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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 OSTI2015

Magneto-transport of an electron bilayer system in an undoped Si/SiGe double-quantum-well heterostructure

We report the design, the fabrication, and the magneto-transport study of an electron bilayer system embedded in an undoped Si/SiGe double-quantum-well heterostructure. Additionally, the combined Hall densities (n Hall ) ranging from 2.6 × 10 10 cm -2 to 2.7 × 10 11 cm -2 were achieved, yielding a maximal combined Hall mobility (μ Hall ) of 7.7 × 10 5 cm 2 /(V • s) at the highest density. Simultaneous electron population of both quantum wells is clearly observed through a Hall mobility drop as the Hall density is increased to n Hall > 3.3 × 10 10 cm -2 , consistent with Schrödinger-Poisson simulations. Furthermore, the integer and fractional quantum Hall effects are observed in the device, and single-layer behavior is observed when both layers have comparable densities, either due to spontaneous interlayer coherence or to the symmetric-antisymmetric gap.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Thermal transport in tantalum oxide films for memristive applications

The thermal conductivity of amorphous TaO x memristive films having variable oxygen content is measured using time domain thermoreflectance. Furthermore, the thermal transport is described by a two-partmodel where the electrical contribution is quantified via the Wiedemann-Franz relation and the vibrational contribution by the minimum thermal conductivity limit for amorphous solids. Additionally, the vibrational contribution remains constant near 0.9 W/mK regardless of oxygen concentration, while the electrical contribution varies from 0 to 3.3 W/mK. Thus, the dominant thermal carrier in TaO x switches between vibrations and charge carriers and is controllable either by oxygen content during deposition, or dynamically by field-induced charge state migration.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Phase transitions and magnetocaloric and transport properties in off-stoichiometric GdNi{sub 2}Mn{sub x}

The structural, magnetic, magnetocaloric, transport, and magnetoresistance properties of the rare-earth intermetallic compounds GdNi{sub 2}Mn{sub x} (0.5 ≤ x ≤ 1.5) have been studied. The compounds with x = 0.5 and 0.6 crystallize in the cubic MgCu{sub 2} type phase, whereas samples with x ≥ 0.8 form a mixed MgCu{sub 2} and rhombohedral PuNi{sub 3} phase. A second order magnetic phase transition from a ferromagnetic to paramagnetic state was observed near the Curie temperature (T{sub C}). The GdNi{sub 2}Mn{sub x} (0.5 ≤ x ≤ 1.5) compounds order in a ferrimagnetic structure in the ground state. The largest observed values of magnetic entropy changes (at T{sub C} for ΔH = 5T) were 3.9, 3.5, and 3.1 J/kg K for x = 0.5, 0.6, and 0.8, respectively. The respective relative values of the cooling power were 395, 483, and 220 J/kg. These values are greater than some well-known prototype magnetocaloric materials such as Gd (400 J/kg) and Gd{sub 5}Si{sub 2}Ge{sub 2} (240 J/kg). Analysis of the resistivity data showed a T{sup 2} dependence at low temperatures, suggesting strong electron-phonon interactions, whereas at higher temperatures s-d scattering was dominated by the electron-phonon contribution, resulting in a slow increase in resistivity. Magnetoresistance values of ∼−1.1% were found for x = 0.5 near T{sub C}, and −7% for x = 1.5 near T = 80 K.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Magnetic and magneto-transport studies of substrate effect on the martensitic transformation in a NiMnIn shape memory alloy

The effect of substrates on the magnetic and transport properties of Ni{sub 2}Mn{sub 1.5}In{sub 0.5} ultra-thin films were studied theoretically and experimentally. High quality 8-nm films were grown by laser-assisted molecular beam epitaxy deposition. Magneto-transport measurements revealed that the films undergo electronic structure transformation similar to those of bulk materials at the martensitic transformation. The temperature of the transformation depends strongly on lattice parameters of the substrate. To explain this behavior, we performed DFT calculations on the system and found that different substrates change the relative stability of the ferromagnetic (FM) austenite and ferrimagnetic (FiM) martensite states. We conclude that the energy difference between the FM austenite and FiM martensite states in Ni{sub 2}Mn{sub 1.5}In{sub 0.5} films grown on MgO (001) substrates is ΔE = 0.20 eV per NiMnIn f.u, somewhat lower compared to ΔE = 0.24 eV in the bulk material with the same lattice parameters. When the lattice parameters of Ni{sub 2}Mn{sub 1.5}In{sub 0.5} film have values close to those of the MgO substrate, the energy difference becomes ΔE = 0.08 eV per NiMnIn f.u. These results suggest the possibility to control the martensitic transition in thin films through substrate engineering.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Spin-orbit coupling, electron transport and pairing instabilities in two-dimensional square structures

Rashba spin-orbit effects and electron correlations in the two-dimensional cylindrical lattices of square geometries are assessed using mesoscopic two-, three- and four-leg ladder structures. Here the electron transport properties are systematically calculated by including the spin-orbit coupling in tight binding and Hubbard models threaded by a magnetic flux. These results highlight important aspects of possible symmetry breaking mechanisms in square ladder geometries driven by the combined effect of a magnetic gauge field spin-orbit interaction and temperature. The observed persistent current, spin and charge polarizations in the presence of spin-orbit coupling are driven by separation of electron and hole charges and opposite spins in real-space. The modeled spin-flip processes on the pairing mechanism induced by the spin-orbit coupling in assembled nanostructures (as arrays of clusters) engineered in various two-dimensional multi-leg structures provide an ideal playground for understanding spatial charge and spin density inhomogeneities leading to electron pairing and spontaneous phase separation instabilities in unconventional superconductors. Such studies also fall under the scope of current challenging problems in superconductivity and magnetism, topological insulators and spin dependent transport associated with numerous interfaces and heterostructures.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Magnetic anisotropy, damping, and interfacial spin transport in Pt/LSMO bilayers

In this paper, we report ferromagnetic resonance measurements of magnetic anisotropy and damping in epitaxial La 0.7 Sr 0.3 MnO 3 (LSMO) and Pt capped LSMO thin films on SrTiO 3 (001) substrates. The measurements reveal large negative perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and a weaker uniaxial in-plane anisotropy that are unaffected by the Pt cap. The Gilbert damping of the bare LSMO films is found to be low α = 1.9(1) × 10 -3 , and two-magnon scattering is determined to be significant and strongly anisotropic. The Pt cap increases the damping by 50% due to spin pumping, which is also directly detected via inverse spin Hall effect in Pt. Our research demonstrates efficient spin transport across the Pt/LSMO interface.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Long-range energy transport in photosystem II

We simulate the long-range inter-complex electronic energy transfer in photosystem II—from the antenna complex, via a core complex, to the reaction center—using a non-Markovian (ZOFE) quantum master equation description that allows the electronic coherence involved in the energy transfer to be explicitly included at all length scales. This allows us to identify all locations where coherence is manifested and to further identify the pathways of the energy transfer in the full network of coupled chromophores using a description based on excitation probability currents. We investigate how the energy transfer depends on the initial excitation—localized, coherent initial excitation versus delocalized, incoherent initial excitation—and find that the overall energy transfer is remarkably robust with respect to such strong variations of the initial condition. To explore the importance of vibrationally enhanced transfer and to address the question of optimization in the system parameters, we systematically vary the strength of the coupling between the electronic and the vibrational degrees of freedom. We find that the natural parameters lie in a (broad) region that enables optimal transfer efficiency and that the overall long-range energy transfer on a ns time scale appears to be very robust with respect to variations in the vibronic coupling of up to an order of magnitude. Nevertheless, vibrationally enhanced transfer appears to be crucial to obtain a high transfer efficiency, with the latter falling sharply for couplings outside the optimal range. Comparison of our full quantum simulations to results obtained with a “classical” rate equation based on a modified-Redfield/generalized-Förster description previously used to simulate energy transfer dynamics in the entire photosystem II complex shows good agreement for the overall time scales of excitation energy transport.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2016

Magneto-transport analysis of an ultra-low-density two-dimensional hole gas in an undoped strained Ge/SiGe heterostructure

We report the magneto-transport, scattering mechanisms, and effective mass analysis of an ultra-low density two-dimensional hole gas capacitively induced in an undoped strained Ge/Si{sub 0.2}Ge{sub 0.8} heterostructure. This fabrication technique allows hole densities as low as p ∼ 1.1 × 10{sup 10 }cm{sup −2} to be achieved, more than one order of magnitude lower than previously reported in doped Ge/SiGe heterostructures. The power-law exponent of the electron mobility versus density curve, μ ∝ n{sup α}, is found to be α ∼ 0.29 over most of the density range, implying that background impurity scattering is the dominant scattering mechanism at intermediate densities in such devices. A charge migration model is used to explain the mobility decrease at the highest achievable densities. The hole effective mass is deduced from the temperature dependence of Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations. At p ∼ 1.0 × 10{sup 11 }cm{sup −2}, the effective mass m* is ∼0.105 m{sub 0}, which is significantly larger than masses obtained from modulation-doped Ge/SiGe two-dimensional hole gases.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

Electrochromic shift supports the membrane destabilization model of Tat-mediated transport and shows ion leakage during Sec transport

Significance Due to the transient nature of the active Tat complex, much of the knowledge available has been hard won. Electric-field-indicating absorbance transients allow investigation of transmembrane ion movement using native electric potential in thylakoids while circumventing challenges of reconstitution. Electrical behavior of transiently and/or constitutively assembled complexes suggests that Sec translocation occurs through a barrel-stave-type proteinaceous pore, while Tat translocation likely occurs through a toroidal pore. This would be the first instance of toroidal pores being exploited by a general protein translocation system. Our electrochemical analysis offers insight into how protein transport might be linked to light stimulation. Localized membrane destabilization presents a rational link between the proton motive force, membrane thinning, and Tat-mediated transport of substrates critical to photosynthesis.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Assessment of the Lagrange Discrete Ordinates Equations for Three-Dimensional Neutron Transport

The Lagrange Discrete Ordinates (LDO) equations, developed by Ahrens as an alternative to the traditional discrete ordinates formulation, have been implemented in Denovo, a threedimensional radiation transport code developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The LDO equations retain the formal structure of the classical discrete ordinates equations but treat particle scattering in a different way. Solutions of the LDO equations have an interpolatory structure such that the angular flux can be naturally evaluated at directions other than the discrete ordinates used in arriving at the solutions, and the ordinates themselves may be chosen in a strategic way for the problem under consideration. Of particular interest is that the LDO equations have been shown to mitigate ray effects at increased angular resolutions. In this paper we present scalar flux solutions of the LDO equations for a small number of test cases of interest and compare the results against flux solutions generated using standard quadrature types. The LDO equations’ flux solutions were found to be comparable to those resultant from the standard quadrature types in value; results from the LDO equations were also found to be commensurate with those of standard quadrature types when comparing the flux solutions in the context of the experimental benchmark test case examined.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Electrical and thermal transport properties of the electron-doped cuprate Sm 2- x Ce x CuO 4- y system

Electrical and thermal transport measurements were performed on thin films of the electron-doped superconductor Sm 2- x Ce x CuO 4- y (x = 0.13 - 0.19) in order to study the evolving nature of the charge carriers from the under-doped to over-doped regime. A temperature versus cerium content (T - x) phase diagram has been constructed from the electrical transport measurements, yielding a superconducting region similar to that found for other electron-doped superconductors. Thermopower measurements show a dramatic change from the underdoped region (x < 0.15) to the overdoped region (x > 0.15). Application of the Fisher–Fisher–Huse (FFH) vortex glass scaling model to the magnetoresistance data was found to be insufficient to describe the data in the region of the vortex-solid to vortex-liquid transition. It was found instead that the modified vortex glass scaling model of Rydh, Rapp, and Anderson provided a good description of the data, indicating the importance of the applied field on the pinning landscape. A magnetic field versus temperature (H - T) phase diagram has also been constructed for the films with $x\geqslant 0.14$ , displaying the evolution of the vortex glass melting lines H g (T) across the superconducting regime.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2018

Turbulent transport stabilization by ICRH minority fast ions in low rotating JET ILW L-mode plasmas

The first experimental demonstration that fast ion induced stabilization of thermal turbulent transport takes place also at low values of plasma toroidal rotation has been obtained in JET ILW (ITER-like wall) L-mode plasmas with high ( 3 He)-D ICRH (ion cyclotron resonance heating) power. A reduction of the gyro-Bohm normalized ion heat flux and higher values of the normalized ion temperature gradient have been observed at high ICRH power and low NBI (neutral beam injection) power and plasma rotation. Gyrokinetic simulations indicate that ITG (ion temperature gradient) turbulence stabilization induced by the presence of high-energetic 3 He ions is the key mechanism in order to explain the experimental observations. Two main mechanisms have been identified to be responsible for the turbulence stabilization: a linear electrostatic wave-fast particle resonance mechanism and a nonlinear electromagnetic mechanism. The dependence of the stabilization on the 3 He distribution function has also been studied.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2011

Electronic correlation and transport properties of nuclear fuel materials

The electronic structures and transport properties of a series of actinide monocarbides, mononitrides, and dioxides are studied systematically using a combination of density-functional theory and dynamical mean-field theory. The studied materials present different electronic correlation strength and degree of localization of 5f electrons, where a metal-insulator boundary naturally lies within. In the spectral function of Mott-insulating uranium oxide, a resonance peak is observed in both theory and experiment and may be understood as a generalized Zhang-Rice state. We also investigate the interplay between electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions, both of which are responsible for the transport in the metallic compounds. Our findings allow us to gain insight in the roles played by different scattering mechanisms, and suggest how to improve their thermal conductivities.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Extracting the jet transport coefficient from jet quenching in high-energy heavy-ion collisions

Within five different approaches to parton propagation and energy loss in dense matter, a phenomenological study of experimental data on suppression of large- p T single inclusive hadrons in heavy-ion collisions at both the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was carried out. The evolution of bulk medium used in the study for parton propagation was given by 2 + 1 dimensional or 3 + 1 dimensional hydrodynamic models which are also constrained by experimental data on bulk hadron spectra. Values for the jet transport parameter $\hat{q}$ at the center of the most central heavy-ion collisions are extracted or calculated within each model, with parameters for the medium properties that are constrained by experimental data on the hadron suppression factor R AA . For a quark with initial energy of 10 GeV we find that $\hat{q}$ ≈ 1.2 ± 0.3 GeV 2 /fm at an initial time τ 0 = 0.6 fm/ c in Au + Au collisions at √s = 200 GeV/n and $\hat{q}$ ≈ 1.9 ± 0.7 GeV 2 /fm in Pb + Pb collisions at √s = 2.76 TeV/n. Compared to earlier studies, these represent significant convergence on values of the extracted jet transport parameter due to new constraints provided by recent experiment data from the LHC.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Optimizing Traffic Signal Control to Enhance Transportation Efficiency and Maximize Pedestrian Benefits in the Road Network

Increasing urban mobility requirements demand efficient transportation system strategies for both vehicular and pedestrian movement. This study enhances the Decentralized Graph-based Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (DGMARL) approach, originally tailored for vehicular traffic signal timing, to incorporate pedestrian traffic dynamics. The improved algorithm considers crucial metrics such as Eco_PI, assesses vehicle fuel consumption by factoring in stops and delays, and addresses pedestrian waiting time, crucial for system efficiency while acknowledging driver waiting time impact. Utilizing Digital Twin simulation along the MLK Smart Corridor in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the algorithm's performance is compared for various pedestrian control scenarios. To evaluate the effectiveness of DGMARL, this study compared DGMARL-enabled signal management with automated pedestrian traffic detection and an actuated signal management system (real-word baseline) with pedestrian recall, which predetermingly enforces a pedestrian phase every cycle. Findings indicate substantial improvements with DGMARL, showing a 28.29% enhancement in vehicle Eco_PI, a 60.55 % reduction in pedestrian waiting time, and a 55.74% decrease in driver stop delay, on average, compared to the baseline actuated signal timing plan.

Kumarasamy, Vijayalakshmi K [The University of Ten↗
DOE OSTI2025

Pyrolyzer Assisted Vapor Transport Deposition of Antimony-Doped Cadmium Telluride

In this study, we developed a new method for in situ Sb doping of CdTe thin films combining vapor transport deposition with a Group V pyrolyzer to address Sb doping concentration and doping efficiency. The Sb doped CdSeTe (CdSeTe:Sb) films were deposited in solar cell structures under variations of Sb dopant source heater, vapor pyrolyzer temperature, and Cd vapor excess. Results indicate that although these parameters do not affect the CdTe morphology or crystal structure, they critically influence doping efficiency and trap concentration. Capacitance-voltage measurements show that a higher dopant heater (TD) or pyrolyzer (TP) temperature leads to higher net carrier concentration, achieving a net carrier concentration of 1016 cm-3 and 20% doping efficiency with a TD/TP combination of 600 degrees C/1100 degrees C. By tuning the Cd/Sb flux ratio during CdSeTe:Sb deposition, the lowest defect concentration is achieved at Cd/Sb of 1.4:1, which produced the best VOC CdSeTe:Sb cell. This demonstrates a path to produce high net carrier concentration polycrystalline CdTe thin film with a low concentration of dopant-induced defects.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗