Effects of low energy protons and high energy electrons on silicon
Low energy proton and high energy electron radiation effects on silicon solar cells
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Low energy proton and high energy electron radiation effects on silicon solar cells
Inactive components and safety hazards are two critical challenges in realizing high-energy lithium-ion batteries. Metal foil current collectors with high density are typically an integrated part of lithium-ion batteries yet deliver no capacity. Meanwhile, high-energy batteries can entail increased fire safety issues. Here we report a composite current collector design that simultaneously minimizes the ‘dead weight’ within the cell and improves fire safety. An ultralight polyimide-based current collector (9 μm thick, specific mass 1.54 mg cm-2) is prepared by sandwiching a polyimide embedded with triphenyl phosphate flame retardant between two superthin Cu layers (~500 nm). Compared to lithium-ion batteries assembled with the thinnest commercial metal foil current collectors (~6 µm), batteries equipped with our composite current collectors can realize a 16-26% improvement in specific energy and rapidly self-extinguish fires under extreme conditions such as short circuits and thermal runaway.
The objective of this research is to design a portable neutron detector that is lightweight and responds to neutrons with energies of 20 MeV and greater. The instrument will be used as a ‘sniffer’ probe for identifying shielding weaknesses at high-energy particle accelerators and be paired with a plastic scintillator to quantify the high-energy neutron dose equivalent. The sniffer probes are two different sizes and comprised of either cesium iodide or sodium iodide, all doped with thallium, making a total of four detectors. The probes were calibrated to respond only to radiations with 8 MeV electron equivalent energy or higher, vastly reducing detector response from background and lower energy radiations. The sniffer probes were tested using californium- 252 and americium-beryllium sources, followed by high-energy (up to 800 MeV) neutron exposures at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center Weapons Neutron Research (WNR) facility. The sniffer probes were then used to identify areas around the accelerator facility where elevated levels of high-energy radiation was present and the plastic scintillators were placed in these locations to determine the high-energy neutron dose equivalent. The dose equivalent is calculated by measuring the 12 C(n,2n) 11 C reaction, which has a 20.4 MeV neutron threshold. Two locations behind the WNR facility were identified with the probes and the dose equivalent rates from neutron energies above 20 MeV were calculated to be 1.24 mrem/h behind flightpath 30-left and 1.53 behind flightpath 30-right. Of the four sniffer probes, the 2-inch x 2-inch cesium iodide is the recommended probe for performing high-energy shielding surveys. The larger crystal size yields higher sensitivity at lower count rates and the more dense material increases the likelihood of interaction within the crystal.
High-energy processes, involving a rich variety of accelerated particle phenomena, lie at the core of the solar flare problem. The most direct manifestation of these processes are high-energy radiations, gamma rays, hard X-rays and neutrons, as well as the accelerated particles themselves, which can be detected in interplanetary space. In the study of astrophysics from the moon, the understanding of these processes should have great importance. The inner solar system environment is strongly influenced by activity on the sun; the physics of solar flares is of great intrinsic interest; and much high-energy astrophysics can be learned from investigations of flare physics at high energies.
The development of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell power plants with high energy efficiencies and high power densities is gaining momentum because of the vital need of such high levels of performance for extraterrestrial (space, underwater) and terrestrial (power source for electric vehicles) applications. Since 1987, considerable progress has been made in achieving energy efficiencies of about 60 percent at a current density of 200 mA/sq cm and high power densities (greater than 1 W/sq cm) in PEM fuel cells with high (4 mg/sq cm) or low (0.4 mg/sq cm) platinum loadings in electrodes. The following areas are discussed: (1) methods to obtain these high levels of performance with low Pt loading electrodes - by proton conductor impregnation into electrodes, localization of Pt near front surface; (2) a novel microelectrode technique which yields electrode kinetic parameters for oxygen reduction and mass transport parameters; (3) demonstration of lack of water transport from anode to cathode; (4) modeling analysis of PEM fuel cell for comparison with experimental results and predicting further improvements in performance; and (5) recommendations of needed research and development for achieving the above goals.
The lithium–sulfur (Li–S) battery is a promising next-generation energy storage technology because of its high theoretical energy and low cost. Extensive research efforts have been made on new materials and advanced characterization techniques for mechanistic studies. However, it is uncertain how discoveries made on the material level apply to realistic batteries due to limited analysis and characterization of real high-energy cells, such as pouch cells. Evaluation of pouch cells (>1 A h) (instead of coin cells) that are scalable to practical cells provides a critical understanding of current limitations which enables the proposal of strategies and solutions for further performance improvement. Herein, we design and fabricate pouch cells over 300 W h kg -1 , compare the cell parameters required for high-energy pouch cells, and investigate the reaction processes and their correlation to cell cycling behavior and failure mechanisms. Spatially resolved characterization techniques and fluid-flow simulation reveal the impacts of the liquid electrolyte diffusion within the pouch cells. We found that catastrophic failure of high-energy Li–S pouch cells results from uneven sulfur/polysulfide reactions and electrolyte depletion for the first tens of cycles, rather than sulfur dissolution as commonly reported in the literature. The uneven reaction stems from limited electrolyte diffusion through the porous channels into the central part of thick cathodes during cycling, which is amplified both across the sulfur electrodes and within the same electrode plane. A combination of strategies is suggested to increase sulfur utilization, improve nanoarchitectures for electrolyte diffusion and reduce consumption of the electrolytes and additives.
Electron multiplier and pulse counting recorder for detection of low energy particles and high energy photons
Vibrational energy transfer in high energy molecular collisions - time-dependent wave function evaluation of transition probabilities for forced harmonic oscillator
Focusing on high energy neutrinos ( or = 1 TeV), a new calculation of atmospheric neutrino intensities was carried out taking into account EMC effects observed in P-A collisions by accelerator, recent measurement of primary cosmic ray spectrum and results of cosmic ray muon spectrum and charge ratio. Other features of the present calculation are (1) taking into account kinematics of three body decays of kaons and charm particles in diffusion equations and (2) taking into account energy dependence of kaon production.
<h1 id="summary">Summary</h1> <p>Title: Data Release for A search for extremely-high-energy neutrinos and first constraints on the ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray proton fraction with IceCube</p> <p>The IceCube observatory analyzed 12.6 years of data in search of extremely-high-energy (EHE) neutrinos above 5 PeV. The resultant limit of the search (Fig 1), and the effective area of the event selection (Fig 7), are provided in this data release.</p> <h1 id="contents">Contents</h1> <ul> <li><p>README file: this file</p> </li> <li><p><code>differential_limit_and_sensitivity.csv</code>: a comma separated value file, giving the observed experimental differential limit, and sensitivity, of the search as a function of neutrino energy. This is the content of Fig 1 in the paper. The first column is the neutrino energy in GeV. The second column is the limit in units of GeV/cm2/s/sr. The third column is the sensitivity in units of GeV/cm2/s/sr.</p> </li> <li><p><code>effective_area.csv</code>: a comma separated value file, giving the effective area of the search as a function of energy. This is the content of Fig 7 in the paper. The first column is the neutrino energy in GeV. The second column is the total effective area of the search, summed across neutrino flavors, and averaged across neutrinos and antineutrinos, in meters-squared. The third column is the effective area of the search for the average of electron neutrino and electron antineutrinos in units of meters-squared. The fourth column is the same as the third, but for muon-flavor neutrinos. The fifth column is the same as the third and fourth, but for tau-flavor neutrinos.</p> </li> <li><p><code>demo.py</code>: a short python script to demonstrate how to read the files. Run like <code>python demo.py</code>. A standard base python installation is sufficient, as the only dependencies are numpy and matplotlib.</p> </li> </ul> <h1 id="contacts">Contacts</h1> <p>For any questions about this data release, please write to analysis@icecube.wisc.edu</p>
High energy astrophysics is a space-age discipline that has taken a quantum leap forward in the 1990s. The observables are photons and particles that are unable to penetrate the atmosphere and can only be observed from space or very high altitude balloons. The lectures presented as chapters of this book are based on the results from the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO) and Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA) missions to which the Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center made significant hardware contributions. These missions study emissions from very hot plasmas, nuclear processes, and high energy particle interactions in space. Results to be discussed include gamma-ray beaming from active galactic nuclei (AGN), gamma-ray emission from pulsars, radioactive elements in the interstellar medium, X-ray emission from clusters of galaxies, and the progress being made to unravel the gamma-ray burst mystery. The recently launched X-ray Timing Explorer (XTE) and prospects for upcoming Astro-E and Advanced X-ray Astronomy Satellite (AXAF) missions are also discussed.
The high energy electron spectrum analysis has shown that the electron intensity inside the H2 cloud region, or in a spiral arm, should be much lower than that outside it and the observed electron energy spectrum should flatten again at about 1 TeV. In the framework of the leady box model the recently established rigidity dependence of the escape pathlength of cosmic rays would predict a high energy electron spectrum which is flatter than the observed one. This divergence is explained by assuming that the leaky box model can only apply to cosmic ray heavy nuclei, and light nuclei and electrons in cosmic rays may have different behaviors in the interstellar propagation. Therefore, the measured data on high energy electrons should be analyzed based on the proposed nonuniform galactic disk (NUGD) mode.
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Polar-direct-drive implosions at the National Ignition Facility generated large plasma volumes to study the 3He + 3He fusion reaction. The ion temperature, which determines the Gamow peak energy, was constrained by isolating the thermal contribution to the D3He-proton spectral width in a 3He plasma doped with deuterium. X-ray penumbral imaging was used to measure electron temperature, density, and hotspot volume, which was subsequently used to model the spectral broadening from plasma stopping power. Results showed 30% of the D3He-proton spectral width was due to stopping power, with residual flows contributing ≈10%. The 3He temperature was determined as T3He = 12.4 ± 3.2 keV, corresponding to a Gamow energy of 95 ± 14 keV. These experiments achieved the lowest Gamow energy to date for studying 3He + 3He fusion in high energy density plasma, approaching conditions in the Sun.
The CCSD(T) method has been used to compute a highly accurate quartic force field and fundamental frequencies for all N-14 and N-15 isotopomers of the high energy density material T(sub d)N(sub 4). The computed fundamental frequencies show beyond doubt that the bands observed in a matrix isolation experiment by Radziszewski and coworkers are not due to different isotopomers of T(sub d)N(sub 4). The most sophisticated thermochemical calculations to date yield a N(sub 4) -> 2N(sub 2) heat of reaction of 182.22 +/- 0.5 kcal/mol at 0 K (180.64 +/- 0.5 at 298 K). It is hoped that the data reported herein will aid in the ultimate detection of T(sub d)N(sub 4).
Energy level defects in n- and p-type silicon due to high energy protons, and comparison with electron damage
High-energy particle resonances can modify particle distributions and even cause significant particle loss. Resonances can be present in any toroidal confinement device and can easily be found numerically. Many stellarators have weak magnetic shear so that large islands and large chaotic regions can be produced by resonant perturbations with small amplitudes. Additionally, while the choice of the field line helicity profile in the plasma can limit the presence of resonances at low particle energy, the resonance location is energy-dependent, and they can move into the plasma at higher energy. If resonances match the toroidal variation of the equilibrium, they can produce wide islands in the phase space of orbits even in the absence of perturbations due to instabilities. These islands increase in size with particle energy and can seriously affect the confinement of high-energy ions.
Tidal disruption events (TDEs) have been proposed as candidate sources of high-energy neutrinos. Successful and choked jets, as well as the accretion disk, corona, wind, and outflow regions in a TDE have been examined and shown to produce TeV - PeV neutrinos. In this work, we use the IceCube 12.5 year high energy starting events (HESE) dataset and perform a maximum likelihood analysis to investigate the spatial and temporal correlations between HESE dataset and a selected sample of 89 TDEs. Our results indicate that the currently observed data do not show any significant correlation and hence is consistent with the background only hypothesis. Using this result, we place constraints on the fraction of TDEs harboring intrinsic jets ($f_{\rm jet}$) and the corresponding isotropic-equivalent cosmic ray (CR) energy ($\mathcal{E}_{\rm CR}$). We note that even with limited statistics, we can constrain the parameter space as $\mathcal{E}_{\rm CR} \lesssim 3 \times 10^{53}$ erg for $f_{\rm jet} \gtrsim 0.6$ at more than 90% C.L. Finally, we discuss the theoretical implications of our results and the limits on the all-sky diffuse neutrino flux from TDEs. With more observational data in the electromagnetic band for TDEs and neutrino observations from IceCube and KM3NeT, our analysis can be used to place stringent constraints on physical parameters associated with TDEs.