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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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At least 217 records · Page 12
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Generation of strong fields with subcritical density plasmas to study the phase transitions of magnetized warm dense matter

Warm dense matter (WDM) is a regime where Fermi degenerate electrons play an important role in the macroscopic properties of a material. Recent experiments have brought us closer to understanding unmagnetized processes in WDM, but magnetized WDM remains unexplored because kilotesla magnetic fields are required. Although there are examples of field compression generating such fields by imploding pre-magnetized targets, these existing methods give no independent control over the parameters of the magnetized plasma and result in limited laser access for sample creation and diagnosis. In this paper, numerical simulations show that kilotesla magnetic fields can be obtained by shining laser beams onto the inner surface of a cylindrical target, rather than on the outer surface. This approach relies on field compression by a low-density, high-temperature plasma, rather than a high-density, low-temperature plasma, used in the more conventional approach. With this novel configuration, the region of peak magnetic field is mostly free of plasma, hence, other beams can reach a sample placed in the region of the peak field to form WDM and diagnose it.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Development of a true single line of sight 3D hot-spot imaging for the National Ignition Facility

High resolution 3D self-emission x-ray imaging during inertial confinement fusion capsule implosion enables the measurement of the shape of the hotspot. While current 3D imaging capabilities use multiple lines of sight to perform image reconstruction, it would be highly desirable to use only one line of sight, as this would significantly reduce the number of windows in the target hohlraum and decrease their impacts on implosion symmetry. Such a goal is achievable using the zone plate coded imaging technique developed by N. M. Ceglio [Proc. SPIE 0106, 55-62 (1977)]. It consists of fielding a visible light Fresnel zone plate on shot to record a shadowgraph. Here, the image can then be reconstructed either by printing the shadowgraph on a transparent film and shining a suitable wavelength light through it or by numerical reconstruction. A new approach using numerical reconstruction is presented, and it relaxes the constraint by an order of magnitude on the optic design, thus enabling an easier fabrication process, as it allows a scaling-up of the optic dimensions. The design, fabrication process, and testing with an x-ray source of a prototype is presented. The reconstruction of an ~14.5 × 17 μm 2 broadband x-ray source was successful and shows that the performances are in line with expectation with an at least 5 mm axial resolution.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Quantification and visualization of uncertainties in reconstructed penumbral images of implosions at Omega

Penumbral imaging is a technique used in plasma diagnostics in which a radiation source shines through one or more large apertures onto a detector. To interpret a penumbral image, one must reconstruct it to recover the original source. The inferred source always has some error due to noise in the image and uncertainty in the instrument geometry. Interpreting the inferred source thus requires quantification of that inference’s uncertainty. Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms have been used to quantify uncertainty for similar problems but have never been used for the inference of the shape of an image. Because of this, there are no commonly accepted ways of visualizing uncertainty in two-dimensional data. This paper demonstrates the application of the Hamiltonian Monte Carlo algorithm to the reconstruction of penumbral images of fusion implosions and presents ways to visualize the uncertainty in the reconstructed source. This methodology enables more rigorous analysis of penumbral images than has been done in the past.

Instruments & Instrumentation↗
DOE OSTI2018

Temporal dynamics of air plasma glow under different focusing conditions of a femtosecond radiation pulse

We report the results of the spectral and temporal investigations of air plasma glow with a temporal resolution of ∼ 2 ps. The plasma was produced by 950-nm laser pulses 60 fs in duration. It is shown that the spectrum obtained for a numerical aperture NA > 0.1 is dominated by atomic and ionic lines of oxygen and nitrogen against the background of a high-intensity continuous spectrum in the visible region. For NA < 0.07, the lines of the second positive system of molecular nitrogen N{sub 2} and the first negative system of molecular ions make their appearance in the spectrum. For NA < 0.03, the spectrum consists only of the molecular lines of N{sub 2} and . The emission intensity peaks of these lines lag behind the laser pulse by 10 – 12 ps, but the atomic lines begin to shine 80 – 100 ps after the instant of irradiation. The characteristic time of line glow decay to a 1/e level amounts to 18 ps for , to 27 ps for N{sub 2}, and to 20 ns for atomic lines. The bibliography includes 18 references.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Ab initio study of hot electrons in GaAs

Significance How does an excited electron lose its energy? This problem is central in fields ranging from condensed matter physics to electrical engineering and chemistry. The cooling of hot electrons in gallium arsenide (GaAs) is the critical process underlying the operation of exciting electronic and optoelectronic devices, but the nature of this cooling is controversial. Here, we present calculations showing that hot electrons in GaAs lose energy chiefly by emitting lattice vibrations. We find a dominant role of acoustic vibrations, challenging the common notion that optical vibrations dominate excited electron energy loss. Our computational approach shines light on microscopic processes that are hard to capture with both experiments and semi-empirical calculations and opens new avenues to compute excited electron dynamics.

Bernardi, Marco↗
DOE OSTI2018

Incorporating Beam Attenuation Calculations into an Integrated Data Analysis Model for Ion Effective Charge

Here, we have created a forward model for charge-exchange impurity density measurements that incorporates neutral beam attenuation measurements self-consistently for the purpose of determining the ion-effective charge Z eff . The model is constructed within an integrated data analysis framework to include a self-consistent calculation of neutral beam attenuation due to multiple impurity species into the measurement of a single impurity density. The model includes measurements of the beam Doppler-shift spectrum and shine-through particle flux to determine the neutral beam particle density which is attenuated by ion collisions. Synthetic data are generated from the diagnostic forward model using statistical and calibration uncertainties. These “noisy” data are used in the analysis to evaluate how accurately Z eff is determined. Methods of experimental design are employed to calculate the information gained from different diagnostic combinations. The analysis shows that while attenuation measurements alone do not provide a unique impurity density measurement in the case of a multispecies inhomogeneous plasma, they do provide an effective measurement of the Z eff profile and place constraints on the impurity density profiles.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Grain alignment in starless cores

We present near-IR polarimetry data of background stars shining through a selection of starless cores taken in the K band, probing visual extinctions up to A{sub V}∼48. We find that P{sub K}/τ{sub K} continues to decline with increasing A{sub V} with a power law slope of roughly −0.5. Examination of published submillimeter (submm) polarimetry of starless cores suggests that by A{sub V}≳20 the slope for P versus τ becomes ∼−1, indicating no grain alignment at greater optical depths. Combining these two data sets, we find good evidence that, in the absence of a central illuminating source, the dust grains in dense molecular cloud cores with no internal radiation source cease to become aligned with the local magnetic field at optical depths greater than A{sub V}∼20. A simple model relating the alignment efficiency to the optical depth into the cloud reproduces the observations well.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

H ii REGION G46.5-0.2: THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN IONIZING RADIATION, MOLECULAR GAS, AND STAR FORMATION

H ii regions are particularly interesting because they can generate dense layers of gas and dust, elongated columns or pillars of gas pointing toward the ionizing sources, and cometary globules of dense gas where triggered star formation can occur. Understanding the interplay between the ionizing radiation and the dense surrounding gas is very important to explain the origin of these peculiar structures, and hence to characterize triggered star formation. G46.5-0.2 (G46), a poorly studied galactic H ii region located at about 4 kpc, is an excellent target for performing this kind of study. Using public molecular data extracted from the Galactic Ring Survey ({sup 13}CO J = 1–0) and from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope data archive ({sup 12}CO, {sup 13}CO, C{sup 18}O J = 3–2, HCO{sup +}, and HCN J = 4–3), and infrared data from the GLIMPSE and MIPSGAL surveys, we perform a complete study of G46, its molecular environment, and the young stellar objects (YSOs) placed around it. We found that G46, probably excited by an O7V star, is located close to the edge of the GRSMC G046.34-00.21 molecular cloud. It presents a horse-shoe morphology opening in the direction of the cloud. We observed a filamentary structure in the molecular gas likely related to G46 and not considerable molecular emission toward its open border. We found that about 10′ to the southwest of G46 there are some pillar-like features, shining at 8 μm and pointing toward the H ii region open border. We propose that the pillar-like features were carved and sculpted by the ionizing flux from G46. We found several YSOs likely embedded in the molecular cloud grouped in two main concentrations: one, closer to the G46 open border consisting of Class II type sources, and another mostly composed of Class I type YSOs located just ahead of the pillar-like features, strongly suggesting an age gradient in the YSO distribution.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

A SIMPLE MODEL FOR QUASAR DEMOGRAPHICS

We present a simple model for the relationship between quasars, galaxies, and dark matter halos from 0.5 < z < 6. In the model, black hole (BH) mass is linearly related to galaxy mass, and galaxies are connected to dark matter halos via empirically constrained relations. A simple 'scattered' light bulb model for quasars is adopted, wherein BHs shine at a fixed fraction of the Eddington luminosity during accretion episodes, and Eddington ratios are drawn from a lognormal distribution that is redshift independent. This model has two free, physically meaningful parameters at each redshift: the normalization of the M {sub BH}-M {sub gal} relation and the quasar duty cycle; these parameters are fit to the observed quasar luminosity function (LF) over the interval 0.5 < z < 6. This simple model provides an excellent fit to the LF at all epochs and also successfully predicts the observed projected two-point correlation of quasars from 0.5 < z < 2.5. It is significant that a single quasar duty cycle at each redshift is capable of reproducing the extant observations. The data are therefore consistent with a scenario wherein quasars are equally likely to exist in galaxies, and therefore dark matter halos, over a wide range in masses. The knee in the quasar LF is a reflection of the knee in the stellar-mass-halo-mass relation. Future constraints on the quasar LF and quasar clustering at high redshift will provide strong constraints on the model. In the model, the autocorrelation function of quasars becomes a strong function of luminosity only at the very highest luminosities and will be difficult to observe because such quasars are so rare. Cross-correlation techniques may provide useful constraints on the bias of such rare objects. The simplicity of the model allows for rapid generation of quasar mock catalogs from N-body simulations that match the observed LF and clustering to high redshift.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

ON THE DIRECT IMAGING OF TIDALLY HEATED EXOMOONS

We demonstrate the ability of existing and planned telescopes, on the ground and in space, to directly image tidally heated exomoons orbiting gas-giant exoplanets. Tidally heated exomoons can plausibly be far more luminous than their host exoplanet and as much as 0.1% as bright as the system's stellar primary if it is a low mass star. Because emission from exomoons can be powered by tidal forces, they can shine brightly at arbitrarily large separations from the system's stellar primary with temperatures of several hundreds degrees Kelvin or even higher in extreme cases. Furthermore, these high temperatures can occur in systems that are billions of years old. Tidally heated exomoons may thus be far easier targets for direct imaging studies than giant exoplanets which must be both young and at a large projected separation (typically at least tens of AU) from their primary to be accessible to current generation direct imaging studies. For example, the (warm) Spitzer Space Telescope and the next generation of ground based instruments could detect an exomoon roughly the size of the Earth at a temperature Almost-Equal-To 600 K and a distance Almost-Equal-To 5 pc in the K, L, and M bands at the 5{sigma} confidence level with a one hour exposure; in more favorable but still plausible cases, detection at distances of tens of parsecs is feasible. Future mid-infrared space telescopes, such as James Webb Space Telescope and SPICA, will be capable of directly imaging tidally heated exomoons around the nearest two dozen stars with a brightness temperature {>=}300 K and R {>=} 1 R{sub Circled-Plus} orbiting at {>=}12 AU from the primary star at a 5{sigma} confidence level in a 10{sup 4} s integration. In addition it is possible that some of the exoplanets which have already been directly imaged are actually tidally heated exomoons or blends of such objects with hot young planets. If such exomoons exist and are sufficiently common (i.e., nearby), it may well be far easier to directly image an exomoon with surface conditions that allow the existence of liquid water than it will be to resolve an Earth-like planet in the classical habitable zone of its primary.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Optimized principal component analysis on coronagraphic images of the fomalhaut system

We present the results of a study to optimize the principal component analysis (PCA) algorithm for planet detection, a new algorithm complementing angular differential imaging and locally optimized combination of images (LOCI) for increasing the contrast achievable next to a bright star. The stellar point spread function (PSF) is constructed by removing linear combinations of principal components, allowing the flux from an extrasolar planet to shine through. The number of principal components used determines how well the stellar PSF is globally modeled. Using more principal components may decrease the number of speckles in the final image, but also increases the background noise. We apply PCA to Fomalhaut Very Large Telescope NaCo images acquired at 4.05 μm with an apodized phase plate. We do not detect any companions, with a model dependent upper mass limit of 13-18 M {sub Jup} from 4-10 AU. PCA achieves greater sensitivity than the LOCI algorithm for the Fomalhaut coronagraphic data by up to 1 mag. We make several adaptations to the PCA code and determine which of these prove the most effective at maximizing the signal-to-noise from a planet very close to its parent star. We demonstrate that optimizing the number of principal components used in PCA proves most effective for pulling out a planet signal.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2019

On the parabolicity of dipolar exciton traps and their population of excess charge carriers

Abstract We study spatially trapped ensembles of dipolar excitons in coupled quantum wells by means of photoluminescence and photocurrent spectroscopy. The photogenerated excitons are confined in very clean GaAs double quantum well structures and electrostatically trapped by local gate electrodes. We find that the common approach of electrostatic trap geometries can give rise to an in-plane imbalance of charge carriers especially when an over-barrier excitation is utilized. The excess charge carriers can give rise to an effective parabolic confinement potential for the excitons. In photoluminescence spectra, we identify the emission of both neutral indirect excitons and states influenced by the excess charge carrier density. We find that the charge imbalance in the excitonic ensemble strongly influences the radiative lifetimes of both. Our findings shine a new light on the properties of trapped dipolar exciton ensembles. This is of significant relevance to common interpretations of experimental results in terms of signatures for the formation of ‘dark’ and ‘gray’ excitonic condensates.

Dietl, S.↗
DOE OSTI2012

WISPy cold dark matter

Very weakly interacting slim particles (WISPs), such as axion-like particles (ALPs) or hidden photons (HPs), may be non-thermally produced via the misalignment mechanism in the early universe and survive as a cold dark matter population until today. We find that, both for ALPs and HPs whose dominant interactions with the standard model arise from couplings to photons, a huge region in the parameter spaces spanned by photon coupling and ALP or HP mass can give rise to the observed cold dark matter. Remarkably, a large region of this parameter space coincides with that predicted in well motivated models of fundamental physics. A wide range of experimental searches — exploiting haloscopes (direct dark matter searches exploiting microwave cavities), helioscopes (searches for solar ALPs or HPs), or light-shining-through-a-wall techniques — can probe large parts of this parameter space in the foreseeable future.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Development of ITER non-activation phase operation scenarios

Non-activation phase operations in ITER in hydrogen (H) and helium (He) will be important for commissioning of tokamak systems, such as diagnostics, heating and current drive (HCD) systems, coils and plasma control systems, and for validation of techniques necessary for establishing operations in DT. The assessment of feasible HCD schemes at various toroidal fields (2.65–5.3 T) has revealed that the previously applied assumptions need to be refined for the ITER non-activation phase H/He operations. A study of the ranges of plasma density and profile shape using the JINTRAC suite of codes has indicated that the hydrogen pellet fuelling into He plasmas should be utilized taking the optimization of IC power absorption, neutral beam shine-through density limit and H-mode access into account. The EPED1 estimation of the edge pedestal parameters has been extended to various H operation conditions, and the combined EPED1 and SOLPS estimation has provided guidance for modelling the edge pedestal in H/He operations. The availability of ITER HCD schemes, ranges of achievable plasma density and profile shape, and estimation of the edge pedestal parameters for H/He plasmas have been integrated into various time-dependent tokamak discharge simulations. In this paper, various H/He scenarios at a wide range of plasma current (7.5–15 MA) and field (2.65–5.3 T) have been developed for the ITER non-activation phase operation, and the sensitivity of the developed scenarios to the used assumptions has been investigated to provide guidance for further development.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

The time-dependent simulation of CFETR baseline steady-state scenarios

One of the key issues to achieve the phase I mission of China fusion engineering test reactor (CFETR) is steady-state operation with a modest fusion power up to 200 MW. To examine this feasibility, time-dependent modeling of CFETR baseline scenario is performed. The time-dependent scenario design examines actual discharge features, including auxiliary heating and current drive scheme, equilibrium, transport, PF coil systems and plasma control system during the plasma evolution. During plasma current ramp-up, 10 MW of EC or LH heating is used to effectively save volt–second consumption to a reasonable level within magnet coil capability and to reduce li for better plasma control. Three reference scenarios are designed to target full non-inductive operation with different external heating and current drive (H&CD), which are NB + EC, NB + LH, and LH + EC, respectively. Two scenarios with neutral beams reach the required fusion power of CFETR phase I target, while for LH + EC scenario the fusion power and confinement is somewhat lower. A reversed magnetic shear with q min > 2 is sustained with off-axis current drive and bootstrap current for all cases examined. Ideal MHD analysis shows that both large toroidal mode number n ballooning mode and low n kink mode are stable in the three reference cases independent of whether the current is totally relaxed or not. The L mode and H–L back transition ramp-down are designed to successfully reduce the plasma current to 2 MA and keep li below 2 with ramp-down rate of 80 kA s -1 . The H–L back transition ramp-down yields improvements in the power transfer and coil current evolution as well as the li evolution. The heating and current drive characteristics of three auxiliary heating sources are indicated by scanning studies. A 2D scan of NB energy and tangency radius indicates the features of NB power deposition, current drive, torque and shine through issue. Both ramp-up and flattop are considered in the scanning of radio frequency parameters. For EC waves, the ramp-up phase constrains the parameter space more. The 2D scan of EC launch angle shows that EC waves launched above the midplane yield a better CD efficiency than using a midplane launcher. Specifically, 10 MW of EC waves launched from LFS above the midplane yield a maximum on axis driven current of about 0.55 MA, while waves launched from top yield a maximum near edge driven current of about 0.45 MA in the region of ρ > 0.5. Scanning of n $\parallel$ in LH spectrum shows that n $\parallel$ should be set around 1.7 to get enough penetration (inside ρ = 0.7) for current drive and avoid strong accessibility problem. It is found that LH waves launched from HFS drives more current than that launched from LFS when n $\parallel$ is small. The maximum LH driven current reaches 1.1 MA with 10 MW of LH power launched from HFS.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Real-time capable modeling of neutral beam injection on NSTX-U using neural networks

A new model of heating, current drive, torque and other effects of neutral beam injection on NSTX-U that uses neural networks has been developed. The model has been trained and tested on the results of the Monte Carlo code NUBEAM for the database of experimental discharges taken during the first operational campaign of NSTX-U. By projecting flux surface quantities onto empirically derived basis functions, the model is able to efficiently and accurately reproduce the behavior of both scalars, like the total neutron rate and shine through, and profiles, like beam current drive and heating. With this being said, the model has been tested on the NSTX-U real-time computer, demonstrating a rapid execution time orders of magnitude faster than the Monte Carlo code that is well suited for the iterative calculations needed to interpret experimental results, optimization during scenario development activities, and real-time plasma control applications. Simulation results of a proposed design for a nonlinear observer that embeds the neural network calculations to estimate the poloidal flux profile evolution, as well as Z eff and fast ion diffusivity, are presented.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

PFPO plasma scenarios for exploration of long pulse operation in ITER

Long Pulse Scenarios (LPS) in ITER foreseen during the Pre-Fusion Power Operation (PFPO) phase of the ITER Research Plan (IRP) are assessed using 1.5D transport simulations within the ASTRA framework. Such assessment is required to predict the operational space for LPS operation in PFPO, as well as to evaluate which physics processes for LPS operation during Fusion Power Operation (FPO) could be studied during PFPO. An important aspect in the development of LPSs in PFPO is to minimize lifetime consumption of the Central Solenoid (CS) for these scenarios. The maximum pulse length achievable for LPSs in PFPO with no consumption of CS lifetime (currents in CS coils $&LessSlantEqual;$30 kA per turn) has been assessed for a range of heating schemes and heating mixes, confinement regimes (L-mode and H-mode) and for helium and hydrogen plasmas. The operational space of LPS and pulse length has been explored through density scans with the Heating and Current Drive mix required for the FPO Q $&GreaterSlantEqual;$ 5 steady-state plasma scenario (namely Neutral Beam Injection and Electron Cyclotron Heating) including acceptable shine through losses on the first wall for both helium and hydrogen plasmas. Fast particle physics aspects that are common between FPO plasmas and LPS PFPO H-mode plasmas at low densities are studied including MHD stability analysis with the KINX code and non-perturbative critical gradient model based on high-n Toroidal Alfven Eigenmodes (TAE) stability kinetic ballooning code HINST calculations.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Development of high-performance long-pulse discharge in KSTAR

High-performance long-pulse plasma operation is essential for producing economically viable fusion energy in tokamak devices. To achieve such discharges in KSTAR, firstly, the rapid increase in the temperature of plasma-facing components was mitigated. The temperature increase of the poloidal limiter, especially, was associated with beam-driven fast ion orbit loss and the discrepancy of the equilibrium reconstructed with heated magnetic probes of signal drift. The fast ions lost to the poloidal limiter were reduced by optimizing the plasma shape and the composition of neutral beam injection (NBI). This nonlinear signal drift was successfully reduced by a new thermal shielding protector on the magnetic probes. Secondly, a lower loop voltage approach was implemented to reduce a poloidal flux consumption rate. A plasma current of 400 kA and a line-averaged electron density of ~2.0 × 10 19 m –3 were chosen by considering the L–H power threshold, fast ion orbit loss, and beam shine-through power loss for low loop voltage in KSTAR. In addition, the application of electron cyclotron heating also helped maintain the plasma with low loop voltage (~25 mV) by enhancing the NBI-driven current and achieving a high poloidal beta (β P ) state. KSTAR has achieved a long pulse (~90 s) operation with the high performance of β P $\leqslant$ 2.7, thermal energy confinement enhancement factor (H 98y2 ) ~ 1.1, and fraction of non-inductive current (f NI ) $\leqslant$ 0.96. Still, gradual degradation of the plasma performance has been observed over time in the discharges. In one of the long-pulse discharges, β P reduced by ~18% over the time of ~8τ R (current relaxation time, τ R ~5 s) and ~1067τ E,th (thermal energy confinement time, τ E,th ~45 ms). The degradation may be closely associated with weak, yet growing, and persistent toroidal Alfvén eigenmodes and their effect on fast ion confinement.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗