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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 1,261 records · Page 70
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2014

Fast chirality reversal of the magnetic vortex by electric current

The possibility of high-density information encoding in magnetic materials by topologically stable inhomogeneous magnetization configurations such as domain walls, skyrmions, and vortices has motivated intense research into mechanisms enabling their control and detection. While the uniform magnetization states can be efficiently controlled by electric current using magnetic multilayer structures, this approach has proven much more difficult to implement for inhomogeneous states. Here, we report direct observation of fast reversal of magnetic vortex by electric current in a simple planar structure based on a bilayer of spin Hall material Pt with a single microscopic ferromagnetic disk contacted by asymmetric electrodes. The reversal is enabled by a combination of the chiral Oersted field and spin current generated by the nonuniform current distribution in Pt. Our results provide a route for the efficient control of inhomogeneous magnetization configurations by electric current.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Adjustable ferromagnetic resonance frequency in CoO/CoFeB system

Static and dynamic properties of (CoO/CoFeB){sub n} multilayers have been investigated. An anisotropy field enhancement was evidenced when the CoO layer was deposited under the CoFeB layer. Tuning the relative CoFeB and CoO layers thicknesses, high ferromagnetic resonance frequencies up to 4 GHz were achieved. The coupling effect between the CoO and CoFeB layers was induced by a dipolar coupling due to the anisotropic roughness topology of the CoO layer. This anisotropic roughness was induced by the deposition geometry and evidenced by atomic force microscopy. The strength of the dipolar interfacial coupling was calculated thanks to Schlömann's model. Multilayer stacks were fabricated and the magnetic properties observed for the trilayers could be maintained.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Incident angle insensitive tunable multichannel perfect absorber consisting of nonlinear plasma and matching metamaterials

A novel, compact, and multichannel nonreciprocal absorber through a wave tunneling mechanism in epsilon-negative and matching metamaterials is theoretically proposed. Nonreciprocal absorption properties are acquired via the coupling together of evanescent and propagating waves in an asymmetric configuration, constituted of nonlinear plasma alternated with matching metamaterial. The absorption channel number can be adjusted by changing the periodic number. Due to the positive feedback between nonlinear permittivity of plasma and the inner electric field, bistable absorption and reflection are achieved. Moreover, compared with some truncated photonic crystal or multilayered designs proposed before, our design is more compact and independent of incident angle or polarization. This kind of multilayer structure offers additional opportunities to design novel omnidirectional electromagnetic wave absorbers.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Correlation of magnetoelectric coupling in multiferroic BaTiO{sub 3}-BiFeO{sub 3} superlattices with oxygen vacancies and antiphase octahedral rotations

Multiferroic (BaTiO{sub 3}-BiFeO{sub 3}) × 15 multilayer heterostructures show high magnetoelectric (ME) coefficients α{sub ME} up to 24 V/cm·Oe at 300 K. This value is much higher than that of a single-phase BiFeO{sub 3} reference film (α{sub ME} = 4.2 V/cm·Oe). We found clear correlation of ME coefficients with increasing oxygen partial pressure during growth. ME coupling is highest for lower density of oxygen vacancy-related defects. Detailed scanning transmission electron microscopy and selected area electron diffraction microstructural investigations at 300 K revealed antiphase rotations of the oxygen octahedra in the BaTiO{sub 3} single layers, which are an additional correlated defect structure of the multilayers.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Mechanism of multiple grating formation in high-energy recording of holographic sensors

We report numerical analyses of Bragg diffraction by Denisyuk reflection holograms recorded by a high-energy pulsed laser. An intensity threshold must be passed to pattern a multilayer reflection and transmission hologram, which exhibits a nonlinear fringe structure. Numerical evaluations are provided for the laser light intensity, readout diffraction offset angle, transmission of the layer, and thickness of the polymer matrix during hologram recording. A non-sinusoidal surface pattern is formed at the top of the multilayer structure, and its effect on the diffraction properties of the structure becomes significant when the recording tilt angle is increased. Experimental results show that the angle of the diffracted light increases nonlinearly according to the tilt geometry in grating formation.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Charging/discharging behavior and mechanism of silicon quantum dots embedded in amorphous silicon carbide films

The charging/discharging behavior of Si quantum dots (QDs) embedded in amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC{sub x}) was investigated based on the Al/insulating layer/Si QDs embedded in a-SiC{sub x}/SiO{sub 2}/p-Si (metal-insulator-quantum dots-oxide-silicon) multilayer structure by capacitance-voltage (C-V) and conductance-voltage (G-V) measurements. Transmission electron microscopy and Raman scattering spectroscopy measurements reveal the microstructure and distribution of Si QDs. The occurrence and shift of conductance peaks indicate the carrier transfer and the charging/discharging behavior of Si QDs. The multilayer structure shows a large memory window of 5.2 eV at ±8 V sweeping voltage. Analysis of the C-V and G-V results allows a quantification of the Coulomb charging energy and the trapped charge density associated with the charging/discharging behavior. It is found that the memory window is related to the size effect, and Si QDs with large size or low Coulomb charging energy can trap two or more electrons by changing the charging voltage. Meanwhile, the estimated lower potential barrier height between Si QD and a-SiC{sub x}, and the lower Coulomb charging energy of Si QDs could enhance the charging and discharging effect of Si QDs and lead to an enlarged memory window. Further studies of the charging/discharging mechanism of Si QDs embedded in a-SiC{sub x} can promote the application of Si QDs in low-power consumption semiconductor memory devices.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Forward scattering in hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy: Structural investigation of buried Mn–Ga films

X-ray photoelectron diffraction (XPD) in combination with hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES) has been used to study the structure of buried layers in thin multilayer films. A detailed layer-by-layer investigation was performed using the element-specific, local-probe character of XPD. In the present work, angular-resolved HAXPES at a photon energy of 7.94 keV photon energy was used to investigate a Cr/Mn{sub 62}Ga{sub 38}/Mg/MgO multilayer system. Differences in the angular distributions of electrons emitted from Mn and Ga atoms revealed that the structure of Mn{sub 62}Ga{sub 38} changes from L1{sub 0} towards D0{sub 22} for increasing annealing temperatures. A c/a ratio of 1.81 ± 0.06 was determined for the buried Mn{sub 62}Ga{sub 38} layer in a D0{sub 22} structure from the XPD experiment. The improvement of the structural order of the Mn{sub 62}Ga{sub 38} layer is accompanied by an improvement of the structure of the overlying MgO layer.

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

Ultra-short longitudinal spatial coherence length of laser light with the combined effect of spatial, angular, and temporal diversity

We demonstrate ultra-high axial-resolution topography and tomography of multilayered objects using pseudo thermal light source, i.e., laser. The longitudinal spatial coherence (LSC) length of light was significantly reduced by synthesizing a pseudo thermal source with the combined effect of spatial, angular, and temporal diversity. Thus, generating a low spatially coherent (i.e., broad angular frequency spectrum) light source having narrow temporal frequency spectrum. The LSC length was reduced less than 10 μm using a very low magnification lens. Experimental results of optical sectioning of multilayer objects with high axial-resolution of the order of 4 μm was achieved which is comparable to broadband light source. The present system does not require any dispersion compensation optical system for biological samples as a highly monochromatic light source is used.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Spin pumping and inverse spin Hall effects—Insights for future spin-orbitronics (invited)

Quantification of spin-charge interconversion has become increasingly important in the fast-developing field of spin-orbitronics. Pure spin current generated by spin pumping acts as a sensitive probe for many bulk and interface spin-orbit effects, which has been indispensable for the discovery of many promising new spin-orbit materials. We apply spin pumping and inverse spin Hall effect experiments, as a useful metrology, and study spin-orbit effects in a variety of metals and metal interfaces. We quantify the spin Hall effects in Ir and W using the conventional bilayer structures and discuss the self-induced voltage in a single layer of ferromagnetic permalloy. Finally, we extend our discussions to multilayer structures and quantitatively reveal the spin current flow in two consecutive normal metal layers.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Bending stiffness and interlayer shear modulus of few-layer graphene

Interlayer shear deformation occurs in the bending of multilayer graphene with unconstrained ends, thus influencing its bending rigidity. Here, we investigate the bending stiffness and interlayer shear modulus of few-layer graphene through examining its self-folding conformation on a flat substrate using atomic force microscopy in conjunction with nonlinear mechanics modeling. The results reveal that the bending stiffness of 2–6 layers graphene follows a square-power relationship with its thickness. The interlayer shear modulus is found to be in the range of 0.36–0.49 GPa. The research findings show that the weak interlayer shear interaction has a substantial stiffening effect for multilayer graphene.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

The comparison between gallium arsenide and indium gallium arsenide as materials for solar cell performance using Silvaco application

The work presented in this paper is about the development of single and multilayer solar cells using GaAs and InGaAs in AM1.5 condition. The study includes the modeling structure and simulation of the device using Silvaco applications. The performance in term of efficiency of Indium Gallium Arsenide (InGaAs) and GaAs material was studied by modification of the doping concentration and thickness of material in solar cells. The efficiency of the GaAs solar cell was higher than InGaAs solar cell for single layer solar cell. Single layer GaAs achieved an efficiency about 25% compared to InGaAs which is only 2.65% of efficiency. For multilayer which includes both GaAs and InGaAs, the output power, P{sub max} was 8.91nW/cm² with the efficiency only 8.51%. GaAs is one of the best materials to be used in solar cell as a based compared to InGaAs.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
DOE OSTI2015

Tuning giant anomalous Hall resistance ratio in perpendicular Hall balance

Anomalous Hall effect at room temperature in perpendicular Hall balance with a core structure of [Pt/Co]{sub 4}/NiO/[Co/Pt]{sub 4} has been tuned by functional CoO layers, where [Pt/Co]{sub 4} multilayers exhibit perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. A giant Hall resistance ratio up to 69 900% and saturation Hall resistance (R{sub S}{sup P}) up to 2590 mΩ were obtained in CoO/[Pt/Co]{sub 4}/NiO/[Co/Pt]{sub 4}/CoO system, which is 302% and 146% larger than that in the structure without CoO layers, respectively. Transmission electron microscopy shows highly textured [Co/Pt]{sub 4} multilayers and oxide layers with local epitaxial relations, indicating that the crystallographic structure has significant influence on spin dependent transport properties.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Amorphorized tantalum-nickel binary films for metal gate applications

Amorphous metal gates have the potential to eliminate the work function variation due to grain orientation for poly-crystalline metal gate materials, which is a leading contributor to threshold voltage variation for small transistors. Structural and electrical properties of TaNi alloys using co-sputtering with different compositions and multilayer structures with different thicknesses are investigated in this work. It is found that TaNi films are amorphous for a wide range of compositions as deposited, and the films stay amorphous after annealing at 400 °C in RTA for 1 min and up to at least 700 °C depending on the composition. The amorphous films eventually crystallize into Ni, Ta, and TaNi{sub 3} phases at high enough temperature. For multilayer Ta/Ni structures, samples with individual layer thickness of 0.12 nm and 1.2 nm are amorphous as deposited due to intermixing during deposition, and stay amorphous until annealed at 500 °C. The resistivity of the films as-deposited are around 200 μΩ·cm. The work function of the alloy is fixed at close to the Ta work function of 4.6 eV for a wide range of compositions. This is attributed to the segregation of Ta at the metal-oxide interface, which is confirmed by XPS depth profile. Overall, the excellent thermal stability and low resistivity makes this alloy system a promising candidate for eliminating work function variation for gate last applications, as compared to crystalline Ta or TiN gates.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Thermometry and thermal management of carbon nanotube circuits

Monitoring of the intrinsic temperature and the thermal management is discussed for the carbon nanotube nano-circuits. The experimental results concerning fabricating and testing of a thermometer able to monitor the intrinsic temperature on nanoscale are reported. We also suggest a model which describes a bi-metal multilayer system able to filter the heat flow, based on separating the electron and phonon components one from another. The bi-metal multilayer structure minimizes the phonon component of the heat flow, while retaining the electronic part. The method allows one to improve the overall performance of the electronic nano-circuits due to minimizing the energy dissipation.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Joint perpendicular anisotropy and strong interlayer exchange coupling in systems with thin vanadium spacers

We study the influence of the insertion of a vanadium spacer layer between an FeCoB layer and a [Co/Ni] multilayer in an MgO substrate-based system mimicking the reference system of a perpendicular anisotropy magnetic tunnel junction. The anisotropy of the [Co/Ni] multilayer gradually improves with the vanadium thicknesses t, up to an optimized state for t = 8 Å, with little influence of the thermal annealing. The interlayer exchange coupling is ferromagnetic and very strong for t≤6 Å. It can be adjusted by thermal treatment at t = 8 Å from no coupling in the as-grown state to more than 2 mJ/m{sup 2} after 250 °C annealing. For this spacer thickness, the magnetic properties are consistent with the occurrence of a bcc (001) to an fcc (111) crystalline structure transition at the vanadium spacer. The remaining interlayer exchange coupling at t = 8 Å is still substantially higher than the one formerly obtained with a Tantalum spacer, which holds promise for further optimization of the reference layers of tunnel junctions meant for magnetic random access memories.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Band alignment of epitaxial SrTiO{sub 3} thin films with (LaAlO{sub 3}){sub 0.3}-(Sr{sub 2}AlTaO{sub 6}){sub 0.7} (001)

SrTiO{sub 3} (STO) epitaxial thin films and heterostructures are of considerable interest due to the wide range of functionalities they exhibit. The alloy perovskite (LaAlO{sub 3}){sub 0.3}-(Sr{sub 2}AlTaO{sub 6}){sub 0.7} (LSAT) is commonly used as a substrate for these material structures due to its structural compatibility with STO and the strain-induced ferroelectric response in STO films grown on LSAT. However, surprisingly little is known about the electronic properties of the STO/LSAT interface despite its potentially important role in affecting the overall electronic structure of system. We examine the band alignment of STO/LSAT heterostructures using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy for epitaxial STO films deposited using two different molecular beam epitaxy approaches. We find that the valence band offset ranges from +0.2(1) eV to −0.2(1) eV depending on the film surface termination. From these results, we extract a conduction band offset from −2.4(1) eV to −2.8(1) eV, indicating that the conduction band edge is more deeply bound in STO and that LSAT will not act as a sink or trap for electrons in the supported film or multilayer.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Decoupling optical and electronic optimization of organic solar cells using high-performance temperature-stable TiO{sub 2}/Ag/TiO{sub 2} electrodes

An electrode structured with a TiO{sub 2}/Ag/TiO{sub 2} (TAT) multilayer as indium tin oxide (ITO) replacement with a superior thermal stability has been successfully fabricated. This electrode allows to directly tune the optical cavity mode towards maximized photocurrent generation by varying the thickness of the layers in the sandwich structure. This enables tailored optimization of the transparent electrode for different organic thin film photovoltaics without alteration of their electro-optical properties. Organic photovoltaic featuring our TAT multilayer shows an improvement of ∼12% over the ITO reference and allows power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) up to 8.7% in PTB7:PC{sub 71}BM devices.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Controlling the growth of epitaxial graphene on metalized diamond (111) surface

The 2-dimensional transformation of the diamond (111) surface to graphene has been demonstrated using ultrathin Fe films that catalytically reduce the reaction temperature needed for the conversion of sp{sup 3} to sp{sup 2} carbon. An epitaxial system is formed, which involves the re-crystallization of carbon at the Fe/vacuum interface and that enables the controlled growth of monolayer and multilayer graphene films. In order to study the initial stages of single and multilayer graphene growth, real time monitoring of the system was preformed within a photoemission and low energy electron microscope. It was found that the initial graphene growth occurred at temperatures as low as 500 °C, whilst increasing the temperature to 560 °C was required to produce multi-layer graphene of high structural quality. Angle resolved photoelectron spectroscopy was used to study the electronic properties of the grown material, where a graphene-like energy momentum dispersion was observed. The Dirac point for the first layer is located at 2.5 eV below the Fermi level, indicating an n-type doping of the graphene due to substrate interactions, while that of the second graphene layer lies close to the Fermi level.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗