Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Elastic Recoil Detection”

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 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2014

Rutherford forward scattering and elastic recoil detection (RFSERD) as a method for characterizing ultra-thin films

We present a novel ion beam analysis technique combining Rutherford forward scattering and elastic recoil detection (RFSERD) and demonstrate its ability to increase efficiency in determining stoichiometry in ultrathin (5-50 nm) films as compared to Rutherford backscattering. In the conventional forward geometries, scattering from the substrate overwhelms the signal from light atoms but in RFSERD, scattered ions from the substrate are ranged out while forward scattered ions and recoiled atoms from the thin film are simultaneously detected in a single detector. Lastly, the technique is applied to tantalum oxide memristors but can be extended to a wide range of materials systems.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

A gas ionisation detector in the axial (Bragg) geometry used for the time-of-flight elastic recoil detection analysis

In this paper, time-of-flight elastic recoil detection analysis spectrometer with a newly constructed gas ionization detector for energy detection is presented. The detector is designed in the axial (Bragg) geometry with a 3 × 3 array of 50 nm thick Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} membranes as an entrance window. 40 mbar isobutane gas was sufficient to stop a 30 MeV primary iodine beam as well as all recoils in the detector volume. Spectrometer and detector performances were determined showing significant improvement in the mass and energy resolution, respectively, comparing to the spectrometer with a standard silicon particle detector for an energy measurement.

2-METHYLPROPANE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Evaluating the diffusion of Kr in UO 2 and ADOPT TM using time-of-flight elastic recoil detection analysis (ToF-erda)

A combination of 300 keV 84 Kr ion implantation and Time-of-Flight Elastic Recoil Detection Analysis is utilized to investigate the diffusion of Kr in UO 2 and ADOPT TM fuels. Composition depth-profiles on the nanometer scale were obtained, both for as-implanted samples and after annealing at 800°C for 1 hour. Observed drifts in the 84 Kr profiles could be associated with short-range diffusion mechanisms. The approach employed here provides the possibility to make direct comparisons with atomistic scale modelling data, and can be of service as a separate effect test in line with the Accelerated Fuel Qualification initiative.

ADOPT UO2↗
DOE OSTI2014

Dynamic measurement of the helium concentration of evolving tungsten nanostructures using Elastic Recoil Detection during plasma exposure

Helium (He) concentration depth profiles of evolving tungsten (W) nanostructures have been measured for the first time using in situ Elastic Recoil Detection (ERD) throughout plasma irradiation. In this work, exposures resulting in fuzzy and non-fuzzy surfaces were analyzed in order to illuminate the role of He during the development of these surface morphologies. ERD was performed on samples with surface temperatures from $T_s$ = 530–1100 K and irradiated by He flux densities of $Γ_{\text{He}}$ ~ 10 20 –10 22 m –2 s –1 . He concentration profiles in samples that developed either non-fuzzy or fuzzy surfaces are uniformly shaped with concentrations of 1.5–7 at.%, which is presumed to be too low for pressure driven growth models. Therefore, surface morphology changes are not perpetuated by continuous bubble bursting deformation. Also, a threshold in He flux density above 10 20 m –2 s –1 is suggested by using in situ ERD to monitor the depth profile evolution of the He-rich layer while changing the flux during exposure.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Hydrogen uptake in Zircaloy-2 reactor fuel claddings studied with elastic recoil detection

The recent trend towards a high burn-up discharge spent nuclear fuel necessitates a thorough understanding of hydrogen uptake in Zr-based cladding materials that encapsulate spent nuclear fuel. Although it is challenging to experimentally replicate exact conditions in a nuclear reactor that lead to hydrogen uptake in claddings, in this study we have attempted to understand the kinetics of hydrogen uptake by first electrolytically charging Zircaloy-2 (Zr-2) cladding material for various durations (100 to 2,600 s), and subsequently examining hydrogen ingress with elastic recoil detection (ERD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). To understand the influence of irradiation damage defects on hydrogen uptake, an analogous study was performed on ion - irradiated (0.1, 1 and 25 dpa) Zr-2. Analysis of ERD data from the un-irradiated Zr-2 suggests that the growth of the hydride layer is diffusion controlled, and preliminary TEM results support this assertion. In un-irradiated Zr-2, the diffusivity of hydrogen in the hydride phase was found to be approximately 1.1 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -11} cm{sup 2}/s, while the diffusivity in the hydride phase for lightly irradiated (0.1 and 1 dpa) Zr-2 is an order of magnitude lower. Irradiation to 25 dpa results in a hydrogen diffusivity that is comparable to the un-irradiated Zr-2. These results are compared with existing literature on hydrogen transport in Zr - based materials.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Development of Elastic Recoil Detection Technique for Quantifying Light Isotope Concentrations in Irradiated TPBAR Materials.

The National Nuclear Security Administration's Tritium Sustainment Program is responsible for the design, development, demonstration, testing, analysis, and characterization of tritium-producing burnable absorber rods (TPBARs) and their components, in addition to producing tritium for the nation's strategic stockpile. The FY18 call for proposals included the specific basic science research topic, "Demonstration and evaluation of advanced characterization methods, particularly for quantifying the concentration of light isotopes ( 1 H, 2 H, and 4 He, 6 Li, and 7 Li) in metal or ceramic matrices". A project IWO-389859 was awarded to the Ion Beam Lab (IBL) at Sandia-NM in FY18. This reports the success we had in developing and demonstrating such a method: 42 MeV Si + 7 from the IBL' s Tandem was used to recoil these light isotopes into special detectors that separated all these isotopes by simultaneously measuring the energy and stopping power of these reoils. This technique, called Heavy Ion - Elastic Recoil Detection or HI-ERD, accurately measured the enriched 6 Li/Li-total of 0.246 +- 0.016, compared to the known value of 0.239. The isotopes 1 H, 2 H, 4 He, 6 Li and 7 Li were also measured. (page intentionally left blank)

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Hydrogenated indium oxide window layers for high-efficiency Cu(In,Ga)Se{sub 2} solar cells

High mobility hydrogenated indium oxide is investigated as a transparent contact for thin film Cu(In,Ga)Se{sub 2} (CIGS) solar cells. Hydrogen doping of In{sub 2}O{sub 3} thin films is achieved by injection of H{sub 2}O water vapor or H{sub 2} gas during the sputter process. As-deposited amorphous In{sub 2}O{sub 3}:H films exhibit a high electron mobility of ∼50 cm{sup 2}/Vs at room temperature. A bulk hydrogen concentration of ∼4 at. % was measured for both optimized H{sub 2}O and H{sub 2}-processed films, although the H{sub 2}O-derived film exhibits a doping gradient as detected by elastic recoil detection analysis. Amorphous IOH films are implemented as front contacts in CIGS based solar cells, and their performance is compared with the reference ZnO:Al electrodes. The most significant feature of IOH containing devices is an enhanced open circuit voltage (V{sub OC}) of ∼20 mV regardless of the doping approach, whereas the short circuit current and fill factor remain the same for the H{sub 2}O case or slightly decrease for H{sub 2}. The overall power conversion efficiency is improved from 15.7% to 16.2% by substituting ZnO:Al with IOH (H{sub 2}O) as front contacts. Finally, stability tests of non-encapsulated solar cells in dry air at 80 °C and constant illumination for 500 h demonstrate a higher stability for IOH-containing devices.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2012

Compositional analysis and depth profiling of thin film CrO{sub 2} by heavy ion ERDA and standard RBS: a comparison

Chromium dioxide (CrO{sub 2}) thin film has generated considerable interest in applied research due to the wide variety of its technological applications. It has been extensively investigated in recent years, attracting the attention of researchers working on spintronic heterostructures and in the magnetic recording industry. However, its synthesis is usually a difficult task due to its metastable nature and various synthesis techniques are being investigated. In this work a polycrystalline thin film of CrO{sub 2} was prepared by electron beam vaporization of Cr{sub 2}O{sub 3} onto a Si substrate. The polycrystalline structure was confirmed through XRD analysis. The stoichiometry and elemental depth distribution of the deposited film were measured by ion beam nuclear analytical techniques heavy ion elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA) and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), which both have relative advantage over non-nuclear spectrometries in that they can readily provide quantitative information about the concentration and distribution of different atomic species in a layer. Moreover, the analysis carried out highlights the importance of complementary usage of the two techniques to obtain a more complete description of elemental content and depth distribution in thin films. - Graphical abstract: Heavy ion elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA) and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) both have relative advantage over non-nuclear spectrometries in that they can readily provide quantitative information about the concentration and distribution of different atomic species in a layer. Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Thin films of CrO{sub 2} have been grown by e-beam evaporation of Cr{sub 2}O{sub 3} target in vacuum. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The composition was determined by heavy ion-ERDA and RBS. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer HI-ERDA and RBS provided information on the light and heavy elements, respectively.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Atomic layer deposition of molybdenum oxide from (N{sup t}Bu){sub 2}(NMe{sub 2}){sub 2}Mo and O{sub 2} plasma

Molybdenum oxide (MoO{sub x}) films have been deposited by atomic layer deposition using bis(tert-butylimido)-bis(dimethylamido)molybdenum and oxygen plasma, within a temperature range of 50–350 °C. Amorphous film growth was observed between 50 and 200 °C at a growth per cycle (GPC) around 0.80 Å. For deposition temperatures of 250 °C and higher, a transition to polycrystalline growth was observed, accompanied by an increase in GPC up to 1.88 Å. For all deposition temperatures the O/Mo ratio was found to be just below three, indicating the films were slightly substoichiometric with respect to MoO{sub 3} and contained oxygen vacancies. The high purity of the films was demonstrated in the absence of detectable C and N contamination in Rutherford backscattering measurements, and a H content varying between 3 and 11 at. % measured with elastic recoil detection. In addition to the chemical composition, the optical properties are reported as well.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2018

pysrim: Automation, Analysis, and Plotting of SRIM Calculations

The behavior of ions traveling through a material is of great interest to many fields. For instance, radiation damage in nuclear materials and ion beam modification of materials are most concerned with understanding the formation and evolution of defects along the ion path (Was 2016). Some of the important properties that can be gleaned from investigating the initial damage from the ion include: numbers of interstitials and vacancies produced, energy deposited per unit length to electrons and atomic nuclei, track diameter, and implanted ion profile. These properties enable further simulations and allow computing a common unit of radiation damage dose, displacements per atom (dpa), which can be used to compare irradiation experiments with different ions (Backman et al. 2013) (Stoller et al. 2013). Additionally, the ejection of materials near the surface due to incident ions is important to sputtering and ion-beam analysis techniques, such as elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA) and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) (Vickerman and Gilmore 2011). The interaction of ions within a material can be broken into two parts: electronic and nuclear stopping. Electronic stopping is the energy lost from the ion due to inelastic collisions with electrons along its path. Nuclear stopping is the energy lost due to elastic collisions between the ion and atomic nuclei within the material. The Stopping and Range of Ions in Matter (SRIM) code is a well known software in the radiation damage and ion-beam communities that allows the simulation, via Monte Carlo, of ions through a material by modeling the energy transfer through electronic and nuclear stopping (J. F. Ziegler, Ziegler, and Biersack 2010). SRIM was originally developed in 1985 and has had numerous updates on the electronic stopping powers since then, with the nuclear stopping well explained by the ZBL potential (J. F. Ziegler 1988). The executable SRIM is free to use for non-commercial use but the source code is not available to the community despite requests. While SRIM is a scientifically accurate code it does not get updated frequently and has many bugs from a usability standpoint.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2012

B{sub 4}C thin films for neutron detection

Due to the very limited availability of {sup 3}He, new kinds of neutron detectors, not based on {sup 3}He, are urgently needed. Here, we present a method to produce thin films of {sup 10}B{sub 4}C, with maximized detection efficiency, intended to be part of a new generation of large area neutron detectors. B{sub 4}C thin films have been deposited onto Al-blade and Si wafer substrates by dc magnetron sputtering from {sup nat}B{sub 4}C and {sup 10}B{sub 4}C targets in an Ar discharge, using an industrial deposition system. The films were characterized with scanning electron microscopy, elastic recoil detection analysis, x-ray reflectivity, and neutron radiography. We show that the film-substrate adhesion and film purity are improved by increased substrate temperature and deposition rate. A deposition rate of 3.8 A/s and substrate temperature of 400 deg. C result in films with a density close to bulk values and good adhesion to film thickness above 3 {mu}m. Boron-10 contents of almost 80 at. % are obtained in 6.3 m{sup 2} of 1 {mu}m thick {sup 10}B{sub 4}C thin films coated on Al-blades. Initial neutron absorption measurements agree with Monte Carlo simulations and show that the layer thickness, number of layers, neutron wavelength, and amount of impurities are determining factors. The study also shows the importance of having uniform layer thicknesses over large areas, which for a full-scale detector could be in total {approx}1000 m{sup 2} of two-side coated Al-blades with {approx}1 {mu}m thick {sup 10}B{sub 4}C films.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗