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At least 1,441 records · Page 80

Oxide-cladding aluminum nitride photonic crystal slab: Design and investigation of material dispersion and fabrication induced disorder

Photonic crystal slabs with a lower-index material surrounding the core layer are an attractive choice to circumvent the drawbacks in the fabrication of membranes suspended in air. In this work we propose a photonic crystal (PhC) slab structure composed of a triangular pattern of air holes in a multilayer thin film of aluminum nitride embedded in silicon dioxide layers designed for operating around 450 nm wavelengths. We show the design of an ideal structure and analyze the effects of material dispersion based on a first-order correction perturbation theory approach using dielectric functions obtained by experimental measurements of the thin film materials. Numerical methods were used to investigate the effects of fabrication induced disorder of typical nanofabrication processes on the bandgap size and spectral response of the proposed device. Deviation in holes radii and positions were introduced in the proposed PhC slab model with a Gaussian distribution profile. Impacts of slope in holes sidewalls that might result from the dry etching of AlN were also evaluated. The results show that for operation at the midgap frequency, slope in holes sidewalls is more critical than displacements in holes sizes and positions.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

A generalized muon trajectory estimation algorithm with energy loss for application to muon tomography

Here, this work presents a generalized muon trajectory estimation (GMTE) algorithm to estimate the path of a muon in either uniform or nonuniform media. The use of cosmic ray muons in nuclear nonproliferation and safeguards verification applications has recently gained attention due to the non-intrusive and passive nature of the inspection, penetrating capabilities, as well as recent advances in detectors that measure position and direction of the individual muons before and after traversing the imaged object. However, muon image reconstruction techniques are limited in resolution due to low muon flux and the effects of multiple Coulomb scattering (MCS). Current reconstruction algorithms, e.g., point of closest approach (PoCA) or straight-line path (SLP), rely on overly simple assumptions for muon path estimation through the imaged object. For robust muon tomography, efficient and flexible physics-based algorithms are needed to model the MCS process and accurately estimate the most probable trajectory of a muon as it traverses an object. In the present work, the use of a Bayesian framework and a Gaussian approximation of MCS are explored for estimation of the most likely path of a cosmic ray muon traversing uniform or nonuniform media and undergoing MCS. The algorithm’s precision is compared to Monte Carlo simulated muon trajectories. It was found that the algorithm is expected to be able to predict muon tracks to less than 1.5 mm RMS for 0.5 GeV muons and 0.25 mm RMS for 3 GeV muons, a 50% improvement compared to SLP and 15% improvement when compared to PoCA. Further, a 30% increase in useful muon flux was observed relative to PoCA. Muon track prediction improved for higher muon energies or smaller penetration depth where energy loss is not significant. Finally, the effect of energy loss due to ionization is investigated, and a linear energy loss relation that is easy to use is proposed.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Flow Redirection and Induction in Steady State (FLORIS) Wind Plant Power Production Data Sets

This dataset contains turbine- and plant-level power outputs for 252,500 cases of diverse wind plant layouts operating under a wide range of yawing and atmospheric conditions. The power outputs were computed using the Gaussian wake model in NREL's FLOw Redirection and Induction in Steady State (FLORIS) model, version 2.3.0. The 252,500 cases include 500 unique wind plants generated randomly by a specialized Plant Layout Generator (PLayGen) that samples randomized realizations of wind plant layouts from one of four canonical configurations: (i) cluster, (ii) single string, (iii) multiple string, (iv) parallel string. Other wind plant layout parameters were also randomly sampled, including the number of turbines (25-200) and the mean turbine spacing (3D-10D, where D denotes the turbine rotor diameter). For each layout, 500 different sets of atmospheric conditions were randomly sampled. These include wind speed in 0-25 m/s, wind direction in 0 deg.-360 deg., and turbulence intensity chosen from low (6%), medium (8%), and high (10%). For each atmospheric inflow scenario, the individual turbine yaw angles were randomly sampled from a one-sided truncated Gaussian on the interval 0 deg.-30 deg. oriented relative to wind inflow direction. This random data is supplemented with a collection of yaw-optimized samples where FLORIS was used to determine turbine yaw angles that maximize power production for the entire plant. To generate this data, a subset of cases were selected (50 atmospheric conditions from 50 layouts each for a total of additional 2,500 cases) for which FLORIS was re-run with wake steering control optimization. The IEA onshore reference turbine, which has a 130 m rotor diameter, a 110 m hub height, and a rated power capacity of 3.4 MW was used as the turbine for all simulations. The simulations were performed using NREL's Eagle high performance computing system in February 2021 as part of the Spatial Analysis for Wind Technology Development project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Wind Energy Technologies Office. The data was collected, reformatted, and preprocessed for this OEDI submission in May 2023 under the Foundational AI for Wind Energy project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Wind Energy Technologies Office. This dataset is intended to serve as a benchmark against which new artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML) tools may be tested. Baseline AI/ML methods for analyzing this dataset have been implemented, and a link to their repository containing those models has been provided. The .h5 data file structure can be found in the GitHub repository under explore_wind_plant_data_h5.ipynb.

AI↗

Practical gust load alleviation and flutter suppression control laws based on a LQG methodology

A modified linear quadratic Gaussian (LQG) synthesis procedure has been used to design low-order robust multiloop controllers for a flexible airplane. The introduction of properly constructed fictitious Gauss-Markov processes in the control loops allowed meeting classical frequency-domain stability criteria using the direct synthesis procedures of modern time-domain control theory. Model reduction was used to simplify the control laws to the point where they could be easily implemented on onboard flight computers. These control laws provided excellent gust load and flutter mode control with good stability margins and compared very favorably to other control laws synthesized by the classical root-locus technique.

Gangsaas, D.↗

Simple technique for optical flow estimation

The theoretical principles, design, and implementation of an image-motion detection system with possible robotics and autonomous-navigation applications are discussed. The operation of a simple one-dimensional second-derivative edge-motion detector is explained; its extension to a two-dimensional motion sensor based on the Laplacian of a Gaussian (Marr and Hildreth, 1980) is outlined; a center-surround array of 13 of these sensors (12 in a circle around a central sensor) is proposed; and processing techniques to overcome the aperture problem are examined. Simple video images involving unidirectional motion are then analyzed using a prototype version of this design; the sensors employed are based on a 15 x 15-pixel mask made up of 13 7 x 7-pixel kernels. Accurate measurements of image velocity are obtained, as required for navigation through complex environments. It is pointed out that the procedure is noniterative and well suited to implementation as a parallel network.

Perrone, John A.↗

Terrestrial Water Mass Load Changes from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE)

Recent studies show that data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) is promising for basin- to global-scale water cycle research. This study provides varied assessments of errors associated with GRACE water storage estimates. Thirteen monthly GRACE gravity solutions from August 2002 to December 2004 are examined, along with synthesized GRACE gravity fields for the same period that incorporate simulated errors. The synthetic GRACE fields are calculated using numerical climate models and GRACE internal error estimates. We consider the influence of measurement noise, spatial leakage error, and atmospheric and ocean dealiasing (AOD) model error as the major contributors to the error budget. Leakage error arises from the limited range of GRACE spherical harmonics not corrupted by noise. AOD model error is due to imperfect correction for atmosphere and ocean mass redistribution applied during GRACE processing. Four methods of forming water storage estimates from GRACE spherical harmonics (four different basin filters) are applied to both GRACE and synthetic data. Two basin filters use Gaussian smoothing, and the other two are dynamic basin filters which use knowledge of geographical locations where water storage variations are expected. Global maps of measurement noise, leakage error, and AOD model errors are estimated for each basin filter. Dynamic basin filters yield the smallest errors and highest signal-to-noise ratio. Within 12 selected basins, GRACE and synthetic data show similar amplitudes of water storage change. Using 53 river basins, covering most of Earth's land surface excluding Antarctica and Greenland, we document how error changes with basin size, latitude, and shape. Leakage error is most affected by basin size and latitude, and AOD model error is most dependent on basin latitude.

Seo, K.-W.↗

Modeling error PDF optimization based wavelet neural network modeling of dynamic system and its application in blast furnace ironmaking

In general, the modeling errors of dynamic system model are a set of random variables. The traditional performance index of modeling such as means square error (MSE) and root means square error (RMSE) can not fully express the connotation of modeling errors with stochastic characteristics both in the dimension of time domain and space domain. Therefore, the probability density function (PDF) is introduced to completely describe the modeling errors in both time scales and space scales. Based on it, a novel wavelet neural network (WNN) modeling method is proposed by minimizing the two-dimensional (2D) PDF shaping of modeling errors. First, the modeling error PDF by the tradional WNN is estimated using data-driven kernel density estimation (KDE) technique. Then, the quadratic sum of 2D deviation between the modeling error PDF and the target PDF is utilized as performance index to optimize the WNN model parameters by gradient descent method. Since the WNN has strong nonlinear approximation and adaptive capability, and all the parameters are well optimized by the proposed method, the developed WNN model can make the modeling error PDF track the target PDF, eventually. Simulation example and application in a blast furnace ironmaking process show that the proposed method has a higher modeling precision and better generalization ability compared with the conventional WNN modeling based on MSE criteria. Furthermore, the proposed method has more desirable estimation for modeling error PDF that approximates to a Gaussian distribution whose shape is high and narrow.

Modelling↗

Multichannel response analysis on 2D projection views for detection of clustered microcalcifications in digital breast tomosynthesis

Purpose: To investigate the feasibility of a new two-dimensional (2D) multichannel response (MCR) analysis approach for the detection of clustered microcalcifications (MCs) in digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT). Methods: With IRB approval and informed consent, a data set of two-view DBTs from 42 breasts containing biopsy-proven MC clusters was collected in this study. The authors developed a 2D approach for MC detection using projection view (PV) images rather than the reconstructed three-dimensional (3D) DBT volume. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) enhancement processing was first applied to each PV to enhance the potential MCs. The locations of MC candidates were then identified with iterative thresholding. The individual MCs were decomposed with Hermite–Gaussian (HG) and Laguerre–Gaussian (LG) basis functions and the channelized Hotelling model was trained to produce the MCRs for each MC on the 2D images. The MCRs from the PVs were fused in 3D by a coincidence counting method that backprojects the MC candidates on the PVs and traces the coincidence of their ray paths in 3D. The 3D MCR was used to differentiate the true MCs from false positives (FPs). Finally a dynamic clustering method was used to identify the potential MC clusters in the DBT volume based on the fact that true MCs of clinical significance appear in clusters. Using two-fold cross validation, the performance of the 3D MCR for classification of true and false MCs was estimated by the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and the overall performance of the MCR approach for detection of clustered MCs was assessed by free response receiver operating characteristic (FROC) analysis. Results: When the HG basis function was used for MCR analysis, the detection of MC cluster achieved case-based test sensitivities of 80% and 90% at the average FP rates of 0.65 and 1.55 FPs per DBT volume, respectively. With LG basis function, the average FP rates were 0.62 and 1.57 per DBT volume at the same sensitivity levels. The difference in the two sets of basis functions for detection of MCs did not show statistical significance. Conclusions: The authors' experimental results indicate that the MCR approach is promising for the detection of MCs on PV images. The HG or LG basis functions are both effective in characterizing the signal response of MCs using the channelized Hotelling model. The coincidence counting method for fusion of the 2D MCR in 3D is an important step for FP reduction. Further study is underway to improve the MCR approach for microcalcification detection in DBT.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

Enhanced laser conditioning using temporally shaped pulses

Laser conditioning was investigated as a function of the temporal shape and duration of 351-nm, nanosecond pulses for fused-silica substrates polished via magnetorheological finishing. Here, the aim is to advance our understanding of the dynamics involved to enable improved control of the interaction of laser light with the material to optimize laser conditioning. Gaussian pulses that are temporally truncated at the intensity peak are observed to enhance laser conditioning, in comparison to a Gaussian pulse shape.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Translocation of a Polymer Chain across a Nanopore: A Brownian Dynamics Simulation Study

We carried out Brownian dynamics simulation studies of the translocation of single polymer chains across a nanosized pore under the driving of an applied field (chemical potential gradient). The translocation process can be either dominated by the entropic barrier resulted from restricted motion of flexible polymer chains or by applied forces (or chemical gradient across the wall), we focused on the latter case in our studies. Calculation of radius of gyrations at the two opposite sides of the wall shows that the polymer chains are not in equilibrium during the translocation process. Despite this fact, our results show that the one-dimensional diffusion and the nucleation model provide an excellent description of the dependence of average translocation time on the chemical potential gradients, the polymer chain length and the solvent viscosity. In good agreement with experimental results and theoretical predictions, the translocation time distribution of our simple model shows strong non-Gaussian characteristics. It is observed that even for this simple tubelike pore geometry, more than one peak of translocation time distribution can be generated for proper pore diameter and applied field strengths. Both repulsive Weeks-Chandler-Anderson and attractive Lennard-Jones polymer-nanopore interaction were studied, attraction facilitates the translocation process by shortening the total translocation time and dramatically improve the capturing of polymer chain. The width of the translocation time distribution was found to decrease with increasing temperature, increasing field strength, and decreasing pore diameter.

Tian, Pu↗

Two Mesoporous Domains Are Better Than One for Catalytic Deconstruction of Polyolefins

Catalytic hydrogenolysis of polyolefins into valuable liquid, oil, or wax-like hydrocarbon chains for second-life applications is typically accompanied by the hydrogen-wasting co-formation of low value volatiles, notably methane, that increase greenhouse gas emissions. Catalytic sites confined at the bottom of mesoporous wells, under conditions in which the pore exerts the greatest influence over the mechanism, are capable of producing less gases than unconfined sites. A new architecture was designed to emphasize this pore effect, with the active platinum nanoparticles embedded between linear, hexagonal mesoporous silica and gyroidal cubic MCM-48 silica (mSiO 2 /Pt/MCM-48). This catalyst deconstructs polyolefins selectively into ~C 20 –C 40 paraffins and cleaves C–C bonds at a rate (TOF = 4.2 ± 0.3 s –1 ) exceeding that of materials lacking these combined features while generating negligible volatile side products including methane. The time-independent product distribution is consistent with a processive mechanism for polymer deconstruction. In contrast to time- and polymer length-dependent products obtained from non-porous catalysts, mSiO 2 /Pt/MCM-48 yields a C 28 -centered Gaussian distribution of waxy hydrocarbons from polyolefins of varying molecular weight, composition, and physical properties, including low-density polyethylene, isotactic polypropylene, ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylene, and mixtures of multiple, post-industrial polyolefins. Here, coarse-grained simulation reveals that the porous-core architecture enables the paraffins to diffuse away from the active platinum site, preventing secondary reactions that produce gases.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

The physical mechanism on the threshold voltage temperature stability improvement for GaN HEMTs with pre-fluorination argon treatment

In this paper, a normally-off AlGaN/GaN MIS-HEMT with improved threshold voltage (V{sub TH}) thermal stability is reported with investigations on its physical mechanism. The normally-off operation of the device is achieved from novel short argon plasma treatment (APT) prior to the fluorine plasma treatment (FPT) on Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} gate dielectrics. For the MIS-HEMT with FPT only, its V{sub TH} drops from 4.2 V at room temperature to 0.5 V at 200 °C. Alternatively, for the device with APT-then-FPT process, its V{sub TH} can retain at 2.5 V at 200 °C due to the increased amount of deep-level traps that do not emit electrons at 200 °C. This thermally stable V{sub TH} makes this device suitable for high power applications. The depth profile of the F atoms in Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}, measured by the secondary ion mass spectroscopy, reveals a significant increase in the F concentration when APT is conducted prior to FPT. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis on the plasma-treated Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} surfaces observes higher composition of Al-F bonds if APT was applied before FPT. The enhanced breaking of Al-O bonds due to Ar bombardment assisted in the increased incorporation of F radicals at the surface during the subsequent FPT process. The Schrödinger equation of Al{sub 2}O{sub x}F{sub y} cells, with the same Al-F compositions as obtained from XPS, was solved by Gaussian 09 molecular simulations to extract electron state distribution as a function of energy. The simulation results show creation of the deeper trap states in the Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} bandgap when APT is used before FPT. Finally, the trap distribution extracted from the simulations is verified by the gate-stress experimental characterization to confirm the physical mechanism described.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Simulation and Modeling of Time-Resolved X-Ray Detector for the Saturn Accelerator

In this work, we present the technology-aided computer design (TCAD) device simulation and modeling of a silicon p-i-n diode for detecting time-dependent X-ray radiation. We show that the simulated forward and reverse breakdown current–voltage characteristics agree well with the measured data under nonradiation environment by only calibrating carrier lifetimes for the forward bias case and avalanche model critical fields for the reverse bias condition. Using the calibrated parameters and other nominal material properties, we simulated the radiation responses of the p-i-n diode and compared with experimental data when the diode was exposed to X-ray radiation at Sandia’s Saturn facility and the Idaho State University (ISU) TriMeV facility. For Saturn’s Gaussian dose-rate pulses, we show three findings from TCAD simulations. First, the simulated photocurrents are in excellent agreement with the measured data for two dose-rate pulses with peak values of 1.16×10 10 and 1.88×10 10 rad(Si)/s. Second, the simulation results of high dose-rate pulses predict increased delayed photocurrents with longer time tails in the diode electrical responses due to excess carrier generation. Third, simulated peak values of diode radiation responses versus peak dose rates at different bias conditions provide useful guidance to determine the dose-rate range that the p-i-n diode can reliably detect in experiment. For TriMeV’s non-Gaussian dose-rate pulse, our simulated diode response is in decent agreement with the measured data without further calibration. We also studied the effects of device geometry, recombination process, and dose-rate enhancement via TCAD simulations to understand the higher measured response in the time after the peak dose-rate radiation for the p-i-n diode exposed to TriMeV irradiation.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

CAFE AU LAIT: Compute-Aware Federated Augmented Low-Rank AI Training

Federated finetuning is crucial for unlocking the knowledge embedded in pretrained Large Language Models (LLMs) when data are geographically distributed across clients. Unlike finetuning with data from a single institution, federated finetuning allows collaboration across multiple institutions, enabling the utilization of diverse and decentralized datasets while preserving data privacy. Given the high computing costs of LLM training and the emphasis on energy efficiency in Federated Learning (FL), Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) has emerged as a widely adopted algorithm due to its significantly reduced number of trainable parameters. However, this assumes that all data silos have the necessary computing resources to compute local updates of LLMs. Nevertheless, in practice, the computing resources across clients are highly heterogeneous: while some may have access to hundreds of GPUs, others might have limited or no GPU access. Recently, federated finetuning using synthetic data has been proposed, allowing clients to participate in a collaborative training run without training LLMs locally. However, our experimental results reveal a performance gap between models trained using synthetic data and those trained using local updates. Motivated by the observed heterogeneity in computing resources and the performance gap, we propose a novel two-stage algorithm that leverages the storage and computing capabilities of a strong server. In the first stage, under the coordination of the strong server, clients with limited computing resources collaborate to generate synthetic data, which is transferred to and stored on the strong server. In the second stage, the strong server uses this synthetic data on behalf of the resource-constrained clients to perform federated LoRA finetuning alongside clients with sufficient computing resources. This approach ensures that all clients can participate in the finetuning process. Experimental results demonstrate that incorporating local updates from even a small fraction of clients improves performance compared to using synthetic data for all clients. Furthermore, we incorporate the Gaussian mechanism in both stages to guarantee client-level differential privacy.

Wang, Jiayi [ORNL]↗

Calculation of precision satellite orbits with nonsingular elements /VOP formulation/

Review of some results obtained in an effort to develop efficient, high-precision trajectory computation processes for artificial satellites by optimum selection of the form of the equations of motion of the satellite and the numerical integration method. In particular, the matching of a Gaussian variation-of-parameter (VOP) formulation is considered which is expressed in terms of equinoctial orbital elements and partially decouples the motion of the orbital frame from motion within the orbital frame. The performance of the resulting orbit generators is then compared with the popular classical Cowell/Gauss-Jackson formulation/integrator pair for two distinctly different orbit types - namely, the orbit of the ATS satellite at near-geosynchronous conditions and the near-circular orbit of the GEOS-C satellite at 1000 km.

Velez, C. E.↗

Statistics of Cirrus Horizontal Inhomogeneity in the Southern Great Plains

Variability of cloud properties on scales smaller than that of a GCM grid is potentially important both for realistic parameterizations of microphysical processes and for the prediction of the large-scale radiative effects of clouds, have suggested that a simple model of marine stratocumulus variability, based on the assumption of Gaussian variation statistics of cloud depth, can explain the liquid water path histogram shapes observed in Landsat data. In advance of ARM SGP MMCR ice water path climatologies, we have examined aircraft ice water content statistics for cirrus clouds observed over Coffeyville, Kansas during FIRE 2. We find similar associations of histogram shape and cloud cover for these clouds, and we show that a simple modification of the model for cirrus combined with observed mean cloud depths, their standard deviations, and ambient thermodynamic conditions predicts both the histogram shape and cirrus cloud cover fairly well. This suggests that subgrid variability of cloud properties may be similar for vastly different cloud types, and that a universal parameterization of the effects of subgrid variability in GCMs as a function of only a few parameters may be a realistic goal.

Smith, S. A.↗

[Using Molecular Simulations to Understand Complex Nanoscale Dynamic Phenomena in Polymer Solutions]

The first half of the project concentrated on molecular simulation studies of the translocation of model molecules for single-stranded DNA through a nanosized pore. This has resulted in the publication, Translocation of a polymer chain across a nanopore: A Brownian dynamics simulation study, by Pu Tian and Grant D. Smith, JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS VOLUME 119, NUMBER 21 1 DECEMBER 2003, which is attached to this report. In this work we carried out Brownian dynamics simulation studies of the translocation of single polymer chains across a nanosized pore under the driving of an applied field (chemical potential gradient) designed to mimic an electrostatic field. The translocation process can be either dominated by the entropic barrier resulted from restricted motion of flexible polymer chains or by applied forces (or chemical gradient). We focused on the latter case in our studies. Calculation of radius of gyration of the translocating chain at the two opposite sides of the wall shows that the polymer chains are not in equilibrium during the translocation process. Despite this fact, our results show that the one-dimensional diffusion and the nucleation model provide an excellent description of the dependence of average translocation time on the chemical potential gradients, the polymer chain length and the solvent viscosity. In good agreement with experimental results and theoretical predictions, the translocation time distribution of our simple model shows strong non-Gaussian characteristics. It is observed that even for this simple tube-like pore geometry, more than one peak of translocation time distribution can be generated for proper pore diameter and applied field strengths. Both repulsive Weeks-Chandler-Anderson and attractive Lennard-Jones polymer-nanopore interaction were studied. Attraction facilitates the translocation process by shortening the total translocation time and dramatically improve the capturing of polymer chain. The width of the translocation time distribution was found to decrease with increasing temperature, increasing field strength, and decreasing pore diameter.

Smith, Grant↗