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At least 577 records · Page 32

Approach and rotation of reconnecting topological defect lines in liquid crystal

Topological defects are a universal concept across many disciplines, such as crystallography, liquid-crystalline physics, low-temperature physics, cosmology, and even biology. In nematic liquid crystals, topological defects called disclinations have been widely studied. For their three-dimensional (3D) dynamics, however, only recently have theoretical approaches dealing with fully 3D configurations been reported. Further, recent experiments have observed 3D disclination line reconnections, a phenomenon characteristic of defect line dynamics, but detailed discussions were limited to the case of approximately parallel defects. In this paper, we focus on the case of two disclination lines that approach at finite angles and lie in separate planes, a more fundamentally 3D reconnection configuration. Observing and analyzing such reconnection events, we find the square-root law of the distance between disclinations and the decrease of the interdisclination angle over time. We compare the experimental results with theory and find qualitative agreement on the scaling of distance and angle with time, but quantitative disagreement on distance and angle relative mobilities. To probe this disagreement, we derive the equations of motion for systems with reduced twist constant and also carry out simulations for this case. These, together with the experimental results, suggest that deformations of disclinations may be responsible for the disagreement. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Approach and rotation of reconnecting topological defect lines in liquid crystal

Topological defects are a universal concept across many disciplines, such as crystallography, liquid-crystalline physics, low-temperature physics, cosmology, and even biology. In nematic liquid crystals, topological defects called disclinations have been widely studied. For their three-dimensional (3D) dynamics, however, only recently have theoretical approaches dealing with fully 3D configurations been reported. Further, recent experiments have observed 3D disclination line reconnections, a phenomenon characteristic of defect line dynamics, but detailed discussions were limited to the case of approximately parallel defects. In this paper, we focus on the case of two disclination lines that approach at finite angles and lie in separate planes, a more fundamentally 3D reconnection configuration. Observing and analyzing such reconnection events, we find the square-root law of the distance between disclinations and the decrease of the interdisclination angle over time. We compare the experimental results with theory and find qualitative agreement on the scaling of distance and angle with time, but quantitative disagreement on distance and angle relative mobilities. To probe this disagreement, we derive the equations of motion for systems with reduced twist constant and also carry out simulations for this case. These, together with the experimental results, suggest that deformations of disclinations may be responsible for the disagreement.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

HELICAL MAGNETIC FIELDS IN THE NGC 1333 IRAS 4A PROTOSTELLAR OUTFLOWS

We present Submillimeter Array polarization observations of the CO J = 3–2 line toward NGC 1333 IRAS 4A. The CO Stokes I maps at an angular resolution of ∼1″ reveal two bipolar outflows from the binary sources of NGC 1333 IRAS 4A. The kinematic features of the CO emission can be modeled by wind-driven outflows at ∼20° inclined from the plane of the sky. Close to the protostars the CO polarization, at an angular resolution of ∼2.″3, has a position angle approximately parallel to the magnetic field direction inferred from the dust polarizations. The CO polarization direction appears to vary smoothly from an hourglass field around the core to an arc-like morphology wrapping around the outflow, suggesting a helical structure of magnetic fields that inherits the poloidal fields at the launching point and consists of toroidal fields at a farther distance of outflow. The helical magnetic field is consistent with the theoretical expectations for launching and collimating outflows from a magnetized rotating disk. Considering that the CO polarized emission is mainly contributed from the low-velocity and low-resolution data, the helical magnetic field is likely a product of the wind–envelope interaction in the wind-driven outflows. The CO data reveal a PA of ∼30° deflection in the outflows. The variation in the CO polarization angle seems to correlate with the deflections. We speculate that the helical magnetic field contributes to ∼10° deflection of the outflows by means of Lorentz force.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Neutron Diffraction Study of Parasitic Nd-Moment Order in the Checkerboard-Type Phase Nd 1.3 Sr 0.7 NiO 4

In this paper, the Nd-moment order in the layered nickelate Nd 2-x Sr x NiO 4 (x = 0.7) has been investigated by performing a neutron diffraction experiment using a single crystal sample. First, the checkerboard (CB)-type charge order was confirmed by observing the temperature dependence of the nuclear superlattice peak at Q=(5,0,0) between 1.9 and 300 K, which indicates that the transition temperature of the CB-type charge order is above 300 K. Magnetic superlattice peaks with the propagation vector k=(1-ε,0,1) appear below 67 K, and the value of ε was determined to be 0.455 in good agreement with previous studies. The intensity of the magnetic superlattice peaks appearing below 67 K shows a sharp increase below ≈20 K. This behavior indicates that the Nd moments freeze under the influence of the Ni ordering. The CB-type antiferromagnetic (AFM) Ni order in the NiO 2 layers is stacked antiferromagnetically in the c-axis direction, while the Nd moments in the Nd/SrO 2 layers are coupled antiferromagnetically with the Ni moments. Finally, the Nd moments are parallel to the c-axis, while the Ni moments are canted towards the c-axis direction from the basal ab-plane at low temperatures where the Nd moments are well ordered.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Light trapping architecture for photovoltaic and photodector applications

There is disclosed photovoltaic device structures which trap admitted light and recycle it through the contained photosensitive materials to maximize photoabsorption. For example, there is disclosed a photosensitive optoelectronic device comprising: a first reflective layer comprising a thermoplastic resin; a second reflective layer substantially parallel to the first reflective layer; a first transparent electrode layer on at least one of the first and second reflective layer; and a photosensitive region adjacent to the first electrode, wherein the first transparent electrode layer is substantially parallel to the first reflective layer and adjacent to the photosensitive region, and wherein the device has an exterior face transverse to the planes of the reflective layers where the exterior face has an aperture for admission of incident radiation to the interior of the device.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Systems and methods for reducing current and increasing voltage in thermoelectric systems

A thermoelectric assembly and method are provided. The thermoelectric assembly can extend at least partially around a perimeter of a first fluid conduit. The thermoelectric assembly can include a plurality of thermoelectric sub-assemblies aligned with one another along the perimeter of the first fluid conduit. Each thermoelectric sub-assembly can include a plurality of thermoelectric elements in parallel electrical communication with one another, and at least one shunt a plurality of electrically insulating elements to prevent current flow in a plane perpendicular to the first direction between adjacent thermoelectric sub-assemblies.

LaGrandeur, John↗

Utilization of outer-midplane collector probes with isotopically enriched tungsten tracer particles for impurity transport studies in the scrape-off layer of DIII-D (invited)

Triplet sets of replaceable graphite rod collector probes (CPs), each with collection surfaces on opposing faces and oriented normal to the magnetic field, were inserted at the outboard mid-plane of DIII-D to study divertor tungsten (W) transport in the Scrape-Off Layer (SOL). Each CP collects particles along field lines with different parallel sampling lengths (determined by the rod diameters and SOL transport) giving radial profiles from the main wall inward to R-R sep ~ 6 cm. The CPs were deployed in a first-of-a-kind experiment using two toroidal rings of distinguishable isotopically enriched, W-coated divertor tiles installed at 2 poloidal locations in the divertor. Post-mortem Rutherford backscatter spectrometry of the surface of the CPs provided areal density profiles of elemental W coverage. Higher W content was measured on the probe side facing along the field lines toward the inner target indicating higher concentration of W in the plasma upstream of the CP, even though the W-coated rings were in the outer target region of the divertor. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy validates the isotopic tracer technique through analysis of CPs exposed during L-mode discharges with the outer strike point on the isotopically enriched W coated-tile ring. The contribution from each divertor ring of W to the deposition profiles found on the mid-plane collector probes was able to be de-convoluted using a stable isotope mixing model. Furthermore the results provided quantitative information on the W source and transport from specific poloidal locations within the lower divertor region.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Au assisted smooth ultrathin epitaxial ZnO film grown by pulsed laser deposition on sapphire(0001)

High quality ZnO has applications in photonics and electronics. Literature has shown that continuous, but rough ZnO film can be grown on sapphire substrate by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). In this work, ZnO and Au were co-deposited by PLD on sapphire(0001) substrates from a single ZnO target overlaid with an Au strip that serves as a catalyst. The reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) patterns show paired double stripes from sample of ZnO-Au where the difference of in-plane lattice parameters between ZnO and Au is 11.4 %. The two-dimensional (2D) reciprocal space maps constructed from azimuthal RHEED (ARHEED) patterns reveal parallel epitaxial relationship between ZnO and Au in the continuous ZnO-Au film on sapphire substrate. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) cross section images and energy dispersive spectroscopy maps show a minute amount of Au nanocrystals distributed in the entire ultrathin ZnO film. Atomic force microscopy shows the root-mean-square roughness of the surface of ultrathin ZnO film with Au is in the sub-nm range. The ARHEED and TEM results show that a couple of atomic percentages of Au co-deposited with ZnO catalyzes the growth of smooth ultrathin epitaxial ZnO film.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Proximity induced vortices and long-range triplet supercurrents in ferromagnetic Josephson junctions and spin valves

Using a spin-parameterized quasiclassical Keldysh-Usadel technique, we theoretically study supercurrent transport in several types of diffusive ferromagnetic (F)/superconducting (S) configurations with differing magnetization textures. We separate out the even- and odd-frequency components of the supercurrent within the low proximity limit and identify the relative contributions from the singlet and triplet channels. We first consider inhomogeneous one-dimensional Josephson structures consisting of a uniform bilayer magnetic S/F/F/S structure and a trilayer S/F/F/F/S configuration, in which case the outer F layers can have either a uniform or conical texture relative to the central uniform F layer. Our results demonstrate that for supercurrents flowing perpendicular to the F/F interfaces, incorporating a conical texture yields the most effective way to observe the signatures of long-ranged spin-triplet supercurrents. We also consider three different types of finite-sized two-dimensional magnetic structures subjected to an applied magnetic field normal to the junction plane: a S/F/S junction with uniform magnetization texture and two S/F/F/S configurations with differing F/F bilayer arrangements. In one case, the F/F interface is parallel with the S/F junction interfaces while in the other case, the F/F junction is oriented perpendicular to the S/F interfaces. We then discuss the proximity vortices and corresponding spatial maps of currents inside the junctions. For the uniform S/F/S junction, we analytically calculate the magnetic field induced supercurrent and pair potential in both the narrow and wide junction regimes, thus providing insight into the variations in the Fraunhofer diffraction patterns and proximity vortices when transitioning from a wide junction to a narrow one. Our extensive computations demonstrate that the induced long-range spin-triplet supercurrents can deeply penetrate uniform F/F bilayers when spin-singlet supercurrents flow parallel to the F/F interfaces. This is in stark contrast to configurations where a spin-singlet supercurrent flows perpendicular to the F/F interfaces. We pinpoint the origin of the induced triplet and singlet correlations through spatial profiles of the decomposed total supercurrents. We find that the penetration of the long-range spin-triplet supercurrents associated with supercurrents flowing parallel to the F/F interfaces is more pronounced when the thicknesses of the F strips are unequal. Finally, if one of the S terminals is replaced with a finite-sized normal metal, we demonstrate that the corresponding experimentally accessible S/F/F/N spin valve presents an effective platform in which the predicted long-range effects can be effectively generated and probed.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Optical Spectra of Gamma-Irradiated LiF Crystals with Anisotropic Lithium Nanoparticles

The optical response of Li anisotropic defects and nanoparticles from three faces of cubic LiF crystals with 10-mm edges to γ radiation from a {sup 60}Со source with doses of 10{sup 5}–10{sup 9} R at 320 K in air is studied. After a maximum dose of 10{sup 9} R, scanning electron microscopy revealed submicron metal lithium flakes ordered into long parallel nanofilaments. The resonance absorption band, which shifts from 272 to 295 nm with increasing dose, is assigned to lithium nanocolloids in the (110) plane. The band at 202–225 nm observed only from the (100) face narrows at doses below 10{sup 5} R and is assigned to diatomic fluorine molecules in interstitial sites. The appearance of the 209–212–215-nm triplets at 2.7 × 10{sup 5} R from the (100) plane and the 211–213–215-nm triplets at 0.9 × 10{sup 5} R from the (010) plane is related to radiation-induced axially symmetric bipolarons with a high oscillator strength. The splitting of the 445-nm band into a 438–445–450-nm triplet is observed only for the (010) plane after a dose of 10{sup 6} R and is related to surface plasmon polaritons (longitudinal and transverse) of elongated Li nanoparticles. The (F{sub 2}–F{sub 3}) complexes are oriented in the most imperfect (111) plane and are seen along three cubic axes.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗

An Accelerated Clip Algorithm for Unstructured Meshes: A Batch-Driven Approach

The clip technique is a popular method for visualizing complex structures and phenomena within 3D unstructured meshes. Meshes can be clipped by specifying a scalar isovalue to produce an output unstructured mesh with its external surface as the isovalue. Similar to isocontouring, the clipping process relies on scalar data associated with the mesh points, including scalar data generated by implicit functions such as planes, boxes, and spheres, which facilitates the visualization of results interior to the grid. In this paper, we introduce a novel batch-driven parallel algorithm based on a sequential clip algorithm designed for high-quality results in partial volume extraction. Our algorithm comprises five passes, each progressively processing data to generate the resulting clipped unstructured mesh. The novelty lies in the use of fixed-size batches of points and cells, which enable rapid workload trimming and parallel processing, leading to a significantly improved memory footprint and run-time performance compared to the original version. On a 32-core CPU, the proposed batch-driven parallel algorithm demonstrates a run-time speed-up of up to 32.6x and a memory footprint reduction of up to 4.37x compared to the existing sequential algorithm. The software is currently available under an open-source license in the VTK visualization system.

Tsalikis, Spiros↗

NANDFlashSim: High-Fidelity, Microarchitecture-Aware NAND Flash Memory Simulation [NANDFlashSim: Intrinsic Latency Variation Aware NAND Flash Memory System Modeling and Simulation at Microarchitecture Level]

As the popularity of NAND flash expands in arenas from embedded systems to high-performance computing, a high-fidelity understanding of its specific properties becomes increasingly important. Further, with the increasing trend toward multiple-die, multiple-plane architectures and high-speed interfaces, flash memory systems are expected to continue to scale and cheapen, resulting in their broader proliferation. However, when designing NAND-based devices, making decisions about the optimal system configuration is nontrivial, because flash is sensitive to a number of parameters and suffers from inherent latency variations, and no available tools suffice for studying these nuances. The parameters include the architectures, such as multidie and multiplane, diverse node technologies, bit densities, and cell reliabilities. Therefore, we introduce NANDFlashSim, a high-fidelity, latency-variation-aware, and highly configurable NAND-flash simulator, which implements a detailed timing model for 16 state-of-the-art NAND operations. Using NANDFlashSim, we notably discover the following. First, regardless of the operation, reads fail to leverage internal parallelism. Second, MLC provides lower I/O bus contention than SLC, but contention becomes a serious problem as the number of dies increases. Third, many-die architectures outperform many-plane architectures for disk-friendly workloads. Lastly, employing a high-performance I/O bus or an increased page size does not enhance energy savings.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

An algorithm for continuum modeling of rocks with multiple embedded nonlinearly-compliant joints [Continuum modeling of elasto-plastic media with multiple embedded nonlinearly-compliant joints]

Here, we present a numerical method for modeling the mechanical effects of nonlinearly-compliant joints in elasto-plastic media. The method uses a series of strain-rate and stress update algorithms to determine joint closure, slip, and solid stress within computational cells containing multiple “embedded” joints. This work facilitates efficient modeling of nonlinear wave propagation in large spatial domains containing a large number of joints that affect bulk mechanical properties. We implement the method within the massively parallel Lagrangian code GEODYN-L and provide verification and examples. We highlight the ability of our algorithms to capture joint interactions and multiple weakness planes within individual computational cells, as well as its computational efficiency. We also discuss the motivation for developing the proposed technique: to simulate large-scale wave propagation during the Source Physics Experiments (SPE), a series of underground explosions conducted at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS).

42 ENGINEERING↗

The sizes of z ∼ 6–8 lensed galaxies from the Hubble Frontier Fields Abell 2744 data

We investigate the sizes of z ∼ 6–8 dropout galaxies using the complete data of the Abell 2744 cluster and parallel fields in the Hubble Frontier Fields program. By directly fitting light profiles of observed galaxies with lensing-distorted Sérsic profiles on the image plane with the glafic software, we accurately measure intrinsic sizes of 31 z ∼ 6–7 and 8 z∼8 galaxies, including those as faint as M{sub UV}≃−16.6. We find that half-light radii r{sub e} positively correlates with UV luminosity at each redshift, although the correlation is not very tight. The largest (r{sub e}>0.8 kpc) galaxies are mostly red in UV color while the smallest (r{sub e}<0.08 kpc) ones tend to be blue. We also find that galaxies with multiple cores tend to be brighter. Combined with previous results at 2.5≲z≲12, our result confirms that the average r{sub e} of bright ((0.3–1)L{sub z=3}{sup ∗}) galaxies scales as r{sub e}∝(1+z){sup −m} with m=1.24±0.1. We find that the ratio of r{sub e} to virial radius is virtually constant at 3.3 ± 0.1% over a wide redshift range, where the virial radii of hosting dark matter halos are derived based on the abundance matching. This constant ratio is consistent with the disk formation model by Mo et al. with j{sub d}∼m{sub d}, where j{sub d} and m{sub d} are the fractions of the angular momentum and mass within halos confined in the disks. A comparison with various types of local galaxies indicates that our galaxies are most similar to circumnuclear star-forming regions of barred galaxies in the sense that a sizable amount of stars are forming in a very small area.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Spin glass dynamics at the mesoscale

The mesoscale provides a new probe of spin glass dynamics. Because the spin glass lower critical dimension d l > 2 , the growth of the correlation length ξ ( t , T ) can change the nature of the spin glass state at a crossover time t co when ξ ( t co , T ) = ℓ , a minimum characteristic sample length (e.g., film thickness for thin films and crystallite size for bulk samples). For thin films, and times t < t co such that ξ ( t , T ) < ℓ , conventional three-dimensional dynamics is observed. When t > t co , a crossover to d = 2 behavior takes place. The parallel correlation length, associated with a T g = 0 transition, increases in time from the saturated value of the perpendicular correlation length ℓ to an equilibrium value of the parallel correlation length proportional to T - ν . This results in a pancakelike correlated state, with a thickness ℓ and a temperature-dependent in-plane radius that increases with decreasing temperature. Activated dynamics is associated with these states. Measurements on Cu:Mn thin films are analyzed quantitatively within this framework. We extract a temperature-dependent activation energy from a fit to the frequency dependence of the dynamic susceptibility. The extrapolated temperature at which the activation energy would become large is close to the extrapolated glass transition temperature from ac susceptibility measurements. All known relevant experimental data are consistent with this method. For polycrystalline materials, there is a distribution of length scales P ( ℓ ) . For sufficiently broad distributions, a logarithmic time dependence is derived for the time decay of the thermoremanent magnetization M TRM ( t , T ) using an approach originally derived by Ma. Properties dependent upon an effective waiting time t w eff are derived that are consistent with experiment, and additional measurements are suggested.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Single-Crystal X-Ray Spectropolarimeter

X-ray spectropolarimetry is a diagnostics technique suitable for measuring intense electron beams and strong magnetic fields in hot, dense plasmas. To increase the accuracy achievable, we investigated the possibility of measuring both orthogonal components of linear polarization simultaneously using a single crystal. We demonstrated experimentally for the first time that crystals with cubic symmetry can be used as polarizing beam splitters. We also found that the polarization-splitting planes in cubic crystals can be accessed in two crystal orientations, a property that can be used to decrease the clutter in polarized spectra. In parallel, we developed a ray-tracing code and are working to add the crystal reflectivity to instrument modeling codes, to help us interpret the spectra and to design spectroscopic and spectropolarimetric instruments. This work is motivated by the need to perform measurements of important quantities in difficult experimental conditions, such as the axial magnetic field at stagnation in magnetized liner inertial fusion loads.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

System and method for sub micron additive manufacturing

An apparatus is disclosed for performing an additive manufacturing operation to form a structure by processing a photopolymer resist material. The apparatus may incorporate a laser for generating a laser beam, and a tunable mask for receiving the laser beam which has an optically dispersive element. The mask splits the laser beam into a plurality of emergent beams each having a subplurality of beamlets of varying or identical intensity, with each beamlet emerging from a unique subsection of illuminated regions of the mask. A collimator collimates at least one of the emergent beams to form a collimated beam. One or more focusing elements focuses the collimated beam into a focused beam which is projected as a focused image plane on or within the resist material. The focused beam simultaneously illuminates a layer of the resist material to process an entire layer in a parallel fashion.

Saha, Sourabh Kumar↗

Transitioning NWChem to the Next Generation of Manycore Machines

The NorthWest Chemistry (NWChem) modeling software is a popular molecular chemistry simulation software that was designed from the start to work on massively parallel processing supercomputers[6, 28, 49]. It contains an umbrella of modules that today includes Self Consistent Field (SCF), second order Mller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2), Coupled Cluster, multi-conguration selfconsistent eld (MCSCF), selected conguration interaction (CI), tensor contraction engine (TCE) many body methods, density functional theory (DFT), time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT), real time time-dependent density functional theory, pseudopotential plane-wave density functional theory (PSPW), band structure (BAND), ab initio molecular dynamics, Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics, classical molecular dynamics (MD), QM/MM, AIMD/MM, GIAO NMR, COSMO, COSMO-SMD, and RISM solvation models, free energy simulations, reaction path optimization, parallel in time, among other capabilities[ 22]. Moreover new capabilities continue to be added with each new release.

Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory↗