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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 325 records · Page 18

Tuning the work function of graphene by ultraviolet irradiation

Graphene layers grown by chemical vapor deposition were, respectively, irradiated for 0, 20, 40, and 60 min by an ultraviolet light source in order to experimentally study the change in the work function of graphene. The dependences of the work function and carrier concentration upon ultraviolet irradiation have been found. It is shown that ultraviolet irradiation may lead to oxygen desorption, thus reducing the hole density and work function of graphene. Based on the well-known expression for the Fermi energy of Dirac fermions, the Fermi velocity of graphene was extracted to be about 5.2 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 5} m/s.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Dependence of the mechanical behavior of alloys on their electron work function—An alternative parameter for materials design

In this article, we demonstrate that the electron work function (EWF) as an intrinsic parameter can provide information or clues in a simple or straightforward way for material design, modification, and development. A higher work function of a material represents a more stable electronic state, which consequently generates a higher resistance to any attempt of changing the electronic state and other corresponding states, e.g., changes in structure or microstructure caused by mechanical and electrochemical actions. Using Cu-Ni alloy as an example, we demonstrate the correlation between the EWF and Young's modulus of the material as well as its hardness. The properties of a material can be modified using elements with appropriate work functions. This is also applicable for tailoring inter-phase boundaries or interfaces.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Tuning the work function of graphene by nitrogen plasma treatment with different radio-frequency powers

Graphene prepared by the chemical vapor deposition method was treated with nitrogen plasma under different radio-frequency (rf) power conditions in order to experimentally study the change in the work function. Control of the rf power could change the work function of graphene from 4.91 eV to 4.37 eV. It is shown that the increased rf power may lead to the increased number of graphitic nitrogen, increasing the electron concentration, and shifting the Fermi level to higher energy. The ability to controllably tune the work function of graphene is essential for optimizing the efficiency of optoelectronic and electronic devices.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

High tunability of the work function of (001) surface of ReO{sub 3} with O-vacancies: First principles analysis

Physical and chemical properties of transition metal oxides are central to the emerging field of oxide electronics. However, they are greatly influenced by defects, particularly, oxygen vacancies, which are always present in oxides. Here, we show how the control of oxygen vacancies at (001) surface of ReO{sub 3} can be used to tune its work function from 7 to 3 eV, based on first-principles density functional theoretical calculations of its structure, electronic and magnetic properties. The work function is shown to correlate directly with the stability of surface and exhibit a linear dependence on surface energy. We further assess the stability of ReO{sub 3} surface by determining its phonon dispersion, and explain how the surface stresses effectively strengthen structural instability leading to size dependence of its pressure dependent structural phase transitions observed experimentally. Our results highlight how significantly oxygen vacancies alter the work function of a metallic oxide and has important consequences to development of electronic devices and catalysts based on oxide heterostructures.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

The effect of working gas impurities on plasma jets

Air intrusion reduced the purity of working gas inside the tube for plasma jet, and thereby, affected the discharge dynamics. In this paper, the effect of using working gas with different purity level (helium purity 99.99999%, 99.99%, 99.9%, and 99%) on photoionization and the chemical reactivity of plasma jet were studied using a 2 dimensional plasma jet model. Photoionization of air species acted as a source of pre-ionization in front of the ionization region, which facilitated the transition from localized discharge to streamers inside the tube. The density of reactive species inside the tube was found to increase with the concentration of working gas impurities. For the highest purity helium (99.99999%), despite a low photoionization rate and the distance between the photoionization region and ionization region inside the tube, by increasing the applied voltage and decreasing the distance between the electrode and nozzle, plasma jets were formed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Coverage dependent work function of graphene on a Cu(111) substrate with intercalated alkali metals

Using first-principles calculations, it is shown that the work function of graphene on copper can be adjusted by varying the concentration of intercalated alkali metals. Using density functional theory, we calculate the modulation of work function when Li, Na, or K are intercalated between graphene and a Cu(111) surface. Furthermore, the physical origins of the change in work function are explained in terms of phenomenological models accounting for the formation and depolarization of interfacial dipoles and the shift in the Fermi-level induced via charge transfer.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Work function variation of MoS{sub 2} atomic layers grown with chemical vapor deposition: The effects of thickness and the adsorption of water/oxygen molecules

The electrical properties of two-dimensional atomic sheets exhibit remarkable dependences on layer thickness and surface chemistry. Here, we investigated the variation of the work function properties of MoS{sub 2} films prepared with chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on SiO{sub 2} substrates with the number of film layers. Wafer-scale CVD MoS{sub 2} films with 2, 4, and 12 layers were fabricated on SiO{sub 2}, and their properties were evaluated by using Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopies. In accordance with our X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results, our Kelvin probe force microscopy investigation found that the surface potential of the MoS{sub 2} films increases by ∼0.15 eV when the number of layers is increased from 2 to 12. Photoemission spectroscopy (PES) with in-situ annealing under ultra high vacuum conditions was used to directly demonstrate that this work function shift is associated with the screening effects of oxygen or water molecules adsorbed on the film surface. After annealing, it was found with PES that the surface potential decreases by ∼0.2 eV upon the removal of the adsorbed layers, which confirms that adsorbed species have a role in the variation in the work function.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Work function of bulk-insulating topological insulator Bi{sub 2–x}Sb{sub x}Te{sub 3–y}Se{sub y}

Recent discovery of bulk insulating topological insulator (TI) Bi{sub 2–x}Sb{sub x}Te{sub 3–y}Se{sub y} paved a pathway toward practical device application of TIs. For realizing TI-based devices, it is necessary to contact TIs with a metal. Since the band-bending at the interface dominates the character of devices, knowledge of TIs' work function is of essential importance. We have determined the compositional dependence of the work function in Bi{sub 2–x}Sb{sub x}Te{sub 3–y}Se{sub y} by high-resolution photoemission spectroscopy. The obtained work-function values (4.95–5.20 eV) track the energy shift of the surface chemical potential seen by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. The present result serves as a useful guide for developing TI-based electronic devices.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Optimizing Data Locality for Fork/Join Programs Using Constrained Work Stealing

We present an approach to improving data locality across different phases of fork/join programs scheduled using work stealing. The approach consists of: (1) user-specified and automated approaches to constructing a steal tree, the schedule of steal operations and (2) constrained work stealing algorithms that constrain the actions of the scheduler to mirror a given steal tree. These are combined to construct work stealing schedules that maximize data locality across computation phases while ensuring load balance within each phase. These algorithms are also used to demonstrate dynamic coarsening, an optimization to improve spatial locality and sequential overheads by combining many finer-grained tasks into coarser tasks while ensuring sufficient concurrency for locality-optimized load balance. Implementation and evaluation in Cilk demonstrate performance improvements of up to 2.5x on 80 cores. We also demonstrate that dynamic coarsening can combine the performance benefits of coarse task specification with the adaptability of finer tasks.

cilk↗

Generic trend of work functions in transition-metal carbides and nitrides

Transition-metal carbides and nitrides (TMCs and TMNs) are promising electrode materials for various electronic devices such as metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors and metal-insulator-metal capacitors. In this paper, the work functions of TMCs and TMNs are discussed systematically. Based upon the origin of the work function, the effect upon transition metal species by different periodic table groups is explained, carbides are compared with nitrides for the same transition metal, and the effect of carbon or nitrogen vacancies is discussed. In addition, a method to estimate the generic trend of the work function is proposed for TMC{sub x}, TMN{sub x}, TMC{sub 1−y}N{sub y} (transition metal carbonitrides), and TM{sub 1−z}TM′{sub z}C (alloy carbides)

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Recommended values of clean metal surface work functions

A critical review of the experimental literature for measurements of the work functions of clean metal surfaces of single-crystals is presented. The tables presented include all results found for low-index crystal faces except cases that were known to be contaminated surfaces. These results are used to construct a recommended value of the work function for each surface examined, along with an uncertainty estimate for that value. The uncertainties are based in part on the error distribution for all measured work functions in the literature, which is included here. The metals included in this review are silver (Ag), aluminum (Al), gold (Au), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), iridium (Ir), molybdenum (Mo), niobium (Nb), nickel (Ni), palladium (Pd), platinum (Pt), rhodium (Rh), ruthenium (Ru), tantalum (Ta), and tungsten (W)

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Measurements of the work function of single-walled carbon nanotubes encapsulated by AgI, AgCl, and CuBr using Kelvin probe technique with different kinds of probes

We report the results on the measurements of the work function of single-walled carbon nanotubes encapsulated by Agl (AgI@SWCNT), AgCl (AgCl@SWCNT), and CuBr (CuBr@SWCNT) by the local Kelvin probe technique. We found the values of the work function of tubes encapsulated with AgI and AgCl (Φ(AgI@SWCNT) = 5.08 ± 0.02, Φ(AgCl@SWCNT) = 5.10 ± 0.02 eV) to exceed substantially that of pristine carbon nanotubes, and the value of the work function of carbon nanotubes encapsulated with CuBr is Φ(CuBr@SWCNT) = 4.89 ± 0.03 (eV). The measurements are carried out using different kinds of microscope probes including multi-walled carbon nanotube tips.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Anisotropy of the Surface Energy and Work Function of IIB Metals

On the basis of electron-statistical method of calculation of the surface energy of metals, a technique for estimating the electron work function of hexagonal and rhombohedral metallic crystals has been developed. This technique relates surface energy to work function and can thus be applied to estimate the surface energy of crystal faces from experimental data for a work function. Computations have been made for cadmium, zinc, and mercury macrocrystals. The temperature and orientation dependences of both quantities have been constructed. Our results are in good agreement with literature experimental data.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Decreasing Work Function of Carbon Nanotubes Hydrogenated in Hydrogen Plasma

Experimental data showing a decrease in the work function of carbon nanotube (CNT) bundles and arrays hydrogenated in hydrogen-containing plasma are presented. This plasma treatment leads to hydrogen chemisorption on CNTs, which results in a work-function decrease from 4.8 to 3.3 eV. The experimental data confirm quantum-mechanical calculations for single-walled CNTs of variable chirality. Calculations indicate that a decrease in the CNT work function depends on both the properties of CNT and the degree of its passivation by hydrogen.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Work Stealing and Persistence-based Load Balancers for Iterative Overdecomposed Applications

Applications often involve iterative execution of identical or slowly evolving calculations. Such applications require good initial load balance coupled with efficient periodic rebalancing. In this paper, we consider the design and evaluation of two distinct approaches to addressing this challenge: persistence-based load balancing and work stealing. The work to be performed is overdecomposed into tasks, enabling automatic rebalancing by the middleware. We present a hierarchical persistence-based rebalancing algorithm that performs localized incremental rebalancing. We also present an active-message-based retentive work stealing algorithm optimized for iterative applications on distributed memory machines. These are shown to incur low overheads and achieve over 90% efficiency on 76,800 cores.

persistence-based load balancing↗

Steal Tree: Low-Overhead Tracing of Work Stealing Schedulers

Work stealing is a popular approach to scheduling task-parallel programs. The flexibility inherent in work stealing when dealing with load imbalance results in seemingly irregular computation structures, complicating the study of its runtime behavior. In this paper, we present an approach to efficiently trace async-finish parallel programs scheduled using work stealing. We identify key properties that allow us to trace the execution of tasks with low time and space overheads. We also study the usefulness of the proposed schemes in supporting algorithms for data-race detection and retentive steal- ing presented in the literature. We demonstrate that the perturbation due to tracing is within the variation in the execution time with 99% confidence and the traces are concise, amounting to a few tens of kilobytes per thread in most cases. We also demonstrate that the traces enable significant reductions in the cost of detecting data races and result in low, stable space overheads in supporting retentive stealing for async-finish programs.

async-finish parallelism↗

Automated Work Packages Prototype: Initial Design, Development, and Evaluation. Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program

The goal of the Automated Work Packages (AWP) project is to demonstrate how to enhance work quality, cost management, and nuclear safety through the use of advanced technology. The work described in this report is part of the digital architecture for a highly automated plant project of the technical program plan for advanced instrumentation, information, and control (II&C) systems technologies. This report addresses the DOE Milestone M2LW-15IN0603112: Describe the outcomes of field evaluations/demonstrations of the AWP prototype system and plant surveillance and communication framework requirements at host utilities. A brief background to the need for AWP research is provided, then two human factors field evaluation studies are described. These studies focus on the user experience of conducting a task (in this case a preventive maintenance and a surveillance test) while using an AWP system. The remaining part of the report describes an II&C effort to provide real time status updates to the technician by wireless transfer of equipment indications and a dynamic user interface.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

Functional Requirements for an Electronic Work Package System

This document provides a set of high level functional requirements for a generic electronic work package (eWP) system. The requirements have been identified by the U.S. nuclear industry as a part of the Nuclear Electronic Work Packages - Enterprise Requirements (NEWPER) initiative. The functional requirements are mainly applied to eWP system supporting Basic and Moderate types of smart documents, i.e., documents that have fields for recording input such as text, dates, numbers, and equipment status, and documents which incorporate additional functionalities such as form field data “type“ validation (e.g. date, text, number, and signature) of data entered and/or self-populate basic document information (usually from existing host application meta data) on the form when the user first opens it. All the requirements are categorized by the roles; Planner, Supervisor, Craft, Work Package Approval Reviewer, Operations, Scheduling/Work Control, and Supporting Functions. The categories Statistics, Records, Information Technology are also included used to group the requirements. All requirements are presented in Section 2 through Section 11. Examples of more detailed requirements are provided for the majority of high level requirements. These examples are meant as an inspiration to be used as each utility goes through the process of identifying their specific requirements. The report’s table of contents provides a summary of the high level requirements.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗