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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 307 records · Page 17
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2014

Nonlinear 2-D effects in the control of magnetic Islands by ECCD

The stabilization of tearing magnetic islands by means of localized current driven by electron cyclotron waves, requires optimizing the efficiency of the injected helical current. The problem is conventionally addressed using 0-D model of the (generalized) Rutherford equation to find the dependence in terms of the island width, wave beam width and deposition scale length, as well as phase tracking requirements. The use of a 2-D reconnection model shows that both the early time response of a tearing unstable system to ECCD and important nonlinear processes lead to irreversible modifications on the 2-D configuration, where 'phase' and 'width' of an island cease to be observable and controllable state variables. In particular the occurrence of a phase instability and of multiple axis and current sheets, may be a serious impediment for feedback control schemes.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
NASA NTRS2016

First Demonstration of Single-Mode Distributed Feedback Type-I GaSb Cascade Diode Laser Emitting near 2.9 µm

We demonstrate GaSb-based laterally-coupled distributed-feedback type-I cascade diode lasers emitting near 2.9 µm as potential sources for OH measurements. The laser heterostructures consist of two GaInAsSb quantum well stages in series separated by GaSb/AlSb/InAs tunnel junction and InAs/AlSb electron injectors. Single-mode emission is generated using second order lateral Bragg grating etched alongside narrow ridge waveguides. The lasers were fabricated into 2-mm-long devices, solder-mounted epi-up on copper submounts, and operate at room temperature. With an anti-reflection coating at the emission facet, the lasers exhibit a typical current threshold of 110 mA at 20 °C and emit more than 14 mW of output power. The Bragg wavelength temperature tuning rate was 0.29 nm/°C.

type-I↗
DOE OSTI2011

Adaptive Injection-locking Oscillator Array for RF Spectrum Analysis

A highly parallel radio frequency receiver using an array of injection-locking oscillators for on-chip, rapid estimation of signal amplitudes and frequencies is considered. The oscillators are tuned to different natural frequencies, and variable gain amplifiers are used to provide negative feedback to adapt the locking band-width with the input signal to yield a combined measure of input signal amplitude and frequency detuning. To further this effort, an array of 16 two-stage differential ring oscillators and 16 Gilbert-cell mixers is designed for 40-400 MHz operation. The injection-locking oscillator array is assembled on a custom printed-circuit board. Control and calibration is achieved by on-board microcontroller.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Analytical modeling and numerical simulation of the short-wave infrared electron-injection detectors

This paper describes comprehensive analytical and simulation models for the design and optimization of the electron-injection based detectors. The electron-injection detectors evaluated here operate in the short-wave infrared range and utilize a type-II band alignment in InP/GaAsSb/InGaAs material system. The unique geometry of detectors along with an inherent negative-feedback mechanism in the device allows for achieving high internal avalanche-free amplifications without any excess noise. Physics-based closed-form analytical models are derived for the detector rise time and dark current. Our optical gain model takes into account the drop in the optical gain at high optical power levels. Furthermore, numerical simulation studies of the electrical characteristics of the device show good agreement with our analytical models as well experimental data. Performance comparison between devices with different injector sizes shows that enhancement in the gain and speed is anticipated by reducing the injector size. Sensitivity analysis for the key detector parameters shows the relative importance of each parameter. The results of this study may provide useful information and guidelines for development of future electron-injection based detectors as well as other heterojunction photodetectors.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2018

Classical information driven quantum dot thermal machines

We analyze the transient response of quantum dot thermal machines that can be driven by hyperfine interaction acting as a source of classical information. Our setup comprises a quantum dot coupled to two contacts that drive heat flow while coupled to a nuclear spin bath. The quantum dot thermal machines operate both as batteries and as engines, depending on the parameter range. The electrons in the quantum dot interact with the nuclear spins via hyperfine spin-flip processes as typically seen in solid state systems such as GaAs quantum dots. The hyperfine interaction in such systems, which is often treated as a deterrent for quantum information processing, can favorably be regarded as a driving agent for classical information flow into a heat engine setup. We relate this information flow to Landauer’s erasure of the nuclear spin bath, leading to a battery operation. We further demonstrate that the setup can perform as a transient power source even under a voltage bias across the dot. Focusing on the transient thermoelectric operation, our analysis clearly indicates the role of Landauer’s erasure to deliver a higher output power than a conventional quantum dot thermoelectric setup and an efficiency greater than that of an identical Carnot cycle in steady state, which is consistent with recently proposed bounds on efficiency for systems subject to a feedback controller. The role of nuclear spin relaxation processes on these aspects is also studied. Finally, we introduce the Coulomb interaction in the dot and analyze the transient thermoelectric response of the system. Our results elaborate on the effective use of somewhat undesirable scattering processes as a non-equilibrium source of Shannon information flow in thermal machines and the possibilities that may arise from the use of a quantum information source.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2017

Effects of Magnetic and Kinetic Helicities on the Growth of Magnetic Fields in Laminar and Turbulent Flows by Helical Fourier Decomposition

We present a numerical and analytical study of incompressible homogeneous conducting fluids using a helical Fourier representation. We analytically study both small- and large-scale dynamo properties, as well as the inverse cascade of magnetic helicity, in the most general minimal subset of interacting velocity and magnetic fields on a closed Fourier triad. We mainly focus on the dependency of magnetic field growth as a function of the distribution of kinetic and magnetic helicities among the three interacting wavenumbers. By combining direct numerical simulations of the full magnetohydrodynamics equations with the helical Fourier decomposition, we numerically confirm that in the kinematic dynamo regime the system develops a large-scale magnetic helicity with opposite sign compared to the small-scale kinetic helicity, a sort of triad-by-triad α -effect in Fourier space. Concerning the small-scale perturbations, we predict theoretically and confirm numerically that the largest instability is achived for the magnetic component with the same helicity of the flow, in agreement with the Stretch–Twist–Fold mechanism. Vice versa, in the presence of Lorentz feedback on the velocity, we find that the inverse cascade of magnetic helicity is mostly local if magnetic and kinetic helicities have opposite signs, while it is more nonlocal and more intense if they have the same sign, as predicted by the analytical approach. Our analytical and numerical results further demonstrate the potential of the helical Fourier decomposition to elucidate the entangled dynamics of magnetic and kinetic helicities both in fully developed turbulence and in laminar flows.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Turnkey locking of quantum-dot lasers directly grown on Si

Ultralow-noise laser sources are crucial for a variety of applications, including microwave synthesizers, optical gyroscopes and the manipulation of quantum systems. Silicon photonics has emerged as a promising solution for high-coherence applications due to its ability to reduce the system size, weight, power consumption and cost. Semiconductor lasers based on self-injection locking have achieved fibre laser coherence, but typically require a high-quality-factor external cavity to suppress coherence collapse through frequency-selective feedback. Lasers based on external-cavity locking are a low-cost and turnkey operation option, but their coherence is generally inferior to self-injection locking lasers. In this work, we demonstrate quantum-dot lasers grown directly on Si that achieve self-injection-locking laser coherence under turnkey external-cavity locking. The high-performance quantum-dot laser offers a scalable and low-cost heteroepitaxial integration platform. Moreover, the chaos-free nature of the quantum-dot laser enables a 16 Hz Lorentzian linewidth under external-cavity locking using a low-quality-factor external cavity, and improves the frequency noise by an additional order of magnitude compared with conventional quantum-well lasers.

Dong, Bozhang↗
DOE OSTI2011

Low-frequency self-pulsing in single-section quantum-dot laser diodes and its relation to optothermal pulsations

Self-sustained pulsations in the output of an InAs quantum dot laser diode in the MHz range are reported. The characteristics (shape, range, and frequency) are presented for the free-running laser and when optical feedback in the Littrow configuration is applied. Bistability in the light-current characteristics is observed for operating wavelengths smaller than the gain peak, but it is not present for wavelengths above the gain peak and for the free-running laser, except at elevated temperatures. The temporal evolution of the envelopes of the optical spectra is very different for operation below, around, and above the gain peak, which might be related to a change of phase-amplitude coupling across the gain maximum, in agreement with the expectation for a two-level system. The time scale and the bifurcation scenario, supported by an initial blueshift of the emission wavelength of each longitudinal mode in time-resolved optical spectra, suggests that these are optothermal pulsations similar to those reported in quantum well amplifiers [Phys. Rev. E 68, 036209 (2003)]. The mechanism of pulsation seems to be a destabilization of bistable states (due to saturable absorption in the beam wings) by a slow thermal change in the waveguiding properties.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Circuit model of the ITER-like antenna for JET and simulation of its control algorithms

The ITER-like Antenna (ILA) for JET [1] is a 2 toroidal by 2 poloidal array of Resonant Double Loops (RDL) featuring in-vessel matching capacitors feeding RF current straps in conjugate-T manner, a low impedance quarter-wave impedance transformer, a service stub allowing hydraulic actuator and water cooling services to reach the aforementioned capacitors and a 2nd stage phase-shifter-stub matching circuit allowing to correct/choose the conjugate-T working impedance. Toroidally adjacent RDLs are fed from a 3dB hybrid splitter. It has been operated at 33, 42 and 47MHz on plasma (2008-2009) while it presently estimated frequency range is from 29 to 49MHz. At the time of the design (2001-2004) as well as the experiments the circuit models of the ILA were quite basic. The ILA front face and strap array Topica model was relatively crude and failed to correctly represent the poloidal central septum, Faraday Screen attachment as well as the segmented antenna central septum limiter. The ILA matching capacitors, T-junction, Vacuum Transmission Line (VTL) and Service Stubs were represented by lumped circuit elements and simple transmission line models. The assessment of the ILA results carried out to decide on the repair of the ILA identified that achieving routine full array operation requires a better understanding of the RF circuit, a feedback control algorithm for the 2nd stage matching as well as tighter calibrations of RF measurements. The paper presents the progress in modelling of the ILA comprising a more detailed Topica model of the front face for various plasma Scrape Off Layer profiles, a comprehensive HFSS model of the matching capacitors including internal bellows and electrode cylinders, 3D-EM models of the VTL including vacuum ceramic window, Service stub, a transmission line model of the 2nd stage matching circuit and main transmission lines including the 3dB hybrid splitters. A time evolving simulation using the improved circuit model allowed to design and simulate the effectiveness of a feedback control algorithm for the 2nd stage matching and demonstrates the simultaneous matching and control of the 4 RDLs: 11 feedback loops control 21 actuators (8 capacitors, 4 phase shifters and 4 stubs for the 2nd stage matching, 4 main phase shifters controlling of the toroidal phasing and the electronically controlled phase between RF sources feeding top and bottom parts of the array and determines the poloidal phasing of the array which is solved explicitly at each time step) on (simulated) ELMy plasmas.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Coexistence of synchrony and incoherence in oscillatory media under nonlinear global coupling

We report a novel mechanism for the formation of chimera states, a peculiar spatiotemporal pattern with coexisting synchronized and incoherent domains found in ensembles of identical oscillators. Considering Stuart-Landau oscillators, we demonstrate that a nonlinear global coupling can induce this symmetry breaking. We find chimera states also in a spatially extended system, a modified complex Ginzburg-Landau equation. This theoretical prediction is validated with an oscillatory electrochemical system, the electro-oxidation of silicon, where the spontaneous formation of chimeras is observed without any external feedback control.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Force-controlled absorption in a fully-nonlinear numerical wave tank

An active control methodology for the absorption of water waves in a numerical wave tank is introduced. This methodology is based upon a force-feedback technique which has previously been shown to be very effective in physical wave tanks. Unlike other methods, an a-priori knowledge of the wave conditions in the tank is not required; the absorption controller being designed to automatically respond to a wide range of wave conditions. In comparison to numerical sponge layers, effective wave absorption is achieved on the boundary, thereby minimising the spatial extent of the numerical wave tank. In contrast to the imposition of radiation conditions, the scheme is inherently capable of absorbing irregular waves. Most importantly, simultaneous generation and absorption can be achieved. This is an important advance when considering inclusion of reflective bodies within the numerical wave tank. In designing the absorption controller, an infinite impulse response filter is adopted, thereby eliminating the problem of non-causality in the controller optimisation. Two alternative controllers are considered, both implemented in a fully-nonlinear wave tank based on a multiple-flux boundary element scheme. To simplify the problem under consideration, the present analysis is limited to water waves propagating in a two-dimensional domain. The paper presents an extensive numerical validation which demonstrates the success of the method for a wide range of wave conditions including regular, focused and random waves. The numerical investigation also highlights some of the limitations of the method, particularly in simultaneously generating and absorbing large amplitude or highly-nonlinear waves. The findings of the present numerical study are directly applicable to related fields where optimum absorption is sought; these include physical wavemaking, wave power absorption and a wide range of numerical wave tank schemes.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2011

Active feedback cooling of massive electromechanical quartz resonators

We present a general active feedback cooling scheme for massive electromechanical quartz resonators. We cool down two kinds of macrosized quartz tuning forks and find several characteristic constants for this massive quartz-resonator feedback cooling, in good agreement with theoretical calculations. When combined with conventional cryogenic techniques and low-noise devices, one may reach the quantum sensitivity for macroscopic sensors. This may be useful for high sensitivity measurements and for quantum information studies.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2013

QCAD Simulation and Optimization of Semiconductor Double Quantum Dots

We present the Quantum Computer Aided Design (QCAD) simulator that targets modeling quantum devices, particularly silicon double quantum dots (DQDs) developed for quantum qubits. The simulator has three differentiating features: (i) its core contains nonlinear Poisson, effective mass Schrodinger, and Configuration Interaction solvers that have massively parallel capability for high simulation throughput, and can be run individually or combined self-consistently for 1D/2D/3D quantum devices; (ii) the core solvers show superior convergence even at near-zero-Kelvin temperatures, which is critical for modeling quantum computing devices; (iii) it couples with an optimization engine Dakota that enables optimization of gate voltages in DQDs for multiple desired targets. The Poisson solver includes MaxwellBoltzmann and Fermi-Dirac statistics, supports Dirichlet, Neumann, interface charge, and Robin boundary conditions, and includes the effect of dopant incomplete ionization. The solver has shown robust nonlinear convergence even in the milli-Kelvin temperature range, and has been extensively used to quickly obtain the semiclassical electrostatic potential in DQD devices. The self-consistent Schrodinger-Poisson solver has achieved robust and monotonic convergence behavior for 1D/2D/3D quantum devices at very low temperatures by using a predictor-correct iteration scheme. The QCAD simulator enables the calculation of dot-to-gate capacitances, and comparison with experiment and between solvers. It is observed that computed capacitances are in the right ballpark when compared to experiment, and quantum confinement increases capacitance when the number of electrons is fixed in a quantum dot. In addition, the coupling of QCAD with Dakota allows to rapidly identify which device layouts are more likely leading to few-electron quantum dots. Very efficient QCAD simulations on a large number of fabricated and proposed Si DQDs have made it possible to provide fast feedback for design comparison and optimization.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2011

The Quark-Meson Coupling model as a description of dense matter

Quantum Hadrodynamics provides a useful framework for investigating dense matter, yet it breaks down easily when strangeness carrying baryons are introduced into the calculations, as the baryon effective masses become negative due to large meson field potentials. The Quark-Meson Coupling model overcomes this issue by incorporating the quark structure of the nucleon, thus allowing for a feedback between the the nuclei and the interaction with the meson fields. With the inclusion of this feature, QMC provides a successful description of finite nuclei and nuclear matter. We present the latest parameterization of QMC and discuss the predictions for dense nuclear matter and 'neutron' stars.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Terahertz generation in mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers with a dual-upper-state active region

We report the performance of room temperature terahertz sources based on intracavity difference-frequency generation in mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers with a dual-upper-state (DAU) active region. DAU active region design is theoretically expected to produce larger optical nonlinearity for terahertz difference-frequency generation, compared to the active region designs of the bound-to-continuum type used previously. Fabricated buried heterostructure devices with a two-section buried distributed feedback grating and the waveguide designed for Cherenkov difference-frequency phase-matching scheme operate in two single-mode mid-infrared wavelengths at 10.7 μm and 9.7 μm and produce terahertz output at 2.9 THz with mid-infrared to terahertz conversion efficiency of 0.8 mW/W{sup 2} at room temperature.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Pairwise adaptive thermostats for improved accuracy and stability in dissipative particle dynamics

We examine the formulation and numerical treatment of dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) and momentum-conserving molecular dynamics. We show that it is possible to improve both the accuracy and the stability of DPD by employing a pairwise adaptive Langevin thermostat that precisely matches the dynamical characteristics of DPD simulations (e.g., autocorrelation functions) while automatically correcting thermodynamic averages using a negative feedback loop. In the low friction regime, it is possible to replace DPD by a simpler momentum-conserving variant of the Nosé–Hoover–Langevin method based on thermostatting only pairwise interactions; we show that this method has an extra order of accuracy for an important class of observables (a superconvergence result), while also allowing larger timesteps than alternatives. All the methods mentioned in the article are easily implemented. Numerical experiments are performed in both equilibrium and nonequilibrium settings; using Lees–Edwards boundary conditions to induce shear flow.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2012

Validation of Geant4 Hadronic Generators versus Thin Target Data

The GEANT4 toolkit is widely used for simulation of high energy physics (HEP) experiments, in particular, those at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The requirements of robustness, stability and quality of simulation for the LHC are demanding. This requires an accurate description of hadronic interactions for a wide range of targets over a large energy range, from stopped particle reactions to low energy nuclear interactions to interactions at the TeV energy scale. This is achieved within the Geant4 toolkit by combining a number of models, each of which are valid within a certain energy domain. Comparison of these models to thin target data over a large energy range indicates the strengths and weaknesses of the model descriptions and the energy range over which each model is valid. Software has been developed to handle the large number of validation tests required to provide the feedback needed to improve the models. An automated process for carrying out the validation and storing/displaying the results is being developed and will be discussed.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Development of readout electronics for POLARBEAR-2 cosmic microwave background experiment

The readout of transition-edge sensor (TES) bolometers with a large multiplexing factor is key for the next generation cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiment, Polarbear-2, having 7588 TES bolometers. To enable the large arrays, we have been developing a readout system with a multiplexing factor of 40 in the frequency domain. Extending that architecture to 40 bolometers requires an increase in the bandwidth of the SQUID electronics, above 4 MHz. This paper focuses on cryogenic readout and shows how it affects cross talk and the responsivity of the TES bolometers. A series resistance, such as equivalent series resistance of capacitors for LC filters, leads to non-linear response of the bolometers. A wiring inductance modulates a voltage across the bolometers and causes cross talk. They should be controlled well to reduce systematic errors in CMB observations. As a result, we have been developing a cryogenic readout with a low series impedance and have tuned bolometers in the middle of their transition at a high frequency (>3 MHz).

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗