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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 1,063 records · Page 59
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2014

High thermal stability and low density variation of carbon-doped Ge{sub 2}Sb{sub 2}Te{sub 5} for phase-change memory application

Carbon-doped Ge{sub 2}Sb{sub 2}Te{sub 5} (GSTC) film has been experimentally studied as a thermal stable material for high temperature applications. The 10-yr data retention temperature is remarkably increased through C doping. Furthermore, GSTC films have better interface properties after annealing at 410 °C for 30 min. The density variation of GSTC film is significantly improved, which is very important to device reliability. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results reveal that the thermal stability enhancement of GSTC film attributes to the forming of C-Ge, C-Sb, and C-Te bonds. The perfect thermal stability makes GSTC materials a good candidate in the actual production of phase-change memory.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Investigation of defect structure of impurity-doped lithium niobate by combining thermodynamic constraints with lattice constant variations

The defect structures of impurity-doped congruent lithium niobates (c-LN) were determined for impurities with various valences, including divalent, trivalent, and tetravalent impurities, in a concentration range where antisite niobium (Nb{sub Li}) exists. On the basis of the “Li site vacancy model,” six kinds of defect structures in impurity-doped c-LN are possible. Using thermodynamic constraints, these can be narrowed down to two kinds. The first structure is that in which impurities, vacancies and Nb exist as defects in the Li site and no defects exist in the Nb site (structure A), described as ([Li{sub Li}] {sub 1-5x-jy}[Nb{sub Li}]{sub x}[M{sub Li}]{sub y}[V{sub Li}]{sub 4x+(j-1)y})[Nb{sub Nb}][O{sub O}] {sub 3} (V: vacancy, M: impurity, j: valence of impurity, x, y: compositional variable (≠0), Li/Nb = congruent ratio). ([Li{sub Li}{sup ×}] {sub 1-5x-2y}[Nb{sub Li}{sup ••••}]{sub x}[M{sub Li}{sup •}]{sub y}[V{sub Li}{sup ′}]{sub 4x+y})[Nb{sub Nb}{sup ×}][O{sub O}{sup ×}] {sub 3} is an example by the Kröger-Vink notation for divalent M. In the second structure, vacancies and Nb exist as defects in the Li site and impurities exist as defects in the Nb site (structure B), described as ([Li{sub Li}] {sub 1-5x-(j-5)y}[Nb{sub Li}]{sub x}[V{sub Li}]{sub 4x+(j-5)y})([Nb{sub Nb}] {sub 1-y}[M{sub Nb}]{sub y})[O{sub O}] {sub 3}. ([Li{sub Li}{sup ×}] {sub 1-5x+y}[Nb{sub Li}{sup ••••}]{sub x}[V{sub Li}{sup ′}]{sub 4x-y})([Nb{sub Nb}{sup ×}] {sub 1-y}[M{sub Nb}{sup ′}]{sub y})[O{sub O}{sup ×}] {sub 3} is an example for tetravalent M. Since the relationship between impurity concentration and lattice constants for structures A and B differs, the defect structures can be differentiated by analyzing lattice constant variations as a function of impurity concentration. The results show that the defect structure of divalent and trivalent impurity-doped c-LN is structure A and that of tetravalent impurity-doped c-LN is structure B. The Nb{sub Li} concentration increased with increasing tetravalent impurity concentration. In contrast, the Nb{sub Li} concentration decreased with increasing divalent and trivalent impurities, leading to suppression of optical damage. The valence of an impurity determines whether the impurity is located in the Li site or Nb site in c-LN, consequently determining whether Nb{sub Li} decreases or increases when the population of the impurity changes.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Analysis of transverse shear strains in pre-twisted thick beams using variational asymptotic method

The cross-sectional stiffness matrix is derived for a pre-twisted, moderately thick beam made of transversely isotropic materials and having rectangular cross sections. An asymptotically-exact methodology is used to model the anisotropic beam from 3-D elasticity, without any further assumptions. The beam is allowed to have large displacements and rotations, but small strain is assumed. The strain energy is computed making use of the beam constitutive law and kinematical relations derived with the inclusion of geometrical nonlinearities and an initial twist. The energy functional is minimized making use of the Variational Asymptotic Method (VAM), thereby reducing the cross section to a point on the beam reference line with appropriate properties, forming a 1-D constitutive law. VAM is a mathematical technique employed in the current problem to rigorously split the 3-D analysis of beams into two: a 2-D analysis over the beam cross-sectional domain, which provides a compact semi-analytical form of the properties of the cross sections, and a nonlinear 1-D analysis of the beam ref-erence curve. In this method, as applied herein, the cross-sectional analysis is performed asymptotically by taking advantage of a material small parameter and two geometric small parameters. 3-D strain components are derived using kinematics and arranged in orders of the small parameters. Closed-form expressions are derived for the 3-D non-linear warping and stress fields. Warping functions are obtained by the minimization of strain energy subject to certain set of constraints that render the 1-D strain measures well-defined. The zeroth-order 3-D warping field thus yielded is then used to integrate the 3-D strain energy density over the cross section, resulting in the 1-D strain energy density, which in turn helps identify the corresponding cross-sectional stiffness matrix. The model is capable of predicting interlaminar and transverse shear stresses accurately up to first order.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

The effects of ion mass variation and domain size on octupolar out-of-plane magnetic field generation in collisionless magnetic reconnection

Graf von der Pahlen and Tsiklauri [Phys. Plasmas 21, 060705 (2014)] established that the generation of octupolar out-of-plane magnetic field structure in a stressed X-point collapse is due to ion currents. The field has a central region, comprising of the well-known quadrupolar field (quadrupolar components), as well as four additional poles of reversed polarity closer to the corners of the domain (octupolar components). In this extended work, the dependence of the octupolar structure on domain size and ion mass variation is investigated. Simulations show that the strength and spatial structure of the generated octupolar magnetic field is independent of ion to electron mass ratio; thus showing that ion currents play a significant role in out-of-plane magnetic structure generation in physically realistic scenarios. Simulations of different system sizes show that the width of the octupolar structure remains the same and has a spacial extent of the order of the ion inertial length. The width of the structure thus appears to be independent on boundary condition effects. The length of the octupolar structure, however, increases for greater domain sizes, prescribed by the external system size. This was found to be a consequence of the structure of the in-plane magnetic field in the outflow region halting the particle flow and thus terminating the in-plane currents that generate the out-of-plane field. The generation of octupolar magnetic field structure is also established in a tearing-mode reconnection scenario. The differences in the generation of the octupolar field and resulting qualitative differences between X-point collapse and tearing-mode are discussed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Global and local structural variations near the antiferroelectric regime in Na{sub 0.5}Bi{sub 0.5}TiO{sub 3}

Rietveld refinement of neutron and x-ray diffraction data of Na{sub 0.5}Bi{sub 0.5}TiO{sub 3} shows R3c phase stabilization at room temperature. The intermediate antiferroelectric region between 180°C to 280°C exhibits phase coexistence i.e R3c + Pnma, along with decrease in octahedral tilt angle and increase in unit cell volume. The local structural changes observed from Raman scattering in the A-O, Ti-O and TiO{sub 6} phonon modes favor the global structural variation. A possible antiparallel cation displacement due to Pnma phase formation leads to the origin of antiferroelectric ordering in Na{sub 0.5}Bi{sub 0.5}TiO{sub 3}.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Variational approach for static mirror structures

Anisotropic static plasma equilibria where the parallel and perpendicular pressures are only functions of the amplitude of the local magnetic field are shown to be amenable to a variational principle with a free energy density given by the parallel tension. This approach is used to demonstrate that two-dimensional small-amplitude static magnetic holes constructed from a Grad-Shafranov type equation slightly below the (subcritical) mirror instability threshold identify with lump solitons of KPII equation, but turn out to be unstable. Differently, large-amplitude magnetic structures, which are stable as they realize a minimum of the free energy, are computed using a gradient method within two-dimensional numerical simulations where the regularizing effect of finite Larmor radius corrections is retained. Interestingly, these structures transform from stripes to bubbles when the angle of the magnetic field with the coordinate plane is increased.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Direct non-Born-Oppenheimer variational calculations of all bound vibrational states corresponding to the first rotational excitation of D{sub 2} performed with explicitly correlated all-particle Gaussian functions

Direct variational calculations where the Born-Oppenheimer approximation is not assumed are done for all rovibrational states of the D{sub 2} molecule corresponding to first excited rotational level (the N = 1 states). All-particle explicitly correlated Gaussian basis functions are used in the calculations. The exponential parameters of the Gaussians are optimized with the aid of analytically calculated energy gradient determined with respect to these parameters. The results allow to determine the ortho-para spin isomerization energies as a function of the vibrational quantum number.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Variation in plasmonic (electronic) spectral parameters of Pr (III) and Nd (III) with varied concentration of moderators

It is said that the -4f shells behave as core and are least perturbed by changes around metal ion surrounding. However, there are evidences that-4f shells partially involved in direct moderator interaction. A systematic investigation on the plasmonic (electronic) spectral studies of some Rare Earths[RE(III).Mod] where, RE(III) = Pr(III),Nd(III) and Mod(moderator) = Y(III),La(III),Gd(III) and Lu(III), increased moderator concentration from 0.01 mol dm{sup −3} to 0.025 mol dm{sup −3} keeping the metal ion concentration at 0.01mol dm{sup −3} have been carried out. Variations in oscillator strengths (f), Judd-Ofelt parameters (T{sub λ}),inter-electronic repulsion Racah parameters (δE{sup k}),nephelauxetic ratio (β), radiative parameters (S{sub ED},A{sub T},β{sub R},T{sub R}). The values of oscillator strengths and Judd-Ofelt parameters have been discussed in the light of coordination number of RE(III) metal ions, denticity and basicity of the moderators. The [RE(III).Mod] bonding pattern has been studies in the light of the change in Racah parameters and nephelauxetic ratio.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Variation of photon interaction parameters with energy for some Cu-Pb alloys

Various photon interaction parameters (mass attenuation coefficients, effective atomic numbers and effective electron numbers) have been computed for different compositions of Cu-Pb alloys in the wide energy regime of 1 keV to 100 GeV. The mass attenuation coefficients have been computed using mixture rule with the help of WinXCom (mass attenuation coefficient database for elements). The variation of mass attenuation coefficients, effective atomic numbers and electron density has been analysed and discussed in terms of dominance of different photon interaction processes viz. Compton scattering, photoelectric effect and pair production.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Study of morphology effects on magnetic interactions and band gap variations for 3d late transition metal bi-doped ZnO nanostructures by hybrid DFT calculations

Using density functional theory (DFT) based electronic structure calculations, the effects of morphology of semiconducting nanostructures on the magnetic interaction between two magnetic dopant atoms as well as a possibility of tuning band gaps have been studied in the case of the bi-doped (ZnO){sub 24} nanostructures with the impurity dopant atoms of the 3d late transition metals—Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu. To explore the morphology effect, three different structures of the host (ZnO){sub 24} nano-system, having different degrees of spatial confinement, have been considered: a two dimensional nanosheet, a one dimensional nanotube, and a finite cage-shaped nanocluster. The present study employs hybrid density functional theory to accurately describe the electronic structure of all the systems. It is shown here that the magnetic coupling between the two dopant atoms remains mostly anti-ferromagnetic in the course of changing the morphology from the sheet geometry to the cage-shaped geometry of the host systems, except for the case of energetically most stable bi-Mn doping, which shows a transition from ferromagnetic to anti-ferromagnetic coupling with decreasing aspect ratio of the host system. The effect of the shape change, however, has a significant effect on the overall band gap variations of both the pristine as well as all the bi-doped systems, irrespective of the nature of the dopant atoms and provides a means for easy tunability of their optoelectronic properties.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Variational symplectic particle-in-cell simulation of nonlinear mode conversion from extraordinary waves to Bernstein waves

In this paper, the nonlinear mode conversion of extraordinary waves in nonuniform magnetized plasmas is studied using the variational symplectic particle-in-cell simulation. The accuracy of the nonlinear simulation is guaranteed by the long-term accuracy and conservativeness of the symplectic algorithm. The spectra of the electromagnetic wave, the evolution of the wave reflectivity, the energy deposition profile, and the parameter-dependent properties of radio-frequency waves during the nonlinear mode conversion are investigated. It is illustrated that nonlinear effects significantly modify the physics of the radio-frequency injection in magnetized plasmas. The evolutions of the radio-frequency wave reflectivity and the energy deposition are observed, as well as the self-interaction of the Bernstein waves and mode excitations. Even for waves with small magnitude, nonlinear effects can also become important after continuous wave injections, which are common in the realistic radio-frequency wave heating and current drive experiments.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

A variational approach for dissipative quantum transport in a wide parameter space

Recent development of theoretical method for dissipative quantum transport has achieved notable progresses in the weak or strong electron-phonon coupling regime. However, a generalized theory for dissipative quantum transport in a wide parameter space had not been established. In this work, a variational polaron theory for dissipative quantum transport in a wide range of electron-phonon coupling is developed. The optimal polaron transformation is determined by the optimization of the Feynman-Bogoliubov upper bound of free energy. The free energy minimization ends up with an optimal mean-field Hamiltonian and a minimal interaction Hamiltonian. Hence, second-order perturbation can be applied to the transformed system, resulting in an accurate and efficient method for the treatment of dissipative quantum transport with different electron-phonon coupling strength. Numerical benchmark calculation on a single site model coupled to one phonon mode is presented.

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

An ultra-high vacuum chamber for scattering experiments featuring in-vacuum continuous in-plane variation of the angle between entrance and exit vacuum ports

A concept that enables in-vacuum continuous variation of the angle between two ports in one plane has been developed and implemented. The vacuum chamber allows for measuring scattering cross sections as a function of scattering angle and is intended for resonant inelastic X-ray scattering experiments. The angle between the ports can be varied in the range of 30°-150°, while the pressure change is less than 2 × 10{sup −10} mbars.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2015

Minimum current principle and variational method in theory of space charge limited flow

In spirit of the principle of least action, which means that when a perturbation is applied to a physical system, its reaction is such that it modifies its state to “agree” with the perturbation by “minimal” change of its initial state. In particular, the electron field emission should produce the minimum current consistent with boundary conditions. It can be found theoretically by solving corresponding equations using different techniques. We apply here the variational method for the current calculation, which can be quite effective even when involving a short set of trial functions. The approach to a better result can be monitored by the total current that should decrease when we on the right track. Here, we present only an illustration for simple geometries of devices with the electron flow. The development of these methods can be useful when the emitter and/or anode shapes make difficult the use of standard approaches. Though direct numerical calculations including particle-in-cell technique are very effective, but theoretical calculations can provide an important insight for understanding general features of flow formation and even sometimes be realized by simpler routines.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Duty factor variation possibility from 1% to 100% with PKU microwave driven Cs-free volume H{sup −} sources

Microwave driven cesium-free volume H{sup −} sources, that have the ability to deliver tens of mA H{sup −} at 35 keV both in CW and 10% duty factor (100 Hz/1 ms), were developed at Peking University (PKU) [S. X. Peng et al., in Proceeding of IPAC 2015, WEPWA027, Richmond, Virginia, USA, 3–8 May 2015]. Recently, special efforts were paid on the investigation of duty factor variation possibility from 1% to 100% with them. Most of the experiments were carried out with a pulsed length (τ) of 1 ms and different intervals of 99 ms, 49 ms, 39 ms, 29 ms, 19 ms, 9 ms, 4 ms, 2 ms, 1 ms, 0.5 ms, and 0 ms, respectively. Other experiments were focused on CW operation and fixed duty factor of 1%. Experimental results prove that PKU H{sup −} sources can deliver tens of mA H{sup −} at duty factor from 1% to 100%. The RF power efficiency increases steadily with the increasing of duty factor from 1% to CW at a fixed pulsed length. Under a given duty factor and pulsed length, RF power efficiency keeps constant and the H{sup −} current increases with RF power linearly. Details will be presented in the paper.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2016

Variation in the electrical properties of ion beam irradiated cadmium selenate nanowires

The key feature of nanowires consists in the pronounced change in properties induced by the low dimensionality and high surface to volume ratio. The study of electrical transport properties of nanowires is important for electronic device applications. Energetic ions create changes, which may be structural or chemical, in a material along their track and these changes might alter the material’s properties. The demand of the modern technology is to understand the effect of radiation on the different properties of the material for its further applications. The present study is on the high-energy Nickel ion beam (160 MeV Ni{sup +12}) induced modifications in the electrical and structural properties of the cadmium selenate nanowires. An enhancement in the electrical conductivity of irradiated wires was observed as the ion fluence was increased especially in the forward I–V characteristics. The creation of defects by ion irradiation and the synergy of the ions during their passage in the sample with the intrinsic charge carriers may be responsible for the variation in the transport properties of the irradiated nanowires.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

A promising limited angular computed tomography reconstruction via segmentation based regional enhancement and total variation minimization

X-ray computed tomography (CT) is a powerful and common inspection technique used for the industrial non-destructive testing. However, large-sized and heavily absorbing objects cause the formation of artifacts because of either the lack of specimen penetration in specific directions or the acquisition of data from only a limited angular range of views. Although the sparse optimization-based methods, such as the total variation (TV) minimization method, can suppress artifacts to some extent, reconstructing the images such that they converge to accurate values remains difficult because of the deficiency in continuous angular data and inconsistency in the projections. To address this problem, we use the idea of regional enhancement of the true values and suppression of the illusory artifacts outside the region to develop an efficient iterative algorithm. This algorithm is based on the combination of regional enhancement of the true values and TV minimization for the limited angular reconstruction. In this algorithm, the segmentation approach is introduced to distinguish the regions of different image knowledge and generate the support mask of the image. A new regularization term, which contains the support knowledge to enhance the true values of the image, is incorporated into the objective function. Then, the proposed optimization model is solved by variable splitting and the alternating direction method efficiently. A compensation approach is also designed to extract useful information from the initial projections and thus reduce false segmentation result and correct the segmentation support and the segmented image. The results obtained from comparing both simulation studies and real CT data set reconstructions indicate that the proposed algorithm generates a more accurate image than do the other reconstruction methods. The experimental results show that this algorithm can produce high-quality reconstructed images for the limited angular reconstruction and suppress the illusory artifacts caused by the deficiency in valid data.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2016

The sensitivity of the electron transport within bulk zinc-blende gallium nitride to variations in the crystal temperature, the doping concentration, and the non-parabolicity coefficient associated with the lowest energy conduction band valley

Within the framework of a semi-classical three-valley Monte Carlo simulation approach, we analyze the steady-state and transient electron transport that occurs within bulk zinc-blende gallium nitride. In particular, we examine how the steady-state and transient electron transport that occurs within this material changes in response to variations in the crystal temperature, the doping concentration, and the non-parabolicity coefficient associated with the lowest energy conduction band valley. These results are then contrasted with those corresponding to a number of other compound semiconductors of interest.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗