, and antireflection absorbing filter are also incorporated into the diagnostic payload inserted into the target chamber. The imaging parts of the diagnostic (light baffle, vacuum window, filters, lens, and CCD camera) are located outside the target chamber. Five SLUIs have been built and deployed in OMEGA’s ten-inch manipulator diagnostic ports, covering almost 5% of the emission surface, enabling an absolute scattered-light measurement should be within a few percent of the global average. Each SLUI system is calibrated offline, providing absolute scattered-light intensity measurements. Based on the measured point spread function, each diffuser plate image contains over 20 000 independent scattered-light absolute-intensity measurements of the variation over the collection cone. SLUI provides a platform to study scattered light and absorption asymmetries, and their possible sources.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Ballistic-diffusive phonon heat transport across grain boundaries

The propagation of a heat pulse in a single crystal and across grain boundaries (GBs) is simulated here using a concurrent atomistic-continuum method furnished with a coherent phonon pulse model. With a heat pulse constructed based on a Bose-Einstein distribution of phonons, this work has reproduced the phenomenon of phonon focusing in single and polycrystalline materials. Simulation results provide visual evidence that the propagation of a heat pulse in crystalline solids with or without GBs is partially ballistic and partially diffusive, i.e., there is a co-existence of ballistic and diffusive thermal transport, with the long-wavelength phonons traveling ballistically while the short-wavelength phonons scatter with each other and travel diffusively. To gain a quantitative understanding of GB thermal resistance, the kinetic energy transmitted across GBs is monitored on the fly and the time-dependent energy transmission for each specimen is measured; the contributions of coherent and incoherent phonon transport to the energy transmission are estimated. Simulation results reveal that the presence of GBs modifies the nature of thermal transport, with the coherent long-wavelength phonons dominating the heat conduction in materials with GBs. In addition, it is found that phonon-GB interactions can result in reconstruction of GBs.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗