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At least 163 records · Page 9

Numerical study on spray collapse process of ECN spray G injector under flash boiling conditions

This work features a numerical study of the spray collapse process that occurs under flash-boiling, gasoline-direct-injection conditions. The Engine Combustion Network's Spray G injector was modeled, and iso-octane, n-hexane, and propane were used as fuels with the goal to investigate fuel property effects. The development of individual jets and jet-to-jet interaction were analyzed to reveal the physical mechanisms of spray collapse. The results agreed qualitatively well with the experimental data of propane available from the literature and the predictions revealed the model's ability to capture the near-nozzle shock structures witnessed in the experiments. Simulations showed that the flow development of flashing sprays was strongly tied with the fuel properties. Specifically, under-expanded jets were not observed with iso-octane due to the fuel's low vapor pressure. In the case of n-hexane, the jets were under-expanded, and a low-pressure core was observed inside the jets due to the flow expansion. With propane, the very strong expansion caused the flow to become transonic and generate a unique shock structure near the nozzle exit. The shock structure revealed the formation of primary shock cells within the jets and secondary shock cells induced by jet-to-jet interaction. Based on the results, the spray collapse under flash boiling conditions was mainly attributed to two effects, i.e., the decrease in pressure at the spray center induced by the low-pressure cores inside and between the jets, and the isolation effect due to the jet-to-jet interaction which contributed to maintain the pressure differential between the spray center and the ambient.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Potential Economic Values of Low-Vapor-Pressure Gasoline-Range Bio-Blendstocks: Property Estimation, and Blending Optimization

Adding non-traditional blendstocks derived from biomass into gasoline has gained renewed interest since it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and potentially enhance fuel properties and boost engine efficiencies. A competitive bio-blendstock candidate should have either lower prices or superior properties or both relative to conventional gasoline blending components. Gasoline is a mixture of hundreds compounds specified by properties rather than compositions. The addition of bio-blendstocks, most likely oxygenates, will modify the property mixing rules due to the non-ideal interactions between polar and nonpolar components. This paper presents an equation-of-state-based model for predicting Reid vapor pressure, reduced order non-linear property blending models for computing key properties of final gasoline products, and a blending optimization approach to identify key economic drivers. This paper also evaluates the economic values of bio-blendstocks to petroleum refiners using those models. In additional to ethanol, six low-vapor-pressure bio-blendstock candidates were evaluated: i-propanol, n-propanol, i-butanol, diisobutylene, cyclopentanone, and a mixture of furans. Reid vapor pressure, distillation temperatures, and octane numbers were identified as the key economic drivers of adding bio-blendstock. The economic values of those bio-blendstocks range from 2.22 to 4.00 US dollar per gasoline gallon equivalent in 2013 to 2017 5-year averaged price basis. The bio-blendstocks with higher octane numbers may have higher economic values. The uncertainties in property predictions may lead to roughly 15% deviation in the economic value evaluation.

Jiang, Yuan↗

Spray process of multi-component gasoline surrogate fuel under ECN Spray G conditions

As modern gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines utilize sophisticated injection strategies, a detailed understanding of the air-fuel mixing process is crucial to further improvements in engine emission and fuel economy. In this study, a comprehensive evaluation of the spray process of single-component iso-octane (IC8) and multi-component gasoline surrogate E00 (36 % n-pentane, 46 % iso-octane, and 18 % n-undecane, by volume) fuels was conducted using an Engine Combustion Network (ECN) Spray G injector. High-speed extinction, schlieren, and microscopy imaging campaigns were carried out under engine-like ambient conditions in a spray vessel. Experimental results including liquid/vapor penetration, local liquid volume fraction, droplet size, and projected liquid film on the nozzle tip were compared under ECN G1 (573 K, 3.5 kg/m 3 ), G2 (333 K, 0.5 kg/m 3 ), and G3 (333 K, 1.01 kg/m 3 ) conditions. In addition to the experiments, preferential evaporation process of the E00 fuel was elucidated by Large–Eddy Simulations (LES). The three-dimensional liquid volume fraction measurement enabled by the computed tomographic reconstruction showed substantial plume collapse for E00 under the G2 and G3 conditions having wider plume growth and plume-to-plume interaction due to the fuel high vapor pressure. Here, the CFD simulation of E00 showed an inhomogeneity in the way fuel components vaporized, with more volatile components carried downstream in the spray after the end of injection. The high vapor pressure of E00 also results in ~4 μm smaller average droplet diameter than IC8, reflecting a higher rate of initial vaporization even though the final boiling point temperature is higher. Consistent with high vapor pressure, E00 had a wider plume cone angle and enhanced interaction with the wall to cover the entire surface of the nozzle tip in a film. However, the liquid fuel underwent faster evaporation, so the final projected tip wetting area was smaller than the IC8 under the flash-boiling condition.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Soot formation and precursor chemistry in Counterflow flames of aviation fuel surrogates

To meet market demands, the aviation sector is interested in utilizing drop-in Synthetic Aviation Turbine Fuels (SATF), either as neat fuels or in blends with conventional Jet A. SATF currently approved in standard specifications may have lower aromatic content with significant fractions of normal, branched, and cyclo-alkanes. Fundamental studies on soot formation from aviation fuels (Jet A, SATF) and their surrogate components are essential to understand how fuel composition influences soot and soot precursor formation. Here, this study reports new measurements of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and soot in counterflow diffusion flames (CDFs) of aviation fuel surrogates. Both intrusive and non-intrusive diagnostics are employed to determine the profiles of temperature, gas phase species, PAHs (up to C16), and soot volume fraction (SVF) in CDFs of iso-octane and surrogate mixtures. These measurements shed light on the transition of soot precursors to primary soot particles. In addition to serving as a common surrogate component in Jet A surrogate mixtures, iso-octane is a template species for larger, less volatile branched alkanes found in SATF mixtures. The newly developed Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) PAH and soot model successfully captures temperature, precursor species, and SVF profiles for the mixtures and conditions discussed in this work. Finally, a high-fidelity surrogate for Jet A is proposed that matches targeted physical and chemical properties well, while leveraging the wide range of candidate fuel molecules available in the LLNL detailed chemical model. The proposed surrogate formulation is validated against newly acquired measurements of the surrogate and literature measurements of Jet A. These new experiments and simulations provide critical insights into the PAH and soot formation from aviation fuels. Reaction pathways which require further investigation are highlighted, such that future work may bridge the remaining quantitative gaps in predicting soot formation from aviation fuel surrogates and surrogate components.

Aviation fuels↗

Self-similarity of scalar isosurface area density in a temporal mixing layer

Understanding the behaviour of scalar isosurfaces in a turbulent flow is of particular interest for many problems in turbulent mixing that contain sharp interfaces between regions of the flow. Common examples include combustion, where the chemical reactions occur in thin regions within the flow, and the turbulent/non-turbulent interface in shear flows, where a thin region separates the rotational, turbulent motions from the irrotational, non-turbulent background. Recent advances in computing technology allow for in-depth analysis of these interface problems that are difficult to quantify in a laboratory setting. In this paper, the results of a direct numerical simulation of a passive scalar $\varPhi$ evolving on a turbulent, temporally developing mixing layer are described. A novel approach has been taken to calculate the surface area of individual scalar isosurfaces, $A_{iso}$ , throughout the simulation, as well as the mean isosurface area density, $\varSigma$ , as a function of the cross-stream direction and time. A notable finding is that the profiles of $\varSigma$ develop in a self-similar manner when scaled by the Taylor scale of the scalar field, $\lambda _\phi$ . Remarkably, the scaling appears to hold for a wide range of isovalues. A rough scaling argument based on the formal definition of $\varSigma$ and properties of a temporal mixing layer is presented which also exposes a dependence on $\lambda _\phi$ . Based on these results, a possible scaling for the isosurface area is presented as $A_{iso}/A_0 \sim (Re \, Sc)^{1/2}$ , where $Re$ and $Sc$ are local Reynolds and Schmidt numbers, respectively.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

UV-Induced Reaction Pathways in Bromoform Probed with Ultrafast Electron Diffraction

For many chemical reactions, it remains notoriously difficult to predict and experimentally determine the rates and branching ratios between different reaction channels. This is particularly the case for reactions involving short-lived intermediates, whose observation requires ultrafast methods. The UV photochemistry of bromoform (CHBr 3 ) is among the most intensely studied photoreactions. Yet, a detailed understanding of the chemical pathways leading to the production of atomic Br and molecular Br 2 fragments has proven challenging. In particular, the role of isomerization and/or roaming and their competition with direct C–Br bond scission has been a matter of continued debate. Here, in this work, gas-phase ultrafast megaelectronvolt electron diffraction (MeV-UED) is used to directly study structural dynamics in bromoform after single 267 nm photon excitation with femtosecond temporal resolution. The results show unambiguously that isomerization contributes significantly to the early stages of the UV photochemistry of bromoform. In addition to direct C–Br bond breaking within <200 fs, formation of iso-CHBr 3 (Br-CH-Br-Br) is observed on the same time scale and with an isomer lifetime of >1.1 ps. The branching ratio between direct dissociation and isomerization is determined to be 0.4 ± 0.2:0.6 ± 0.2, i.e., approximately 60% of molecules undergo isomerization within the first few hundred femtoseconds after UV excitation. The structure and time of formation of iso-CHBr 3 compare favorably with the results of an ab initio molecular dynamics simulation. The lifetime and interatomic distances of the isomer are consistent with the involvement of a roaming reaction mechanism.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

A thermotropic liquid crystal enables efficient and stable perovskite solar modules

Perovskite solar cells have seen impressive progress in performance and stability, yet maintaining efficiency while scaling area remains a challenge. Here we find that additives commonly used to passivate large-area perovskite films often co-precipitate during perovskite crystallization and aggregate at interfaces, contributing to defects and to spatial inhomogeneity. Here we develop design criteria for additives to prevent their evaporative precipitation and enable uniform passivation of defects. We explored liquid crystals with melting point below the perovskite processing temperature, functionalization for defect passivation and hydrophobicity to improve device stability. We find that thermotropic liquid crystals such as 3,4,5-trifluoro-4'-(trans-4-propylcyclohexyl)biphenyl enable large-area perovskite films that are uniform, low in defects and stable against environmental stress factors. We demonstrate modules with a certified stabilized efficiency of 21.1% at an aperture area of 31 cm 2 and enhanced stability under damp-heat conditions (ISOS-D-3, 85% relative humidity, 85 °C) with T 86 (the duration for the efficiency to decay to 86% of the initial value) of 1,200 h, and reverse bias with (ISOS-V-1, negative maximum-power-point voltage) and without bypass diodes.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Phase Segmentation in Atom-Probe Tomography Using Deep Learning-Based Edge Detection

Abstract Atom-probe tomography (APT) facilitates nano- and atomic-scale characterization and analysis of microstructural features. Specifically, APT is well suited to study the interfacial properties of granular or heterophase systems. Traditionally, the identification of the interface between, for precipitate and matrix phases, in APT data has been obtained either by extracting iso-concentration surfaces based on a user-supplied concentration value or by manually perturbing the concentration value until the iso-concentration surface qualitatively matches the interface. These approaches are subjective, not scalable, and may lead to inconsistencies due to local composition inhomogeneities. We introduce a digital image segmentation approach based on deep neural networks that transfer learned knowledge from natural images to automatically segment the data obtained from APT into different phases. This approach not only provides an efficient way to segment the data and extract interfacial properties but does so without the need for expensive interface labeling for training the segmentation model. We consider here a system with a precipitate phase in a matrix and with three different interface modalities—layered, isolated, and interconnected—that are obtained for different relative geometries of the precipitate phase. We demonstrate the accuracy of our segmentation approach through qualitative visualization of the interfaces, as well as through quantitative comparisons with proximity histograms obtained by using more traditional approaches.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

A ligand discovery toolbox for the WWE domain family of human E3 ligases

The WWE domain is a relatively under-researched domain found in twelve human proteins and characterized by a conserved tryptophan-tryptophan-glutamate (WWE) sequence motif. Six of these WWE domain-containing proteins also contain domains with E3 ubiquitin ligase activity. The general recognition of poly-ADP-ribosylated substrates by WWE domains suggests a potential avenue for development of Proteolysis-Targeting Chimeras (PROTACs). Here, we present novel crystal structures of the HUWE1, TRIP12, and DTX1 WWE domains in complex with PAR building blocks and their analogs, thus enabling a comprehensive analysis of the PAR binding site structural diversity. Furthermore, we introduce a versatile toolbox of biophysical and biochemical assays for the discovery and characterization of novel WWE domain binders, including fluorescence polarization-based PAR binding and displacement assays, 15 N-NMR-based binding affinity assays and 19 F-NMR-based competition assays. Through these assays, we have characterized the binding of monomeric iso -ADP-ribose ( iso -ADPr) and its nucleotide analogs with the aforementioned WWE proteins. Finally, we have utilized the assay toolbox to screen a small molecule fragment library leading to the successful discovery of novel ligands targeting the HUWE1 WWE domain.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Local self-interaction correction method with a simple scaling factor

A recently proposed local self-interaction correction (LSIC) method [Zope et al., J. Chem. Phys., 2019, 151, 214108] when applied to the simplest local density approximation provides a significant improvement over standard Perdew–Zunger SIC (PZSIC) for both equilibrium properties such as total or atomization energies as well as properties involving stretched bond such as barrier heights. The method uses an iso-orbital indicator to identify the single-electron regions. To demonstrate the LSIC method, Zope et al. used the ratio z σ of von Weizsäcker τ W σ and total kinetic energy densities τ σ , (z σ = τ W σ /τ σ ) as a scaling factor to scale the self-interaction correction. The present work further explores the LSIC method using a ratio of orbital and spin densities as a simpler scaling factor in place of the ratio of kinetic energy densities. We compute a wide array of both, equilibrium and non-equilibrium properties using LSIC and orbital scaling methods using this simple scaling factor and compare them with previously reported results. Our study shows that LSIC with the simple scaling factor performs better than PZSIC, with results comparable to those obtained by LSIC( z σ ) for most properties, but has slightly larger errors than LSIC( z σ ). Furthermore, we study the binding energies of small water clusters using both scaling factors. Our results show that LSIC with zσ has limitations in predicting the cluster binding energies of weakly bonded systems due to the inability of z σ to distinguish weakly bonded regions from slowly varying density regions. LSIC when used with the density ratio as a scaling factor, on the other hand, provides a good description of water cluster binding energies, thus highlighting the appropriate choice of the iso-orbital indicator.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

A Hybrid Pathway to Biojet Fuel via 2,3-Butanediol

Production of biomass-derived sustainable alternative jet fuels (SAJF) has been considered as an important approach to decarbonize the aviation industry but still possesses various challenges in technology advancement, particularly in achieving high carbon efficiency. Here we report a hybrid pathway to SAJF from 2,3-butanediol (2,3-BDO), integrating biologically converting biomass to 2,3-BDO with catalytically upgrading of 2,3-BDO to jet-range hydrocarbons. This pathway is demonstrated to have a high carbon recovery to liquid hydrocarbons from corn stover (25–28%) (74–82% of the theoretical maximum efficiency). The catalytic conversion steps involve 2,3-BDO to C3+ olefins, oligomerization, and hydrogenation where the first two steps are the focus of this study. Under optimum reaction conditions (523 K, 115 kPa, 1.0 h-1 weight hourly space velocity), 2,3-BDO conversion and C3+ olefin selectivity are >97% and 94–98% during 40 h time on stream, respectively. To demonstrate the adaptability of this technology with bio-derived 2,3-BDO, we also investigated the impact of water and other organic coproducts (acetoin and acetic acid) inherited from the fermentation broth on the catalyst performance and product selectivities. We have shown that the catalyst can handle a significant amount of water in the liquid feed (40 wt% water/60 wt% 2,3-BDO) and maintain catalyst stability for ~40 h. Acetoin can be converted to similar C3+ olefins as 2,3-BDO with complete conversion of acetoin. Co-feeding 10 wt% acetoin with 2,3-BDO is found to have no impact on 2,3-BDO conversion, C3+ olefin selectivity, and catalyst stability. The utilization of organic coproduct like acetoin can help to improve overall carbon conversion efficiency when using real biomass-derived 2,3-BDO. On the other hand, the presence of 10 wt% acetic acid is shown to drastically inhibit methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) hydrogenation and butene oligomerization as revealed by the increased MEK and butene selectivities, implying the importance of separating organic acids when feeding bio-derived 2,3-BDO. The formed C3–C6 olefins from 2,3-BDO are further oligomerized over Amberlyst-36 catalyst to longer-chain hydrocarbons with >70 wt% jet-range hydrocarbons including predominantly iso-olefins/iso-paraffins. The overall carbon efficiency for the jet-range hydrocarbons is 19–22%, exceeding most of the reported biojet pathways, which makes it a promising approach for SAJF production.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Y-shaped tricatenar azobenzenes – functional liquid crystals with synclinic–anticlinic transitions and spontaneous helix formation

A series of achiral tricatenar rod-like molecules with a 3,5-disubstitution pattern at one end and a single alkyl chain at the other end of a rod-like azobenzene derived core is reported. Depending on temperature and alkyl chain length, these Y-shaped compounds self-assemble into different types of liquid crystalline (LC) phases, ranging from non-tilted and synclinic tilted hexatic, via non-tilted and anticlinic tilted smectic and bicontinuous cubic LC phases, to a spontaneous mirror symmetry broken isotropic liquid (Iso 1 [*]) or a related achiral liquid network phase (Iso 1 ). An additional tilted, but uniaxial smectic phase was observed at the transition between anticlinic and synclinic tilt correlation and was investigated by soft resonant X-ray scattering with respect to possible helix formation. This work provides a new concept for the design of technological interesting azobenzene based LC materials with anticlinic tilted smectic C phases (SmC a ) and with azobenzene units organized in the long range or short range helical network structures of bicontinuous cubic and chiral isotropic liquid phases, respectively. Core fluorination removes all lamellar phases, leaving only the cubic phase over wide temperature ranges, even at ambient temperature.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Self-consistent implementation of locally scaled self-interaction-correction method

Recently proposed local self-interaction correction (LSIC) method is a one-electron self-interaction-correction (SIC) method that uses an iso-orbital indicator to apply the SIC at each point in space by scaling the exchange–correlation and Coulomb energy densities. The LSIC method is exact for the one-electron densities, also recovers the uniform electron gas limit of the uncorrected density functional approximation, and reduces to the well-known Perdew–Zunger SIC (PZSIC) method as a special case. This article presents the self-consistent implementation of the LSIC method using the ratio of Weizsäcker and Kohn–Sham kinetic energy densities as an iso-orbital indicator. The atomic forces as well as the forces on the Fermi-Löwdin orbitals are also implemented for the LSIC energy functional. Results show that LSIC with the simplest local spin density functional predicts atomization energies of the AE6 dataset better than some of the most widely used generalized-gradient-approximation (GGA) functional and barrier heights of the BH6 database better than some of the most widely used hybrid functionals. The LSIC method [a mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.008 Å] predicts bond lengths of a small set of molecules better than the PZSIC-LSDA (MAE 0.042 Å) and LSDA (0.011 Å). Furthermore, this work shows that accurate results can be obtained from the simplest density functional by removing the self-interaction-errors using an appropriately designed SIC method.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Shear strength of a refractory high entropy alloy MoNbTaVW under high pressure

Radial X-ray diffraction (R-XRD) was performed in situ using a Panoramic Diamond Anvil Cell on the refractory high entropy alloy MoNbTaVW. The lattice parameters were determined through a Le Bail fit using a body centered cubic (BCC) lattice of symmetry $Im$$\overline{3}$$m$ (international space group number 229). Upper and lower bounds to the shear strength were determined up to 80 GPa nonhydrostatically using copper as a pressure standard. The equation of state was derived at the magic angle ψ = 54.7° and yielded a bulk modulus of K 0 = 220.8 ± 1.65 GPa. The experimental lattice parameters and bulk modulus match closely with corresponding density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The BCC phase remains stable up to the highest pressure of 80 GPa studied and is shown to be elastically anisotropic. The shear strength was found to saturate around 70 GPa with a value of τ = 1.75 GPa, and the shear moduli are presented in different limits of iso-strain and iso-stress.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

HOD-dependent systematics for luminous red galaxies in the DESI 2024 BAO analysis

In this paper, we present the estimation of systematics related to the halo occupation distribution (HOD) modeling in the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) distance measurement of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) 2024 analysis. This paper focuses on the study of HOD systematics for luminous red galaxies (LRG). We consider three different HOD models for LRGs, including the base 5-parameter vanilla model and two extensions to it, that we refer to as baseline and extended models. The baseline model is described by the 5 vanilla HOD parameters, an incompleteness factor and a velocity bias parameter, whereas the extended one also includes a galaxy assembly bias and a satellite profile parameter. We utilize the 25 dark matter simulations available in the AbacusSummit simulation suite at z=0.8 and generate mock catalogs for our different HOD models. To test the impact of the HOD modeling in the position of the BAO peak, we run BAO fits for all these sets of simulations and compare the best-fit BAO-scaling parameters α iso and α AP between every pair of HOD models. Furthermore, we do this for both Fourier and configuration spaces independently, using post-reconstruction measurements. We find a 3.3σ detection of HOD systematic for α AP in configuration space with an amplitude of 0.19%. For the other cases, we did not find a 3σ detection, and we decided to compute a conservative estimation of the systematic using the ensemble of shifts between all pairs of HOD models. By doing this, we quote a systematic with an amplitude of 0.07% in α iso for both Fourier and configuration spaces; and of 0.09% in α AP for Fourier space.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The Lyman- α forest from LBGs: First 3D correlation measurement with DESI and prospects for cosmology

The Lyman-α (Lyα) forest is a key tracer of large-scale structure at redshifts z > 2, traditionally studied using the spectra of luminous but relatively rare quasars. In this work, we explore the viability of using the fainter yet significantly more abundant Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs) as alternative background sources for Lyα forest studies. We analyze 4,151 Lyα forest skewers extracted from LBG spectra obtained in the DESI pilot surveys conducted in the COSMOS and XMM-LSS fields. From this dataset, we present the first measurement of the Lyα forest auto-correlation function derived exclusively from LBG spectra, probing comoving separations up to 48 h -1 Mpc at an effective redshift of z eff = 2.70. The measured LBG Lyα forest auto-correlation is consistent with that derived from DESI DR2 quasar Lyα forest spectra at a comparable redshift, validating the use of LBGs as reliable background sources for Lyα forest analyses. In addition, we measure the cross-correlation between the LBG Lyα forest and the positions of 13,362 galaxies, demonstrating that this observable serves as a sensitive diagnostic for assessing the precision and accuracy of galaxy redshift estimates, and for identifying and correcting systematic offsets. Finally, using both synthetic LBG spectra and Fisher matrix forecasts, we show that a future wide-area survey covering ∼5,000 deg 2 , targeting 1,000 LBGs per square degree at signal-to-noise levels comparable to our sample, could enable LBG-based Lyα forest baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements with expected uncertainties of σ α ISO = 0.4% (isotropic) and σ α AP = 1.3% (Alcock-Paczynski). This performance is further enhanced when combining the BAO analysis with a Lyα forest Full Shape (FS) approach, yielding a predicted uncertainty of σ α ISO FS = 0.6%. These results open a new avenue for precision cosmology at high redshift using the Lyα forest in dense LBG samples.

Lyman alpha forest↗

A method to observe field-region oxide charge and inter-electrode isolation from CV-characteristics of n-on-p devices

Abstract N-on-psilicon sensors will be utilized in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector's tracker and High Granularity Calorimeter (HGCAL) in the High Luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC). Among their several advantages in terms of radiation hardness over the traditionalp-on-nsensors in the extreme radiation environment of the HL-LHC are electron collection instead of holes and overlapping maxima of weighting and electric fields at the charge-collecting electrodes. The disadvantage of the multi-channel SiO 2 -passivatedn-on-psensors is the generation of an inversion layer under the Si/SiO 2 -interface by a positive interface-oxide-charge (N ox ) that at high densities can compromise the position resolution by creating a conduction channel between the electrodes. This issue is typically addressed by including additional isolnts (p-stp,p-spray) between n + -electrodes. Focusing on the guard-ring regions ofn-on-psensors where no isolation implants are applied between the electrodes, a capacitance-voltage (CV) characterization study of both 6-inch wafer test diodes and 8-inch HGCAL prototype and pre-series sensors showed a distinct threshold voltage (V th,iso ) in theCV-characteristics of a biased n + -electrode when its enclosing guard-ring was left floating. When reproduced by simulations, the measuredV th,iso was found to contain information on the field-regionN ox and indicate the threshold where the two electrodes become electrically isolated by the influence of the reverse bias voltage. Together with previous studies on the inter-electrode isolation of irradiatedn-on-psensors, the results indicate that position sensitiven-on-psensors without isolation implants may be feasible in future HEP experiments.

Instruments & Instrumentation↗

A numerical Poisson solver with improved radial solutions for a self-consistent locally scaled self-interaction correction method

Abstract The universal applicability of density functional approximations is limited by self-interaction error made by these functionals. Recently, a novel one-electron self-interaction-correction (SIC) method that uses an iso-orbital indicator to apply the SIC at each point in space by scaling the exchange-correlation and Coulomb energy densities was proposed. The locally scaled SIC (LSIC) method is exact for the one-electron densities, and unlike the well-known Perdew–Zunger SIC (PZSIC) method recovers the uniform electron gas limit of the uncorrected density functional approximation, and reduces to PZSIC method as a special case when isoorbital indicator is set to the unity. Here, we present a numerical scheme that we have adopted to evaluate the Coulomb potential of the electron density scaled by the iso-orbital indicator required for the self-consistent LSIC calculations. After analyzing the behavior of the finite difference method (FDM) and the green function solution to the radial part of the Poisson equation, we adopt a hybrid approach that uses the FDM for the Coulomb potential due to the monopole and the GF for all higher-order terms. The performance of the resultant hybrid method is assessed using a variety of systems. The results show improved accuracy than earlier numerical schemes. We also find that, even with a generic set of radial grid parameters, accurate energy differences can be obtained using a numerical Coulomb solver in standard density functional studies.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗