Radiation damage - Electron impact
Charge state of recoil ions produced by direct impact from high energy electrons - development of analyzing apparatus
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Charge state of recoil ions produced by direct impact from high energy electrons - development of analyzing apparatus
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Booklet discusses damage to electronic components caused by electrostatic discharges during assembly. Describes procedure for setting up static-free workplace for handling and assembling electronic components.
Solar cells operated in space are subject to degradation from electron and proton radiation damage. It has been found that for deep junction p-GaAlAs/p-GaAs solar cells some of the electron radiation damage is removed by annealing the cells at 200 C. The reported investigation shows that shallow junction p-GaAlAs/p-GaAs/n-GaAs heteroface solar cells irradiated with 1 MeV electrons show a more complete recovery of short-circuit current than do the deep junction cells. The heteroface p-GaAlAs/p-GaAs/n-GaAs solar cells studied were fabricated using the etch-back epitaxy process.
Low energy electrons (LEEs) are produced in copious amounts by the primary radiation used in radiation therapy. The damage caused to the DNA by these secondary electrons in the energy range 5-22 eV has been studied to understand their possible role in radiation induced damage. Electrons are irradiated on dried films of plasmid DNA (pQE30) and analysed using agarose gel electrophoresis. Single strand breaks (SSBs) induced by LEE to supercoiled plasmid DNA show resonance structures at 7, 12, and 15 eV for low doses and 6, 10, and {approx}18 eV at saturation doses. The present measurements have an overall agreement with the literature that LEEs resonantly induce SSBs in DNA. Resonant peaks in the SSBs induced by LEEs at 7, 12, and 15 eV with the lowest employed dose in the current study are somewhat different from those reported earlier by two groups. The observed differences are perhaps related to the irradiation dose, conditions and the nature of DNA employed, which is further elaborated.
The effects of radiation damage on modern electronic and optoelectronics is discussed.
Electron radiation bulk damage effects on Si surface barrier detectors, determining reverse leakage current density and alpha particle response changes
Measurements of thermal annealing of GaAlAs/GaAs solar cells damaged by 1 MeV electron irradiation are reported, and the magnitude of the short-circuit current recovery is discussed. The damaged cells are annealed in a vacuum at 200 C. A cell irradiated at 10 to the 13th power electrons per sq cm recovers all its lost short-circuit current after 15 hours of annealing. Possible application of the annealing process to solar cells in space is also considered.
Radiolysis ionization under electron beam illumination induces dissociation and damage of organic and biological molecules; thus, it is impossible to image the related materials by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). To understand the atomistic mechanism of radiolysis damage, we developed a systematical procedure based on real-time time-dependent density functional theory (rt-TDDFT) for simulating the radiolysis damage processes of molecules; this procedure can describe the ionization cross sections of the electronic states and the fast dissociation processes caused by hot carrier cooling and the Auger decay on deep levels. For the radiolysis damage of C 2 H 6 O 2 , our simulation unexpectedly showed that there is strong competition among three different dissociation paths, including fast dissociation caused by nonadiabatic cooling of the hot carrier; fast dissociation caused by Auger decay, which induces double ionization and Coulomb explosion; and slow dissociation caused by increased kinetic energy. As the energy of the incident electron beam changes, the time scales of these dissociation paths and their relative contributions to the molecule damage change significantly. These simulation results explain the measured mass spectra of the C 2 H 6 O 2 dissociation fragments and also provide clear competition mechanisms for blocking these dissociation paths in the TEM imaging of organic and biological materials.
Gamma ray measurements are important for monitoring of nuclear facilities. Robotic platforms are used to carry radiation detectors and cameras to enable remote sensing and visual surveillance, allowing for the operation in hazardous, hard to reach zones. The prediction of radiation damage in electronic components of robots is vital. The radiation damage analysis was carried out for two robotic platforms exposed to neutron and gamma ray flux: a ground hexapod platform PhantomX (a 'spider robot') and an aerial platform - the DJI S1000+ octocopter. The FLUKA code was used to analyze the displacement per atom values in electronic components of these robots. The packaging of the components and the shielding design was determined to increase the robot's lifetime in areas where radiation dose levels are high. (authors)
In this project, the specific effects of displacement damage due to the passage of protons and helium nuclei on some typical electronic materials will be evaluated and contrasted. As the electronic material absorbs the energetic proton and helium momentum, degradation of performance occurs, eventually leading to overall failure. Helium nuclei traveling at the same speed as protons are expected to impart more to the material displacement damage; due to the larger mass, and thus momentum, of helium nuclei compared to protons. Damage due to displacement of atoms in their crystalline structure can change the physical properties and hence performance of the electronic materials.
Materials can, in principle, be imaged at the level of individual atoms with aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy. However, such resolution can be attained only with very high electron doses. Consequently, radiation damage is often the limiting factor when characterizing sensitive materials. Here, we demonstrate a simple and an effective method to increase the electron radiation tolerance of materials by using graphene as protective coating. This leads to an improvement of three orders of magnitude in the radiation tolerance of monolayer MoS{sub 2}. Further on, we construct samples in different heterostructure configurations to separate the contributions of different radiation damage mechanisms.
As a consequence of preparations concerning the International Space Welding Experiment (ISWE), studies were performed to better understand the effect of molten metal contact and electron beam impingement with various fabrics for space suit applications. The question arose as to what would occur if the electron beam from the Ukrainian Universal Hand Tool (UHT) designed for welding in space were to impinge upon a piece of Nextel AF-62 ceramic cloth designed to withstand temperatures up to 1427 C. The expectation was that the electron beam would lay down a static charge pattern with no damage to the ceramic fabric. The electron beam is capable of spraying the fabric with enough negative charge to repel further electrons from the fabric before significant heating occurs. The static charge pattern would deflect any further charge accumulation except for a small initial amount of leakage to the grounded surface of the welder. However, when studies were made of the effect of the electron beam on the insulating ceramic fabric it was surprisingly found that the electron beam did indeed burn through the ceramic fabric. It was also found that the shorter electron beam standoff distances had longer burnthrough times than did some greater electron beam standoff distances. A possible explanation for the longer burnthrough times for the small electron beam standoff distance would be outgassing of the fabric which caused the electron beam hand-tool to cycle on and off to provide some protection for the cathodes. The electron beam hand tool was observed to cycle off at the short standoff distance of two inches likely due to vapors being outgassed. During the electron beam welding process there is an electron leakage, or current leakage, flow from the fabric. A static charge pattern is initially laid down by the electron beam current flow. The static charge makes up the current leakage flow which initially slightly heats up the fabric. The initially laid down surface charge leaks a small amount of current. The rate at which the current charge leaks from the fabric controls how fast the fabric heats up. As the ceramic fabric is heated it begins to outgass primarily from contamination/impurities atoms or molecules on and below the fabric surface. The contaminant gases ionize to create extra charge carriers and multiply a current of electrons. The emitted gas which ionized in the electron leakage flow promotes further leakage. Thus, the small leakage of charge from the fabric surface is enhanced by outgassing. When the electron beam current makes up the lost current, the incoming electrons heat the fabric and further enhance the outgassing. The additional leakage promotes additional heating up of the ceramic fabric. The electrons bound to the ceramic fabric surface leak off more and more as the surface gets hotter promoting even greater leakage. The additional electrons that result also gain energy in the field and produce further electrons. Eventually the process becomes unstable and accelerates to the point where a hole is burned through the fabric.
Solar cells (2 cm by 2 cm (AlGa) As-GaAs cells) were fabricated and then subjected to irradiation at normal incidence by electrons. The influence of junction depth and n-type buffer layer doping level on the cell's resistance to radiation damage was investigated. The study shows that (1) a 0.3 micrometer deep junction results in lower damage to the cells than does a 0.5 micrometer junction, and (2) lowering the n buffer layer doping density does not improve the radiation resistance of the cell. Rather, lowering the doping density decreases the solar cell's open circuit voltage. Some preliminary thermal annealing experiments in vacuum were performed on the (AlGa)As-GaAs solar cells damaged by 1-MeV electron irradiation. The results show that cell performance can be expected to partially recover at 200 C with more rapid and complete recovery occurring at higher temperature. For a 0.5hr anneal at 400 C, 90% of the initial power is recovered. The characteristics of the (AlGa)As-GaAs cells both before and after irradiation are described.
Electron irradiation energy thresholds for producing damage in polycrystalline tungsten wire
Crucial to analyze phenomena as varied as plasmonic hot spots and the spread of cancer in living tissue, nanoscale thermometry is challenging: probes are usually larger than the sample under study, and contact techniques may alter the sample temperature itself. Many photostable nanomaterials whose luminescence is temperature-dependent, such as lanthanide-doped phosphors, have been shown to be good non-contact thermometric sensors when optically excited. Using such nanomaterials, in this work we accomplished the key milestone of enabling far-field thermometry with a spatial resolution that is not diffraction-limited at readout. We explore thermal effects on the cathodoluminescence of lanthanide-doped NaYF$_4$ nanoparticles. Whereas cathodoluminescence from such lanthanide-doped nanomaterials has been previously observed, here we use quantitative features of such emission for the first time towards an application beyond localization. We demonstrate a thermometry scheme that is based on cathodoluminescence lifetime changes as a function of temperature that achieves $\sim$ 30 mK sensitivity in sub-$\mu$m nanoparticle patches. The scheme is robust against spurious effects related to electron beam radiation damage and optical alignment fluctuations. We foresee the potential of single nanoparticles, of sheets of nanoparticles, and also of thin films of lanthanide-doped NaYF$_4$ to yield temperature information via cathodoluminescence changes when in the vicinity of a sample of interest; the phosphor may even protect the sample from direct contact to damaging electron beam radiation. Cathodoluminescence-based thermometry is thus a valuable novel tool towards temperature monitoring at the nanoscale, with broad applications including heat dissipation in miniaturized electronics and biological diagnostics.
X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) show great promise for macromolecular structure determination from sub-micrometre-sized crystals, using the emerging method of serial femtosecond crystallography. The extreme brightness of the XFEL radiation can multiply ionize most, if not all, atoms in a protein, causing their scattering factors to change during the pulse, with a preferential `bleaching' of heavy atoms. This paper investigates the effects of electronic damage on experimental data collected from a Gd derivative of lysozyme microcrystals at different X-ray intensities, and the degree of ionization of Gd atoms is quantified from phased difference Fourier maps. In conclusion, a pattern sorting scheme is proposed to maximize the ionization contrast and the way in which the local electronic damage can be used for a new experimental phasing method is discussed.