Engineering topics
Chen, Y
Publications and source records attributed to Chen, Y.
A BROKEN SOLAR TYPE II RADIO BURST INDUCED BY A CORONAL SHOCK PROPAGATING ACROSS THE STREAMER BOUNDARY
We discuss an intriguing type II radio burst that occurred on 2011 March 27. The dynamic spectrum was featured by a sudden break at about 43 MHz on the well-observed harmonic branch. Before the break, the spectrum drifted gradually with a mean rate of about -0.05 MHz s{sup -1}. Following the break, the spectrum jumped to lower frequencies. The post-break emission lasted for about 3 minutes. It consisted of an overall slow drift which appeared to have a few fast-drift sub-bands. Simultaneous observations from the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory and the Solar Dynamics Observatory were also available and are examined for this event. We suggest that the slow-drift period before the break was generated inside a streamer by a coronal eruption driven shock, and the spectral break as well as the relatively wide spectrum after the break is a consequence of the shock crossing the streamer boundary where density drops abruptly. It is suggested that this type of radio bursts can be taken as a unique diagnostic tool for inferring the coronal density structure, as well as the radio-emitting source region.
Automated markerless full field hard x-ray microscopic tomography at sub-50nm 3-dimension spatial resolution
A full field transmission x-ray microscope (TXM) has been developed and commissioned at the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The capabilities we developed in auto-tomography, local tomography, and spectroscopic imaging that overcome many of the limitations and difficulties in existing transmission x-ray microscopes are described and experimentally demonstrated. Sub-50 nm resolution in 3-dimension (3D) with markerless automated tomography has been achieved. These capabilities open up scientific opportunities in many research fields.
X-RAY PHASE-RESOLVED SPECTROSCOPY OF PSRs B0531+21, B1509-58, AND B0540-69 WITH RXTE
The Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) has made hundreds of observations on three famous young pulsars (PSRs) B0531+21 (Crab), B1509-58, and B0540-69. Using the archive RXTE data, we have studied the phase-resolved spectral properties of these pulsars in details. The variation of the X-ray spectrum with phase of PSR B0531+21 is confirmed here much more precisely and more details are revealed than in the previous studies: The spectrum softens from the beginning of the first pulse, turns to harden right at the pulse peak and becomes the hardest at the bottom of the bridge, softens gradually until the second peak, and then softens rapidly. Different from the previous studies, we found that the spectrum of PSR B1509-58 is significantly harder in the center of the pulse, which is also in contrast to that of PSR B0531+21. The variation of the X-ray spectrum of PSR B0540-69 seems similar to that of PSR B1509-58, but with a lower significance. Using about 10 years of data span, we also studied the real time evolution of the spectra of these pulsars, and no significant evolution has been detected. We discuss the constraints of these results on theoretical models of pulsar X-ray emission.
OBSERVATION OF TeV GAMMA RAYS FROM THE CYGNUS REGION WITH THE ARGO-YBJ EXPERIMENT
We report the observation of TeV {gamma}-rays from the Cygnus region using the ARGO-YBJ data collected from 2007 November to 2011 August. Several TeV sources are located in this region including the two bright extended MGRO J2019+37 and MGRO J2031+41. According to the Milagro data set, at 20 TeV MGRO J2019+37 is the most significant source apart from the Crab Nebula. No signal from MGRO J2019+37 is detected by the ARGO-YBJ experiment, and the derived flux upper limits at the 90% confidence level for all the events above 600 GeV with medium energy of 3 TeV are lower than the Milagro flux, implying that the source might be variable and hard to be identified as a pulsar wind nebula. The only statistically significant (6.4 standard deviations) {gamma}-ray signal is found from MGRO J2031+41, with a flux consistent with the measurement by Milagro.
Effect of rare-earth composition on microstructure and pinning properties of Zr-doped (Gd, Y)Ba{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{subx} superconducting tapes.
The effect of changing Gd + Y content from 1.2 to 1.6 in the precursor of (Gd,Y)Ba{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 7} superconducting thin film tapes made by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) at a constant Gd:Y ratio and a fixed Zr content of 7.5% has been studied. The influence of changing the Gd:Y ratio from Gd = 0 to Y= 0 in 0.2 mol steps at a constant Gd + Y content of 1.2 in the precursor has also been investigated at a fixed Zr content of 7.5%. The critical current of these films is found to vary significantly as a function of rare-earth content as well as a function of rare-earth type. Even for a fixed Zr content, it is found that the critical current in the orientation of magnetic field parallel to the a-b plane and that in the orientation of field perpendicular to the a-b plane can be systematically varied with changing Gd + Y content as well as with changing Gd:Y ratio. The nanoscale defect structures along the a-b plane and along the c-axis are found to be sensitive to these changes in rare-earth content and type.
Site Specific X-ray Anomalous Dispersion of the Geometrically Frustrated Kagome´ Magnet Herbertsmithite ZnCu3(OH)6Cl2
Structural characterization, exploiting X-ray scattering differences at elemental absorption edges, is developed to quantitatively determine crystallographic site-specific metal disorder. We apply this technique to the problem of Zn-Cu chemical disorder in ZnCu{sub 3}(OH){sub 6}Cl{sub 2}. This geometrically frustrated kagome antiferromagnet is one of the best candidates for a spin-liquid ground state, but chemical disorder has been suggested as a mundane explanation for its magnetic properties. Using anomalous scattering at the Zn and Cu edges, we determine that there is no Zn occupation of the intralayer Cu sites within the kagome layer; however there is Cu present on the Zn intersite, leading to a structural formula of (Zn{sub 0.85}Cu{sub 0.15})Cu{sub 3}(OH){sub 6}Cl{sub 2}. The lack of Zn mixing onto the kagome lattice sites lends support to the idea that the electronic ground state in ZnCu{sub 3}(OH){sub 6}Cl{sub 2} and its relatives is nontrivial.
Influence of Sulfur on the Carbon Deposition in Liquid Hydrocarbon Steam Reforming over CeO2-Al2O3 supported Ni and Rh Catalysts
This study was performed to elucidate the influence of sulfur on the carbon deposition in steam reforming of liquid hydrocarbons over CeO{sub 2}-Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} supported Ni and Rh catalysts at 800 C. The characteristics of the carbon deposits on the used catalysts after the reactions without and with sulfur were investigated by temperature-programmed oxidation (TPO), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM), temperature-programmed hydrogenation (TPH), X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Though abundant carbon deposits can accumulate on the pure CeO{sub 2}-Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} support due to fuel thermal cracking, the addition of Ni or Rh metal greatly reduced the carbon deposition in the sulfur-free reaction. The presence of sulfur increased the carbon deposition on both catalysts, which has a much more significant impact for the Ni catalyst. Carbon XANES study on the used catalysts revealed that graphitic carbon was dominant in the presence of sulfur, while oxidized carbon species (quinone-like carbon, carboxyl and carbonate) prevailed without sulfur. Meanwhile, the formation of carboxyl and carbonate more dramatically dropped on the Ni catalyst than that on the Rh catalyst. Our results strongly suggest that (I) the presence of sulfur can suppress carbon gasification and promote the formation of graphitic carbon on reforming catalysts due mainly to its poisoning effect on metals, and (II) Rh catalyst possesses stronger capability to maintain carbon gasification activity than Ni catalyst in the presence of sulfur.
Characterization of Oxygen Containing Functional Groups on Carbon Materials with Oxygen K-edge X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure Spectroscopy
Surface functional groups on carbon materials are critical to their surface properties and related applications. Many characterization techniques have been used to identify and quantify the surface functional groups, but none is completely satisfactory especially for quantification. In this work, we used oxygen K-edge X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy to identify and quantify the oxygen containing surface functional groups on carbon materials. XANES spectra were collected in fluorescence yield mode to minimize charging effect due to poor sample conductivity which can potentially distort XANES spectra. The surface functional groups are grouped into three types, namely carboxyl-type, carbonyl-type, and hydroxyl-type. XANES spectra of the same type are very similar while spectra of different types are significantly different. Two activated carbon samples were analyzed by XANES. The total oxygen contents of the samples were estimated from the edge step of their XANES spectra, and the identity and abundance of different functional groups were determined by fitting of the sample XANES spectrum to a linear combination of spectra of the reference compounds. It is concluded that oxygen K-edge XANES spectroscopy is a reliable characterization technique for the identification and quantification of surface functional groups on carbon materials.
High-resolution Hard-x-ray Microscopy using Second-order Zone-plate Diffraction
Odd-order diffraction of zone plates (ZPs) is already used for x-ray microscopy but the potential offered by even-order diffraction must still be fully exploited. Width differences between lines and interline spaces transfer intensity from odd-order to even-order diffractions. Here we show that the resulting intense second-order diffraction provides a reasonable tradeoff between spatial resolution and intensity - and constitutes a viable strategy for x-ray microscopy to reach sub-20 nm resolution, in spite of the imperfections of high-aspect-ratio ZPs and of other difficulties.
Local Structure of Cerium in Aluminophosphate and Silicophosphate Glasses
The local structure of cerium in two systematic compositional series of glasses, nominally CeP{sub 3}O{sub 9}-AlP{sub 3}O{sub 9} and CeP{sub 3}O{sub 9}-SiP{sub 2}O{sub 7}, was interrogated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) spectroscopy. XPS revealed that, for glasses melted in air, {>=}95% of cerium ions are Ce{sup 3+}. This was independently confirmed using X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy (XANES). Ce K-edge extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) has been used to determine the local structure of Ce{sup 3+}. Near the metaphosphate composition, cerium was found to have an average cerium coordination number of {approx}7.0 and an average cerium-oxygen bond length of 2.41 {angstrom}. The average cerium coordination number and average cerium-oxygen bond distance were found to increase with decreasing cerium concentration in both compositional series. Rare-earth clustering is suggested based on numerical calculations for glasses containing {>=}14 and {>=}15 mol% Ce{sub 2}O{sub 3} for the aluminophosphate and silicophosphate series, respectively.
Homologue Structure of the SLAC1 Anion Channel for Closing Stomata in Leaves
The plant SLAC1 anion channel controls turgor pressure in the aperture-defining guard cells of plant stomata, thereby regulating the exchange of water vapour and photosynthetic gases in response to environmental signals such as drought or high levels of carbon dioxide. Here we determine the crystal structure of a bacterial homologue (Haemophilus influenzae) of SLAC1 at 1.20 {angstrom} resolution, and use structure-inspired mutagenesis to analyse the conductance properties of SLAC1 channels. SLAC1 is a symmetrical trimer composed from quasi-symmetrical subunits, each having ten transmembrane helices arranged from helical hairpin pairs to form a central five-helix transmembrane pore that is gated by an extremely conserved phenylalanine residue. Conformational features indicate a mechanism for control of gating by kinase activation, and electrostatic features of the pore coupled with electrophysiological characteristics indicate that selectivity among different anions is largely a function of the energetic cost of ion dehydration.
Engineering Prototype for a Compact Medical Dielectric Wall Accelerator
A compact accelerator system architecture based on the dielectric wall accelerator (DWA) for medical proton beam therapy has been developed by the Compact Particle Acceleration Corporation (CPAC). The major subsystems are a Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) injector linac, a pulsed kicker to select the desired proton bunches, and a DWA linear accelerator incorporating a high gradient insulator (HGI) with stacked Blumleins to produce the required acceleration energy. The Blumleins are switched with solid state laser-driven optical switches integrated into the Blumlein assemblies. Other subsystems include a high power pulsed laser, fiber optic distribution system, electrical charging system, and beam diagnostics. An engineering prototype has been constructed and characterized, and these results will be used within the next three years to develop an extremely compact 150 MeV system capable of modulating energy, beam current, and spot size on a shot-to-shot basis. This paper presents the details the engineering prototype, experimental results, and commercialization plans.