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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 OSTI2014

Organic field-effect transistor nonvolatile memories utilizing sputtered C nanoparticles as nano-floating-gate

High-performance organic field-effect transistor nonvolatile memories have been achieved using sputtered C nanoparticles as the nano-floating-gate. The sputtered C nano-floating-gate is prepared with low-cost material and simple process, forming uniform and discrete charge trapping sites covered by a smooth and complete polystyrene layer. The devices show large memory window, excellent retention capability, and programming/reading/erasing/reading endurance. The sputtered C nano-floating-gate can effectively trap both holes and electrons, and it is demonstrated to be suitable for not only p-type but also n-type organic field-effect transistor nonvolatile memories.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Biomanufacturing and self-propulsion dynamics of nanoscale bacteria-enabled autonomous delivery systems

Flagellated bacteria have superb self-propulsion capabilities and are able to effectively move through highly viscous fluid and semi-solid (porous) environments. This innate aptitude has been harvested for whole-cell actuation of bio-hybrid microrobotic systems with applications in directed transport and microassembly. In this work, we present the biomanufacturing of Nanoscale Bacteria-Enabled Autonomous Delivery Systems (NanoBEADS) by controlled self-assembly and investigate the role of nanoparticle load on the dynamics of their self-propulsion in aqueous environments. Each NanoBEADS agent is comprised of spherical polystyrene nanoparticles assembled onto the body of a flagellated Escherichia coli bacterium. We demonstrate that the NanoBEADS assembly configuration is strongly dependent upon the nanoparticles to bacteria ratio. Furthermore, we characterized the stochastic motion of the NanoBEADS as a function of the quantity and size of the nanoparticle load and computationally analyzed the effect of the nanoparticle load on the experienced drag force. We report that the average NanoBEADS swimming speed is reduced to 65% of the free-swimming bacteria speed (31 μm/s) at the highest possible load. NanoBEADS can be utilized as single agents or in a collaborative swarm in order to carry out specific tasks in a wide range of applications ranging from drug delivery to whole cell biosensing.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Transferred metal electrode films for large-area electronic devices

The evaporation of metal-film gate electrodes for top-gate organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) limits the minimum thickness of the polymer gate dielectric to typically more than 300 nm due to deep hot metal atom penetration and damage of the dielectric. We show here that the self-release layer transfer method recently developed for high-quality graphene transfer is also capable of giving high-quality metal thin-film transfers to produce high-performance capacitors and OFETs with superior dielectric breakdown strength even for ultrathin polymer dielectric films. Dielectric breakdown strengths up to 5–6 MV cm{sup −1} have been obtained for 50-nm thin films of polystyrene and a cyclic olefin copolymer TOPAS{sup ®} (Zeon). High-quality OFETs with sub-10 V operational voltages have been obtained this way using conventional polymer dielectrics and a high-mobility polymer semiconductor poly[2,5-bis(3-tetradecylthiophene-2-yl)thieno[3,2-b]thiophene-2,5-diyl]. The transferred metal films can make reliable contacts without damaging ultrathin polymer films, self-assembled monolayers and graphene, which is not otherwise possible from evaporated or sputtered metal films.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Enhancing optical power of GaN-based light-emitting diodes by nanopatterning on indium tin oxide with tunable fill factor using multiple-exposure nanosphere-lens lithography

In this study, the multiple-exposure nanosphere-lens lithography method utilizing the polystyrene nanospheres with focusing behavior is investigated and introduced to fabricate diverse photonic crystals (PCs) on indium tin oxide to enhance the optical output power of GaN-based light-emitting diode (LED). Simulated results indicate that the focused light intensity decreases with increasing tilted angle due to the shadow effect introduced by adjacent nanospheres. The fill factor of nanopattern is tunable by controlling tilted angles and exposure times. To attain quadruple PC without overlapping patterns, mathematical calculation model is used to define the optimum range of tilted angles. Angular emission patterns and three-dimensional finite-difference time domain simulated results indicate that the enhanced light extraction of PC LEDs results mainly from diffused scattering effects, and the diffraction effects of PC on light extracted efficiency increase with the increase of fill factor. Furthermore, it is confirmed that the multiple PC can extract more light from GaN into air than common PC with same period and fill factor.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Photothermally controlled Marangoni flow around a micro bubble

We have experimentally investigated the control of Marangoni flow around a micro bubble using photothermal conversion. Using a focused laser spot acting as a highly localized heat source on Au nanoparticles/dielectric/Ag mirror thin film enables us to create a micro bubble and to control the temperature gradient around the bubble at a micrometer scale. When we irradiate the laser next to the bubble, a strong main flow towards the bubble and two symmetric rotation flows on either side of it develop. The shape of this rotation flow shows a significant transformation depending on the relative position of the bubble and the laser spot. Using this controllable rotation flow, we have demonstrated sorting of the polystyrene spheres with diameters of 2 μm and 0.75 μm according to their size.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Memory operation mechanism of fullerene-containing polymer memory

The memory operation mechanism in fullerene-containing nanocomposite gate insulators was investigated while varying the kind of fullerene in a polymer gate insulator. It was cleared what kind of traps and which positions in the nanocomposite the injected electrons or holes are stored in. The reason for the difference in the easiness of programming was clarified taking the role of the charging energy of an injected electron into account. The dependence of the carrier dynamics on the kind of fullerene molecule was investigated. A nonuniform distribution of injected carriers occurred after application of a large magnitude programming voltage due to the width distribution of the polystyrene barrier between adjacent fullerene molecules. Through the investigations, we demonstrated a nanocomposite gate with fullerene molecules having excellent retention characteristics and a programming capability. This will lead to the realization of practical organic memories with fullerene-containing polymer nanocomposites.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Zinc oxide modified with benzylphosphonic acids as transparent electrodes in regular and inverted organic solar cell structures

An approach is presented to modify the work function of solution-processed sol-gel derived zinc oxide (ZnO) over an exceptionally wide range of more than 2.3 eV. This approach relies on the formation of dense and homogeneous self-assembled monolayers based on phosphonic acids with different dipole moments. This allows us to apply ZnO as charge selective bottom electrodes in either regular or inverted solar cell structures, using poly(3-hexylthiophene):phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester as the active layer. These devices compete with or even surpass the performance of the reference on indium tin oxide/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate. Our findings highlight the potential of properly modified ZnO as electron or hole extracting electrodes in hybrid optoelectronic devices.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

A way for studying the impact of PEDOT:PSS interface layer on carrier transport in PCDTBT:PC{sub 71}BM bulk hetero junction solar cells by electric field induced optical second harmonic generation measurement

Electric-field-induced optical second-harmonic generation (EFISHG) measurement was employed to study the impact of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) interface layer on the carrier transport mechanism of the PCDTBT:PC{sub 71}BM bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells (OSCs). We revealed that the electric fields in the PCDTBT and PC{sub 71}BM were allowed to be measured individually by choosing fundamental laser wavelengths of 1000 nm and 1060 nm, respectively, in dark and under illumination. The results showed that the direction of the internal electric fields in the PCDTBT:PC{sub 71}BM BHJ layer is reversed by introducing the PEDOT:PSS layer, and this results in longer electron transport time in the BHJ layer. We conclude that TR-EFISHG can be used as a novel way for studying the impact of interfacial layer on the transport of electrons and holes in the bulk-heterojunction OSCs.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Improvement of PET surface hydrophilicity and roughness through blending

Controlling the adhesion of the polymer surface is a key issue in surface science, since polymers have been a commonly used material for many years. The surface modification in this study includes two different aspects. One is to enhance the hydrophilicity and the other is to create the roughness on the PET film surface. In this study we developed a novel and simple approach to modify polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film surface through polymer blending in twin-screw extruder. One example described in the study uses polyethylene glycol (PEG) in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) host to modify a PET film surface. Low content of polystyrene (PS) as a third component was used in the system to increase the rate of migration of PEG to the surface of the film. Surface enrichment of PEG was observed at the polymer/air interface of the polymer film containing PET-PEG-PS whereas for the PET-PEG binary blend more PEG was distributed within the bulk of the sample. Furthermore, a novel method to create roughness at the PET film surface was proposed. In order to roughen the surface of PET film, a small amount of PKHH phenoxy resin to change PS/PET interfacial tension was used. The compatibility effect of PKHH causes the formation of smaller PS droplets, which were able to migrate more easily through PET matrix. Consequently, resulting in a locally elevated concentration of PS near the surface of the film. The local concentration of PS eventually reached a level where a co-continuous morphology occurred, resulting in theinstabilities on the surface of the film.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

A novel process route for the production of spherical SLS polymer powders

Currently, rapid prototyping gradually is transferred to additive manufacturing opening new applications. Especially selective laser sintering (SLS) is promising. One drawback is the limited choice of polymer materials available as optimized powders. Powders produced by cryogenic grinding show poor powder flowability resulting in poor device quality. Within this account we present a novel process route for the production of spherical polymer micron-sized particles of good flowability. The feasibility of the process chain is demonstrated for polystyrene e. In a first step polymer microparticles are produced by a wet grinding method. By this approach the mean particle size and the particle size distribution can be tuned between a few microns and several 10 microns. The applicability of this method will be discussed for different polymers and the dependencies of product particle size distribution on stressing conditions and process temperature will be outlined. The comminution products consist of microparticles of irregular shape and poor powder flowability. An improvement of flowability of the ground particles is achieved by changing their shape: they are rounded using a heated downer reactor. The influence of temperature profile and residence time on the product properties will be addressed applying a viscous-flow sintering model. To further improve the flowability of the cohesive spherical polymer particles nanoparticles are adhered onto the microparticles’ surface. The improvement of flowability is remarkable: rounded and dry-coated powders exhibit a strongly reduced tensile strength as compared to the comminution product. The improved polymer powders obtained by the process route proposed open new possibilities in SLS processing including the usage of much smaller polymer beads.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Dexterous acoustic trapping and patterning of particles assisted by phononic crystal plate

In this letter, we present experimental demonstration of multi-particles trapping and patterning by the artificially engineered acoustic field of phononic crystal plate. Polystyrene particles are precisely trapped and patterned in two dimensional arrays, for example, the square, triangular, or quasi-periodic arrays, depending on the structures of the phononic crystal plates with varying sub-wavelength holes array. Analysis shows that the enhanced acoustic radiation force, induced by the resonant transmission field highly localized near the sub-wavelength apertures, accounts for the particles self-organizing. It can be envisaged that this kind of simple design of phononic crystal plates would pave an alternative route for self-assembly of particles and may be utilized in the lab-on-a-chip devices.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Nano-honeycomb structured transparent electrode for enhanced light extraction from organic light-emitting diodes

A universal nano-sphere lithography method has been developed to fabricate nano-structured transparent electrode, such as indium tin oxide (ITO), for light extraction from organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Perforated SiO{sub 2} film made from a monolayer colloidal crystal of polystyrene spheres and tetraethyl orthosilicate sol-gel is used as a template. Ordered nano-honeycomb pits on the ITO electrode surface are obtained by chemical etching. The proposed method can be utilized to form large-area nano-structured ITO electrode. More than two folds' enhancement in both current efficiency and power efficiency has been achieved in a red phosphorescent OLED which was fabricated on the nano-structured ITO substrate.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Single-nanoparticle detection with slot-mode photonic crystal cavities

Optical cavities that are capable for detecting single nanoparticles could lead to great progress in early stage disease diagnostics and the study of biological interactions on the single-molecule level. In particular, photonic crystal (PhC) cavities are excellent platforms for label-free single-nanoparticle detection, owing to their high quality (Q) factors and wavelength-scale modal volumes. Here, we demonstrate the design and fabrication of a high-Q (>10{sup 4}) slot-mode PhC nanobeam cavity, which is able to strongly confine light in the slotted regions. The enhanced light-matter interaction results in an order of magnitude improvement in both refractive index sensitivity (439 nm/RIU) and single-nanoparticle sensitivity compared with conventional dielectric-mode PhC cavities. Detection of single polystyrene nanoparticles with radii of 20 nm and 30 nm is demonstrated in aqueous environments (D{sub 2}O), without additional laser and temperature stabilization techniques.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Present status of sensitive detector of reactor’s antineutrinos using scintillating detectors

In 2011, the reanalysis of the reactor antineutrinos spectra led to the formulation of the Reactor Antineutrino Anomaly (RAA) [1], which indicates the discrepancy between measured and expected antineutrino fluxes on short baselines. This discrepancy appears to favor the existence of the fourth “sterile” neutrino with |Δm{sup 2}|>1 eV{sup 2}. To confirm or reject this hypothesis a high sensitive antineutrino detector located close to the reactor is required. In addition to that such a detector could be used to online monitor the isotopic composition of the reactor core and to prevent illegal production and removal of{sup 239}Pu, which is the essential part of nuclear weapons. Detector DANSSino [2] already proved that even a compact antineutrino detector (∼ 1 m{sup 3}) based on polystyrene is capable of antineutrino detection in the close vicinity of a reactor core (∼ 10 m) with signal to background ratio about one. As a common activity between JINR Dubna and IEAP CTU a new prototype of detector (called S{sup 3}) has been proposed and is under construction. The construction design, selected results of Monte Carlo simulations and results of benchmark tests are presented.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2015

Contact resonance atomic force microscopy imaging in air and water using photothermal excitation

Contact Resonance Force Microscopy (CR-FM) is a leading atomic force microscopy technique for measuring viscoelastic nano-mechanical properties. Conventional piezo-excited CR-FM measurements have been limited to imaging in air, since the “forest of peaks” frequency response associated with acoustic excitation methods effectively masks the true cantilever resonance. Using photothermal excitation results in clean contact, resonance spectra that closely match the ideal frequency response of the cantilever, allowing unambiguous and simple resonance frequency and quality factor measurements in air and liquids alike. This extends the capabilities of CR-FM to biologically relevant and other soft samples in liquid environments. We demonstrate CR-FM in air and water on both stiff silicon/titanium samples and softer polystyrene-polyethylene-polypropylene polymer samples with the quantitative moduli having very good agreement between expected and measured values.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2015

Study of periodic surface profile on improving the window capacity at single and repetitive pulses

The surface breakdown of dielectric windows seriously limits the transmission of high power microwaves (HPM), and has blocked the development of microwave technology in recent decades. In this paper, X-band HPM experiments of window breakdown at the vacuum/dielectric interface and the atmosphere/dielectric interface at single and repetitive pulses were conducted. The cross-linked polystyrene (CLPS) dielectric window with a periodic surface profile can significantly improve the breakdown threshold at single and repetitive pulses. Furthermore, the flat surface layer of CLPS was discovered to be carbonized to a depth of several millimeters and filled with electrical trees at repetitive pulses. Theoretical models were built to understand the underlying physics behind the phenomena in experiments. With the analysis of the electron resonance process breaking the molecular bond and the temperature rise caused by the traversing current in the dielectric material, a microscopic explanation for the carbonization of the dielectric window was introduced.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

A widefield fluorescence microscope with a linear image sensor for image cytometry of biospecimens: Considerations for image quality optimization

Linear image sensors have been widely used in numerous research and industry applications to provide continuous imaging of moving objects. Here, we present a widefield fluorescence microscope with a linear image sensor used to image translating objects for image cytometry. First, a calibration curve was characterized for a custom microfluidic chamber over a span of volumetric pump rates. Image data were also acquired using 15 μm fluorescent polystyrene spheres on a slide with a motorized translation stage in order to match linear translation speed with line exposure periods to preserve the image aspect ratio. Aspect ratios were then calculated after imaging to ensure quality control of image data. Fluorescent beads were imaged in suspension flowing through the microfluidics chamber being pumped by a mechanical syringe pump at 16 μl min{sup −1} with a line exposure period of 150 μs. The line period was selected to acquire images of fluorescent beads with a 40 dB signal-to-background ratio. A motorized translation stage was then used to transport conventional glass slides of stained cellular biospecimens. Whole blood collected from healthy volunteers was stained with 0.02% (w/v) proflavine hemisulfate was imaged to highlight leukocyte morphology with a 1.56 mm × 1.28 mm field of view (1540 ms total acquisition time). Oral squamous cells were also collected from healthy volunteers and stained with 0.01% (w/v) proflavine hemisulfate to demonstrate quantifiable subcellular features and an average nuclear to cytoplasmic ratio of 0.03 (n = 75), with a resolution of 0.31 μm pixels{sup −1}.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2015

High-resolution setup for measuring wavelength sensitivity of photoyellowing of translucent materials

Polystyrene and many other materials turn yellow when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation. All photodegradation mechanisms including photoyellowing are functions of the exposure wavelength, which can be described with an action spectrum. In this work, a new high-resolution transmittance measurement setup based on lasers has been developed for measuring color changes, such as the photoyellowing of translucent materials aged with a spectrograph. The measurement setup includes 14 power-stabilized laser lines between 325 nm and 933 nm wavelengths, of which one at a time is directed on to the aged sample. The power transmitted through the sample is measured with a silicon detector utilizing an integrating sphere. The sample is mounted on a high-resolution XY translation stage. Measurement at various locations aged with different wavelengths of exposure radiation gives the transmittance data required for acquiring the action spectrum. The combination of a UV spectrograph and the new high-resolution transmittance measurement setup enables a novel method for studying the UV-induced ageing of translucent materials with a spectral resolution of 3–8 nm, limited by the adjustable spectral bandwidth range of the spectrograph. These achievements form a significant improvement over earlier methods.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗