Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “vortex”

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 1,207 records · Page 67

Experimental investigation of magnetic anisotropy in spin vortex discs

We present experimental 2D vector vibrating sample magnetometer measurements to demonstrate the shape anisotropy effects occurring in micrometer-diameter supermalloy spin vortex discs. Measurements made for different disc sizes and orientations confirm the out-of-plane susceptibility is several orders of magnitude smaller than the in-plane susceptibility. These results validate with a high certitude that spin vortices with high diameter to thickness ratio retain in-plane-only magnetization, even when subjected to fields in the out-of-plane direction. These results contribute to further computational simulations of the dynamics of spin vortex structures in colloidal suspensions where external fields may be applied in any arbitrary direction.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Local modification of the magnetic vortex-core velocity by gallium implantation

The dynamics of magnetic vortices in microsquares with local modifications of magnetic parameters and thickness are investigated. By implanting gallium ions with focussed ion beam into permalloy thin-film elements, we have locally tailored their magnetic properties and the layer thickness. The vortex of the Landau domain pattern of a square is resonantly excited to a gyrotropic motion and crosses regions with and without implantation. With time-resolved scanning transmission x-ray microscopy, we observe an abrupt change in the vortex velocity close to the borders between the two regions.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Deep sub-nanosecond reversal of vortex cores confined in a spin-wave potential well

A spin-wave potential well is created in a permalloy nanodisk by setting up a cylindrical cavity in the center of the sample. We then apply a single-harmonic external magnetic field perpendicular to the disk plane to switch the vortex polarity of the sample. Our micromagnetic numerical studies establish that the effective spin-wave confinement by the potential well leads to much stronger magnetization oscillation in the sample. Therefore, the vortex core can be reversed well below 200 ps and over a wide range of field frequency. Our findings present an additional efficient means for ultrafast switching of magnetic vortices.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Communication: Nucleation of quantized vortex rings in {sup 4}He nanodroplets

Whereas most of the phenomena associated with superfluidity have been observed in finite-size helium systems, the nucleation of quantized vortices has proven elusive. Here we show using time-dependent density functional simulations that the solvation of a Ba{sup +} ion created by photoionization of neutral Ba at the surface of a {sup 4}He nanodroplet leads to the nucleation of a quantized ring vortex. The vortex is nucleated on a 10 ps timescale at the equator of a solid-like solvation structure that forms around the Ba{sup +} ion. The process is expected to be quite general and very efficient under standard experimental conditions.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Vortex and structural dynamics of a flexible cylinder in cross-flow

A low-density, flexible cantilevered cylinder was permitted to vibrate freely under the influence of vortex shedding in the laminar flow regime. We find that the vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) of a flexible cantilever depart from those of a flexible cylinder that is fixed at both ends. In particular, we find discontinuous regions of VIV behavior – here called states – as a function of the reduced velocity U{sup *}. These states are demarcated by discrete changes in the dominant eigenmodes of the structural response as the cylinder vibrates in progressively higher structural modes with increasing U{sup *}. The contribution of structural modes can be identified readily by a modal projection of the cylinder oscillation onto known cantilever beam modes. Oscillation frequencies do not monotonically increase with U{sup *}. The wake response between different states is also found to have distinct characteristics; of particular note is the occurrence of a P+S wake over one of these regions, which is associated with a high-amplitude vibration of the cylinder that is due to the constructive interference of contributing eigenmodes.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Femtosecond laser surface structuring of silicon using optical vortex beams generated by a q-plate

We report on laser surface structuring of silicon using Ti:Sa femtosecond laser ablation with optical vortex beams. A q-plate is used to generate an optical vortex beam with femtosecond pulse duration through spin-to-orbital conversion of the angular momentum of light. The variation of the produced surface structures is investigated as a function of the number of pulses, N, at laser fluence slightly above the ablation threshold value. At low N (≈10), only surface corrugation of the irradiated, ring-shaped area is observed. This is followed by a progressive formation of regular ripples at larger N (≈100–500), which eventually transform in smaller columnar structures for N ≈ 1000. Moreover, the central, non-ablated part is gradually decorated by nanoparticles produced during laser ablation, a process which eventually leads to the formation of a central turret of assembled nanoparticles. Our experimental findings suggest the importance of a feedback mechanism and a cumulative effect on the formation of ripples with interesting patterns not achievable by the more standard beams with a Gaussian intensity profile.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Large amplitude spin torque vortex oscillations at zero external field using a perpendicular spin polarizer

We investigate the microwave response of a spin transfer vortex based oscillator in a magnetic tunnel junction with an in-plane reference layer combined with a spin valve with an out-of-plane magnetization spin polarizing layer. The main advantage of this perpendicular spin polarizer is to induce a large spin transfer force even at zero magnetic field, thus leading to a record emitted power (up to 0.6 μW) associated to a very narrow spectral linewidth of a few hundreds of kHz. The characteristics of this hybrid vortex based spin transfer nano-oscillator obtained at zero field and room temperature are of great importance for applications based on rf spintronic devices as integrated and tunable microwave source and/or microwave detector.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Filamentary structures in dense plasma focus: Current filaments or vortex filaments?

Recent observations of an azimuthally distributed array of sub-millimeter size sources of fusion protons and correlation between extreme ultraviolet (XUV) images of filaments with neutron yield in PF-1000 plasma focus have re-kindled interest in their significance. These filaments have been described variously in literature as current filaments and vortex filaments, with very little experimental evidence in support of either nomenclature. This paper provides, for the first time, experimental observations of filaments on a table-top plasma focus device using three techniques: framing photography of visible self-luminosity from the plasma, schlieren photography, and interferometry. Quantitative evaluation of density profile of filaments from interferometry reveals that their radius closely agrees with the collision-less ion skin depth. This is a signature of relaxed state of a Hall fluid, which has significant mass flow with equipartition between kinetic and magnetic energy, supporting the “vortex filament” description. This interpretation is consistent with empirical evidence of an efficient energy concentration mechanism inferred from nuclear reaction yields.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Direct observation of the topological charge of a terahertz vortex beam generated by a Tsurupica spiral phase plate

A terahertz (THz) spiral phase plate with high transmission (>90% after Fresnel correction) and low dispersion has been developed based on the Tsurupica olefin polymer. Direct observations of the topological charge (both magnitude and sign) of a THz vortex beam are performed by using a THz camera with tilted lens focusing and radial defect introduction. The vortex outputs with a topological charge of ±1 (or ±2) are obtained at a frequency of 2 (or 4) THz.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Direct femtosecond laser ablation of copper with an optical vortex beam

Laser surface structuring of copper is induced by laser ablation with a femtosecond optical vortex beam generated via spin-to-orbital conversion of the angular momentum of light by using a q-plate. The variation of the produced surface structures is studied as a function of the number of pulses, N, and laser fluence, F. After the first laser pulse (N=1), the irradiated surface presents an annular region characterized by a corrugated morphology made by a rather complex network of nanometer-scale ridges, wrinkles, pores, and cavities. Increasing the number of pulses (2 1000) and a deep crater is formed. The nanostructure variation with the laser fluence, F, also evidences an interesting dependence, with a coarsening of the structure morphology as F increases. Our experimental findings demonstrate that direct femtosecond laser ablation with optical vortex beams produces interesting patterns not achievable by the more standard beams with a Gaussian intensity profile. They also suggest that appropriate tuning of the experimental conditions (F, N) can allow generating micro- and/or nano-structured surface for any specific application.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Phase locking of vortex cores in two coupled magnetic nanopillars

Phase locking dynamics of the coupled vortex cores in two identical magnetic spin valves induced by spin-polarized current are studied by means of micromagnetic simulations. Our results show that the available current range of phase locking can be expanded significantly by the use of constrained polarizer, and the vortices undergo large orbit motions outside the polarization areas. The effects of polarization areas and dipolar interaction on the phase locking dynamics are studied systematically. Phase locking parameters extracted from simulations are discussed by theoreticians. The dynamics of vortices influenced by spin valve geometry and vortex chirality are discussed at last. This work provides deeper insights into the dynamics of phase locking and the results are important for the design of spin-torque nano-oscillators.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Excited eigenmodes in magnetic vortex states of soft magnetic half-spheres and spherical caps

We studied the magnetization dynamics of excitation modes in special geometrical confinements of soft magnetic half-spheres and spherical caps in magnetic vortex states using finite-element micromagnetic numerical calculations. We found additional fine features of the zeroth- and first-order gyrotropic modes and asymmetric m = +1 and m = −1 azimuthal spin-wave modes, which detailed information is unobtainable from two-dimensional mesh-cell based numerical calculations. Moreover, we examined the perpendicular bias field dependence of the excited eigenmodes, which data provide for an efficient means of control over the excited modes. Such numerical calculations offer additional details or new underlying physics on dynamic features in arbitrary-shape magnetic nano-elements such as half-spheres and spherical caps in magnetic vortex states.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Azimuthal-spin-wave-mode-driven vortex-core reversals

We studied, by micromagnetic numerical calculations, asymmetric vortex-core reversals driven by the m = −1 and m = +1 azimuthal spin-wave modes' excitations in soft magnetic circular nano-disks. We addressed the similarities and differences between the asymmetric core reversals in terms of the temporal evolutions of the correlated core-motion speed, locally concentrated perpendicular gyrofield, and magnetization dip near the original vortex core. The criterion for the core reversals was found to be the magnetization dip that must reach the out-of-plane magnetization component, m{sub z} = −p, with the initial polarization p, where p = +1 (−1) for the upward (downward) core magnetization. The core-motion speed and the associated perpendicular gyrofield, variable and controllable with static perpendicular field, H{sub z}, applied perpendicularly to the disk plane, must reach their threshold values to meet the ultimate core-reversal criterion. Also, we determined the H{sub z} strength and direction dependence of the core-switching time and threshold exciting field strength required for the core reversals, whose parameters are essential in the application aspect. This work offers deeper insights into the azimuthal spin-wave-driven core-reversal dynamics as well as an efficient means of controlling the azimuthal-modes-driven core reversals.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Electroelastic fields in artificially created vortex cores in epitaxial BiFeO 3 thin films

Here we employ phase-field modeling to explore the elastic properties of artificially created 1-D domain walls in (001) p -oriented BiFeO 3 thin films, composed of a junction of the four polarization variants, all with the same out-of-plane polarization. It was found that these junctions exhibit peculiarly high electroelastic fields induced by the neighboring ferroelastic/ferroelectric domains. The vortex core exhibits a volume expansion, while the anti-vortex core is more compressive. We also discuss possible ways to control the electroelastic field, such as varying material constant and applying transverse electric field.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Generation of radially polarized high energy mid-infrared optical vortex by use of a passive axially symmetric ZnSe waveplate

We demonstrated the generation of the intense radially polarized mid-infrared optical vortex at a wavelength of 10.6 μm by use of a passive axially symmetric zinc selenide (ZnSe) waveplate with high energy pulse throughput. The phase of the radially polarized optical vortex with the degree of polarization of 0.95 was spirally distributed in regard to the angle. The converted laser beam energy of about 2.6 mJ per pulse was obtained at the input pulse energy of 4.9 mJ, corresponding to the energy conversion efficiency of 56%.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Two dimensional thick center vortex model

The potential between static color source is calculated in the SU (3) gauge group by introducing a two dimensional vortex flux. To generalize the model, the length of the Wilson loop is equal to R oriented along the x axis, and the vortex flux is considered as a function of x and y. The comparison between the generalized model and the original one shows that the intermediate linear regime is increased significantly and better agreement with Casimir scaling is achieved. Furthermore, the model is applied to calculate the potential between baryons.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Nonlinear vortex structures with perpendicular shear flow, hot ions, and nonthermal distribution of electrons

Coupling of drift vortex and the ion acoustic modes in the linear and nonlinear regimes are investigated with sheared ion flow perpendicular to the ambient magnetic field in a plasma comprising of hot ions and nonthermal population of electrons. In this regard, generation of nonlinear vortex structures in the presence of kappa, Cairns, and q-nonextensive electron distributions are investigated in detail, and comparison with the Maxwellian distribution is also made. The appositeness of the present investigation in the matter of auroral F-region is also pointed out.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Measuring mode indices of a partially coherent vortex beam with Hanbury Brown and Twiss type experiment

It is known that the cross-correlation function (CCF) of a partially coherent vortex (PCV) beam shows a robust link with the radial and azimuthal mode indices. However, the previous proposals are difficult to measure the CCF in practical systems, especially in the case of astronomical objects. In this letter, we demonstrate experimentally that the Hanbury Brown and Twiss effect can be used to measure the mode indices of the original vortex beam and investigate the relationship between the spatial coherent width and the characterization of CCF of the PCV beam. The technique we exploit is quite efficient and robust, and it may be useful in the field of free space communication and astronomy which are related to the photon's orbital angular momentum.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗