Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “sharp transition”

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 505 records · Page 28
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Switching speed limits in electrically driven VO 2 structural Mott–Peierls transition

Mott materials are archetypal quantum systems actively explored as next-generation electronic and photonic platforms, with potential applications spanning non-Von Neumann computing, robotics, energy storage, and microwave technologies. Among these, vanadium dioxide (VO 2 ) has emerged as one of the most intensively studied compounds, owing to its sharp, near-room-temperature insulator-to-metal phase transition. VO 2 also serves as a benchmark system for testing cutting-edge theories and experimental techniques. Here, we directly visualize the electrically driven transition dynamics in VO 2 using a microwave-driven, frequency-tunable pulsed transmission electron microscope that combines nanometer spatial and picosecond temporal resolution. Under high-frequency (MHz–GHz) excitation, we capture the ultrafast nucleation, propagation, and dissolution of metallic domains within an operating device over millions of reversible cycles. We observe the ultrafast formation of consistent metallic nuclei beneath the electrodes, followed by the propagation of a structural phase front at 4.54 nm/ns. Our experiments show that phonon-mediated structural recovery ultimately limits reversible switching of VO 2 at GHz frequencies, and that a tunable regime for reversible operation spans from kHz to GHz through device engineering. Beyond VO 2 , our approach provides a powerful framework for probing non-equilibrium structural transformations in correlated and functional materials under realistic electrical stimuli.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS1995

Magnetic reconnection in the presence of sheared flow and density asymmetry: Applications to the Earth's magnetopause

Classical models of magnetic reconnection consist of a small diffusion region bounded by two symmetric slow shocks, across which the plasma is accelerated. Asymmetries often present in space plasmas are sheared plasma flow and dissimilar plasma densities on the two sides of current sheets. In this paper, we investigate magnetic reconnection in the presence of a shear flow and an asymmetric density across the current sheet using two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations. The results demonstrate that magnetic reconnection can occur only for a plasma flow velocity (in the frame of the X line) which is below the Alfven speed in each inflow region. This limits the velocity of the X line to a certain range for a given flow shear and provides an upper limit to the total velocity shear at which reconnection ceases to operate. Depending on the direction of the flow in the adjacent inflow region, the effects from the sheared flow and from the density asymmetry will compete with or enhance each other in respect to the magnitude and location of the currents which bound the outflow regions. The results are applied to the dayside and flank regions of the magnetosphere. For the dayside region where the magnetosheath flow is slow, the magnetic field transition region is thin and the accelerated flow is earthward of the sharp current layer (magnetopause). At the flanks tailward of the X line, shear flow and density asymmetry effects compete making the magnetic field transition layer broad with the high-speed flow contained within the transition region which explains corresponding observations. At the flanks sunward of the X line, shear flow and density asymmetry effects enhance each other and lead to a strong current sheet on the magnetosheath side of the accelerated flow. The total volume affected by magnetic reconnection is much larger than the steady state region. A large bulge region precedes the steady state region. Qualitatively, the bulge and the steady state region have similar signatures and both can explain observations. We provide criteria in order to distinguish between the bulge and the steady state region in observations.

La Belle-Hamer, A. L.↗
DOE OSTI2014

Self-regulated growth and tunable properties of CuSbS 2 solar absorbers

Polycrystalline thin film copper chalcogenide solar cells show remarkable efficiencies, and analogous but less-explored semiconducting materials may hold similar promise. With consideration of elemental abundance and process scalability, we explore the potential of the Cu–Sb–S material system for photovoltaic applications. Using a high-throughput combinatorial approach, Cu–Sb–S libraries were synthesized by magnetron co-sputtering of Cu 2 S and Sb 2 S 3 targets and evaluated by a suite of spatially resolved characterization techniques. The resulting compounds include Cu 1.8 S (digenite), Cu 12 Sb 4 S 13 (tetrahedrite), CuSbS 2 (chalcostibite), and Sb 2 S 3 (stibnite). Of the two ternary phases synthesized, CuSbS 2 was found to have the most potential, however, when deposited at low temperatures its electrical conductivity varied by several orders of magnitude due to the presence of impurities. To address this issue, we developed a self-regulated approach to synthesize stoichiometric CuSbS 2 films using excess Sb 2 S 3 vapor at elevated substrate temperatures. Theoretical calculations explain that phase-pure CuSbS2 is expected to be formed over a relatively wide range of temperatures and pressures, bound by the sublimation of Sb2S3 and decomposition of CuSbS2. The carrier concentration of CuSbS 2 films produced within this regime was tunable from 10 16 – 10 18 cm –3 through appropriate control of Sb 2 S 3 flux rate and substrate temperature. CuSbS 2 displayed a sharp optical absorption onset indicative of a direct transition at 1.5 eV and an absorption coefficient of 10 5 cm −1 within 0.3 eV of the onset. Furthermore, the results of this study suggest that CuSbS 2 holds promise for solar energy conversion due to its tolerant processing window, tunable carrier concentration, solar-matched band gap, and high absorption coefficient.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

A high accuracy femto-/picosecond laser damage test facility dedicated to the study of optical thin films

A laser damage test facility delivering pulses from 100 fs to 3 ps and designed to operate at 1030 nm is presented. The different details of its implementation and performances are given. The originality of this system relies the online damage detection system based on Nomarski microscopy and the use of a non-conventional energy detection method based on the utilization of a cooled CCD that offers the possibility to obtain the laser induced damage threshold (LIDT) with high accuracy. Applications of this instrument to study thin films under laser irradiation are presented. Particularly the deterministic behavior of the sub-picosecond damage is investigated in the case of fused silica and oxide films. It is demonstrated that the transition of 0-1 damage probability is very sharp and the LIDT is perfectly deterministic at few hundreds of femtoseconds. The damage process in dielectric materials being the results of electronic processes, specific information such as the material bandgap is needed for the interpretation of results and applications of scaling laws. A review of the different approaches for the estimation of the absorption gap of optical dielectric coatings is conducted and the results given by the different methods are compared and discussed. The LIDT and gap of several oxide materials are then measured with the presented instrument: Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}, Nb{sub 2}O{sub 5}, HfO{sub 2}, SiO{sub 2}, Ta{sub 2}O{sub 5}, and ZrO{sub 2}. The obtained relation between the LIDT and gap at 1030 nm confirms the linear evolution of the threshold with the bandgap that exists at 800 nm, and our work expands the number of tested materials.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2014

Low field magnetoresistance of gadolinium nanowire

We report low field (μ{sub 0}H < 0.2 T) magnetoresistance (MR) studies on a single Gd nanowire patterned from a nano-structured film (average grain size ∼ 35 nm) by focused ion beam. For comparison, we did similar MR measurements on a polycrystalline sample with large crystallographic grains (∼4 μm). It is observed that in the low field region where the MR is due to motion of magnetic domains, the MR in the large grained sample shows a close relation to the characteristic temperature dependent magnetocrystalline anisotropy including a sharp rise in MR at the spin reorientation transition at 235 K. In stark contrast, in the nanowire, the MR shows complete suppression of the above behaviours and it shows predominance of the grain boundary and spin disorder controlling the domain response.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Thermal annealing effects on ultra-violet luminescence properties of Gd doped AlN

We studied energy transfer from AlN to doped Gd{sup 3+} ions as a function of the post-thermal annealing temperature. Gd-doped AlN thin films were deposited on fused-silica substrates using a reactive radio-frequency magnetron sputtering technique. The film is a c-axis oriented polycrystal. The intra-orbital electron transition in Gd{sup 3+} showed an atomically sharp luminescence at 3.9 eV (318 nm). The photoluminescence (PL) excitation spectrum exhibited a resonant peak, indicating efficient energy transfer from the host AlN crystal to Gd{sup 3+} ions. The PL intensity increases approximately ten times by thermal annealing. The PL decay lifetime becomes long with annealing, and mid-gap luminescence relating to the crystal defects in AlN was also found to be reduced by annealing. These results suggest that energy dissipation of excited carriers in AlN was suppressed by annealing, and the efficiency of energy transfer into Gd{sup 3+} was improved.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Neutron detection using a current biased kinetic inductance detector

We demonstrate neutron detection using a solid state superconducting current biased kinetic inductance detector (CB-KID), which consists of a superconducting Nb meander line of 1 μm width and 40 nm thickness. {sup 10}B-enriched neutron absorber layer of 150 nm thickness is placed on top of the CB-KID. Our neutron detectors are able to operate in a wide superconducting region in the bias current–temperature diagram. This is in sharp contrast with our preceding current-biased transition edge detector, which can operate only in a narrow range just below the superconducting critical temperature. The full width at half maximum of the signals remains of the order of a few tens of ns, which confirms the high speed operation of our detectors.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2019

On the Band Structure of Bi 2 Te 3

For p-Bi 2 Te 3 crystals grown by the Czochralski method, the temperature dependences of the conductivity, Hall coefficient, thermoelectric power (α), and transverse Nernst–Ettingshausen coefficient are obtained experimentally in the temperature range 77–450 K. The transmittance spectrum in the range 400–5250 cm -1 is recorded at room temperature. It is shown that, to interpret the temperature dependences of the scattering parameter r and the ratio of the thermoelectric power to temperature (α/T), it is essential to take into account the complex valence-band structure and the contribution of heavy holes to transport phenomena. Estimations of the energy band parameters in the context of the two-band model give a hole effective mass close to the free electron mass and the energy gap between nonequivalent extrema at a level of several hundredths of eV. In the absorption spectrum derived from the transmittance spectrum, a sharp increase in absorption defined by indirect interband transitions with the band gap E g ≈ 0.14 eV is observed in the region of frequencies ν ≥ 1000 cm -1 . The absorption spectrum calculated from the reflectance data using the Kramers–Kronig relations is in agreement with the experimental absorption spectrum.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2018

Effect of Sequential Heat Impacts on the Formation of a Stable State of the xLPM–(1 – x)PT Multiferroic Composites

The effect of thermal cycling and sintering temperature on the chemical and thermodynamic stability of the bulk multiferroic xLa{sub 0.7}Pb{sub 0.3}MnO{sub 3}–(1 – x)PbTiO{sub 3} quasi-ceramic and ceramic composites has been experimentally investigated. It is shown that the limiting temperature of the long-term sample firing should not exceed 1070 K. It has been found that sintering at this temperature and/or short-term exposure of the samples at higher temperatures (up to 1220 K) significantly increase the sample compactness, stabilize the thermal expansion, and enhance the quality of the composites. It has been established that the component grain integrity is violated by shrinkage of the samples and a sharp change in their volume during the phase transition of a ferroelectric component.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2021

Quantifying experimental edge plasma evolution via multidimensional adaptive Gaussian process regression

The edge density and temperature of tokamak plasmas are strongly correlated with energy and particle confinement and their quantification is fundamental to understanding edge dynamics. These quantities exhibit behaviours ranging from sharp plasma gradients and fast transient phenomena (e.g. transitions between low and high confinement regimes) to nominal stationary phases. Analysis of experimental edge measurements therefore require robust fitting techniques to capture potentially stiff spatiotemporal evolution. Additionally, fusion plasma diagnostics inevitably involve measurement errors and data analysis requires a statistical framework to accurately quantify uncertainties. This paper outlines a generalized multidimensional adaptive Gaussian process routine capable of automatically handling noisy data and spatiotemporal correlations. We focus on the edge-pedestal region in order to underline advancements in quantifying time-dependent plasma profiles including transport barrier formation on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1975

Resonance line transfer with partial redistribution. IV - A generalized formulation for lines with common upper states. V - The solar Ca II lines

A generalized formulation is given for treating partial redistribution effects in transfer problems in resonance lines with common upper states. The formulation allows explicitly for the possibility that several spectral lines may arise in transitions from a given upper level to several sharp lower levels, including, for example, the ground state and metastable states. Line profiles for the Ca II H and K lines have been calculated, accounting for the partial frequency coherence of scattered photons. These profiles are compared with calculations made with identical atomic and atmospheric models but assuming complete redistribution. Very significant differences between the profiles obtained using these two different physical descriptions of the scattering process are found, and it is now apparent that the assumption of complete redistribution is a serious oversimplification of the actual physical situation. The results question the validity of equating brightness temperatures observed at K(sub 1) in stellar spectra with minimum temperatures in stellar chromospheres; it appears likely that such a procedure will systematically underestimate the value of T-min.

Milkey, R. W.↗
NASA NTRS1975

The temperature structure and pressure balance of magnetic loops in active regions

EUV observations show many active region loops in lines formed at temperatures between 10,000 and 2,000,000 K. The brightest loops are associated with flux tubes leading to the umbrae of sunspots. It is shown that the high visibility of certain loops in transition region lines is due principally to a sharp radial decrease of temperature to chromospheric values toward the loop axis. The plasma density of these cool loops is not significantly greater than in the hot gas immediately surrounding it. Consequently, the internal gas pressure of the cool material is clearly lower. The hot material immediately surrounding the cool loops is generally denser than the external corona by a factor 3-4. When the active region is examined in coronal lines, this hot high pressure plasma shows up as loops that are generally parallel to the cool loops but significantly displaced laterally.

Foukal, P.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Vibronic spectra of Cu(2+) in ZnTe

Infrared-absorption spectra of substitutional Cu(2+) ions in ZnTe have been measured at 4.6 K. Several distinct absorption peaks are observed between 800 and 2000/cm. Absorption peaks at 1002 and 1069/cm are identified as zero-phonon lines arising from 2T2-2E transitions. Between 1069 and 2000/cm, several sets of sharp absorption lines are seen to recur regularly at an interval of 210/cm, corresponding to the LO phonon energy. Within each set distinct vibronic sidebands that cannot be identified with critical-point energies of TA, LA, TO or LO phonon modes are observed. A dynamic Jahn-Teller effect, involving coupling between a single-phonon mode and the electronic states of the 2E level, is proposed to account for the observed spectra.

Volz, M. P.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Gas density structure of supersonic flows impinged on by thin blades for laser-plasma accelerator targets

Density transition injection is an effective technique for controllably loading electrons into a trapped phase for laser plasma accelerators. One common technique to achieve the required fluid structure is to impinge a thin blade on the plume of a supersonic nozzle. Density transitions induced in this way are often assumed to be bow shocks and therefore sharp, but simulations and fluorescence measurements presented in this work show that in many cases of interest, the density transition accessible to a laser propagating transverse to the shock is an intercepting shock, and therefore, shock thickness and density vary with pressure, laser height, and blade position. The fluid dynamics of a supersonic nozzle impinged on by a thin, flat object are explored through simulations and relevant features are verified via planar laser-induced fluorescence measurements. Overall, the implications of the results for tuning electron beam injectors in laser plasma accelerators are discussed.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS1990

Comparison of two transition models

Two transition functions, one given by Arnal, Coustols and Juillen and the other by Narasimha, are incorporated into a boundary layer program along with an otherwise conventional Baldwin-Lomax turbulence model. Calculations are performed for incompressible flow past a flat plate and compressible flow past a sharp cone at Mach 6 from the leading edge through transition to the fully turbulent state. Results from these calculations are compared with the available experimental data.

Dinavahi, Surya P. G.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Electrical Detection of Single-Domain Néel Vector Reorientation across the Spin–Flop Transition in Cr 2 O 3 Crystals

Electrical transport measurements in heterostructures of antiferromagnetic Cr 2 O 3 bulk crystals and a thin Pt layer exhibit sharp responses as the Néel vector of Cr 2 O 3 undergoes the spin−flop transition. This abrupt change can arise from several distinct mechanisms including magnetostriction, proximity-induced anomalous Hall, spin Hall anomalous Hall, and spin Hall planar Hall effects. While large Pt devices sensing multiple up/ down domains can produce indistinguishable Hall signal jumps due to different initial Néel vector orientations, smaller Pt devices that sense single domains isolate the proximity-induced Hall signals. This allows direct electrical detection of Néel vector reorientation across the spin−flop transition in single-domain regions. Furthermore, the single-domain state can be prepared by magnetic field cooling or magnetoelectric cooling. We demonstrate a method to control and characterize the three-dimensional orientation of single-domain Néel vectors by exploiting Hall measurements and cooling techniques, crucial for future antiferromagnetic spintronic applications.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

A study of the shortest-period planets found with Kepler

We present the results of a survey aimed at discovering and studying transiting planets with orbital periods shorter than one day (ultra-short-period, or USP, planets), using data from the Kepler spacecraft. We computed Fourier transforms of the photometric time series for all 200,000 target stars, and detected transit signals based on the presence of regularly spaced sharp peaks in the Fourier spectrum. We present a list of 106 USP candidates, of which 18 have not previously been described in the literature. This list of candidates increases the number of planet candidates with orbital periods shorter than about six hours from two to seven. In addition, among the objects we studied, there are 26 USP candidates that had been previously reported in the literature which do not pass our various tests. All 106 of our candidates have passed several standard tests to rule out false positives due to eclipsing stellar systems. A low false positive rate is also implied by the relatively high fraction of candidates for which more than one transiting planet signal was detected. By assuming these multi-transit candidates represent coplanar multi-planet systems, we are able to infer that the USP planets are typically accompanied by other planets with periods in the range 1-50 days, in contrast with hot Jupiters which very rarely have companions in that same period range. Another clear pattern is that almost all USP planets are smaller than 2 R {sub ⊕}, possibly because gas giants in very tight orbits would lose their atmospheres by photoevaporation when subject to extremely strong stellar irradiation. Based on our survey statistics, USP planets exist around approximately (0.51 ± 0.07)% of G-dwarf stars, and (0.83 ± 0.18)% of K-dwarf stars.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗