Radiation physics research at MSFC
Nuclear and space radiation effects on materials and components used in space vehicles
SPACE RADIATION↗
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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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IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference: Notes on the Early Conferences
This paper gathers the remembrances of several key contributors who participated in the earliest Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conferences (NSREC).
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ↗
The Near-Earth Space Radiation for Electronics Environment
The earth's space radiation environment is described in terms of: a) charged particles as relevant to effects on spacecraft electronics, b) the nature and distribution of trapped and transiting radiation, and c) their effect on electronic components.
Stassinopoulos, E. G.↗
Effect of blackbody radiation on the threshold for two-electron photodetachment of H/-/
The threshold law of the titled process, which is of the same form as that for electron-impact ionization of H, can experimentally be contaminated by simultaneous single photodetachment and Rydberg excitation of the residual atom, followed by ionization of the Rydberg atom by (room-temperature) blackbody photons. This gives a signal indistinguishable from direct double photodetachment. The correction is here calculated and shown to be finite at the double photodetachment threshold, and to have, possibly, an implication about the form of the threshold law itself. However, at room temperature its contribution is found to be small as it pertains to a recently initiated experiment at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility for available energies greater than a millivolt above threshold. The temperature dependence of the correction is shown to be large (k/B/T) to the 7/2; thus at higher temperatures the effect may be observable.
Temkin, A.↗
A Self Consistent 2D Simulation of Coherent Synchrotron Radiation Effects on Beam Dynamics
An increasing interest in high quality and high current electron beams necessitates a thorough understanding and prediction of coherent synchrotron radiation effects. The self-interaction of charged particles in a beam undergoing synchrotron motion is a physically significant process that is all too often computationally intensive with very little analytical results to rely on for the general case. The coherent spectrum of this interaction is of utmost importance to the design of free electron lasers (FELs) and an accurate assessment is imperative for their design. This work presents a novel implementation to the numerical simulation of charged particle beams. The simulation is a self-consistent approach including the self-fields generated by the beam of which coherent synchrotron radiation effects are of primary interest. A particle-in-cell model is used where a planar beam sampled by point particles is deposited on an encompassing grid at each timestep. The electromagnetic fields are calculated on the grid using the retarded potentials according to causality. The electromagnetic forces from the fields are interpolated on each particle which in turn advance in time. The simulation is benchmarked against well-established results for coherent synchrotron radiation effects. In addition, studies are provided that show the convergence of simulation results for increasing resolution. A study into the transverse beam size effects on beam dynamics is performed as well as a proof of concept where the simulation is used by a genetic algorithm to optimize the design parameters of a beam lattice. The results of these studies in tandem verify the efficacy of the simulation for its practical use in accelerator design or the study of synchrotron radiation effects
Duffin, Dallan [Old Dominion Univ., Norfolk, VA (U↗
The damage equivalence of electrons, protons, and gamma rays in MOS devices
The results of laboratory tests to determine the radiation damage effects induced on MOS devices from Co-60, electron, and proton radiation are reported. The tests are performed to establish the relationship between the Co-60 gamma rays and the level of damage to the MOS devices in regards to different damages which can be expected with the electron and particle bombardments experienced in space applications. CMOS devices were exposed to the Co-60 gamma rays, 1 MeV electrons, and 1 MeV protons while operating at 3, 10, and 15 V. The test data indicated that the Co-60 source was reliable for an initial evaluation of the electron damages up to 2 MeV charge. A correction factor was devised for transferring the Co-60 measurements to proton damages, independent of bias and transistor types, for any orbit or environment.
Brucker, G. J.↗
High-Performance, Radiation-Hardened Electronics for Space Environments
The Radiation Hardened Electronics for Space Environments (RHESE) project endeavors to advance the current state-of-the-art in high-performance, radiation-hardened electronics and processors, ensuring successful performance of space systems required to operate within extreme radiation and temperature environments. Because RHESE is a project within the Exploration Technology Development Program (ETDP), RHESE's primary customers will be the human and robotic missions being developed by NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) in partial fulfillment of the Vision for Space Exploration. Benefits are also anticipated for NASA's science missions to planetary and deep-space destinations. As a technology development effort, RHESE provides a broad-scoped, full spectrum of approaches to environmentally harden space electronics, including new materials, advanced design processes, reconfigurable hardware techniques, and software modeling of the radiation environment. The RHESE sub-project tasks are: SelfReconfigurable Electronics for Extreme Environments, Radiation Effects Predictive Modeling, Radiation Hardened Memory, Single Event Effects (SEE) Immune Reconfigurable Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) (SIRF), Radiation Hardening by Software, Radiation Hardened High Performance Processors (HPP), Reconfigurable Computing, Low Temperature Tolerant MEMS by Design, and Silicon-Germanium (SiGe) Integrated Electronics for Extreme Environments. These nine sub-project tasks are managed by technical leads as located across five different NASA field centers, including Ames Research Center, Goddard Space Flight Center, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Langley Research Center, and Marshall Space Flight Center. The overall RHESE integrated project management responsibility resides with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Initial technology development emphasis within RHESE focuses on the hardening of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA)s and Field Programmable Analog Arrays (FPAA)s for use in reconfigurable architectures. As these component/chip level technologies mature, the RHESE project emphasis shifts to focus on efforts encompassing total processor hardening techniques and board-level electronic reconfiguration techniques featuring spare and interface modularity. This phased approach to distributing emphasis between technology developments provides hardened FPGA/FPAAs for early mission infusion, then migrates to hardened, board-level, high speed processors with associated memory elements and high density storage for the longer duration missions encountered for Lunar Outpost and Mars Exploration occurring later in the Constellation schedule.
Keys, Andrew S.↗
A study of the effect of space radiation on silicon integrated microcircuits, volume II FINAL report, 22 Jun. 1964 - 26 Sept. 1965
Schematic diagrams and monitoring information for behavior of silicon integrated microcircuits in electron radiation environment
SILICON↗
Update on Radiation Testing for Space Fission Power Systems
Radiation effects on materials and electronics is a major topic that needs to be addressed for a nuclear reactor flight demonstration of the Kilopower reactor. The Kilopower project team has taken steps towards developing a standardized radiation environment qualification program for components and materials. Candidate nuclear reactor facilities for both low fluence electronics and high fluence materials irradiations have been identified and approached. Collaborations are being pursued with both NASA and external experts to ensure that the results of the qualification testing are appropriate and relevant to nuclear fission power flight systems.
Chaiken, Max F.↗
Radiation Damage and Single Event Effect Results for Candidate Spacecraft Electronics
We present data on the vulnerability of a variety of candidate spacecraft electronics to proton and heavy-ion induced single-event effects and proton-induced damage. We also present data on the susceptibility of parts to functional degradation resulting from total ionizing dose at low dose rates (0.003-0.33 Rads(Si)/s). Devices tested include optoelectronics, digital, analog, linear bipolar, hybrid devices, Analog to Digital Converters (ADCs), Digital to Analog Converters (DACs), and DC-DC converters, among others.
OBryan, Martha V.↗
Recent Radiation Damage and Single Event Effect Results for Candidate Spacecraft Electronics
We present data on the vulnerability of a variety of candidate spacecraft electronics to proton and heavy-ion induced single-event effects and proton-induced damage. Devices tested include optoelectronics, digital, analog, linear bipolar, hybrid devices, Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs), Digital-to-Analog Converters (DACs), and DC-DC converters, among others.
Martha V. OBryan↗
Plasma effects on the spontaneous emission of synchrotron radiation from weakly relativistic electrons
A method for computing the spectral emissivity of spontaneous synchrotron radiation is discussed. The Klimontovich (1967) formalism in plasma kinetic theory is adopted in which an ensemble average of the microscopically emitted power is considered. The present method clarifies the meaning of the random phase approximation which is imposed in several existing theories of synchrotron radiation. Both the effects of dielectric polarization and two-particle correlations are included in the present discussion. The theory is applied to the case of a plasma in thermal equilibrium, for which it is shown that the effect of pair correlations on the emissivity vanishes. On the other hand, the effect of dielectric polarization is studied numerically for a wide range of parameters.
Freund, H. P.↗
Space radiation effects on dimensional stability of composites
The long-term space environment at GEO, consisting of high doses (less than 10 to the 9th rads) of electron radiation and large cyclic (-157 C to +121 C) temperature changes, can significantly affect the dimensional stability of polymer matrix composites. Radiation alters the chemical structure of epoxies by both chain scission and cross-linking. In this paper, an attempt is made to summarize and examine the effects of electron radiation damage on dimensional stability of composites. Microcracking measurements were made for standard 177 C cure Gr/Ep, rubber toughened Gr/Ep, Gr/Polymide, and GR/Thermoplastic composites. Results show that radiation damage can significantly change matrix-dependent mechanical and physical properties of composites, with data explaining how these changes can affect their dimensional stability.
Tenney, Darrel R.↗
Space Electronics: A Challenging World for Designers
This viewgraph presentation provides an overview of: 1) The Space Radiation Environment; 2) The Effects on Electronics; 3) The Environment in Action; 4) Hardening Approaches to Commercial CMOS Electronics (including device vulnerabilities).
Poivey, Christian↗
Radiation Effects Model for Ultra-Thin Silicon Solar Cells
This work is focused on investigation of radiation effects in Ultra-Thin Silicon solar cells with a particular emphasis on electron irradiation. The study is motivated by the application of these solar cells, developed by Solestial, Inc., for powering space missions, including those led by NASA, the Department Of Defence (DOD), and commercial satellite missions. Our research encompasses both experimental and theoretical approaches, addressing unique challenges posed by ultra-thin solar cell technology that deviates from the traditional models. From the experimental point of view, the test structures were irradiated with 1 MeV electrons up to the fluence of 1E+15 e/cm$^{2}$. Radiation effects due to accumulated electron dose were noticed as a drop in open-circuit voltage (Voc). An analytical expression for modeling the Voc characteristic of the UT-Si cell after exposure to electron irradiation was formulated and subsequently compared with experimental data. The theoretical foundation of the proposed approach builds upon the Non-Ionising Energy Loss (NIEL) concept, a fundamental parameter in addressing radiation damage modelling and survivability predictions.
Fedoseyev, Alex↗
Production and Persistence of Extreme Two-temperature Plasmas in Radiative Relativistic Turbulence
Turbulence is a predominant process for energizing electrons and ions in collisionless astrophysical plasmas, and thus is responsible for shaping their radiative signatures (luminosity, spectra, and variability). To better understand the kinetic properties of a collisionless radiative plasma subject to externally driven turbulence, we investigate particle-in-cell simulations of relativistic plasma turbulence with external inverse Compton cooling acting on the electrons. We find that ions continuously heat up while electrons gradually cool down (due to the net effect of radiation), and hence the ion-to-electron temperature ratio T i /T e grows in time. Furthermore, we show that Ti/Te is limited only by the size and duration of the simulations (reaching ${T}_{i}/{T}_{e}\sim {10}^{3}$), indicating that there are no efficient collisionless mechanisms of electron–ion thermal coupling. This result has implications for models of radiatively inefficient accretion flows, such as observed in the Galactic center and in M87, for which so-called two-temperature plasmas with ${T}_{i}/{T}_{e}\gg 1$ have been invoked to explain their low luminosity. Additionally, we find that electrons acquire a quasi-thermal distribution (dictated by the competition of turbulent particle energization and radiative cooling), while ions undergo efficient nonthermal acceleration (acquiring a harder distribution than in equivalent nonradiative simulations). There is a modest nonthermal population of high-energy electrons that are beamed intermittently in space, time, and direction; these beamed electrons may explain rapid flares in certain high-energy astrophysical systems (e.g., in the Galactic center). These numerical results demonstrate that extreme two-temperature plasmas can be produced and maintained by relativistic radiative turbulence.
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
Electron energy loss spectroscopy study of ceria sinters and nanoparticles irradiated with swift heavy ions
The electronic energy loss spectra of ceria (CeO 2 ) irradiated with swift heavy ions (27 MeV Xe and 946 MeV Au) in the electronic slowing down regime were measured for bulk sintered samples and nanoparticles by using a double Cs-corrected transmission electron microscope. The low-loss region as well as the core-loss region, including the oxygen K-edge and cerium M 4, 5 white lines, were recorded. No strong lattice disorder was found in the low-loss peaks for both types of samples showing the same bulk oxygen plasmon loss peak at about 15 eV. However, there is a clear evidence of cerium reduction to the trivalent oxidation state after irradiation for the sintered samples as shown by the K-edge shape of oxygen and decrease of the Ce M 4 /M 5 intensity ratio. A similar change of the M 4 /M 5 intensity ratio was observed for the irradiated nanoparticles with respect to the virgin sample owing to the high energy input inside the nanograin. The effect of radiation damage on electron energy loss spectroscopy data is analyzed for both types of samples and irradiation conditions.
Crystallographic defects↗
Radiation effects on four polysulfone films
The response of polysulfones to proton and electron radiation is evaluated by assessing the radiation durability of four selected sulfones, establishing radiation interaction mechanisms with the polymer chain, and determining the dependence of radiation durability on chemical structure. Chain scission appears to predominate at lower doses up to about 10 to the 9th rad, and past this threshold the second mechanism, crosslinking, seems to predominate. This is evidenced by the increase in modulus, glass transition temperature, and increased quantity of thermally stable residue at high temperatures. The variations of chemical structure of the polysulfones appear to have little effect on the response to radiation.
Santos, B.↗