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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 433 records · Page 24
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

Imprint control of BaTiO 3 thin films via chemically induced surface polarization pinning

Surface-adsorbed polar molecules can significantly alter the ferroelectric properties of oxide thin films. Thus, fundamental understanding and controlling the effect of surface adsorbates are crucial for the implementation of ferroelectric thin film devices, such as ferroelectric tunnel junctions. Herein, we report an imprint control of BaTiO 3 (BTO) thin films by chemically induced surface polarization pinning in the top few atomic layers of the water-exposed BTO films. Our studies based on synchrotron X-ray scattering and coherent Bragg rod analysis demonstrate that the chemically induced surface polarization is not switchable but reduces the polarization imprint and improves the bistability of ferroelectric phase in BTO tunnel junctions. Here, we conclude that the chemical treatment of ferroelectric thin films with polar molecules may serve as a simple yet powerful strategy to enhance functional properties of ferroelectric tunnel junctions for their practical applications.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2013

Strongly enhanced flux pinning in one-step deposition of BaFe 2 (As 0.66 P 0.33 ) 2 superconductor films with uniformly dispersed BaZrO 3 nanoparticles

The high upper critical field and low anisotropy of the iron-based superconductor BaFe 2 As 2 make it promising for its use in the construction of superconducting magnets. However, its critical current density in high magnetic fields needs to be improved. Here we demonstrate a simple, one-step and industrially scalable means of achieving just this. We show that introducing controlled amounts of uniformly dispersed BaZrO 3 nanoparticles into carrier doped BaFe 2 As 2 significantly improves its superconducting performance without degrading its structural or superconducting properties. Our BaFe 2 (As 0.66 P 0.33 ) 2 films also exhibit an increase in both the irreversibility line and critical current density at all magnetic-field orientations. These films exhibit nearly isotropic critical current densities in excess of 1.5 MA cm –2 at 15 K and 1 T—seven times higher than previously reported for BaFe 2 As 2 films. The vortex-pinning force in these films reaches ~59 GN m –3 at 5 K and 3–9 T, substantially higher than that of the conventional Nb 3 Sn wire.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2026

Pinning ångström-size solid ionic channels for rare-earth element separation

High-purity rare-earth elements are essential for modern technologies, yet current solvent extraction processes are energy-intensive and environmentally harmful because of inadequate selectivity and ligand toxicity. Although combining size exclusion and binding affinity can improve lanthanide separation, the role of long-range confinement remains underexplored. Here we report lanthanide separation in aqueous systems using extremely confined manganese oxide solid ionic channels with optimized layer spacing. Different lanthanides induce distinct solid-state phase transformations in manganese oxide, creating a strong driving force for separation. Two lanthanide groups, differing by ~1.4 Å in spacing, were identified and confirmed to be stable by density functional theory. The narrower confinement of heavier Group II lanthanides improves cross-group separation by increasing the dehydration barrier for lighter Group I lanthanides without inducing strong binding. Here, we further developed a strategy to pin the confinement dimensions and enhance same-group separation, increasing enrichment factors for La–Nd and La–Pr pairs from 1.6 ± 0.1 and 1.5 ± 0.1 to 5.4 ± 0.1 and 4.2 ± 0.1, respectively.

Chemical engineering↗
DOE OSTI2015

Dynamic phases, pinning, and pattern formation for driven dislocation assemblies

We examine driven dislocation assemblies and show that they can exhibit a set of dynamical phases remarkably similar to those of driven systems with quenched disorder such as vortices in superconductors, magnetic domain walls, and charge density wave materials. These phases include pinned-jammed, fluctuating, and dynamically ordered states, and each produces distinct dislocation patterns as well as specific features in the noise fluctuations and transport properties. Lastly, our work suggests that many of the results established for systems with quenched disorder undergoing plastic depinning transitions can be applied to dislocation systems, providing a new approach for understanding pattern formation and dynamics in these systems.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Geometrical Vortex Lattice Pinning and Melting in YBaCuO Submicron Bridges.

Since the discovery of high-temperature superconductors (HTSs), most efforts of researchers have been focused on the fabrication of superconducting devices capable of immobilizing vortices, hence of operating at enhanced temperatures and magnetic fields. Recent findings that geometric restrictions may induce self-arresting hypervortices recovering the dissipation-free state at high fields and temperatures made superconducting strips a mainstream of superconductivity studies. Here in this paper we report on the geometrical melting of the vortex lattice in a wide YBCO submicron bridge preceded by magnetoresistance (MR) oscillations fingerprinting the underlying regular vortex structure. Combined magnetoresistance measurements and numerical simulations unambiguously relate the resistance oscillations to the penetration of vortex rows with intermediate geometrical pinning and uncover the details of geometrical melting. Our findings offer a reliable and reproducible pathway for controlling vortices in geometrically restricted nanodevices and introduce a novel technique of geometrical spectroscopy, inferring detailed information of the structure of the vortex system through a combined use of MR curves and large-scale simulations.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Destructive reverse bias pinning in perovskite/silicon tandem solar modules caused by perovskite hysteresis under dynamic shading

In this work, we demonstrate how perovskite hysteresis can result in permanent reductions in power output in perovskite/silicon tandem modules—including irreversible hotspot-induced damage—from only brief periods of shading. We show that reverse bias events in which a perovskite cell is biased above a threshold voltage—which in this work we find to be as low as –1.1 V—produces a temporary reduction in power output that is of sufficient magnitude to keep the cell pinned in reverse bias after the shading event ends. As a hysteretic phenomena, this crucial failure mode may be overlooked by static models of perovskite-based solar cells. Higher reverse bias voltages exacerbate the temporary reduction in short-circuit photocurrent, which is also sensitive to the level of illumination under reverse bias. Numerical device modelling demonstrates that this effect is consistent with our understanding of perovskite hysteresis as a consequence of mobile ion-electron coupling controlling rates of non-radiative recombination over time. Measurements of the dynamic response of single-junction perovskite cells are extrapolated to two-terminal and four-terminal perovskite/silicon tandem module modelling. We validate these models with measurements from an equivalent electronic circuit that represents a two-terminal perovskite–silicon tandem mini module. Two module-level solutions are discussed that address this issue, which includes increasing the number of bypass diodes and choosing better suited silicon bottom cells with higher shunter resistance in two-terminal tandem modules.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Pinning dislocations in colloidal crystals with active particles that seek stacking faults

There is growing interest in functional, adaptive devices built from colloidal subunits of micron size or smaller. A colloidal material with dynamic mechanical properties could facilitate such microrobotic machines. Here we study via computer simulation how active interstitial particles in small quantities can be used to modify the bulk mechanical properties of a colloidal crystal. Passive interstitial particles are known to pin dislocations in metals, thereby increasing resistance to plastic deformation. We extend this tactic by employing anisotropic active interstitials that travel super-diffusively and bind strongly to stacking faults associated with partial dislocations. We find that: (1) interstitials that are effective at reducing plasticity compromise between strong binding to stacking faults and high mobility in the crystal bulk. (2) Reorientation of active interstitials in the crystal depends upon rotational transitions between high-symmetry crystal directions. (3) The addition of certain active interstitial shapes at concentrations as low as 60 per million host particles (0.006%) can create a shear threshold for dislocation migration. This work demonstrates how active materials in a dense matrix can locally sense their environment and lead to bulk property changes.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Fermi level de-pinning of aluminium contacts to n-type germanium using thin atomic layer deposited layers

Fermi-level pinning of aluminium on n-type germanium (n-Ge) was reduced by insertion of a thin interfacial dielectric by atomic layer deposition. The barrier height for aluminium contacts on n-Ge was reduced from 0.7 eV to a value of 0.28 eV for a thin Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} interfacial layer (∼2.8 nm). For diodes with an Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} interfacial layer, the contact resistance started to increase for layer thicknesses above 2.8 nm. For diodes with a HfO{sub 2} interfacial layer, the barrier height was also reduced but the contact resistance increased dramatically for layer thicknesses above 1.5 nm.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Current-induced switching of magnetic tunnel junctions: Effects of field-like spin-transfer torque, pinned-layer magnetization orientation, and temperature

We study current-induced switching in magnetic tunnel junctions in the presence of a field-like spin-transfer torque and titled pinned-layer magnetization in the high current limit at finite temperature. We consider both the Slonczewski and field-like torques with coefficients a{sub J} and b{sub J}, respectively. At finite temperatures, σ=b{sub J}/a{sub J}=±1 leads to a smaller mean switching time compared that with σ=0. The reduction of switching time in the presence of the field-like term is due to the alignment effect (for σ>0) and the initial torque effect.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Fermi level pinning and the charge transfer contribution to the energy of adsorption at semiconducting surfaces

It is shown that charge transfer, the process analogous to formation of semiconductor p-n junction, contributes significantly to adsorption energy at semiconductor surfaces. For the processes without the charge transfer, such as molecular adsorption of closed shell systems, the adsorption energy is determined by the bonding only. In the case involving charge transfer, such as open shell systems like metal atoms or the dissociating molecules, the energy attains different value for the Fermi level differently pinned. The Density Functional Theory (DFT) simulation of species adsorption at different surfaces, such as SiC(0001) or GaN(0001) confirms these predictions: the molecular adsorption is independent on the coverage, while the dissociative process adsorption energy varies by several electronvolts.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Linear nanometric tunnel junction sensors with exchange pinned sensing layer

Highly sensitive nanosensors with high spatial resolution provide the necessary features for high accuracy imaging of isolated magnetic nanoparticles. In this work, we report the fabrication and characterization of MgO-barrier magnetic tunnel junction nanosensors, with two exchange-pinned electrodes. The perpendicular magnetization configuration for field sensing is set using a two-step annealing process, where the second annealing temperature was optimized to yield patterned sensors responses with improved linearity. The optimized circular nanosensors show sensitivities up to 0.1%/Oe, larger than previously reported for nanometric sensors and comparable to micrometric spin-valves. Our strategy avoids the use of external permanent biasing or demagnetizing fields (large for smaller structures) to achieve a linear response, enabling the control of the linear operation range using only the stack and thus providing a small footprint device.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Fermi level pinning in Fe-doped PbTe under pressure

We synthesize an iron-doped PbTe single-crystal ingot and investigate the phase and the elemental composition as well as galvanomagnetic properties in weak magnetic fields (4.2 K≤T≤300 K, B ≤ 0.07 T) of Pb{sub 1−y}Fe{sub y}Te alloys upon varying the iron content, at atmospheric pressure and under hydrostatic compression up to 10 kilobars. We find an increase of iron concentration along the length of the ingot and the appearance of microscopic inclusions enriched with iron in the heavily doped samples. Lightly doped alloys are characterized by the p-type metal conductivity. An increase of the iron impurity content leads to a decrease in the free hole concentration, a stabilization of galvanomagnetic parameters, indicating the pinning of the Fermi energy by the iron resonant impurity level lying under the bottom of the valence band, and to the p-n inversion of the conductivity type. Under pressure, the free hole concentration in the sample, in which the stabilization of galvanomagnetic parameters takes place, increases by approximately a factor of four due to the flow of electrons from the valence band to the iron-induced resonant level. Using the two-band Kane and the six-band Dimmock dispersion relations, the pressure dependence of the Fermi energy is calculated. The model of the electronic structure rearrangement of Pb{sub 1−y}Fe{sub y}Te under pressure is proposed. The energy position and the pressure coefficient of the resonant iron impurity level are determined.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Cooperative spin freezing and the pinning assisted thermoremanent magnetization in Ni{sub 2.04}Mn{sub 1.36}Sn{sub 0.6} alloy

Detailed investigation on the ground-state magnetic properties of Ni{sub 2.04}Mn{sub 1.36}Sn{sub 0.6} alloy is reported. The sample undergoes martensitic type structural transformation from a cubic austenite phase to an orthorhombic martensite phase on cooling around T{sub M} = 220 K. It orders ferromagnetically just above room temperature with T{sub C} = 310 K. The phases above and below T{sub M} are predominantly ferromagnetic, although incipient antiferromagnetic correlations have been mooted between the Mn atoms sitting at two different crystallographic sites. The zero-field-cooled magnetic state shows a step like anomaly around T{sub B} = 100 K, and the sample is found to show clear signature of spin glass like behaviour below this point. It is also associated with considerable exchange bias effect below T{sub B}, where horizontal shift of isothermal magnetization loop is observed in the field-cooled state. Apart from exchange bias, there exists large thermoremanent magnetization. Interestingly, the thermoremanent magnetization obtained by cooling the sample from above and just below the first order martensitic transition failed to show any sizable change, which rules out any major role of field induced arrest across the first order transition. The observed thermoremanent magnetization is presumably due to the effect of pinning of uncompensated spins in this magnetically inhomogeneous system with random ferromagnetic as well as antiferromagnetic bonds on field cooling through the onset point (T{sub B}) of the spin-glass like state.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Electrical modeling of InAs/GaSb superlattice mid-wavelength infrared pin photodiode to analyze experimental dark current characteristics

Dark current characteristics of 7 Monolayers (ML) InAs/ 4 ML GaSb SL pin photodiodes are simulated using ATLAS software. Using appropriate models and material parameters, we obtain good agreement between the simulated and the experimental dark current curves of photodiodes grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The n-type non-intentionally-doped (nid) SL samples exhibit a dependence of the lifetime with temperature following the T{sup -1/2} law, signature of Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) Generation-Recombination current. We also studied the dependence of the dark current with the absorber doping level. It appears that the absorber doping level must not exceed a value of 2×10¹⁵cm⁻³, above this value the dark current is increasing with increased doping level. However for this doping value, a dark current as low as 5 × 10⁻⁹ A/cm², at 50 mV reverse bias at 77 K can be obtained.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Suppression of stochastic pinning in magnetic nanowire devices using “virtual” domain walls

We have investigated the pinning and depinning of “virtual” domain walls in planar magnetic nanowires. Such virtual walls are created when a conventional domain wall becomes annihilated at a narrow gap between two segments of a discontinuous nanowire. By using focused magneto-optical Kerr effect magnetometry to study the repeatability of their depinning, we show that virtual walls exhibit single-mode depinning distributions, characterized by remarkably low, sub-Oersted standard deviations. This is in stark contrast to the depinning of domain walls from conventional notch-shaped defects, which typically exhibit multi-mode depinning field distributions spanning tens to hundreds of Oersteds. High-resolution magnetic soft x-ray microscopy measurements are used to reveal that this high level of repeatability is the result of a simple mediated-nucleation process, which decouples the depinning mechanism from structure of the initially injected DWs. Our work serves as an example of how the complex and dynamical stochastic behaviors exhibited by domain walls in nanowires can be controlled.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2014

Equilibrium ultrastable glasses produced by random pinning

Ultrastable glasses have risen to prominence due to their potentially useful material properties and the tantalizing possibility of a general method of preparation via vapor deposition. Despite the importance of this novel class of amorphous materials, numerical studies have been scarce because achieving ultrastability in atomistic simulations is an enormous challenge. Here, we bypass this difficulty and establish that randomly pinning the position of a small fraction of particles inside an equilibrated supercooled liquid generates ultrastable configurations at essentially no numerical cost, while avoiding undesired structural changes due to the preparation protocol. Building on the analogy with vapor-deposited ultrastable glasses, we study the melting kinetics of these configurations following a sudden temperature jump into the liquid phase. In homogeneous geometries, we find that enhanced kinetic stability is accompanied by large scale dynamic heterogeneity, while a competition between homogeneous and heterogeneous melting is observed when a liquid boundary invades the glass at constant velocity. Our work demonstrates the feasibility of large-scale, atomistically resolved, and experimentally relevant simulations of the kinetics of ultrastable glasses.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

Stability of a pinned magnetic domain wall as a function of its internal configuration

It is shown that there are many stable configurations for a domain wall pinned by a notch along a magnetic stripe. The stability of several of these configurations is investigated numerically as a function of the thickness of the magnetic film. The depinning mechanism depends on the structure of the domain wall and on the thickness of the magnetic film. In the case of a spin-valve structure, it appears that the stray fields emerging from the hard layer at the notch location influence the stability of the micromagnetic configuration. Different depinning mechanisms are thus observed for the same film thickness depending on the magnetization orientation of the propagating domain. This conclusion qualitatively explains experimental magnetoresistance measurements.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Neutral gas temperature maps of the pin-to-plate argon micro discharge into the ambient air

This study is designed to explore the two dimensional temperature maps of the atmospheric argon discharge consisting of pin-to-plane electrodes supplied by a high voltage DC source. After checking the stability of the micro discharge, the two dimensional image plane focused by a quartz lens was scanned by the fiber probe driven by a 3D Mobile Platform. The rotational and vibrational temperatures are calculated using nitrogen emissions collected by the high resolution spectrometer and high sensitive intensified charge coupled device. The rotational temperature varies from 1558.15 K to 2621.14 K and vibrational temperature varies from 3010.38 K to 3774.69 K, indicating a great temperature gradient due to small discharge size. The temperature maps show a lateral expansion and a sharp truncation in the radial direction. A double layers discharge is identified, where an arc discharge coats the glow discharge.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗