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At least 793 records · Page 44

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DOE OSTI2014

Directing Colloidal Assembly and a Metal-Insulator Transition Using a Quench-Disordered Porous Rod Template

Replica and effective-medium theory methods are employed to elucidate how to massively reconfigure a colloidal assembly to achieve globally homogeneous, strongly clustered, and percolated equilibrium states of high electrical conductivity at low physical volume fractions. A key idea is to employ a quench-disordered, large-mesh rigid-rod network as a templating internal field. By exploiting bulk phase separation frustration and the tunable competing processes of colloid adsorption on the low-dimensional network and fluctuation-driven colloid clustering in the pore spaces, two distinct spatial organizations of greatly enhanced particle contacts can be achieved. As a result, a continuous, but very abrupt, transition from an insulating to metallic-like state can be realized via a small change of either the colloid-template or colloid-colloid attraction strength. Furthermore, the approach is generalizable to more complicated template or colloidal architectures.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2015

Remarkably robust and correlated coherence and antiferromagnetism in (Ce 1-x La x )Cu 2 Ge 2

We present magnetic susceptibility, resistivity, specific heat, and thermoelectric power measurements on (Ce 1-x La x )Cu 2 Ge 2 single crystals (0 ≤ x ≤ 1). With La-substitution, the antiferromagnetic temperature T N is suppressed in an almost linear fashion and moves below 0.36 K, the base temperature of our measurements for x > 0.8. Surprisingly, in addition to robust antiferromagnetism, the system also shows low temperature coherent scattering below T coh up to ~0.9 of La, indicating a small percolation limit ~9% of Ce. T coh as a function of magnetic field was found to have different behavior for x < 0.9 and x > 0.9. Remarkably, (T coh ) 2 at H = 0 was found to be linearly proportional to T N . In conclusion, the jump in the magnetic specific heat δC m at T N as a function of T K /T N for (Ce 1-x La x )Cu 2 Ge 2 follows the theoretical prediction based on the molecular field calculation for the S = 1/2 resonant level model.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2021

Delocalization Transition of a Disordered Axion Insulator

The axion insulator is a higher-order topological insulator protected by inversion symmetry. We show that, under quenched disorder respecting inversion symmetry on average, the topology of the axion insulator stays robust, and an intermediate metallic phase in which states are delocalized is unavoidable at the transition from an axion insulator to a trivial insulator. We derive this conclusion from general arguments, from classical percolation theory, and from the numerical study of a 3D quantum network model simulating a disordered axion insulator through a layer construction. We find the localization length critical exponent near the delocalization transition to be ν = 1.42 ± 0.12. We further show that this delocalization transition is stable even to weak breaking of the average inversion symmetry, up to a critical strength. Finally, we also quantitatively map our quantum network model to an effective Hamiltonian and we find its low-energy k ∙ p expansion.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

DOE OSTI2024

Sparsity-Independent Lyapunov Exponent in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev Model

The saturation of a recently proposed universal bound on the Lyapunov exponent has been conjectured to signal the existence of a gravity dual. This saturation occurs in the low-temperature limit of the dense Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model, N Majorana fermions with q body ( q > 2 ) infinite-range interactions. We calculate certain out-of-time-order correlators (OTOCs) for N ≤ 64 fermions for a highly sparse SYK model and find no significant dependence of the Lyapunov exponent on sparsity up to near the percolation limit where the Hamiltonian breaks up into blocks. This provides strong support to the saturation of the Lyapunov exponent in the low-temperature limit of the sparse SYK. A key ingredient to reaching N = 64 is the development of a novel quantum spin model simulation library that implements highly optimized matrix-free Krylov subspace methods on graphical processing units. This leads to a significantly lower simulation time as well as vastly reduced memory usage over previous approaches, while using modest computational resources. Strong sparsity-driven statistical fluctuations require both the use of a much larger number of disorder realizations with respect to the dense limit and a careful finite size scaling analysis. The saturation of the bound in the sparse SYK points to the existence of a gravity analog that would enlarge substantially the number of field theories with this feature. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Physics↗

DOE OSTI2025

Stable Symmetry-Protected Topological Phases in Systems with Heralded Noise

Here, we present a family of local quantum channels whose steady-states exhibit stable mixed-state symmetry-protected topological (SPT) order. Motivated by recent experimental progress on "erasure conversion" techniques that allow one to identify ($\textit{herald}$) decoherence processes, we consider open systems with biased erasure noise, which leads to strongly symmetric heralded errors. We utilize this heralding to construct a local correction protocol that effectively confines errors into short-ranged pairs in the steady-state. Using a combination of numerical simulations and mean-field analysis, we show that our protocol stabilizes SPT order against a sufficiently low rate of decoherence. As the rate of heralded noise increases, SPT order is eventually lost through a directed percolation transition. We further find that while introducing unheralded errors destroys SPT order in the limit of long length- and time-scales, the correction protocol is sufficient for ensuring that local SPT order persists, with a correlation length that diverges as $\xi \sim (1-f_e)^{-1/2}$, where $f_e$ is the fraction of errors that are heralded.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2017

Irradiation-driven amorphous-to-glassy transition in quartz: The crucial role of the medium-range order in crystallization

Noncrystalline solids can be classified into glassy and amorphous, wherein glasses and amorphous solids relax toward the supercooled liquid and crystalline states upon heating, respectively. However, the structural origin of such distinction remains unknown. Here in this study, based on molecular-dynamics simulations of irradiation-induced disordering of α-quartz, we demonstrate the existence of an amorphous-to-glassy transition. We show that the transition to the glassy state originates from the appearance of structural defects within the medium-range order of the atomic network. Such defects arise from the percolation of short-range defects and kinetically prevent crystallization. Overall, this suggests that the propensity of a disordered system for crystallization is controlled by the similarity between its medium-range order and that of the isochemical crystal.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2021

Magnetism dynamics driven by phase separation in Pr-doped manganite thin films: A ferromagnetic resonance study

In this work, we performed ferromagnetic resonance measurements of a (La 1–x Pr x ) 1–y Ca y MnO 3–δ with x = 0.52 ± 0.05, y = 0.23 ± 0.04, and δ = 0.14 ± 0.10 thin single crystalline film which, in combination with micromagnetic simulations, reveal three temperature regions consistent with (i) a ferromagnetic-paramagnetic transition in which ferromagnetic domains nucleate and grow, (ii) followed by a filamentary fluidlike percolation of magnetic domains exhibiting dynamic processes and finally, iii) the existence of a blocking temperature below which the magnetism is a metastable glassy-like state with strong decoherence of the uniform resonance mode. Our results suggest a strain-liquid to strain-glass spin order transition in which the magnetism and fluidlike dynamics of the separated phases freeze at low temperatures. We show the magnetism dynamics depend strongly on the phase-separated state and morphology of the magnetic domains suggesting a route to control of phase separation and realization of spintronic and magnonic devices.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2025

Entanglement Randomness and Gapped Itinerant Carriers in a Frustrated Quantum Magnet

The quantum spin liquid is a state manifesting extraordinary many-body entanglement, and the material NaYbSe 2 is thought to be one of the most promising candidates for its realization. Through low-temperature heat capacity and thermal conductivity measurements, we identify an apparent contradiction familiar to many quantum spin liquid candidates: While entropy is stored by apparently gapless excitations, the itinerant carriers of entropy are gapped. By studying the compositional series NaYb 𝑥⁢ Lu 1−𝑥⁢ Se 2 across a percolation transition of the magnetic lattice, we suggest that this contradiction can be resolved by the presence of entanglement scales of random sizes. Moreover, as we truncate the scale of entanglement by magnetic dilution, we show that the itinerant magnetic entropy carrier in NaYbSe 2 does not arise from a uniform globally entangled spin ground state but rather materializes through the stochastic propagation of boundaries between locally entangled spin objects.

Lyu, Yuanqi 吕源祺 [University of California, Berkele↗

DOE OSTI2021

Trigger-based Incremental Data Processing with Unified Sync and Async Model

In recent years, more and more applications in the cloud have needs to process large-scale on-line datasets, which evolve over time as new entries are added and existing entries are modified. Several programming frameworks, such as Percolator and Oolong, are proposed for such incremental data processing and can achieve efficient processing with an event-driven abstraction. However, these frameworks are inherently asynchronous, leaving the heavy burden of managing synchronization to applications' developers, which further significantly restricts their usabilities. In this study, we propose a trigger-based incremental computing framework in the cloud, called Domino, with both synchronous and asynchronous mechanisms to coordinate parallel triggers. With this new framework, both synchronous and asynchronous applications can be seamlessly developed. Use cases and extensive evaluation results confirm that it can deliver sufficient performance, and also is easy to use for incremental applications in large-scale distributed computing.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2016

Defining and Enabling Resiliency of Electric Distribution Systems With Multiple Microgrids

This paper presents a method for quantifying and enabling the resiliency of a power distribution system (PDS) using analytical hierarchical process and percolation theory. Using this metric, quantitative analysis can be done to analyze the impact of possible control decisions to pro-actively enable the resilient operation of distribution system with multiple microgrids and other resources. Developed resiliency metric can also be used in short term distribution system planning. The benefits of being able to quantify resiliency can help distribution system planning engineers and operators to justify control actions, compare different reconfiguration algorithms, develop proactive control actions to avert power system outage due to impending catastrophic weather situations or other adverse events. Validation of the proposed method is done using modified CERTS microgrids and a modified industrial distribution system. Furthermore, simulation results show topological and composite metric considering power system characteristics to quantify the resiliency of a distribution system with the proposed methodology, and improvements in resiliency using two-stage reconfiguration algorithm and multiple microgrids.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2016

Changes in geophysical properties caused by fluid injection into porous rocks: analytical models: Geophysical changes in porous rocks

Analytical models are provided that describe how the elastic compliance, electrical conductivity, and fluid-flow permeability of rocks depend on stress and fluid pressure. In order to explain published laboratory data on how seismic velocities and electrical conductivity vary in sandstones and granites, the models require a population of cracks to be present in a possibly porous host phase. The central objective is to obtain a consistent mean-field analytical model that shows how each modeled rock property depends on the nature of the crack population. We describe the crack populations by a crack density, a probability distribution for the crack apertures and radii, and the averaged orientation of the cracks. The possibly anisotropic nature of the elasticity, conductivity, and permeability tensors is allowed for; however, only the isotropic limit is used when comparing to laboratory data. For the transport properties of conductivity and permeability, the percolation effect of the crack population linking up to form a connected path across a sample is modeled. But, this effect is important only in crystalline rock where the host phase has very small conductivity and permeability. In general, the importance of the crack population to the transport properties increases as the host phase becomes less conductive and less permeable.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2018

A county‐level estimation of renewable surface water and groundwater availability associated with potential large‐scale bioenergy feedstock production scenarios in the United States

Abstract This study examines fresh renewable water resources available for bioenergy feedstock production in the United States. The impacts of feedstock irrigation on surface and groundwater resources available to nonbioenergy sectors were quantified using a pair of water availability indexes: streamflow availability index and percolation flow availability index. The two metrics were applied to both historical (2008) and three possible future biomass production scenarios from the 2016 U.S. Billion‐Ton Report at the county level. For both historical and future scenarios, we found that the consumptive irrigation requirements for bioenergy feedstock account for <0.01% of annual streamflow in all but three counties in Nebraska. Results suggest that the irrigation demand of future biomass production could be supplied by annual renewable groundwater flow in about 94% of feedstock‐growing counties that use groundwater for irrigation, representing about 92% of production tonnage. Counties that require irrigation from nonrenewable groundwater resources are mostly located in the Northern Plains and Pacific regions. We also evaluated the sensitivity of crop water footprint estimation to soil moisture carryover by comparing blue water estimates from six different empirical and process‐based methods. Our findings suggest that accounting for preseason soil moisture is critical for representative blue water estimation, so that the irrigation water consumption is not overestimated. This is especially true in the Corn Belt region, where blue water estimates with and without preseason soil moisture would be about 1.9 versus 45.5 billion m 3 /year under the historical scenario. This difference is smaller in semiarid regions like the High Plains, but the blue water estimate can still triple if soil moisture is not considered. From the perspective of renewable surface water and groundwater resources, scaling feedstock production up in the High Plains and California will require careful planning integrated with water management strategies to improve water resource conservation.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

DOE OSTI2016

Analysis of Long-Range Interaction in Lithium-Ion Battery Electrodes

The lithium-ion battery (LIB) electrode represents a complex porous composite, consisting of multiple phases including active material (AM), conductive additive, and polymeric binder. This study proposes a mesoscale model to probe the effects of the cathode composition, e.g., the ratio of active material, conductive additive, and binder content, on the electrochemical properties and performance. The results reveal a complex nonmonotonic behavior in the effective electrical conductivity as the amount of conductive additive is increased. Insufficient electronic conductivity of the electrode limits the cell operation to lower currents. Once sufficient electron conduction (i.e., percolation) is achieved, the rate performance can be a strong function of ion-blockage effect and pore phase transport resistance. In conclusion, even for the same porosity, different arrangements of the solid phases may lead to notable difference in the cell performance, which highlights the need for accurate microstructural characterization and composite electrode preparation strategies.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

DOE OSTI2013

Microstructure and mechanical properties of Ti–B–C–N–Si nanocomposite films deposited by unbalanced magnetron sputtering

Quinary Ti–B–C–N–Si nanocomposite thin films were deposited on AISI 304 stainless steel substrates by d.c. unbalanced magnetron sputtering from a TiB{sub 2}–TiC compound target and a pure Si target. The relationship between microstructure and mechanical properties of the films was investigated in terms of the nanosized crystallites/amorphous system. The synthesized Ti–B–C–N–Si films were characterized using x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and high resolution transmission electron microscopy. The results showed that the Ti–B–C–N–Si films were nanocomposites composed of nanosized TiB{sub 2}, TiC, and TiSi{sub 2} crystallites (2-3 nm in size) embedded in an amorphous matrix. The addition of Si to the Ti–B–C–N film led to precipitation of nanosized crystalline TiSi{sub 2} and percolation of amorphous SiC phases. The Ti–B–C–N–Si films with up to 7 at. % Si content presented high hardness (≥35 GPa), H/E (≥0.0095), and W{sub e} (>50%) with compressive residual stress (∼0.5 GPa). A systematic investigation on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Ti–B–C–N–Si films containing different Si contents is reported.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2016

Microstructural, nanomechanical, and microtribological properties of Pb thin films prepared by pulsed laser deposition and thermal evaporation techniques

In this work, the authors compare the morphological, structural, nanomechanical, and microtribological properties of Pb films deposited by thermal evaporation (TE) and pulsed laser deposition (PLD) techniques onto Si (111) substrates. Films were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, surface probe microscopy, and x-ray diffraction in θ-2θ geometry to determine their morphology, root-mean-square (RMS) roughness, and microstructure, respectively. TE films showed a percolated morphology with densely packed fibrous grains while PLD films had a granular morphology with a columnar and tightly packed structure in accordance with the zone growth model of Thornton. Moreover, PLD films presented a more polycrystalline structure with respect to TE films, with RMS roughness of 14 and 10 nm, respectively. Hardness and elastic modulus vary from 2.1 to 0.8 GPa and from 14 to 10 GPa for PLD and TE films, respectively. A reciprocal friction test has shown that PLD films have lower friction coefficient and wear rate than TE films. Our study has demonstrated for first time that, at the microscale, Pb films do not show the same simple lubricious properties measured at the macroscale.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

DOE OSTI2020

High-capacity rotary drum for atomic layer deposition onto powders and small mechanical parts in a hot-walled viscous flow reactor

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is uniquely capable of providing uniform thin-film coatings on powder substrates, but powder processing has historically required an ALD reactor designed specifically for powders-e.g., a fluidized bed. Tubular hot-walled viscous-flow reactors commonly employed in laboratory-scale ALD research for coating planar substrates such as silicon have been employed previously to coat gram quantities of powder spread out in a thin layer on a tray, but larger quantities of powder introduce long diffusion pathways where reactants are unable to percolate to the bottom of the powder bed to provide uniform coating in reasonable time periods. In this work, we report a rotary drum with a capacity of 100s of grams that is compatible with conventional tubular hot-walled ALD reactors and provides uniform coatings on powders in viscous flow operation. We benchmark this system using Al 2 O 3 ALD with trimethylaluminum and water. We examine the effect of rotation speed and powder quantity on saturation time via in situ quadrupole mass spectroscopy measurements and gravimetric analysis. Finally, the rotary drum we report is able to provide homogenous coating of up to 75g of silica gel powder with a total surface area of similar to 1500m 2 in viscous flow operation with precursor utilization as high as 70%.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

DOE OSTI2015

Improved power conversion efficiency for bulk heterojunction solar cells incorporating CdTe-CdSe nanoheterostructure acceptors and a conjugated polymer donor

In this paper, we report photovoltaic devices based on composites of a branched nanoheterostructure containing a CdTe core and CdSe arms, CdTe(c)-CdSe(a), combined with either poly(3-hexylthiophene), P3HT, or poly[2,6-(4,4-bis-(2-ethylhexyl)-4H-cyclopenta[2,1-b;3,4-b']dithiophene)-alt-4,7-(2,1,3-benzothiadiazole)], PCPDTBT, with solar power conversion efficiencies of 1.2% and 1.8%, respectively. Finally, a comparison with previously reported composite devices of a related branched nanoheterostructure: CdSe(c)-CdTe(a) reveals an improved device performance that is attributed to a better electron percolation pathway provided by the dominant, higher electron affinity CdSe arms of the nanoheterostructures.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2024

A recyclable self-healing composite with advanced sensing property

Polymer-based composites frequently encounter damage, often lurking beneath the surface and proving challenges to their early detection and repair. While material-based sensors show promise for encoding self-sensing properties within these composites, their in situ healing and reprocessability remain significant challenges. Therefore, the overarching goal of this study is the creation of a reprocessable polymeric composite encoded with self-healing attributes and the ability to autonomously sense damage. At the core of this innovation are vitrimers, a polymeric material characterized by a covalently adaptive dynamic network responsive to external factors such as heat. They combine thermoset-like resilience with thermoplastic-like flowability on demand under external stimuli. We nanoengineer a polyester-based vitrimeric polymer by incorporating piezoresistive carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as reinforcing elements that not only enhance its mechanical strength but also create a percolation network within the composite, thereby enabling piezoresistive self-sensing properties, all the while preserving the intrinsic self-healing capabilities offered by the vitrimeric matrix. The fabrication process of the composite involves a solvent-free in situ polymerization method that combines epoxy and anhydride-containing monomers with ~ 0.1 wt.% of CNTs. Once it was established that the introduction of CNTs into the polymeric matrix did not compromise the mechanical properties of the composite, their strain-sensing properties were characterized by applying cyclic loading while measuring their electrical resistance. Strikingly, CNT-enhanced vitrimer composite consistently retains its mechanical and sensing properties through repeated cycles of reshaping and reprocessing, underscoring its potential as a robust distributed strain sensor. This polyester-based vitrimeric composite is also easily recyclable without harsh chemical treatments. Preliminary findings from this study conclusively demonstrate that the bulk composite boasts both self-sensing capabilities and in situ detect healing properties, charting a promising course towards the development of a mechanically resilient multifunctional composite that seamlessly integrates selfsensing and healing capabilities.

Rohewal, Sargun Singh↗