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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 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Acoustic diagnostic system and method for superconducting devices operating in gas or liquid

A novel system and method for detecting a quench of a superconducting conductor and detecting abnormal behavior of a superconducting conductor using acoustic sensor technology in the coolant of a superconducting cable and/or magnet is disclosed. This system and method is not only limited to use for superconductors, but also may be used for any device disposed in liquid and gas. Acoustic sensors are installed along a coolant space of a superconducting conductor and monitor coolant conditions. By monitoring acoustic changes, temperature changes or coolant flow disruption can be detected very quickly by an acoustic sensor array. By disposition of the acoustic sensor array in a coolant flow channel, the acoustic sensor system can quickly detect a local condition, such as the thermal status (temperature) of a superconducting cable and magnet with precise spatial resolution.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
NASA NTRS1992

Preformed Superconductive Devices

Process forms high-temperature superconductors into electrical components as connectors, coils, and conductors. Brittleness no obstacle because material preformed before heated to turn it into ceramic. Substrates made of glass-fiber-reinforced circuit-board material, reduce leakage of heat into ceramic, unlike silver or copper substrates used in making sintered-in-place superconducting ceramics.

Haertling, Gene H.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Superconductivity devices: Commercial use of space

A YBCO thick film containing 20 percent Ag2O with a T(sub c) of 86.8 K and J(sub c) of 108 A/sq cm was obtained. The film was fabricated by a two-step firing process, i.e., firing the film at 1000 C for 10 minutes and annealing at 970 C for 30 minutes. The two-step firing process, however, was not suitable for the multiple-lead YBCO sample due to the formation of the 211 green phase at 1000 C in the multiple-lead YBCO sample. A BSCCO thick film printed on a MgO coated MSZ substrate and fired at 845 C for 2 hours exhibited a superconducting behavior at 89 K. Because of its porous microstructure, the critical current density of the BSCCO thick film was limited. This report also includes the results of the YBCO and BSCCO materials used as oxide electrodes for ferroelectric materials. The YBCO electroded PLZT showed higher remanent polarization and coercive field than the sample electroded with silver paste. A higher Curie temperature for the PLZT was obtained from the YBCO electroded sample. The BSCCO electroded sample, however, exhibited the same Curie temperature as that of a silver electroded sample. Dissipation factors of the ferroelectric samples increased when the oxide electrode was applied.

Haertling, Gene↗
DOE OSTI2025

Cryogenic optical beam steering for superconducting device calibration

We have developed a calibration system based on a micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) mirror that is capable of delivering an optical beam over a wavelength range of 180 -- 2000 nm (0.62 -- 6.89 eV) in a sub-Kelvin environment. This portable, integrated system can steer the beam over a $\sim$3 cm $\times$ 3 cm area on the surface of any sensor with a precision of $\sim$100 $μ$m, enabling characterization of device response as a function of position. This fills a critical need in the landscape of calibration tools for sub-Kelvin devices, including those used for dark matter detection and quantum computing. These communities have a shared goal of understanding the impact of ionizing radiation on device performance, which can be pursued with our system. This paper describes the design of the first-generation calibration system and the results from successfully testing its performance at room temperature and 20 mK.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
NASA NTRS1975

Microelectronic fabrication of superconducting devices and circuits

It is expected that thin-film superconductors can be used as detectors or sources of infrared and microwave radiation, as magnetometers, as voltage standards, and for voltage and current measurements, for electronic signal processing, and in digital circuitry.

Kirschman, R. K.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Design of Cryocoolers for Microwatt Superconducting Devices

The primary applications of the cryocoolers are for cooling various Josephson devices such as SQUID magnetometers and amplifiers, voltage standards, and microwave mixers and detectors. The common feature of these devices is their extremely low inherent bias power requirement, of the order of 10/1 W per junction. This provides the possibility of designing compact, low-power cryocoolers for these applications. Several concepts were explored and a number of laboratory model cryocoolers were built. These include low-power nonmagnetic regenerative machines of the Stirling or Gifford-McMahon type, three or four-stage Joule-Thomson machines, liquid-helium dewars with integral small cryocoolers to reduce the evaporation rate, and liquid-helium dewars with integral continuously or intermittently operated small helium liquefiers to permit operation of cryogenic devices for indefinite time periods.

Zimmerman, J. E.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Superconductivity devices: Commercial use of space

The work described in this report covers various aspects of the Rainbow solid-state actuator technology. It is presented in six parts dealing with materials, processing, fabrication, properties and associated phenomena. The Rainbow actuator technology is a relatively new materials development which had its inception in 1992. It consists of a new processing technology for preparing piezoelectric and electrostrictive ceramic materials. It involves a high temperature chemical reduction process which leads to an internal pre-stressing of the oxide wafer, thus the name Rainbow, an acronym for Reduced And INternally Biased Oxide Wafer. Ceramics fabricated by this method produce bending-mode actuator devices which possess several times more displacement and load bearing capacity than present-day benders (unimorphs, bimorphs). It is anticipated that these solid-state, electromechanical actuators which can be used in a number of applications in space such as cryopump motors, anti-vibration active structures, autoleveling platforms, telescope mirror correctors and autofocusing devices. When considering any of these applications, the key to the development of a successful device is the successful development of a ceramic material which can produce maximum displacement per volt input; hence, this initiative involving a solid-state means for achieving unusually high electromechanical displacement can be significant and far reaching. An additional benefit obtained from employing the piezoelectric effect in these actuator devices is the ability to also utilize them as sensors; and, indeed, they can be used as both motor (actuator) and generator (sensor) in multifunction devices.

Haertling, Gene↗
NASA NTRS1996

Superconductivity Devices: Commercial Use of Space

The work described in this report covers various aspects of the Rainbow solid-state actuator and sensor technologies. It is presented in five parts dealing with sensor applications, nonlinear properties, stress-optic and electrooptic properties, stacks and arrays, and publications. The Rainbow actuator technology is a relatively new materials development which had its inception in 1992. It involves a new processing technique for preparing pre-stressed, high lead containing piezoelectric and electrostrictive ceramic materials. Ceramics fabricated by this method produce bending-mode actuator devices which possess several times more displacement and load bearing capacity than present-day benders. Since they can also be used in sensor applications, Rainbows are part of the family of materials known as smart ceramics. During this period, PLZT Rainbow ceramics were characterized with respect to their piezoelectric properties for potential use in stress sensor applications. Studies of the nonlinear and stress-optic/electrooptic birefringent properties were also initiated during this period. Various means for increasing the utility of stress-enhanced Rainbow actuators are presently under investigation.

Haertling, Gene↗
DOE OSTI2021

Method for fabricating superconducting devices using a focused ion beam

Nano-scale junctions, wires, and junction arrays are created by using a focused high-energy ion beam to direct-write insulating or poorly conducting barriers into thin films of materials that are sensitive to disorder, including superconductors, ferromagnetic materials and semiconductors.

Cybart, Shane A.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Simulating nonlinear optical processes on a superconducting quantum device

Simulating plasma physics on quantum computers is difficult because most problems of interest are nonlinear, but quantum computers are not naturally suitable for nonlinear operations. In weakly nonlinear regimes, plasma problems can be modelled as wave–wave interactions. In this paper, we develop a quantization approach to convert nonlinear wave–wave interaction problems to Hamiltonian simulation problems. We demonstrate our approach using two qubits on a superconducting device. Unlike a photonic device, a superconducting device does not naturally have the desired interactions in its native Hamiltonian. Nevertheless, Hamiltonian simulations can still be performed by decomposing required unitary operations into native gates. To improve experimental results, we employ a range of error-mitigation techniques. Apart from readout error mitigation, we use randomized compilation to transform undiagnosed coherent errors into well-behaved stochastic Pauli channels. Moreover, to compensate for stochastic noise, we rescale exponentially decaying probability amplitudes using rates measured from cycle benchmarking. We carefully consider how different choices of product-formula algorithms affect the overall error and show how a trade-off can be made to best utilize limited quantum resources. This study provides an example of how plasma problems may be solved on near-term quantum computing platforms.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Perspective: Reproducible Coherence Characterization of Superconducting Quantum Devices

As the field of superconducting quantum computing approaches maturity, optimization of single-device performance is proving to be a promising avenue towards large-scale quantum computers. However, this optimization is possible only if performance metrics can be accurately compared among measurements, devices, and laboratories. Currently such comparisons are inaccurate or impossible due to understudied errors from a plethora of sources. In this Perspective, we outline the current state of error analysis for qubits and resonators in superconducting quantum circuits, and discuss what future investigations are required before superconducting quantum device optimization can be realized.

McRae, Corey H.↗
DOE OSTI2026

Precise 2D electric field density simulations for superconducting quantum devices

Dielectric loss due to two-level systems is a limiting factor for superconducting qubit relaxation times. These losses arise mostly from nanometer-scale interfacial defect regions in superconducting devices with planar dimensions of microns to millimeters, thus making it resource intensive to accurately simulate the electric field density in these regions with traditional electromagnetic solvers. In this work, we demonstrate a fast boundary integral equation solver that allows precise simulation of electric field density in these thin regions, showing a speedup of around two orders of magnitude over traditional solvers, with relative errors around $10^{-7}$ for a ten-minute solution runtime. By computing participation ratios through Green's first identity without squaring the electric field, our approach is less susceptible to the field singularities near conductor corners. We apply this solver to a basic untrenched coplanar waveguide cross-section, showing that the common assumption of participation ratio linearity with dielectric constant holds well for some interfaces and not others; in particular, while the metal-air (MA) top and corner follow this linear relationship strongly, the MA sidewall does not. We then compare isotropic and anisotropic etching, showing that the MA sidewall and the metal-air-substrate triple junction are the most strongly affected. We are currently leveraging this solver to explore geometries that will uniquely isolate the participation ratios of the different dielectrics. Finally, we are working to combine this solver framework with a full 3D microwave solver to accurately calculate participation ratios for the thin dielectrics that are known sources of loss in superconducting qubits.

Gimbutas, Z. [NIST, Boulder] (ORCID:00000003320982↗
DOE OSTI2025

A scanning resonator for probing quantum coherent devices

Superconducting resonators with high quality factors are extremely sensitive detectors of the complex impedance of materials and devices coupled to them. This capability has been used to measure losses in multiple different materials and, in the case of circuit quantum electrodynamics (circuit QED), has been used to measure the coherent evolution of multiple different types of qubits. Here, we report on the implementation of a scanning resonator for probing quantum coherent devices. Our scanning setup enables tunable coherent coupling to systems of interest without the need for fabricating on-chip superconducting resonators. We measure the internal quality factor of our resonator sensor in the single-photon regime to be >104 and demonstrate capacitive imaging using our sensor with zeptoFarad sensitivity and micron spatial resolution at milliKelvin temperatures. We then use our setup to characterize the energy spectrum and coherence times of multiple transmon qubits with no on-chip readout circuitry. Our experiments introduce a new tool for using circuit QED to measure existing and proposed qubit platforms.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗