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At least 235 records · Page 13

Electronic excitations of α - Fe 2 O 3 heteroepitaxial films measured by resonant inelastic x-ray scattering at the Fe L edge

Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) spectra of hematite (α-Fe 2 O 3 ) were measured at the Fe L 3 edge for heteroepitaxial thin films which were undoped and doped with 1% Ti, Sn, or Zn, in the energy-loss range in excess of 1 eV to study electronic transitions. The spectra were measured for several momentum transfers q, conducted at both low temperature (T=14 K) and room temperature. While we cannot rule out dispersive features possibly owing to propagating excitations, the coarse envelopes of the general spectra did not appreciably change shape with q, implying that the bulk of the observed L-edge RIXS intensity originates from (mostly) nondispersive ligand field excitations. Summing the RIXS spectra over q and comparing the results at T=14 K to those at T=300 K revealed pronounced temperature effects, including an intensity change and energy shift of the ≈1.4 eV peak, a broadband intensity increase of the 3-4 eV range, and higher energy features. The q-summed spectra and their temperature dependencies are virtually identical for nearly all of the samples with different dopants, save for the temperature dependence of the Ti-doped sample's spectrum, which we attribute to being affected by a large number of free charge carriers. Comparing with magnetization measurements for different temperatures and dopings likewise did not show a clear correlation between the RIXS spectra and the magnetic ordering states. To clarify the excited states, we performed spin multiplet calculations which were in excellent agreement with the RIXS spectra over a wide energy range and provide detailed electronic descriptions of the excited states. Furthermore, the implications of these findings to the photoconversion efficiency of hematite photoanodes is discussed.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

A prescription for the asteroseismic surface correction

In asteroseismology, the surface effect refers to a disparity between the observed and the modelled frequencies in stars with solar-like oscillations. It originates from improper modelling of the surface layers. Correcting the surface effect usually requires using functions with free parameters, which are conventionally fitted to the observed frequencies. On the basis that the correction should vary smoothly across the H–R diagram, we parameterize it as a simple function of surface gravity, effective temperature, and metallicity. We determine this function by fitting a wide range of stars. The absolute amount of the surface correction decreases with luminosity, but the ratio between it and νmax increases, suggesting the surface effect is more important for red giants than dwarfs. Applying the prescription can eliminate unrealistic surface correction, which improves parameter estimations with stellar modelling. Using two open clusters, we found a reduction of scatter in the model-derived ages for each star in the same cluster. As an important application, we provide a new revision for the Δν scaling relation that, for the first time, accounts for the surface correction. The values of the correction factor, f Δν , are up to 2 percent smaller than those determined without the surface effect considered, suggesting decreases of up to 4 percent in radii and up to 8 percent in masses when using the asteroseismic scaling relations. This revision brings the asteroseismic properties into an agreement with those determined from eclipsing binaries. The new correction factor and the stellar models with the corrected frequencies are available at https://www.github.com/parallelpro/surface.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Insights into the Effect of Heat Treatment and Carbon Coating on the Electrochemical Behaviors of SiO Anodes for Li-Ion Batteries

The use of SiO as an anode material has attracted significant interest due to its high capacity and long cycling life. Many promising approaches, including structural design and carbon coating at high temperatures, effectively improve its intrinsic low electrical conductivity and poor Coulombic efficiency. However, the “heat treatment process-composition and microstructure-electrochemical properties” relationship of the SiO anode is not fundamentally understood. Here the structure and composition evolution in amorphous SiO and graphene-coated SiO is investigated using different heat-treatment conditions. X-ray absorption near-edge structure techniques are also employed to analyze the surface and bulk composition change during the initial lithiation process, supplemented by physical or chemical characterization and electrochemical testing. Here results reveal the structural transition of SiO during heat treatment, from amorphous to disproportionated hierarchical structure, where the as-formed dielectric exterior SiO 2 shell and interior SiO 2 matrix severely polarizes electrodes, hindering the lithiation process. Carbon coating on SiO effectively restricts the growth of the SiO 2 shell and facilitates charge transfer, leading to improved electrochemical performance. A schematic model is proposed to reveal the relationship between the treatments, the resultant structural evolutions, and corresponding electrochemical behaviors.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

High-temperature anomalous Hall effect driven by frustrated spin fluctuations in the antiferromagnetic delafossite metal PdCrO 2

Metallic delafossite oxides are of exceptional interest due to their ultraclean metallic transport. In the case of PdCrO 2 , this arises in a triangular-lattice antiferromagnet, creating a unique opportunity to study frustrated magnetism in a very clean metal. Here, we combine a chemical vapor transport crystal growth approach with magnetic, thermodynamic, magnetotransport, and neutron scattering measurements to elucidate the striking anomalous Hall effect (AHE) in antiferromagnetic PdCrO 2 . The unconventional AHE (with anomalous Hall conductivity ~10 5 Ω −1 cm −1 ) and a large positive magnetoresistance effect (>1,000%) are shown to exhibit complex temperature dependencies, persisting to almost seven times the Néel temperature (~250 K). These effects are directly compared to elastic neutron scattering, inelastic neutron scattering, and neutron magnetic pair distribution function data, establishing unambiguous links between anomalous magnetotransport properties and directly probed short-range spin fluctuations. The latter occur over a notably broad temperature range due to geometrical magnetic frustration. Connecting to recent experimental and theoretical developments, these findings are discussed in terms of a temperature-dependent interplay between chiral spin order and chiral spin fluctuations, significantly elucidating the high-temperature anomalous magnetotransport in such compounds.

anomalous Hall effect↗

Pore Resolved Simulations of Joule Heating in Fibrous Media using an Embedded Boundary Method

Joule heating has been regarded as an energy-efficient and sustainable method for heating materials and gases at large scales. The modeling of local temperature effects at pore-resolved scales for such systems, however, has been difficult to achieve due to challenges in coupling thermo-chemical processes in complex porous media and in large representative volume elements (RVEs). To this end, we developed an electro-thermal model at the pore scale to study Joule heating effects in large heterogeneous systems with different microstructures. This was achieved using the level set method to implicitly delineate distinct regions within the domain, and an embedded boundary method to facilitate heat exchange across the fluid-solid interface. Moreover, we applied this method to investigate unsteady non-linear electro-thermal effects in non-woven fibrous graphite conductors for RVEs with characteristic lengths of 2 mm, with different fiber orientations, porosity (80% – 90%) and fiber diameters (10 – 20µm). The coupled equations were solved numerically and they produced peak temperatures greater than 2000 K resulting in heating rates as high as 80,000 K/s. Moreover, the results depended strongly on the microstructure of the fiber skeleton and current density. Geometries with large fibers (∼ 20µm) had the highest average and peak temperatures with the mean temperature increasing by 3.9 % while the peak temperature increased by 9.9 %. Anisotropic domains on the other hand had the lowest mean and peak temperatures with peak and mean temperatures of 2293 K and 1437.7K respectively representing a corresponding 12.1% and 5.1% drop in the temperatures. An increase in porosity from 80% to 90%, however, led to an increase in the peak temperature by 5.1%.

Joule heating↗

Recent progress on understanding the temperature-dependent irradiation resistance ranking among NiFe, NiCoCr, and NiCoFeCr alloys: A review

Systematic temperature-effects investigations on damage evolution in ion-irradiated Ni-based concentrated solid-solution alloys (CSAs) are pivotal to provide reliance on their use in nuclear applications. Here, in search of the origin behind the temperature-dependent irradiation resistance ranking among equiatomic NiFe, NiCoCr and NiCoFeCr alloys, we have compared, previously experimental and theoretical published data involving ion irradiation experiments performed on these alloys with new ion channeling results from ion-irradiated NiCoFeCr at 500 K. Moreover, the current results are compared with independent theoretical calculations and relevant TEM results from literature, which allow us to suggest that the lower migration energy of vacancies in NiCoCr, as compared with those in NiFe and NiCoFeCr, is the reason behind why NiCoCr is no longer outperforming NiFe under ion irradiation above 300 K.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Warming induces divergent stomatal dynamics in co-occurring boreal trees

Abstract Climate warming will alter photosynthesis and respiration not only via direct temperature effects on leaf biochemistry but also by increasing atmospheric dryness, thereby reducing stomatal conductance and suppressing photosynthesis. Our knowledge on how climate warming affects these processes is mainly derived from seedlings grown under highly controlled conditions. However, little is known regarding temperature responses of trees growing under field settings. We exposed mature tamarack and black spruce trees growing in a peatland ecosystem to whole-ecosystem warming of up to +9°C above ambient air temperatures in an ongoing long-term experiment (SPRUCE: Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments). Here, we report the responses of leaf gas exchange after the first two years of warming. We show that the two species exhibit divergent stomatal responses to warming and vapor pressure deficit. Warming of up to 9°C increased leaf N in both spruce and tamarack. However, higher leaf N in the warmer plots translate into higher photosynthesis in tamarack but not in spruce, with photosynthesis being more constrained by stomatal limitations in spruce than in tamarack under warm conditions. Surprisingly, dark respiration did not acclimate to warming in spruce, and thermal acclimation of respiration was only seen in tamarack once changes in leaf N were considered. Our results highlight how warming can lead to differing stomatal responses to warming in co-occurring species, with consequent effects on both vegetation carbon and water dynamics.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Transient reshaping of intraband transitions by hot electrons

Hot electrons, far above the lattice temperature of a material, present opportunities for enhanced solar energy harvesting or performance of otherwise unfavorable chemistry. The spectroscopic signatures and dynamics of hot carrier absorption and emission have been extensively studied in bulk and nanoscopic semiconductors, but the effects on intraband transitions are largely unexplored. In this work, the effect of hot electrons on the properties of colloidal quantum wells made of cadmium selenide is examined using ultrafast spectroscopy. Similar to expitaxial quantum wells, these atomically precise materials support intersubband transitions (a class of intraband transitions in 1D and 2D materials) in the near-infrared spectral window. Using energy-dependent photoexcitation, it is shown that electrons reach effective temperatures of 2000 K or greater. This results in a substantial transient shift in the oscillator strength of the instersubband transition to lower energies on a sub-picosecond time-scale. Similar heating of electrons is achieved under mid-infrared re-excitation, which permits ultrafast transmittance modulation throughout the near-infrared.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗

The Pulsating Helium-atmosphere White Dwarfs. I. New DBVs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Abstract We present a dedicated search for new pulsating helium-atmosphere (DBV) white dwarfs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey using the McDonald 2.1 m Otto Struve Telescope. In total we observed 55 DB and DBA white dwarfs with spectroscopic temperatures between 19,000 and 35,000 K. We find 19 new DBVs and place upper limits on variability for the remaining 36 objects. In combination with previously known DBVs, we use these objects to provide an update to the empirical extent of the DB instability strip. With our sample of new DBVs, the red edge is better constrained, as we nearly double the number of DBVs known between 20,000 and 24,000 K. We do not find any new DBVs hotter than PG 0112+104, the current hottest DBV is at T eff ≈ 31,000 K, but do find pulsations in four DBVs with temperatures between 27,000 and 30,000 K, improving empirical constraints on the poorly defined blue edge. We investigate the ensemble pulsation properties of all currently known DBVs, finding that the weighted mean period and total pulsation power exhibit trends with effective temperature that are qualitatively similar to the pulsating hydrogen-atmosphere white dwarfs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Modeling the processes of soil moisture in regulating microbial and carbon-nitrogen cycling

Soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycles and their complex responses to hydro-climatic forcing have gained increasing attention. While the temperature effects have been intensively studied, soil moisture response functions (SMRFs) are not well documented for various microbial and enzymatic processes due to the difficulties in directly measuring and differentiating the moisture effects on various processes. In this work we extended our C-only Microbial-ENzyme Decomposition (MEND) model to the C-N coupled MEND model with flexible element stoichiometry. Our model calibration showed good agreement between simulated and observed C:N ratios in soil organic matter and microbial biomass, as well as the ammonium and nitrate concentrations. We show that the selection of SMRFs for specific biogeochemical processes could result in significant differences in model simulated microbial and C-N processes. In particular, it is essential to account for the soil moisture effects on microbial dormancy and resuscitation, as the changes in microbial physiology under favorable or stressful conditions will exert strong controls on soil C and N dynamics. We also advocate the utilization of dynamic (time-variant) data (e.g., litter input, N deposition, soil temperature and moisture), instead of time-invariant data, to drive model simulations and analyses. Dynamic forcing data (particularly dynamic soil moisture) better represent the real-world climate and environmental conditions, which could facilitate more realistic modeling and understanding of soil C and nutrient cycling in a changing world.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Temperature and time effects of post-weld heat treatments on tensile properties and microstructure of Zircaloy-4

Opportunities exist to expand the application of Zircaloy-4 (Zry-4) into lower-temperature (<100°C) applications. Welded areas within these structures are potential failure points and post-weld heat treatments (PWHTs) are not yet standardized for application in this temperature range. Zry-4 tungsten inert gas (TIG) welds were given PWHTs from 450-900°C with hold times from 0.5-48 hours to investigate changes to tensile properties and microstructure. Treatment of 800°C for 1 hour was found to produce the most ductile material, measured by total elongation of the tensile bar (16.5%). Furthermore, both PWHT time and temperature were observed to increase total elongation, except in extreme (>800°C or >18hours) cases, but the effect of temperature was stronger. The second order cumulative annealing parameter shows a trend with tensile properties. Average grain sizes in the fusion zone and heat affected zone did not change under any of the PWHTs until the development of an undesirable blocky-alpha phase, which was only observed to form in the heat affected zones for hold times greater than 18hr at 800°C.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Thermal Resilience of Residential Building with Thermally Anisotropic Building Envelope Connected to Geothermal Sources

Heat waves and cold snaps have become more frequent and more intense because of climate change. A heat wave and a cold snap are a period of excessively hot and cold weather, respectively, that poses severe risks to building occupants’ health, especially for vulnerable people. They increase electrical energy consumption and put high stress on the grid which leads to potential power outages. Therefore, it is critical to assess and actively improve the thermal resilience of buildings to cope with heat waves, cold snaps, and power outages. The thermally anisotropic building envelope (TABE) is a novel active building envelope that can save energy while maintaining thermal comfort in buildings by redirecting heat and coolness from building envelopes to hydronic loops. When connecting to a ground thermal loop (GL), TABE can utilize the relatively stable temperature of the ground to protect the indoor environment during heat waves and cold snaps. This study assesses the thermal resilience of residential buildings that installed TABE and used ground thermal energy to supply the hydronic loops, abbreviated as ground thermal loop or TABE+GL. The simulation and analysis are conducted for the US Department of Energy prototype single-family detached residential building in the hot climate of Miami, Florida and Tucson, Arizona, and the cold climate of Denver, Colorado, and Rochester, Minnesota. Heat waves and cold snaps were obtained from the historical weather data of 1998-2020 for the studied regions. Three thermal resilience metrics, including the standard effective temperature (SET) degree-hours, the Heat Index, and the Hours of Safety (HOS) were used to quantify the effect of TABE+GL. The results showed that buildings installed TABE+GL could significantly reduce the average SET degree-hours above 30°C, increase HOS, and greatly improve thermal resilience.

Shen, Zhenglai↗

Temperature-dependent microbial reactions by indigenous microbes in bentonite under Fe(III)- and sulfate-reducing conditions

Bentonite is a promising buffer material for constructing spent nuclear fuel (SNF) repositories. However, indigenous microbes in bentonite can be introduced to the repository and subsequent sealing of the repository develops anoxic conditions over time which may stimulate fermentation and anaerobic respiration, possibly affecting bentonite structure and SNF repository stability. Moreover, the microbial activity in the bentonite can be impacted by the heat generated from radionuclides decay. Therefore, to investigate the temperature effect on microbial activities in bentonite, we created microcosms with WRK bentonil (a commercial bentonite) using lactate as the electron donor, and sulfate and/or ferrihydrite (Fe(III)) as electron acceptors with incubation at 18 °C and 50 °C. Indigenous WRK microbes reduced sulfate and Fe(III) at both temperatures but with different rates and extents. Lactate was metabolized to acetate at both temperatures, but only to propionate at 18 °C during early-stage microbial fermentation. More Fe(III)-reduction at 18 °C but more sulfate-reduction at 50 °C was observed. Thermophilic and/or metabolically flexible microbes were involved in both fermentation and Fe(III)/ sulfate reduction. In conclusion, our findings illustrate the necessity of considering the influence of temperature on microbial activities when employing bentonite as an engineered buffer material in construction of SNF repository barriers.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Rashba effects in lead-free ferroelectric semiconductor [CH 3 PH 3 ]SnBr 3

Here, first-principles density functional theory computations are used to predict Rashba effects cofunctional with ferroelectricity in a recently synthesized lead-free hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite MPSnBr 3 (MP=methylphosphonium, [CH 3 PH 3 ] + ). The ground state of the material is polar monoclinic with calculated spontaneous polarization of 3.01 µC/cm 2 . It exhibits near band edges spin-splitting of up to 3.3 meV and Rashba coefficient up to 0.62 eV Å. The spin textures have different topology in the conduction and valence band, which originates from the difference in the spin-momentum coupling strengths. They occur in two orthogonal planes of the Brillouin zone and are coupled to the direction of spontaneous polarization. These features persist at a finite temperature of 293 K. At 333 K, that is above monoclinic to orthorhombic phase transition, spontaneous polarization is reduced to 0.15 µC/cm 2 , while the maximum spin splitting and Rashba coefficient reduce slightly to the value of 2.9 meV and 0.41 eV Å, respectively. The spin textures remain coupled with the polarization direction. We investigate the dependence of the aforementioned properties on the choice of computational methodology to extend the first-principles predictions to include finite temperature effects. We find that the predictions are sensitive to the methodology. Our study reveals the potential of MPSnBr 3 for low-temperature applications in spintronics and quantum computing.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Phase Diagrams and Piezoelectric Properties of Wurtzite Al1-x-yScxGdyN Heterostructural Alloys

Ternary nitride alloys based on wurtzite AlN are a promising platform to realize functional materials, particularly ferroelectrics and optical emitters, that can smoothly integrate with conventional microelectronics. Here, a strategic design is presented to enable multifunctional materials by substituting multiple elements into AlN to create quaternary nitride alloys. By combining computational predictions and combinatorial thin film synthesis, the phase diagram of these quaternary Al-Sc-Gd-N alloys (or pseudo-ternary heterostructural AlN-ScN-GdN alloys) is successfully predicted as a function of effective temperature, and we experimentally grow Al1-x-xScxGdyN thin films for the first time. It is revealed that Al1-x-xScxGdyN crystallizes in a wurtzite-derived structure for X + y <~ 0.35, consistent with the calculated phase diagram. The computational investigation explores whether co-substitution induces cooperative effects on these alloys' piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties, finding that it is beneficial for reducing the polarization switching barrier. We calculate that Al1-x-xScxGdyN thin films should display ferroelectric switching. This is supported by our experimental measurements of a high optical bandgap, enhanced piezoelectric coefficient, and a change in the calculated polarization switching mechanism, and we achieve preliminary ferroelectric switching that experimentally realizes the prediction. Overall, our work sets the foundation toward quaternary wurtzite-nitride-based multifunctional materials, including piezoelectrics, ferroelectrics, and possibly even multiferroics.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Assessing thermal resilience of an assisted living facility during heat waves and cold snaps with power outages

Extreme hot and cold weather events are becoming more frequent, intense, and longer due to climate change. When these events occur coincidentally with power outages, the resulting extreme indoor temperatures pose a severe health hazard for occupants. This study conducted a holistic modeling and analysis of an assisted living facility, where senior residents live, to assess its thermal resilience performance under a six-day heat wave in 2015 and a three-day cold snap in 2021 with power outages. Impacts of 13 energy efficiency measures on thermal resilience and backup power capacity of the facility were evaluated. Three thermal resilience metrics: the SET (standard effective temperature) degree-hours, the Heat Index, and the Hours of Safety, were used and calculated from the EnergyPlus simulation models. Furthermore, major findings are: (1) the facility would suffer from extreme temperatures during the cold and hot events without a power supply, not meeting the passive survivability requirements; (2) most passive envelope measures improve thermal resilience for both hot and cold events, but making the building envelope airtight results in conflicting performance between the hot and cold events; (3) natural ventilation is an effective measure to mitigate summer indoor overheating; and (4) the energy efficiency package can reduce backup power capacity by 19% for the three-day cold snap. It is recommended that building technologies and design strategies be evaluated to consider co-benefits of energy use, thermal resilience, and backup power needs through building energy codes or policies for existing and new buildings, which are transitioning for decarbonization and climate resilience.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Cool rooms for indoor heat resilience: Evaluating affordable cooling strategies in heat-stressed California homes

Extreme heat conditions pose significant indoor survivability challenges for resource-constrained communities, which often lack access to cooling, have poorly insulated homes, and face compounding socioeconomic vulnerabilities. Moreover, concurrent power outages worsen health risks and heat-related illnesses. It is therefore crucial to develop innovative and affordable cooling approaches to protect vulnerable populations. This study assesses the efficacy of “cool rooms”– a designated space within a home equipped with passive and low-power active cooling measures to maintain safe indoor temperatures during extreme heat events and power disruptions. Using a physics-based building energy modeling approach, we evaluate the efficacy of various retrofit packages in maintaining thermal safety within the cool room under recent extreme heat conditions. The results indicate that passive measures can reduce 64% of hours with unmet standard effective temperatures, while the combination of passive and low-power active measures with built-in batteries further cuts this to 86%. Nevertheless, these strategies remain insufficient to maintain indoor thermal safety during extended outages. In contrast, integrating a solar-powered mini-split heat pump, whose technical potential was evaluated in this study, reduces indoor air temperatures below the 28 °C overheating threshold and significantly improves indoor habitability. The localized cool room strategy also offers potential for grid resilience by reducing peak electricity demand by up to 70% compared to whole house cooling during heat waves. The findings can inform the development of actionable heat mitigation plans and retrofit policies for residential communities with relatively low adoption of air conditioning such as warm marine climates.

Cool room↗

Origin of gaplike behaviors in URu 2 Si 2 : Combined study via quasiparticle scattering spectroscopy and resistivity measurements

In this work, we address two long-standing questions regarding the hidden order in URu 2 Si 2 : Is it associated with the hybridization process, and what are the distinct roles played by the localized and itinerant electrons? Our quasiparticle scattering spectroscopy reveals a hybridization gap ubiquitous in the entire phase space spanned by P and Fe substitutions in URu 2 Si 2 , including the no-order and antiferromagnetic regions, with minimal change upon crossing the phase boundary. This indicates its opening is not associated with the ordering, and thus localized electrons must be the major player. Towards a consistent understanding of all the other gaplike behaviors observed only below transition temperatures, we analyze the electrical resistivity using a model in which gapped bosonic excitations are the dominant scattering source. With their stiffness set to follow an unusual temperature dependence (decreasing with decreasing temperature), this model fits all of our resistivity data well including the jump at the transition. Remarkably, the extracted gap increases slowly with increasing Fe content, similarly to the gap detected by inelastic neutron scattering at $Q_1$ = (1.4, 0, 0), suggesting a common origin. Such a model can also naturally explain the Hall effect temperature dependence without invoking Fermi surface gapping.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗