Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “LOGARITHM”

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 919 records · Page 51
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2014

Effect of charge trapping on effective carrier lifetime in compound semiconductors: High resistivity CdZnTe

The dominant problem limiting the energy resolution of compound semiconductor based radiation detectors is the trapping of charge carriers. The charge trapping affects energy resolution through the carrier lifetime more than through the mobility. Conventionally, the effective carrier lifetime is determined using a 2-step process based on measurement of the mobility-lifetime product (μτ) and determining drift mobility using time-of-flight measurements. This approach requires fabrication of contacts on the sample. A new RF-based pulse rise-time method, which replaces this 2-step process with a single non-contact direct measurement, is discussed. The application of the RF method is illustrated with high-resistivity detector-grade CdZnTe crystals. The carrier lifetime in the measured CdZnTe, depending on the quality of the crystals, was between about 5 μs and 8 μs. These values are in good agreement with the results obtained using conventional 2-step approach. While the effective carrier lifetime determined from the initial portion of the photoresponse transient combines both recombination and trapping in a manner similar to the conventional 2-step approach, both the conventional and the non-contact RF methods offer only indirect evaluation of the effect of charge trapping in the semiconductors used in radiation detectors. Since degradation of detector resolution is associated not with trapping but essentially with detrapping of carriers, and, in particular, detrapping of holes in n-type semiconductors, it is concluded that evaluation of recombination and detrapping during photoresponse decay is better suited for evaluation of compound semiconductors used in radiation detectors. Furthermore, based on previously reported data, it is concluded that photoresponse decay in high resistivity CdZnTe at room temperature is dominated by detrapping of carriers from the states associated with one type of point defect and by recombination of carriers at one type of extended defects. The recombination at the extended defects produces long, logarithmic decay limiting substantially performance of CdZnTe detectors. This decay is associated with the “electrostatic trapping” of excess holes by the Schottky-type depletion space-charge regions formed around the defects.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2014

Neutrinos from charm production in the atmosphere

Atmospheric neutrinos are produced in interactions of cosmic rays with Earth's atmosphere. At very high energy, the contribution from semi-leptonic decays of charmed hadrons, known as the prompt neutrino flux, dominates over the conventional flux from pion and kaon decays. This is due to the very short lifetime of the charmed hadrons, which therefore do not lose energy before they decay. The calculation of this process is difficult because the Bjorken-x at which the parton distribution functions are evaluated is very small. This is a region where QCD is not well understood, and large logarithms must be resummed. Available parton distribution functions are not known at such small x and extrapolations must be made. Theoretically, the fast rise of the structure functions for small x ultimately leads to parton saturation. This contribution describes the 'ERS' [1] calculation of the prompt neutrino flux, which includes parton saturation effects in the QCD production cross section of charm quarks. The ERS flux calculation is used by e.g. the IceCube collaboration as a standard benchmark background. We are now updating this calculation to take into account the recent LHC data on the charm cross section, as well as recent theoretical developments in QCD. Some of the issues involved in this calculation are described.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Spatio-temporal dynamics induced by competing instabilities in two asymmetrically coupled nonlinear evolution equations

Pattern formation often occurs in spatially extended physical, biological, and chemical systems due to an instability of the homogeneous steady state. The type of the instability usually prescribes the resulting spatio-temporal patterns and their characteristic length scales. However, patterns resulting from the simultaneous occurrence of instabilities cannot be expected to be simple superposition of the patterns associated with the considered instabilities. To address this issue, we design two simple models composed by two asymmetrically coupled equations of non-conserved (Swift-Hohenberg equations) or conserved (Cahn-Hilliard equations) order parameters with different characteristic wave lengths. The patterns arising in these systems range from coexisting static patterns of different wavelengths to traveling waves. A linear stability analysis allows to derive a two parameter phase diagram for the studied models, in particular, revealing for the Swift-Hohenberg equations, a co-dimension two bifurcation point of Turing and wave instability and a region of coexistence of stationary and traveling patterns. The nonlinear dynamics of the coupled evolution equations is investigated by performing accurate numerical simulations. These reveal more complex patterns, ranging from traveling waves with embedded Turing patterns domains to spatio-temporal chaos, and a wide hysteretic region, where waves or Turing patterns coexist. For the coupled Cahn-Hilliard equations the presence of a weak coupling is sufficient to arrest the coarsening process and to lead to the emergence of purely periodic patterns. The final states are characterized by domains with a characteristic length, which diverges logarithmically with the coupling amplitude.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

First-principles prediction of phononic thermal conductivity of silicene: A comparison with graphene

There has been great interest in two-dimensional materials, beyond graphene, for both fundamental sciences and technological applications. Silicene, a silicon counterpart of graphene, has been shown to possess some better electronic properties than graphene. However, its thermal transport properties have not been fully studied. In this paper, we apply the first-principles-based phonon Boltzmann transport equation to investigate the thermal conductivity of silicene as well as the phonon scattering mechanisms. Although both graphene and silicene are two-dimensional crystals with similar crystal structure, we find that phonon transport in silicene is quite different from that in graphene. The thermal conductivity of silicene shows a logarithmic increase with respect to the sample size due to the small scattering rates of acoustic in-plane phonon modes, while that of graphene is finite. Detailed analysis of phonon scattering channels shows that the linear dispersion of the acoustic out-of-plane (ZA) phonon modes, which is induced by the buckled structure, makes the long-wavelength longitudinal acoustic phonon modes in silicene not as efficiently scattered as that in graphene. Compared with graphene, where most of the heat is carried by the acoustic out-of-plane (ZA) phonon modes, the ZA phonon modes in silicene only have ∼10% contribution to the total thermal conductivity, which can also be attributed to the buckled structure. This systematic comparison of phonon transport and thermal conductivity of silicene and graphene using the first-principle-based calculations shed some light on other two-dimensional materials, such as two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Vacuum ultraviolet photochemical selective area atomic layer deposition of Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} dielectrics

We report the photochemical atomic layer deposition of Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} thin films and the use of this process to achieve area-selective film deposition. A shuttered vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) light source is used to excite molecular oxygen and trimethyl aluminum to deposit films at 60°C. In-situ QCM and post-deposition ellipsometric measurements both show that the deposition rate is saturative as a function of irradiation time. Selective area deposition was achieved by projecting the VUV light through a metalized magnesium fluoride photolithographic mask and the selectivity of deposition on the illuminated and masked regions of the substrate is a logarithmic function of the UV exposure time. The Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} films exhibit dielectric constants of 8 – 10 at 1 MHz after forming gas annealing, similar to films deposited by conventional thermal ALD.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Koszul information geometry and Souriau Lie group thermodynamics

The François Massieu 1869 idea to derive some mechanical and thermal properties of physical systems from 'Characteristic Functions', was developed by Gibbs and Duhem in thermodynamics with the concept of potentials, and introduced by Poincaré in probability. This paper deals with generalization of this Characteristic Function concept by Jean-Louis Koszul in Mathematics and by Jean-Marie Souriau in Statistical Physics. The Koszul-Vinberg Characteristic Function (KVCF) on convex cones will be presented as cornerstone of 'Information Geometry' theory, defining Koszul Entropy as Legendre transform of minus the logarithm of KVCF, and Fisher Information Metrics as hessian of these dual functions, invariant by their automorphisms. In parallel, Souriau has extended the Characteristic Function in Statistical Physics looking for other kinds of invariances through co-adjoint action of a group on its momentum space, defining physical observables like energy, heat and momentum as pure geometrical objects. In covariant Souriau model, Gibbs equilibriums states are indexed by a geometric parameter, the Geometric (Planck) Temperature, with values in the Lie algebra of the dynamical Galileo/Poincaré groups, interpreted as a space-time vector, giving to the metric tensor a null Lie derivative. Fisher Information metric appears as the opposite of the derivative of Mean 'Moment map' by geometric temperature, equivalent to a Geometric Capacity or Specific Heat. These elements has been developed by author in [10][11].

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

A novel theoretical model for broadband blue InGaN/GaN superluminescent light emitting diodes

A broadband superluminescent light emitting diode with In{sub 0.2}Ga{sub 0.8}N/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) active region is investigated. The investigation is based on a theoretical model which includes the calculation of electronic states of the structure, rate equations, and the spectral radiation power. Two rate equations corresponding to MQW active region and separate confinement heterostructures layer are solved self-consistently with no-k selection wavelength dependent gain and quasi-Fermi level functions. Our results show that the superluminescence started in a current of ∼120 mA (∼7.5 kA/Cm{sup 2}) at 300 K. The range of peak emission wavelengths for different currents is 423–426 nm and the emission bandwidth is ∼5 nm in the superluminescence regime. A maximum light output power of 7.59 mW is obtained at 600 mA and the peak modal gain as a function of current indicates logarithmic behavior. Also, the comparison of our calculated results with published experimental data is shown to be in good agreement.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Collision-induced Raman scattering and the peculiar case of neon: Anisotropic spectrum, anisotropy, and the inverse scattering problem

Owing in part to the p orbitals of its filled L shell, neon has repeatedly come on stage for its peculiar properties. In the context of collision-induced Raman spectroscopy, in particular, we have shown, in a brief report published a few years ago [M. Chrysos et al., Phys. Rev. A 80, 054701 (2009)], that the room-temperature anisotropic Raman lineshape of Ne–Ne exhibits, in the far wing of the spectrum, a peculiar structure with an aspect other than a smooth wing (on a logarithmic plot) which contrasts with any of the existing studies, and whose explanation lies in the distinct way in which overlap and exchange interactions interfere with the classical electrostatic ones in making the polarizability anisotropy, α{sub ∥} − α{sub ⊥}. Here, we delve deeper into that study by reporting data for that spectrum up to 450 cm{sup −1} and for even- and odd-order spectral moments up to M{sub 6}, as well as quantum lineshapes, generated from SCF, CCSD, and CCSD(T) models for α{sub ∥} − α{sub ⊥}, which are critically compared with the experiment. On account of the knowledge of the spectrum over the augmented frequency domain, we show how the inverse scattering problem can be tackled both effectively and economically, and we report an analytic function for the anisotropy whose quantum lineshape faithfully reproduces our observations.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

Crossover of electron-electron interaction effect in Sn-doped indium oxide films

We systematically study the structures and electrical transport properties of a series of Sn-doped indium oxide (ITO) films with thickness t ranging from ∼5 to ∼53 nm. Scanning electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction results indicate that the t ≲ 16.8 nm films are polycrystalline, while those t ≳ 26.7 nm films are epitaxially grown along [100] direction. For the epitaxial films, the Altshuler and Aronov electron-electron interaction (EEI) effect governs the temperature behaviors of the sheet conductance σ{sub □} at low temperatures, and the ratios of relative change of Hall coefficient ΔR{sub H}/R{sub H} to relative change of sheet resistance ΔR{sub □}/R{sub □} are ≈2, which is quantitatively consistent with Altshuler and Aronov EEI theory and seldom observed in other systems. For those polycrystalline films, both the sheet conductance and Hall coefficient vary linearly with logarithm of temperature below several tens Kelvin, which can be well described by the current EEI theories in granular metals. We extract the intergranular tunneling conductance of each film by comparing the σ{sub □}(T) data with the predication of EEI theories in granular metals. It is found that when the tunneling conductance is less than the conductance of a single indium tin oxide (ITO) grain, the ITO film reveals granular metal characteristics in transport properties; conversely, the film shows transport properties of homogeneous disordered conductors. Our results indicate that electrical transport measurement can not only reveal the underlying charge transport properties of the film but also be a powerful tool to detect the subtle homogeneity of the film.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

General multi-group macroscopic modeling for thermo-chemical non-equilibrium gas mixtures

This paper opens a new door to macroscopic modeling for thermal and chemical non-equilibrium. In a game-changing approach, we discard conventional theories and practices stemming from the separation of internal energy modes and the Landau-Teller relaxation equation. Instead, we solve the fundamental microscopic equations in their moment forms but seek only optimum representations for the microscopic state distribution function that provides converged and time accurate solutions for certain macroscopic quantities at all times. The modeling makes no ad hoc assumptions or simplifications at the microscopic level and includes all possible collisional and radiative processes; it therefore retains all non-equilibrium fluid physics. We formulate the thermal and chemical non-equilibrium macroscopic equations and rate coefficients in a coupled and unified fashion for gases undergoing completely general transitions. All collisional partners can have internal structures and can change their internal energy states after transitions. The model is based on the reconstruction of the state distribution function. The internal energy space is subdivided into multiple groups in order to better describe non-equilibrium state distributions. The logarithm of the distribution function in each group is expressed as a power series in internal energy based on the maximum entropy principle. The method of weighted residuals is applied to the microscopic equations to obtain macroscopic moment equations and rate coefficients succinctly to any order. The model’s accuracy depends only on the assumed expression of the state distribution function and the number of groups used and can be self-checked for accuracy and convergence. We show that the macroscopic internal energy transfer, similar to mass and momentum transfers, occurs through nonlinear collisional processes and is not a simple relaxation process described by, e.g., the Landau-Teller equation. Unlike the classical vibrational energy relaxation model, which can only be applied to molecules, the new model is applicable to atoms, molecules, ions, and their mixtures. Numerical examples and model validations are carried out with two gas mixtures using the maximum entropy linear model: one mixture consists of nitrogen molecules undergoing internal excitation and dissociation and the other consists of nitrogen atoms undergoing internal excitation and ionization. Results show that the original hundreds to thousands of microscopic equations can be reduced to two macroscopic equations with almost perfect agreement for the total number density and total internal energy using only one or two groups. We also obtain good prediction of the microscopic state populations using 5-10 groups in the macroscopic equations.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

Effect of swift Li{sup 3+} ions irradiation on magnetic properties of Ce(Fe{sub 0.95}Si{sub 0.05}){sub 2}

Magnetic field induced Anti-ferromagnetic (AFM) to ferromagnetic (FM) phase transition on a sample of Ce(Fe{sub 0.95}Si{sub 0.05}){sub 2} is studied before and after swift Li{sup 3+} ions irradiation. Presence of irradiation induced material defects caused the AFM-FM transition to move to lower fields, increased the zero field magnetic susceptibility in AFM region and decreased the logarithmic relaxation rate in the hysteretic transition region.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Kondo effect in Co{sub x}Cu{sub 1-x} granular alloys prepared by chemical reduction method

Nanostructured CoCu granular alloys Co{sub x}Cu{sub 1-x} (x ≤ 0.3) have been prepared by chemical reduction method using NaBH{sub 4} as a reducing agent. Electronic transport properties are studied in the temperature range 4-300 K. Resistance exhibits a metallic behavior below room temperature and draws a minimum near 20 K in all the samples except in Co{sub 0.3}Cu{sub 0.7}. This low temperature resistivity minimum diminishes with applied magnetic field. There is also a logarithmic temperature dependence of resistivity at temperatures below 20 K. This phenomenon indicates a Kondo-like scattering mechanism involving magnetic Co impurity spin clusters in Cu host.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Gyrokinetic studies of core turbulence features in ASDEX Upgrade H-mode plasmas

Gyrokinetic validation studies are crucial for developing confidence in the model incorporated in numerical simulations and thus improving their predictive capabilities. As one step in this direction, we simulate an ASDEX Upgrade discharge with the GENE code, and analyze various fluctuating quantities and compare them to experimental measurements. The approach taken is the following. First, linear simulations are performed in order to determine the turbulence regime. Second, the heat fluxes in nonlinear simulations are matched to experimental fluxes by varying the logarithmic ion temperature gradient within the expected experimental error bars. Finally, the dependence of various quantities with respect to the ion temperature gradient is analyzed in detail. It is found that density and temperature fluctuations can vary significantly with small changes in this parameter, thus making comparisons with experiments very sensitive to uncertainties in the experimental profiles. However, cross-phases are more robust, indicating that they are better observables for comparisons between gyrokinetic simulations and experimental measurements.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Thermodynamic scaling of the shear viscosity of Mie n-6 fluids and their binary mixtures

In this work, we have evaluated the applicability of the so-called thermodynamic scaling and the isomorph frame to describe the shear viscosity of Mie n-6 fluids of varying repulsive exponents (n = 8, 12, 18, 24, and 36). Furthermore, the effectiveness of the thermodynamic scaling to deal with binary mixtures of Mie n-6 fluids has been explored as well. To generate the viscosity database of these fluids, extensive non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations have been performed for various thermodynamic conditions. Then, a systematic approach has been used to determine the gamma exponent value (γ) characteristic of the thermodynamic scaling approach for each system. In addition, the applicability of the isomorph theory with a density dependent gamma has been confirmed in pure fluids. In both pure fluids and mixtures, it has been found that the thermodynamic scaling with a constant gamma is sufficient to correlate the viscosity data on a large range of thermodynamic conditions covering liquid and supercritical states as long as the density is not too high. Interestingly, it has been obtained that, in pure fluids, the value of γ is directly proportional to the repulsive exponent of the Mie potential. Finally, it has been found that the value of γ in mixtures can be deduced from those of the pure component using a simple logarithmic mixing rule.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

Poole-Frenkel-effect as dominating current mechanism in thin oxide films—An illusion?!

In many of the publications, over 50 per year for the last five years, the Poole-Frenkel-effect (PFE) is identified or suggested as dominating current mechanism to explain measured current–electric field dependencies in metal-insulator-metal (MIM) thin film stacks. Very often, the insulating thin film is a metal oxide as this class of materials has many important applications, especially in information technology. In the overwhelming majority of the papers, the identification of the PFE as dominating current mechanism is made by the slope of the current–electric field curve in the so-called Poole-Frenkel plot, i.e., logarithm of current density, j, divided by the applied electric field, F, versus the square root of that field. This plot is suggested by the simplest current equation for the PFE, which comprises this proportionality (ln(j/F) vs. F{sup 1/2}) leading to a straight line in this plot. Only one other parameter (except natural constants) may influence this slope: the optical dielectric constant of the insulating film. In order to identify the importance of the PFE simulation studies of the current through MIM stacks with thin insulating films were performed and the current–electric field curves without and with implementation of the PFE were compared. For the simulation, an advanced current model has been used combining electronic carrier injection/ejection currents at the interfaces, described by thermionic emission, with the carrier transport in the dielectric, described by drift and diffusion of electrons and holes in a wide band gap semiconductor. Besides the applied electric field (or voltage), many other important parameters have been varied: the density of the traps (with donor- and acceptor-like behavior); the zero-field energy level of the traps within the energy gap, this energy level is changed by the PFE (also called internal Schottky effect); the thickness of the dielectric film; the permittivity of the dielectric film simulating different oxide materials; the barriers for electrons and holes at the interfaces simulating different electrode materials; the temperature. The main results and conclusions are: (1) For a single type of trap present only (donor-like or acceptor-like), none of the simulated current density curves shows the expected behavior of the PFE and in most cases within the tested parameter field the effect of PFE is negligibly small. (2) For both types of traps present (compensation) only in the case of exact compensation, the expected slope in the PF-plot was nearly found for a wider range of the applied electric field, but for a very small range of the tested parameter field because of the very restricting additional conditions: first, the quasi-fermi level of the current controlling particle (electrons or holes) has to be 0.1 to 0.5 eV closer to the respective band limit than the zero-field energy level of the respective traps and, second, the compensating trap energy level has to be shallow. The conclusion from all these results is: the observation of the PFE as dominating current mechanism in MIM stacks with thin dielectric (oxide) films (typically 30 nm) is rather improbable!.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

GaAs quantum dot solar cell under concentrated radiation

Effects of concentrated solar radiation on photovoltaic performance are investigated in well-developed GaAs quantum dot (QD) solar cells with 1-Sun efficiencies of 18%–19%. In these devices, the conversion processes are enhanced by nanoscale potential barriers and/or AlGaAs atomically thin barriers around QDs, which prevent photoelectron capture to QDs. Under concentrated radiation, the short circuit current increases proportionally to the concentration and the open circuit voltage shows the logarithmic increase. In the range up to hundred Suns, the contributions of QDs to the photocurrent are proportional to the light concentration. The ideality factors of 1.1–1.3 found from the V{sub OC}-Sun characteristics demonstrate effective suppression of recombination processes in barrier-separated QDs. The conversion efficiency shows the wide maximum in the range of 40–90 Suns and reaches 21.6%. Detailed analysis of I-V-Sun characteristics shows that at low intensities, the series resistance decreases inversely proportional to the concentration and, at ∼40 Suns, reaches the plateau determined mainly by the front contact resistance. Improvement of contact resistance would increase efficiency to above 24% at thousand Suns.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Transcendental equations in the Schwinger-Keldysh nonequilibrium theory and nonvanishing correlations

The Schwinger-Keldysh nonequilibrium theory allows the description of various transport phenomena involving bosons (fermions) embedded in bosonic (fermionic) environments. The retarded Green’s function obeys the Dyson equation and determines via its non-vanishing asymptotic behavior the dissipationless open dynamics. The appearance of this regime is conditioned by the existence of the solution of a general class of transcendental equations in complex domain that we study. Particular cases consist in transcendental equations containing exponential, hyperbolic, power law, logarithmic, and special functions. The present analysis provides an analytical description of the thermal and temporal correlation function of two general observables of a quantum system in terms of the corresponding spectral function. Special integral properties of the spectral function guarantee non-vanishing asymptotic behavior of the correlation function.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Area law for fixed points of rapidly mixing dissipative quantum systems

We prove an area law with a logarithmic correction for the mutual information for fixed points of local dissipative quantum system satisfying a rapid mixing condition, under either of the following assumptions: the fixed point is pure or the system is frustration free.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗