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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 1,009 records · Page 56
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2013

Alfvén wave collisions, the fundamental building block of plasma turbulence. IV. Laboratory experiment

Turbulence is a phenomenon found throughout space and astrophysical plasmas. It plays an important role in solar coronal heating, acceleration of the solar wind, and heating of the interstellar medium. Turbulence in these regimes is dominated by Alfvén waves. Most turbulence theories have been established using ideal plasma models, such as incompressible MHD. However, there has been no experimental evidence to support the use of such models for weakly to moderately collisional plasmas which are relevant to various space and astrophysical plasma environments. We present the first experiment to measure the nonlinear interaction between two counterpropagating Alfvén waves, which is the building block for astrophysical turbulence theories. We present here four distinct tests that demonstrate conclusively that we have indeed measured the daughter Alfvén wave generated nonlinearly by a collision between counterpropagating Alfvén waves.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Ideas for fundamental electron scattering at the S-DALINAC

A source of polarized electrons has recently been added to the superconducting Darmstadt electron linear accelerator S-DALINAC. This contribution briefly addresses the present status of the facility and foreseen extensions along with examples for possible future experiments with polarized beams. In particular, the determination of the fifth structure function in (e,e′x) reactions, the measurement of the Mott scattering analyzing strength at several 10 MeV near 180°, and the determination of bremsstrahlung polarization depending on electron spin polarization will be discussed.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Fundamental optical properties of InN grown by epitaxial lateral overgrowth method

Optical properties of InN grown by the epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELO) method have been studied using photoluminescence (PL) and excitation-correlation (EC) measurements. The PL spectrum is analyzed by free-electron recombination band (FERB) model, which shows that the ELO sample has a very low background carrier concentration (n=5.5*10{sup 16}[cm{sup −3]}). EC measurements show that the dependences of the band gap renormalization and Auger effect on the carrier concentrations are similar in spite of the different physical origins.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Strain-induced fundamental optical transition in (In,Ga)As/GaP quantum dots

The nature of the ground optical transition in an (In,Ga)As/GaP quantum dot is thoroughly investigated through a million atoms supercell tight-binding simulation. Precise quantum dot morphology is deduced from previously reported scanning-tunneling-microscopy images. The strain field is calculated with the valence force field method and has a strong influence on the confinement potentials, principally, for the conduction band states. Indeed, the wavefunction of the ground electron state is spatially confined in the GaP matrix, close to the dot apex, in a large tensile strain region, having mainly Xz character. Photoluminescence experiments under hydrostatic pressure strongly support the theoretical conclusions.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

CITIUS: An infrared-extreme ultraviolet light source for fundamental and applied ultrafast science

We present the main features of CITIUS, a new light source for ultrafast science, generating tunable, intense, femtosecond pulses in the spectral range from infrared to extreme ultraviolet (XUV). The XUV pulses (about 10{sup 5}-10{sup 8} photons/pulse in the range 14-80 eV) are produced by laser-induced high-order harmonic generation in gas. This radiation is monochromatized by a time-preserving monochromator, also allowing one to work with high-resolution bandwidth selection. The tunable IR-UV pulses (10{sup 12}-10{sup 15} photons/pulse in the range 0.4-5.6 eV) are generated by an optical parametric amplifier, which is driven by a fraction of the same laser pulse that generates high order harmonics. The IR-UV and XUV pulses follow different optical paths and are eventually recombined on the sample for pump-probe experiments. We also present the results of two pump-probe experiments: with the first one, we fully characterized the temporal duration of harmonic pulses in the time-preserving configuration; with the second one, we demonstrated the possibility of using CITIUS for selective investigation of the ultra-fast dynamics of different elements in a magnetic compound.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Fundamental limitation to the magnitude of piezoelectric response of (001)pc textured K0.5Na0.5NbO3 ceramic

(001)pc textured K0.5Na0.5NbO3 (KNN) ceramic was found to exhibit a 65% improvement in the longitudinal piezoelectric response as compared to its random counterpart. Piezoresponse force microscopy study revealed the existence of larger 180 and non-180 domains for textured ceramic as compared to that of the random ceramic. Improvement in piezoresponse by the development of (001)pc texture is discussed in terms of the crystallographic nature of KNN and domain morphology. A comparative analysis performed with a rhombohedral composition suggested that the improvement in longitudinal piezoresponse of polycrystalline ceramics by the development of (001)pc texture is limited by the crystal structure.

Gupta, Shashaank↗
DOE OSTI2014

Observation of the fundamental Nyquist noise limit in an ultra-high Q-factor cryogenic bulk acoustic wave cavity

Thermal Nyquist noise fluctuations of high-Q bulk acoustic wave cavities have been observed at cryogenic temperatures with a DC superconducting quantum interference device amplifier. High Q modes with bandwidths of few tens of milliHz produce thermal fluctuations with a signal-to-noise ratio of up to 23 dB. The estimated effective temperature from the Nyquist noise is in good agreement with the physical temperature of the device, confirming the validity of the equivalent circuit model and the non-existence of any excess resonator self-noise. The measurements also confirm that the quality factor remains extremely high (Q > 10{sup 8} at low order overtones) for very weak (thermal) system motion at low temperatures, when compared to values measured with relatively strong external excitation. This result represents an enabling step towards operating such a high-Q acoustic device at the standard quantum limit.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Fundamental limitations of the local approximation for electron distribution function and fluid model in bounded plasmas

It is shown that the local approximation for computing the electron distribution function depends both on the ratio between the energy relaxation length and a characteristic plasma length and on the ratio between heating and ambipolar electric fields. In particular, the local approximation is not valid at the discharge periphery even at high pressure due to the fact that the ambipolar electric field practically always is larger than the heating electric field.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Fundamental aspects of deuterium retention in tungsten at high flux plasma exposure

An effect of enhanced trapping of deuterium in tungsten at high flux was discovered. It was shown analytically and confirmed experimentally that the deuterium trapping in a presence of high density of defects in tungsten (W) depends on the ion energy and ion flux. Newly developed analytical model explains experimentally observed discrepancy of deuterium trapping at radiation-induced defects in tungsten at different ion fluxes that significantly improves a prediction of hydrogen isotope accumulation in different plasma devices, including ITER and DEMO. The developed model can be used for many system of hydrogen in a metal in both normal and extreme environments (high fluxes, elevated temperatures, neutron irradiation, etc.). This new model allows, for the first time, to validate density function theory (DFT) predictions of multiple occupation of a defect with deuterium against experimental data that bridge the gap in length and time scale between DFT calculations and experiments. By comparing first-principle calculations based on DFT and semi-empirical “adsorption model,” it was proved that the mechanism of hydrogen isotope trapping in a vacancy cluster is similar to a chemisorption on a surface. Binding energies of deuterium with different types of defects in W were defined. Moreover, the surface barrier of deuterium to be chemisorbed on a clean W surface was found to be less than 1 eV and kinetics of deuterium release is limited by de-trapping from defects rather than to be limited by surface effects.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Theoretical study on mode competition between fundamental and second harmonic modes in a 0.42 THz gyrotron with gradually tapered complex cavity

In this paper, the nonlinear dynamics of mode competition in the complex cavity gyrotron are studied by using multi-frequency, time-dependent theory with the cold-cavity longitudinal profile approximation. Based on the theory, a code is written to simulate the mode competition in the gradually tapered complex cavity gyrotron operating at second harmonic oscillation. The simulations tracking seven competition modes show that single mode oscillation of the desired mode TE{sub 17.4} at 150 kW level can be expected with proper choice of operating parameters. Through studying on mode competition, it is proved that the complex cavity has a good capability for suppressing the mode competition. Meanwhile, it is found that TE{sub 17.3} could be excited in the first cavity as a competition mode when the gyrotron operating at large beam current, which leads to that TE{sub 17.3} and TE{sub 17.4} with different frequencies can coexist stably in the complex cavity gyrotron with very close amplitudes. Thus, the complex cavity might be used for multi-frequency output gyrotron.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Status of the SPES project, a new tool for fundamental and apply science studies with exotic ion beams at LNL

SPES, a new accelerator facility for both the production of exotic ion beams and radio-pharmaceuticals, is presently being installed at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro in Italy (LNL). The new cyclotron, which will provide high intensity proton beams for the production of the rare isotopes, has been installed and is now in the commissioning phase. We present here the status of the part of the project devoted to the production and acceleration of fission fragments created in the interaction of an intense proton beam on a production target of UCx. The expected SPES radioactive beams intensities, their quality and their maximum energies (up to 11 MeV/A for A=130) will permit to perform forefront research in nuclear structure and nuclear dynamics far from the stability valley. Another low energy section of the facility is foreseen for new and challenging research, both in the nuclear physics and in the material science frameworks.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Fundamental investigation of unipolar and RF corona in atmospheric air

Here, unipolar (DC) and radio frequency (RF) corona at 3.3 MHz is studied at centimeter-sized gaps in a needle-plane geometry in atmospheric air at room temperature. Positive and negative corona using pure tungsten electrodes with varying tip angles revealed a lower onset voltage for the needle with the smaller included angle. The RF corona onset voltage and corresponding time delay were measured for a series of needles composed of pure tungsten or 2% lanthanated tungsten. The corona onset, established when the first instance of UV photon emission is detected via photomultiplier tube, occurred primarily during the negative half cycle of the applied RF voltage for pure tungsten needles. In contrast, with lanthanated tungsten needles, such preference was not observed. No distinguishable difference in onset voltage between pure tungsten and lanthanated tungsten was found, indicating that adding a small amount of lanthanum to tungsten has a negligible impact on the onset voltage at 3.3 MHz frequencies for electrodes at room temperature.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Producing two-dimensional dust clouds and clusters using a movable electrode for complex plasma and fundamental physics experiments

We report a Bidirectional Electrode Control Arm Assembly (BECAA) for precisely manipulating dust clouds levitated above the powered electrode in RF plasmas. The reported techniques allow the creation of perfectly 2D dust layers by eliminating off-plane particles by moving the electrode from outside the plasma chamber without altering the plasma conditions. Here, the tilting and moving of electrodes using BECAA also allows the precise and repeatable elimination of dust particles one by one to achieve any desired number of grains N without trial and error. Simultaneously acquired top and side view images of dust clusters show that they are perfectly planar or 2D. A demonstration of clusters with N = 1–28 without changing the plasma conditions is presented to show the utility of BECAA for complex plasma and statistical physics experimental design. Demonstration videos and 3D printable part files are available for easy reproduction and adaptation of this new method to repeatably produce 2D clusters in existing RF plasma chambers.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Use of current-potential patches to obtain fundamental improvements to the coils of magnetic fusion devices

A central issue in the design of tokamaks or stellarators is the coils that produce the external magnetic fields. The freedom that remains unstudied in the design of coils is enormous. This freedom could be quickly studied computationally at low cost with high reliability. In particular, the space between toroidal field and modular coils that blocks access to the plasma chamber could be increased by a large factor. The concept of current-potential patches, which was developed in Todd Elder's thesis, provides a method for separating the study of the feasibility of coils with attractive physics properties from the engineering design of specific coils. In addition to enhanced accessibility, coils can be designed for increased plasma-coil separation, insensitivity to coil position errors, and plasma control.

Boozer, Allen H. [Columbia Univ., New York, NY (Un↗
DOE OSTI2025

Fundamental advantages of multijunction thermoradiative cells

Thermoradiative (TR) cells convert heat to work through emission of thermal radiation. Multijunction thermoradiative cells have received little research interest due to the apparent overlap with energy harvesting limits. Through detailed balance formalism, the present study models both single- and multi-diode TR devices, establishing their performance limits and identifying key factors that influence efficiency. For single-junction TR cells, we derive a relationship for the optimal bandgap and show that higher emitter temperatures increase efficiency. When the receiver is at absolute zero temperature, multijunction TR cells have little advantage over the single-junction cell in terms of the maximum output power density. However, for higher receiver temperatures, the multijunction configuration demonstrates significant improvements in both power and efficiency through the optimization of the chemical potential and bandgap of each diode in the complete ensemble. A 500 K emitter and 300 K receiver TR system can achieve a 21.25% increase in efficiency and a 10% improvement in the power density with multijunction architecture compared to a single junction through chemical potential optimization. These findings suggest that multijunction TR cells offer a promising approach to advancing low-grade heat recovery technologies for efficient heat-to-work conversion.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
DOE OSTI2015

Diatomic molecules, a window onto fundamental physics

Thanks to the rich structure of their energy levels, molecules can be exquisite probes of time-reversal-symmetry violation, the constancy of the proton-to-electron mass ratio, and more.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗