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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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Effects of oxidation and roughness on Cu contact resistance from 4 to 290 K

Knowledge of the factors influencing contact resistance is important for optimizing system design in cryogenic applications. In space cryogenics, indirect cooling of infrared components is the primary concern. The presence of bolted joints results in contact resistances which can dominate all other contributions to the overall heat transfer rate. Here, thermal and electrical contact resistances measured between 4 K and 290 K for a series of bolted OFHC Cu contacts are reported. Surface roughness is found to have little effect on the overall contact resistance within the experimental limits, while oxidation can increase the contact resistance by as much as a factor of 100. Thermal and electrical contact resistances measured on the same contact show that the contact resistance temperature dependence does not follow the bulk dependence. For example, the residual resistance ratio (RRR) of the OFHC Cu is 110, but for contacts made from this material, the RRR is about two.

Nilles, M. J.

The stereoisomeric composition of phytanyl chains in lipids of Dead Sea sediments

Lipid extracts from five recent Dead Sea sediments were analyzed for isoprenoid compounds and the following were isolated: free and phospholipid-bound di-O-phytanylglycerol, free phytanol and free and esterified phytanic acid. The phytanyl groups of the diether and the free phytanol were oxidized to the corresponding phytanic acid; the stereoisomeric composition of the derived phytanic acids as well as of the ester-bound phytanic acid was determined by open-tubular gas-liquid chromatography of the corresponding methyl esters on butanediolsuccinate polyester. Only the 3R, 7R, 11R-isomer of phytanic acid was detected in each of the phytanate samples, indicating that these phytanyl chains in the Dead Sea sediments are most likely derived from extremely halophilic bacteria rather than from phytol of chlorophyll origin. These findings also provide further evidence that the mixtures of RRR and SRR-phytanic acids previously isolated from organic-rich shales were most likely derived from the phytyl chain in chlorophyll.

Anderson, R.

Absorber Materials for Transition-Edge Sensor X-ray Microcalorimeters

Arrays of superconducting transition-edge sensors (TES) can provide high spatial and energy resolution necessary for x-ray astronomy. High quantum efficiency and uniformity of response can be achieved with a suitable absorber material, in which absorber x-ray stopping power, heat capacity, and thermal conductivity are relevant parameters. Here we compare these parameters for bismuth and gold. We have fabricated electroplated gold, electroplated gold/electroplated bismuth, and evaporated gold/evaporated bismuth 8x8 absorber arrays and find that a correlation exists between the residual resistance ratio (RRR) and thin film microstructure. This finding indicates that we can tailor absorber material conductivity via microstructure alteration, so as to permit absorber thermalization on timescales suitable for high energy resolution x-ray microcalorimetry. We show that by incorporating absorbers possessing large grain size, including electroplated gold and electroplated gold/electroplated bismuth, into our current Mo/Au TES, devices with tunable heat capacity and energy resolution of 2.3 eV (gold) and 2.1 eV (gold/bismuth) FWHM at 6 keV have been fabricated.

Brown, Ari-David

Design of High Resolution Soft X-Ray Microcalorimeters Using Magnetic Penetration Thermometers

We have designed high-resolution soft x-ray microcalorimeters using magnetic penetration thermometers (MPTs) in an array of pixels covering a total of 2 square centimeters to have a resolving power of 300 at energies around 300 eV. This performance is desirable for studying the soft x-ray background from the warm hot intergalactic medium. MPT devices have small sensor heat capacity and high responsivities, which makes them excellent detector technology for attempting to attain sub-eV resolution. We are investigating the feasibility of pixels with absorbers that are 625 x 625 square micrometers, up to 1 x 1 square millimeters in area and 0.35 micrometer thick and thinner. Our tests have shown that suspended gold absorbers 0.35 micrometers thick (RRR = 6.7) are feasible to fabricate. We modeled the thermal diffusion from such thin gold over the size of a 625 x 625 square micrometer absorber, and conclude that the effect of the thermalization on the resolution of a 300 eV photon is an additional approximately 0.2 eV FWHM of broadening. We discuss the thermal effects of small absorber attachment sterns on solid substrate, as well as considerations for multiplexed readout. We will present the progress we have made towards building and testing this soft x-ray detector.

Busch. Sarah