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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.

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At least 829 records · Page 46
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Organic light-emitting devices using a low refractive index dielectric

A device including an organic light emitting diode and a dielectric layer is provided. The dielectric layer provides additional distance between a reflector and the organic emission region, leading to improved reduction in non-emissive modes and enhanced efficiency.

Forrest, Stephen↗
DOE OSTI2019

Mie scattering captures observed optical properties of ambient biomass burning plumes assuming uniform black, brown, and organic carbon mixtures

We use a simple model of a spherical biomass burning aerosol particle containing an internal mixture of black carbon (BC) and organic carbon (OC) with an effective refractive index calculated as a volume fraction weighted mean of refractive indices. Brown carbon (BrC) is considered to be an OC with an imaginary part of refractive index at the blue end of the solar spectrum higher (in absolute value) than at the red end. Mie scattering formalism is employed to calculate Absorption Ångström Exponent (AAE) as a function of single scattering albedo (SSA) for a set of BC refractive indices, BC volume fraction, and a set of effective refractive indices of BC and BrC mixture. Ambient plumes are characterized by their mean SSA at 405 nm wavelength and two–wavelength (405 nm and 781 nm) AAE values. Comparing observed and model calculated AAE and SSA values identifies the BC refractive index and its volume fraction, and an effective refractive index of the BC and BrC mixture. From these values the imaginary part of BrC refractive index is calculated. For observed southwestern ambient fires the imaginary part of BrC refractive index ≤0.016. In contrast, fires in the Amazon and from Africa are dominated by BC. Here, we also use the Mie scattering model to establish the upper limit on AAE of BC (AAE≤1.4), and the upper limit of the BC and OC mixture (AAE≤1.7). Any AAE(405/781)>1.7 requires the presence of BrC. We derive several relationships between AAE, SSA, BC fractions, and imaginary part of BrC refractive index of ambient fires.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1995

Microwave Resonator Measurements of Atmospheric Absorption Coefficients: A Preliminary Design Study

A preliminary design study examined the feasibility of using microwave resonator measurements to improve the accuracy of atmospheric absorption coefficients and refractivity between 18 and 35 GHz. Increased accuracies would improve the capability of water vapor radiometers to correct for radio signal delays caused by Earth's atmosphere. Calibration of delays incurred by radio signals traversing the atmosphere has applications to both deep space tracking and planetary radio science experiments. Currently, the Cassini gravity wave search requires 0.8-1.0% absorption coefficient accuracy. This study examined current atmospheric absorption models and estimated that current model accuracy ranges from 5% to 7%. The refractivity of water vapor is known to 1% accuracy, while the refractivity of many dry gases (oxygen, nitrogen, etc.) are known to better than 0.1%. Improvements to the current generation of models will require that both the functional form and absolute absorption of the water vapor spectrum be calibrated and validated. Several laboratory techniques for measuring atmospheric absorption and refractivity were investigated, including absorption cells, single and multimode rectangular cavity resonators, and Fabry-Perot resonators. Semi-confocal Fabry-Perot resonators were shown to provide the most cost-effective and accurate method of measuring atmospheric gas refractivity. The need for accurate environmental measurement and control was also addressed. A preliminary design for the environmental control and measurement system was developed to aid in identifying significant design issues. The analysis indicated that overall measurement accuracy will be limited by measurement errors and imprecise control of the gas sample's thermodynamic state, thermal expansion and vibration- induced deformation of the resonator structure, and electronic measurement error. The central problem is to identify systematic errors because random errors can be reduced by averaging. Calibrating the resonator measurements by checking the refractivity of dry gases which are known to better than 0.1% provides a method of controlling the systematic errors to 0.1%. The primary source of error in absorptivity and refractivity measurements is thus the ability to measure the concentration of water vapor in the resonator path. Over the whole thermodynamic range of interest the accuracy of water vapor measurement is 1.5%. However, over the range responsible for most of the radio delay (i.e. conditions in the bottom two kilometers of the atmosphere) the accuracy of water vapor measurements ranges from 0.5% to 1.0%. Therefore the precision of the resonator measurements could be held to 0.3% and the overall absolute accuracy of resonator-based absorption and refractivity measurements will range from 0.6% to 1.

Walter, Steven J.↗
DOE OSTI2012

Gamma ray optics

Via refractive or diffractive scattering one can shape {gamma} ray beams in terms of beam divergence, spot size and monochromaticity. These concepts might be particular important in combination with future highly brilliant gamma ray sources and might push the sensibility of planned experiments by several orders of magnitude. We will demonstrate the experimental feasibility of gamma ray monochromatization on a ppm level and the creation of a gamma ray beam with nanoradian divergence. The results are obtained using the inpile target position of the High Flux Reactor of the ILL Grenoble and the crystal spectrometer GAMS. Since the refractive index is believed to vanish to zero with 1/E{sup 2}, the concept of refractive optics has never been considered for gamma rays. The combination of refractive optics with monochromator crystals is proposed to be a promising design. Using the crystal spectrometer GAMS, we have measured for the first time the refractive index at energies in the energy range of 180 - 2000 keV. The results indicate a deviation from simple 1/E{sup 2} extrapolation of X-ray results towards higher energies. A first interpretation of these new results will be presented. We will discuss the consequences of these results on the construction of refractive optics such as lenses or refracting prisms for gamma rays and their combination with single crystal monochromators.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Fourier plane colorimetric sensing using broadband imaging of surface plasmons and application to biosensing

We demonstrate an optical technique for refractive index and thickness sensing of sub-wavelength-thick dielectric analytes. The technique utilizes the broadband, multimode, directional leakage radiation arising from the excitation of hybrid mode surface plasmons (SP) on low aspect ratio periodic plasmonic substrates with period ≈λ. The approach requires relaxed fabrication tolerances compared to extra ordinary transmission-based sensing techniques, wherein minor shifts in the fabricated dimensions result in a very large change from the designed resonant wavelength. We show that refractive index perturbations due to about 10-nm-thick dielectric can be captured optically by the usage of carefully designed plasmonic substrates, a halogen lamp source, free-space optical components, polarizers, and a low-end, consumer-grade charge coupled device camera. The plasmonic substrates were designed for converting the signature of hybrid mode SP excitation into a transmission peak by utilizing a thin homogeneous metal layer sandwiched between the periodic plasmonic structures and the substrate. The resonance is highly sensitive to the refractive index and thickness of the analyte superstrate. The excitation of hybrid mode SP results in a polarization rotation of 90° of the leaked radiation at resonant wavelength. In order to eliminate the problem of image registration (i.e., placing the same feature in the same pixel of the image, for comparison before and after a change in refractive index) for sensing, we perform the color analysis in the Fourier plane. The change in color of the bright emitted spot with highest momentum, corresponding to the leakage of fundamental SP mode, was used to measure the changes in refractive index, whereas the number and color of spots of lower momenta, corresponding to higher-order Fabry Perot modes, was used to measure the variation in thickness. We further show that the Fourier plane analysis can also be used to sense the index of thicker dielectrics, where real plane image analysis may fail to sense index perturbations, simply due to superposition of different modes in the real plane images of such substrates. Control experiments and analysis revealed a refractive index resolution of 10{sup –5} RIU. The results were correlated with simulations to establish the physical origin of the change in the fundamental mode and higher-order modes due to the refractive index and thickness of analyte. As a demonstration of an application and to test the limits of sensing, the substrates were used to image the surface functionalization using 2-nm-thick 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid and immobilization of 7-nm-thick mouse anti-human IgG antibody. In biological systems, where a priori knowledge about a process step is available, where accurate chemical composition testing is not necessary or possible, the presented method could be used to study the surface changes using a label-free sensing mechanism.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗