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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 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Recovery of Neptunium-236g from Photon and Proton-Irradiated Actinide Targets

Neptunium-236g is a rare radionuclide used as a tracer for neptunium-237 analyses. The availability of 236gNp is limited and the viable production routes are costly, time consuming, and only produce trace quantities of the desired product. For this work, two known production methods were tested to determine product recovery, purity, and viability for use as a tracer. The first method utilizes a photon-irradiated 237Np target to produce 236gNp by the 237Np(?,n)?236Np reaction. The second method utilizes the 238U(d,4n) ?236Np reaction. These production routes were evaluated previously, and the former was considered ineffective without isotope separation and the latter was not well-characterized for the 236mNp/236gNp production ratio. Recent resurgence of electromagnetic isotope separation technology has enabled at least partial recovery of 236gNp from part-per-million abundance feeds produced by the photonuclear reaction. To address the lack of production data for the second method, a deuteron-irradiated depleted uranium target was chemically processed to recover and purify the Np for abundance and ratio analyses. The status and current analytical results for each production method are presented.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗
NASA NTRS1993

Investigation of the radiation resistance of triple-junction a-Si:H alloy solar cells irradiated with 1.00 MeV protons

The effect of 1.00 MeV proton irradiation on hydrogenated amorphous silicon alloy triple-junction solar cells is reported for the first time. The cells were designed for radiation resistance studies and included 0.35 cm(sup 2) active areas on 1.0 by 2.0 cm(sup 2) glass superstrates. Three cells were irradiated through the bottom contact at each of six fluences between 5.10E12 and 1.46E15 cm(sup -2). The effect of the irradiations was determined with light current-voltage measurements. Proton irradiation degraded the cell power densities from 8.0 to 98 percent for the fluences investigated. Annealing irradiated cells at 200 C for two hours restored the power densities to better than 90 percent. The cells exhibited radiation resistances which are superior to cells reported in the literature for fluences less than 1E14 cm(sup -2).

Lord, Kenneth R., II↗
DOE OSTI2024

Measurements of displacement cross sections of metals for 120-GeV proton beam irradiation

The number of displacements per atom (dpa) is widely used as an indicator of irradiation damage of materials in proton accelerator facilities. Experiments have been carried out to validate the dpa of metallic materials for protons with energies below 3 GeV. However, measurements of the displacement cross-sections for high-energy protons above 3 GeV have not been carried out and the calculations have not been validated. To validate the displacement cross section of metals in high-energy region, electrical resistivity changes in wires of aluminum, copper and tungsten at 8 K were measured using protons with energies of 120-GeV. The results show that the Norgett-Robinson-Torrens dpa model of the Particle and Heavy Ion Transport Calculation Code overestimates the experimental data. On the other hand, the calculated results using the athermal recombination corrected dpa model were in agreement with the measured displacement cross sections. In the proton energy region above 1 GeV, the displacement cross section is almost constant, which is due to the fact that the damage energy of the material under 1 GeV proton irradiation is almost the same as under 120 GeV proton irradiation. Damage recovery of defects accumulated in the sample was also measured using isochronal annealing: At 80 K, approximately 60 % and 80 % of the damage remains for copper and tungsten, respectively. These results are the same as those obtained from other experiments on proton and neutron irradiation.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
NASA NTRS1995

Correlation of electron and proton irradiation-induced damage in InP solar cells

When determining the best solar cell technology for a particular space flight mission, accurate prediction of solar cell performance in a space radiation environment is essential. The current methodology used to make such predictions requires extensive experimental data measured under both electron and proton irradiation. Due to the rising cost of accelerators and irradiation facilities, such extensive data sets are expensive to obtain. Moreover, with the rapid development of novel cell designs, the necessary data are often not available. Therefore, a method for predicting cell degradation based on limited data is needed. Such a method has been developed at the Naval Research Laboratory based on damage correlation using 'displacement damage dose' which is the product of the non-ionizing energy loss (NIEL) and the particle fluence. Displacement damage dose is a direct analog of the ionization dose used to correlate the effects of ionizing radiations. In this method, the performance of a solar cell in a complex radiation environment can be predicted from data on a single proton energy and two electron energies, or one proton energy, one electron energy, and Co(exp 60) gammas. This method has been used to accurately predict the extensive data set measured by Anspaugh on GaAs/Ge solar cells under a wide range of electron and proton energies. In this paper, the method is applied to InP solar cells using data measured under 1 MeV electron and 3 MeV proton irradiations, and the calculations are shown to agree well with the measured data. In addition to providing accurate damage predictions, this method also provides a basis for quantitative comparisons of the performance of different cell technologies. The performance of the present InP cells is compared to that published for GaAs/Ge cells. The results show InP to be inherently more resistant to displacement energy deposition than GaAs/Ge.

Walters, Robert J.↗
NASA NTRS1996

Correlation of electron and proton irradiation-induced damage in InP solar cells

The measured degradation of epitaxial shallow homojunction n(+)/p InP solar cells under 1 MeV electron irradiation is correlated with that measured under 3 MeV proton irradiation based on 'displacement damage dose'. The measured data is analyzed as a function of displacement damage dose from which an electron to proton dose equivalency ratio is determined which enables the electron and proton degradation data to be described by a single degradation curve. It is discussed how this single curve can be used to predict the cell degradation under irradiation by any particle energy. The degradation curve is used to compare the radiation response of InP and GaAs/Ge cells on an absolute damage energy scale. The comparison shows InP to be inherently more resistant to displacement damage deposition than the GaAs/Ge.

Walters, Robert J.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Low energy proton radiation damage to (AlGa)As-GaAs solar cells

Twenty-seven 2 times 2 sq cm (AlGa)As-GaAs solar cells were fabricated and subjected to 50 keV, 100 keV, and 290 keV of proton irradiation along with eighteen high efficiency silicon solar cells. The results of the study further corroborate the advantages for space missions offered by GaAs cells over state of the art silicon cells. Thus, even though the GaAs cells showed greater degradation when irradiated by protons with energy less than 5 MeV, the solar cells were normally protected from these protons by the glass covers used in space arrays. The GaAs cells also offered superior end of life power capability compared with silicon. The change in the open circuit voltage, short circuit current, spectral response, and dark 1-5 characteristics after irradiation at each proton energy and fluence were found to be consistent with the explanation of the effect of the protons. Also dark 1-5 characteristics showed that a new recombination center dominates the current transport mechanism after irradiation.

Loo, R.↗