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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 235 records · Page 13
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Conditional guide RNA deactivation by mRNA and small molecule triggers in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) technologies have revolutionized bioengineering by providing precise tools for gene expression modulation, enabling targeted gene perturbation and metabolic pathway optimization. Despite these advances, achieving dynamic control over gene expression by CRISPR-based regulation remains a challenge due to its inherently static nature. Utilizing toehold-mediated strand displacement and ligand-responsive ribozymes (aptazymes), this study introduces switchable guide RNAs (gRNAs) that facilitate tunable gene expression mediated by mRNA or small molecule signals. We demonstrate complete silencing of gRNA via strategically designed 5’ or 3’ extensions that impede the gRNA spacer or the dCas9 handle, with subsequent restoration of function through sequestration or cleavage of the obstructive sequence. The resulting toehold-embedded or aptazyme-embedded gRNAs can be deactivated by specific signals, including two full-length translatable mRNAs and two small molecule triggers, thereby lifting CRISPRi repression on targeted genes. This modular approach allows for gRNA-based biocomputing through multi-layer or multi-input genetic logic gates in Saccharomyces cerevisiae . Offering a versatile strategy for post-CRISPR regulation in response to environmental signals or cellular states, this methodology expands the toolkit in eukaryotic systems for reversible control of gene expression.

Aptazyme↗
DOE OSTI2021

Performance characterization of the Radionuclide Aerosol Sampler/Analyzer air sampler during a high-activity release event

The performance of the Radionuclide Aerosol Sampler/Analyzer (RASA) under high-activity conditions has been evaluated to maintain and protect the operations of International Monitoring System (IMS) radionuclide stations. Station measurements following the Fukushima Daichi accident of 11 March 2011 have been combined with laboratory measurements to understand how the quality of the measurements made using the RASA High-Purity Germanium (HPGe) gamma-spectrometer are impacted by increased sample activity and detector dead-time. Detector saturation has been identified to occur at a count rate of 175,000 counts s-1, at which level there are significant impacts to the sample live-time and detector resolution in addition to a system contamination risk. To safeguard against these effects, a dead-time limit of 16.6% is proposed that could be maintained by monitoring the activity collecting on the filter using a Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) detector installed into the particulate collection area of the RASA. This limit would ensure that the IMS technical specifications for measurement time (> 20 h) and detector resolution (2.5 keV at 1332 keV) are met. The CZT would dynamically control the RASA air flow to limit the collection of particulate activity beneath the HPGe dead-time threshold and would also provide measurements useful for CTBT verification purposes and dose assessments.

Burnett, Jonathan L.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Light-Modulated Self-Assembly of Synthetic Nanotubes

Artificial biomolecular polymers with the capacity to respond to stimuli are emerging as a key component to the development of living materials and synthetic cells. Here, in this work, we demonstrate artificial DNA tubular nanostructures that form in response to light in a dose-dependent manner. These nanotubes assemble from programmable DNA tile motifs that are engineered to include a UV-responsive domain so that UV irradiation activates nanotube self-assembly. We demonstrate that the nanotube formation speed can be tuned by adjusting the UV dose. We then couple the light-dependent activation of tiles with RNA transcription, making it possible to control nanotube formation via concurrent physical and biochemical stimuli. Finally, we illustrate how UV activation effectively controls nanotube assembly in confinement as a rudimentary stimulus-responsive cytoskeletal system that can achieve various conformations in a minimal synthetic cell. This study contributes new tile designs that are immediately useful to building biomolecular scaffolds with controllable dynamics in response to multiple stimuli.

DNA nanotechnology↗
DOE OSTI2020

Reversible Interlayer Sliding and Conductivity Changes in Adaptive Tetrathiafulvalene-Based Covalent Organic Frameworks

Ordered interlayer stacking is intrinsic in two-dimensional covalent organic frameworks (2D COFs) and has strong implications on COF's optoelectronic properties. Reversible interlayer sliding, corresponding to shearing of 2D layers along their basal plane, is an appealing dynamic control of both structures and properties, yet it remains unexplored in the 2D COF field. In this paper, we demonstrate that the reversible interlayer sliding can be realized in an imine-linked tetrathiafulvalene (TTF)-based COF TTF-DMTA. The solvent treatment induces crystalline phase changes between the proposed staircase-like sql net structure and a slightly slipped eclipsed sql net structure. The solvation-induced crystallinity changes correlate well with reversible spectroscopic and electrical conductivity changes as demonstrated in oriented COF thin films. In contrast, no reversible switching is observed in a related TTF-TA COF, which differs from TTF-DMTA in terms of the absence of methoxy groups on the phenylene linkers. This work represents the first 2D COF example of which eclipsed and staircase-like aggregated states are interchangeably accessed via interlayer sliding, an uncharted structural feature that may enable applications such as chemiresistive sensors.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2023

In situ Stress Monitoring Reveals Tension and Wrinkling Evolutions during Halide Perovskite Film Formation

Metal halide perovskites (MHPs) are promising candidates for next-generation thin film photovoltaics and high-performance tandems. Solution-processed MHP films are susceptible to residual stress that can induce undesirable surface wrinkles. However, the origins and evolution of stress during solution processing remain elusive. Here, in this work, we utilize multimodal in situ characterizations, including substrate curvature, reflectance, absorbance, and photoluminescence, to monitor stress and morphology evolution during MHP film formation. A film formation model emerges, consisting of a perovskite top crust on a semirigid sol with the ability to transfer mechanical forces. The phase transformation induces tension in the MHP crust, while shrinkage of the sol causes additional compression and surface wrinkles. Wrinkle-free films are formed through dynamically balancing forces between the crust and the sol. This study provides a powerful toolkit for the fast-growing area of stress engineering in MHP photovoltaics to achieve dynamic control of film stress and surface morphology.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Large-Area, Highly Crystalline DNA-Assembled Metasurfaces Exhibiting Widely Tunable Epsilon-Near-Zero Behavior

Metasurfaces prepared via bottom-up nanoparticle assembly enable the deliberate manipulation of light in the optical regime, resulting in media with unprecedented optical responses. Here, we report a scalable method to grow highly crystalline 2D metasurfaces comprised of colloidal gold nanocubes, over macroscopic areas, using DNA-mediated assembly under equilibrium conditions. Using an effective medium description, we predict that these plasmonic metasurfaces behave as dielectric media with high refractive indices that can be dynamically tuned by tuning DNA length. Furthermore, we predict that when coupled with an underlying thin gold film, the real permittivity of these metasurfaces exhibits a crossover region between positive and negative values, known as the epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) condition, which can be tuned between 1.5 - 2.6 μm by changing DNA length. Optical characterization performed on the DNA-assembled metasurfaces reveals that the predicted optical properties agree well with measured response. Overall, we propose an efficient method for realizing large-area plasmonic metasurfaces that enable dynamic control over unique optical characteristics. High-index and ENZ metasurfaces operating in the telecommunications regime could have significant implications in high-speed optical computing, optical communications, optical imaging, and other areas.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2024

Dynamic Behavior of Platinum Atoms and Clusters in the Native Oxide Layer of Aluminum Nanocrystals

Strong metal–support interactions (SMSIs) are well-known in the field of heterogeneous catalysis to induce the encapsulation of platinum (Pt) group metals by oxide supports through high temperature H 2 reduction. However, demonstrations of SMSI overlayers have largely been limited to reducible oxides, such as TiO 2 and Nb 2 O 5 . In this report we show that the amorphous native surface oxide of plasmonic aluminum nanocrystals (AlNCs) exhibits SMSI-induced encapsulation of Pt following reduction in H 2 in a Pt structure dependent manner. Reductive treatment in H 2 at 300 °C induces the formation of an AlO x SMSI overlayer on Pt clusters, leaving Pt single-atom sites (Ptiso) exposed available for catalysis. The remaining exposed Pt iso species possess a more uniform local coordination environment than has been observed on other forms of Al 2 O 3 , suggesting that the AlO x native oxide of AlNCs presents well-defined anchoring sites for individual Pt atoms. This observation extends our understanding of SMSIs by providing evidence that H 2 -induced encapsulation can occur for a wider variety of materials and should stimulate expanded studies of this effect to include nonreducible oxides with oxygen defects and the presence of disorder. It also suggests that the single-atom sites created in this manner, when combined with the plasmonic properties of the Al nanocrystal core, may allow for site-specific single-atom plasmonic photocatalysis, providing dynamic control over the light-driven reactivity in these systems.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2025

Optomechanical Tuning of Second Harmonic Generation Anisotropy in Janus MoSSe/MoS 2 Heterostructures

Symmetry breaking in van der Waals materials enables the realization of quantum states and advanced device functionalities. Janus transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) exhibit distinctive nonlinear optical properties due to their broken out-of-plane mirror symmetry. However, the dynamic control of second harmonic generation (SHG) anisotropy and resonance behavior via optical excitation remains elusive. Here, in this work, we investigate the SHG response of Janus MoSSe/MoS 2 heterostructures with 2H and 3R stackings. We can tune the SHG response by varying the incident photon wavelength from 800 to 1000 nm, which shows a resonance-dependent enhancement in intensity and a deviation from 6-fold symmetry, indicating wavelength-dependent anisotropy. The ratio between maximum and minimum intensity in the armchair directions, associated with the SHG anisotropy, reaches a value of 1.73 at the excitation wavelength of 1000 nm. Group theory analysis and first-principles calculations reveal that the observed anisotropy arises from optically induced strain. Our findings highlight the role of symmetry breaking and optical resonance contributing to the optomechanical tuning of SHG anisotropy, offering opportunities for developing Janus TMD-based photonic devices for frequency conversion, light generation, and optical switching.

Janus transition metal dichalcogenides↗
DOE OSTI2020

Reversible Electrochemical Phase Change in Monolayer to Bulk-like MoTe 2 by Ionic Liquid Gating

Transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) exist in various crystal structures with semiconducting, semi-metallic, and metallic properties. The dynamic control of these phases is of immediate interest for next-generation electronics such as phase change memories. Of the binary Mo and W-based TMDs, MoTe 2 is attractive for electronic applications because it has the lowest energy difference (40 meV) between the semiconducting (2H) and semi-metallic (1T') phases, allowing for MoTe 2 phase change by electrostatic doping. Here, we report phase change between the 2H and 1T' polymorphs of MoTe 2 in thicknesses ranging from the monolayer to bulk-like case (73 nm) using an ionic liquid electrolyte at room temperature and in air. We find consistent evidence of a partially reversible 2H-1T' transition using in situ Raman spectroscopy where the phase change occurs in the topmost layers of the MoTe 2 flake. We find a thickness-dependent transition voltage where higher voltages are necessary to drive the phase change for thicker flakes. We also show evidence of electrochemical activity during the gating process by observation of Te metal formation. This finding suggests the formation of Te vacancies which have been reported to lower the energy difference between the 2H and 1T' phases, potentially aiding the phase change process. Furthermore, our discovery that the phase change can be achieved on the surface layer of bulk-like materials reveals that this electrochemical mechanism does not require isolation of a single layer and the effect may be more broadly applicable than previously thought.

2d materials↗
DOE OSTI2022

Visible-Light-Driven, Iridium-Catalyzed Hydrogen Atom Transfer: Mechanistic Studies, Identification of Intermediates, and Catalyst Improvements

The harvesting of visible light is a powerful strategy for the synthesis of weak chemical bonds involving hydrogen that are below the thermodynamic threshold for spontaneous H 2 evolution. Piano-stool iridium hydride complexes are effective for the bluelight- driven hydrogenation of organic substrates and contrathermodynamic dearomative isomerization. In this work, a combination of spectroscopic measurements, isotopic labeling, structure–reactivity relationships, and computational studies has been used to explore the mechanism of these stoichiometric and catalytic reactions. Photophysical measurements on the iridium hydride catalysts demonstrated the generation of long-lived excited states with principally metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) character. Transient absorption spectroscopic studies with a representative substrate, anthracene revealed a diffusion-controlled dynamic quenching of the MLCT state. The triplet state of anthracene was detected immediately after the quenching events, suggesting that triplet–triplet energy transfer initiated the photocatalytic process. The key role of triplet anthracene on the post-energy transfer step was further demonstrated by employing photocatalytic hydrogenation with a triplet photosensitizer and a HAT agent, hydroquinone. DFT calculations support a concerted hydrogen atom transfer mechanism in lieu of stepwise electron/proton or proton/electron transfer pathways. Kinetic monitoring of the deactivation channel established an inverse kinetic isotope effect, supporting reversible C(sp 2 )–H reductive coupling followed by rate-limiting ligand dissociation. Mechanistic insights enabled design of a piano-stool iridium hydride catalyst with a rationally modified supporting ligand that exhibited improved photostability under blue light irradiation. The complex also provided improved catalytic performance toward photoinduced hydrogenation with H 2 and contra-thermodynamic isomerization.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2024

Quantifying the Value of Technology and Policy Innovation in Water Resource Portfolios

Abstract Recent water infrastructure planning models demonstrate that explicitly accounting for hydrological changes in long‐term water planning reduces costs and increases system robustness. However, current models do not consider the effects of other changes occurring in the system over long time horizons, namely technology and policy innovation. By leveraging state‐of‐the‐art dynamic control techniques, we propose a suite of tools that explicitly relate hydrologic change, technology innovation, and policy interventions to system‐level water costs. We design robust and cost‐optimal strategies for water supply expansion under hydrological variability and hundreds of plausible innovation states, for example, treatment cost and diversification improvements, deployment times, and demand reduction campaigns. Our approach circumvents the need to pre‐assign probabilities to innovation scenarios and, instead, directly calculates the effects of technology, policy, and hydrology variations on system cost and planning strategies to identify avenues of impactful innovation. These tools can support technology development hubs, urban, state, and federal water planners in anticipating cost implications of technology and policy innovation at the local level, and prioritizing high‐impact innovation goals based on quantitative targets. Results for the case study of Santa Barbara, California identify high‐value innovation attributes for the city as well as combinations of innovation attributes across technologies and policies, and quantify their potential utility cost reductions.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Bi-directional tuning of thermal transport in SrCoO x with electrochemically induced phase transitions

Unlike the wide-ranging dynamic control of electrical conductivity, there does not exist an analogous ability to tune thermal conductivity by means of electric potential. The traditional picture assumes that atoms inserted into a material’s lattice act purely as a source of scattering for thermal carriers, which can only reduce thermal conductivity. In contrast, here we show that the electrochemical control of oxygen and proton concentration in an oxide provides a new ability to bi-directionally control thermal conductivity. On electrochemically oxygenating the brownmillerite SrCoO 2.5 to the perovskite SrCoO 3–δ , the thermal conductivity increases by a factor of 2.5, whereas protonating it to form hydrogenated SrCoO 2.5 effectively reduces the thermal conductivity by a factor of four. This bi-directional tuning of thermal conductivity across a nearly 10 ± 4-fold range at room temperature is achieved by using ionic liquid gating to trigger the ‘tri-state’ phase transitions in a single device. We elucidated the effects of these anionic and cationic species, and the resultant changes in lattice constants and lattice symmetry on thermal conductivity by combining chemical and structural information from X-ray absorption spectroscopy with thermoreflectance thermal conductivity measurements and ab initio calculations. This ability to control multiple ion types, multiple phase transitions and electronic conductivity that spans metallic through to insulating behaviour in oxides by electrical means provides a new framework for tuning thermal transport over a wide range.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Evidence for spin swapping in an antiferromagnet

Antiferromagnetic insulators offer strategic advantages in spintronic applications because of their negligible stray fields and ultrafast magnetic dynamics. Control of their magnetization and readout of their magnetic state are essential for these applications but remain challenging. In this work, we report the electrical detection of room-temperature magnetization switching in the canted antiferromagnetic insulator LaFeO 3 , capped with a Pt or W overlayer. The observation of a large magneto-thermovoltage with an in-plane temperature gradient suggests that the mechanism is the swapping of spin currents in the antiferromagnet. This effect provides a sensitive electrical probe of the tiny net magnetization in the insulator, which can be manipulated by a magnetic field on the order of 10 mT. Our results highlight a new material class of insulating canted antiferromagnets for spintronics and spin caloritronics and suggests a method for the electrical readout of magnetic signals in an antiferromagnetic insulator. Electrical readout of the state of an antiferromagnet is an important goal for spintronic applications. Now, detection of the electrical voltage created by a thermal gradient in a canted antiferromagnet suggests a route for achieving this goal.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Ultrafast formation of topological defects in a two-dimensional charge density wave

Topological defects play a central role in dynamical systems undergoing a non-adiabatic transition. In solids, topological defects as a result of femtosecond laser excitation have attracted increasing interest not only because they are key to understanding phase transitions but also because they can generate a variety of hidden orders that are not accessible in thermal equilibrium. Despite the common occurrence of these defects in a non-equilibrium system, the fundamental limit on how fast they can emerge in solids and the generic pathway for defect creation at such fast timescales have remained open questions. Here we apply ultrafast electron diffraction to study the reciprocal-space signatures of transient defects in a two-dimensional charge density wave, where simultaneous measurements of both defect and phonon dynamics yield a microscopic view of defect formation in the femtosecond regime. We find that one-dimensional domain walls are generated well within 1 ps following photoexcitation, during which the defect growth is not dictated by the amplitude of the order parameter but is mediated by a non-thermal population of longitudinal optical phonons. In conclusion, our work provides a framework for the ultrafast engineering of topological defects that are coupled to specific collective modes, which will prove useful for the dynamical control of non-equilibrium phases in correlated materials.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Interplay of negative electronic compressibility and capacitance enhancement in lightly-doped metal oxide Bi 0.95 La 0.05 FeO 3 by quantum capacitance model

Light-sensitive capacitance variation of Bi 0.95 La 0.05 FeO 3 (BLFO) ceramics has been studied under violet to UV irradiation. The reversible capacitance enhancement up to 21% under 405 nm violet laser irradiation has been observed, suggesting a possible degree of freedom to dynamically control this in high dielectric materials for light-sensitive capacitance applications. By using ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS), we show here that exposure of BLFO surfaces to UV light induces a counterintuitive shift of the O 2p valence state to lower binding energy of up to 243 meV which is a direct signature of negative electronic compressibility (NEC). A decrease of BLFO electrical resistance agrees strongly with the UPS data suggesting the creation of a thin conductive layer on its insulating bulk under light irradiation. By exploiting the quantum capacitance model, we find that the negative quantum capacitance due to this NEC effect plays an important role in this capacitance enhancement.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Laser heating of ferroelectric cubes for tunable electromagnetic properties in metamaterials

In this experimental study, we demonstrate the feasibility of a thermally tunable, resonant dielectric microwave metasurface based on sub-wavelength Mie resonances of ferroelectric dielectric cubes (Calcium titanate, CaTiO 3 ) in which the temperature of the meta-atoms can be locally and dynamically controlled by heating with an optical laser beam over a large range of temperatures and, consequently, values of the dielectric constant of the cube and corresponding resonance frequency of the meta-atoms. Further, this avoids any interference of otherwise necessary heating elements or power supply wires with the propagation of the microwave signal and can be made spatially addressable. The concept scales at least to the THz domain. This contactless approach opens up an alternative avenue to tunability and active control of metamaterials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Compact in situ probe for magnetotransport measurements of 2D materials under variable tensile strain

The recent development of freestanding oxide membranes has opened new opportunities for strain engineering of transition metal oxides beyond values accessible in bulk samples. While a number of studies have been performed with fixed strain, the ability to dynamically control the strain state during measurement would be greatly enabling. To this end, we present an in situ uniaxial strain probe optimized for transport measurements of tensile-strained 2D or quasi-2D materials down to 2 K. Utilizing a flexible polyimide substrate as the stress transfer medium, our platform simplifies the sample preparation process and allows precise alignment of strain fields relative to the crystalline axes. An in situ optical microscope monitors the macroscopic strain state operando and makes it possible to complete an entire magnetotransport study at cryogenic temperatures under continuous strain variations. We demonstrate the capabilities of the probe on a freestanding LaNiO 3 membrane, where we induce tensile strain up to 8% and observe a corresponding strong transport anisotropy. In view of the rapid developments in low-dimensional materials synthesis and the plethora of novel quantum phenomena they exhibit, this strain probe provides general instrumentation for examining and controlling these properties via strain.

2D materials↗
DOE OSTI2022

Quantum spin liquids bootstrapped from Ising criticality in Rydberg arrays

Arrays of Rydberg atoms constitute a highly tunable, strongly interacting venue for the pursuit of exotic states of matter. We develop a strategy for accessing a family of fractionalized phases known as quantum spin liquids in two-dimensional Rydberg arrays. We specifically use effective field theory methods to study arrays assembled from Rydberg chains tuned to an Ising phase transition that famously hosts emergent fermions propagating within each chain. This highly entangled starting point allows us to naturally access spin liquids familiar from Kitaev's honeycomb model—albeit from an entirely different framework. In particular, we argue that finite-range repulsive Rydberg interactions, which frustrate nearby symmetry-breaking orders, can enable coherent propagation of emergent fermions between the chains in which they were born. Delocalization of emergent fermions across the full two-dimensional Rydberg array yields a gapless Z 2 spin liquid with a single massless Dirac cone. Here, the Rydberg occupation numbers exhibit universal power-law correlations that provide a straightforward experimental diagnostic of this phase. We further show that explicitly breaking symmetries perturbs the gapless spin liquid into gapped, topologically ordered descendants: Breaking lattice symmetries generates toric-code topological order, whereas introducing Floquet-mediated chirality generates non-Abelian Ising topological order. In the toric-code phase, we analytically construct microscopic incarnations of non-Abelian defects, which can be created and transported by dynamically controlling the atom positions in the array. Our work suggests that appropriately tuned Rydberg arrays provide a cold-atoms counterpart of solid-state “Kitaev materials” and, more generally, it spotlights a different angle for pursuing experimental platforms for Abelian and non-Abelian fractionalization.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗