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At least 451 records · Page 25
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2018

Impact of MgO thickness on the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of Mo/Co2FeAl/MgO/Mo multilayers with improved annealing stability

Highlights: • Robust PMA is demonstrated for thermally stable Mo/Co{sub 2}FeAl(CFA)/MgO/Mo multilayer. • Thickness of CFA and MgO over-layer plays a main role in achieving the strong PMA. • Significant PMA energy of K{sub eff} ≈ 1.67 × 10{sup 6} erg/cm{sup 3} is achieved for film annealed at 400 °C. • Co and/or Fe – 3d{sub Z}{sup 2} and O-2P{sub Z} orbital hybridization at interface is the origin for PMA. - Abstract: In this study, an interfacial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) is achieved in Mo/Co{sub 2}FeAl (CFA)/MgO/Mo multilayer with good thermal stability up to 400 °C by tuning the annealing temperature and film thickness of CFA and MgO. For an optimized CFA film thickness (1.0 nm) and annealing temperature (400 °C), the CFA/MgO interface plays a main role in achieving the strong PMA property when the MgO film thickness was tuned from 0.5 nm to 2.0 nm. The effective perpendicular magnetic anisotropy energy density (K{sub eff}) is approximately 1.67 × 10{sup 6} erg/cc when t{sub MgO} = 2 nm. Surface morphology and surface roughness changes in the films are investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM). An enhancement in surface smoothness is observed for the annealed films. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) reveals that the strong PMA in Mo/CFA/MgO is originated from the adequate oxidation of Co and Fe at CFA/MgO interface.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Thickness and uniformity mapping of thin foils using resistive silicon detectors

Alpha energy loss is a common tool used for measuring target thicknesses. However, these measurements are often made without position information, which either forfeits knowledge of material uniformity and local thickness or requires a prohibitive number of measurements per target to partially recover this information. In consideration of this, a method for measuring position-dependent thicknesses is described in this work; by using the position-sensitivity of the dual-axis duo-lateral (DADL) silicon detector, thicknesses across the entire face of the material can be measured to sub-mm precision with a single measurement. Several examples are presented using a number of targets with varying characteristics, which altogether demonstrate the precision, accuracy, and versatility of this technique.

Foil uniformity↗
DOE OSTI2025

Experimental study of energy-dependent angular broadening of MeV electron beams for high-resolution imaging in thick samples

In scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), spatial resolution is primarily influenced by the projected size of the electron probe within the specimen. In thin samples, a large semi-convergence angle enables a tightly focused beam and sub-nanometer resolution. However, in thick specimens, resolution is fundamentally limited by transverse beam broadening from multiple large-angle scattering events—for example, a probe with 10 mrad angular divergence can broaden by ∼100 nm over a 10 μm path. Since this broadening scales inversely with beam energy, MeV-STEM offers a promising route for high-resolution imaging in thick materials. To quantitatively assess this effect, we performed high-precision measurements at UCLA’s PEGASUS beamline, characterizing beam divergence and intensity profiles for 3–8 MeV electrons transmitted through a wedged-silicon sample of varying thickness. Our results reconcile discrepancies among analytical models and validate Monte Carlo simulations. Here, we find that increasing beam energy from 3.0 to 5.8 MeV reduces angular broadening by a factor of 2.6, with diminishing returns observed at 7.6 MeV. These findings provide a quantitative framework for optimizing MeV-STEM parameters in high-resolution imaging of thick biological and microelectronic specimens, and for guiding beam energy selection in other advanced imaging modes beyond STEM.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Thickness-Dependent Cross-Plane Thermal Conductivity Measurements of Exfoliated Hexagonal Boron Nitride

Submicrometer-thick layers of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) exhibit high in-plane thermal conductivity and useful optical properties, and serve as dielectric encapsulation layers with low electrostatic inhomogeneity for graphene devices. Despite the promising applications of hBN as a heat spreader, the thickness dependence of its cross-plane thermal conductivity is not known, and the cross-plane phonon mean free paths (MFPs) have not been measured. We measure the cross-plane thermal conductivity of hBN flakes exfoliated from bulk crystals. We find that submicrometer thick flakes exhibit thermal conductivities up to 8.1 ± 0.5 W m –1 K –1 at 295 K, which exceeds previously reported bulk values by more than 60%. Surprisingly, the average phonon mean free path is found to be several hundred nanometers at room temperature, a factor of 5 larger than previous predictions. When planar twist interfaces are introduced into the crystal by mechanically stacking multiple thin flakes, the cross-plane thermal conductivity of the stack is found to be a factor of 7 below that of individual flakes with similar total thickness, thus providing strong evidence that phonon scattering at twist boundaries limits the maximum phonon MFPs. These results have important implications for hBN integration in nanoelectronics and improve our understanding of thermal transport in twodimensional materials.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2025

Shell Thickness and Heterogeneity Dependence of Triplet Energy Transfer between Core–Shell Quantum Dots and Adsorbed Molecules

Quantum dot (QD)-sensitized triplet energy transfer (TET) has found promising applications in photon upconversion and photocatalysis. However, the underlying mechanism of TET in the QD-acceptor complex remains unclear despite the well-developed TET theory for the molecular donor–acceptor systems. Herein, the coupling strength of TET from CdSe/CdS core–shell QDs to 9-anthracene carboxylic acid (ACA) was studied by measuring the TET rate as a function of shell thickness with time-resolved photoluminescence. The change of TET-coupling strength with increasing shell thickness was further compared to those of electron and hole transfers from QDs so that we could test whether QD-sensitized TET is mediated by the charge transfer virtual state and can be considered as simultaneous electron and hole transfers as in molecular donor–acceptor systems. The measured coupling strength of TET from the CdSe/CdS QD decreases exponentially with the CdS shell thickness r: |V|(r) = |V|(0)e –βr , with an exponential decay factor β of 0.19 Å –1 , which is smaller than the sum of the measured decay factors for electron transfer to methyl viologen (0.18 Å –1 ) and hole transfer to phenothiazine (0.29 Å –1 ) from the same QD. This inconsistency is explained by the broadening of QD shell thicknesses in the distance dependence study, which significantly modifies the TET-coupling strength and driving force, resulting in a shallower distance dependence of the TET rate constants. This study sheds light on the fundamental mechanisms of QD-sensitized TET reactions.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2023

Detecting Permafrost Active Layer Thickness Change From Nonlinear Baseflow Recession

We report permafrost underlies about one fifth of the global land area and affects ground stability, freshwater runoff, soil chemistry, and surface-atmosphere gas exchange. The depth of thawed ground overlying permafrost (active layer thickness) has broadly increased across the Arctic in recent decades, coincident with a period of increased streamflow, especially the lowest flows (baseflow). Mechanistic links between active layer thickness and baseflow have recently been explored using linear reservoir theory, but most watersheds behave as nonlinear reservoirs. We derive theoretical nonlinear relationships between long-term average saturated soil thickness $\bar{η}$(proxy for active layer thickness) and long-term average baseflow. When applied to 38 years of daily streamflow data for the Kuparuk River basin on the North Slope of Alaska, the theory predicts $\bar{η}$ increased 0.17 ± 0.22[2σ] cm a -1 between 1983 and 2020 (6.4 ± cm total). The rate of increase nearly doubled to 0.29 ± 0.31 cm a -1 between 1990 and 2020, during which time local field measurements from Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring sites indicate the active layer increased 0.31 ± 0.22 cm a -1 . The predicted rate of increase more than doubled again between 2002 and 2020, outpacing a near doubling of observed active layer thickening, consistent with trends in terrestrial water storage inferred from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellite gravimetry and Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications climate reanalysis. Overall, hydrologic change is accelerating in the Kuparuk River basin, and we provide a theoretical framework for estimating basin-scale changes in active layer water storage from streamflow measurements.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2012

Enhanced radiation tolerance in nitride multilayered nanofilms with small period-thicknesses

This paper demonstrates a substantial enhancement in radiation tolerance for small period-thickness of CrN/AlTiN multilayered nanofilms. CrN/AlTiN multilayered nanofilms with period-thicknesses of 3, 5, 7, and 9 nm were irradiated by 190 keV Ar{sup +} ions to fluences ranging from 1 to 5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 16} ions/cm{sup 2}. Nanofilm with 3 nm period-thickness begins to be amorphized under 5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 16} ions/cm{sup 2}, while those with larger period-thicknesses are amorphized under 3 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 16} ions/cm{sup 2}. Our results show that multilayered ceramic nanofilms are potential radiation tolerant materials with good properties. The interfaces in the multilayered nanofilms act as good sinks to absorb the radiation-induced defects.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Density determination of nano-layers depending to the thickness by non-destructive method

Non-destructive tests used to characterize and observe the state of the solids near the surface or at depth, without damaging them or damaging them. Density is frequently used to follow the variations of the physical structure of the samples, as well as in the calculation of quantity of material required to fill a given volume, and it is also used to determine the homogeneity of a sample. However, the measurement of the acoustic properties (density, elastic constants,…) of a thin film whose thickness is smaller than several atomic layers is not easy to perform. For that reason, we expose in this work the effects of the thicknesses of thin films on the evolution of the density, where several samples are analyzed. The samples selected structures are thin films deposited on substrates, these coatings have thicknesses varying from a few atomic layers to ten or so micrometers and can change the properties of the substrate on which they are deposited. To do so, we considered a great number of layers (Cr, Al, SiO{sub 2}, ZnO, Cu, AlN, Si{sub 3}N{sub 4}, SiC) deposited on different substrates (Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}, Cu and Quartz). It is first shown that the density exhibits a dispersive behaviour. Such a behaviour is characterized by an initial increase (or decrease) followed by a saturated region. Further investigations of these dependences led to the determination of a semi-empirical universal relations, ρ=f(h/λ{sub T}), for all the investigated layer/substrate combination. Such expression could be of great importance in the density prediction of even layers thicknesses.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2013

Probing the electronic structure of graphene sheets with various thicknesses by scanning transmission X-ray microscopy

The electronic structure of an aggregation of graphene sheets with various thicknesses was probed by scanning transmission X-ray microscopy. A uniform oxidation of the graphene sheets in the flat area was observed regardless of the thickness, while in the folded area the result could be strongly affected by the geometry. Moreover, thick parts of the aggregation showed strong angle-dependence to the incident X-ray, while thin parts showed less angle-dependence, which might be related to the surface wrinkles and ripples. The electronic structure differences due to the geometry and thickness suggest a complicated situation in the aggregation of graphene sheets.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Thickness dependent structural, optical and electrical properties of CuIn{sub 0.8}Ga{sub 0.2}Se{sub 2} thin films deposited by pulsed laser deposition

CuIn{sub 0.8}Ga{sub 0.2}Se{sub 2} (CIGS) polycrystalline thin films have been deposited on soda lime glass substrate at different deposition time by pulsed laser deposition. The effect of thickness on structural, surface morphological, optical and electrical properties of thin films were investigated by X-ray diffractometer (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometer and electrical measurement unit. XRD study reveals that all deposited films are polycrystalline in nature and have tetragonal phase of CIGS. Crystallinity of CIGS films has been found to improve with increase in thickness of CIGS films as evidenced by sharp XRD peaks for (112) orientation. Grain size and rms surface roughness of CIGS films have been found to be increased with increase in thickness. All the deposited CIGS films exhibit direct band gap semiconducting behaviour with ∼10{sup 6} cm{sup −1} absorption co-efficient. Optical band gap and resistivity of CIGS films have been found to decrease with increase in thickness.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Annealing temperature and thickness dependence of magnetic properties in epitaxial L1{sub 0}-Mn{sub 1.4}Ga films

Mn{sub 1.4}Ga films with high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and high crystalline quality were grown on MgO substrates with Cr buffer layer using molecular beam epitaxy. The crystalline structure and the surface morphology of the films have been systematically investigated as functions of in-situ annealing temperature (T{sub a}) and film thickness. It is found that the magnetic properties can be largely tuned by adjusting T{sub a}. As T{sub a} increases, both saturation magnetization (M{sub s}) and uniaxial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy constant (K{sub u}) increase to the maximum values of 612 emu/cc and 18 Merg/cc at 300 °C, respectively, and then decrease. The morphology also changes with T{sub a}, showing a minimum roughness of 2.2 Å at T{sub a} = 450 °C. On the other hand, as the thickness increases, M{sub s} and K{sub u} increase while coercivity decreases, which indicates there is a magnetic dead layer with a thickness of about 1.5 nm at the interfaces. The detailed examination on the surface morphology of the films with various thicknesses shows a complicated film growth process, which can be understood from the relaxation mechanism of the interfacial strain.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Study of pipe thickness loss using a neutron radiography method

The purpose of this preliminary work is to study for thickness changes in objects using neutron radiography. In doing the project, the technique for the radiography was studied. The experiment was done at NUR-2 facility at TRIGA research reactor in Malaysian Nuclear Agency, Malaysia. Test samples of varying materials were used in this project. The samples were radiographed using direct technique. Radiographic images were recorded using Nitrocellulose film. The films obtained were digitized to processed and analyzed. Digital processing is done on the images using software Isee!. The images were processed to produce better image for analysis. The thickness changes in the image were measured to be compared with real thickness of the objects. From the data collected, percentages difference between measured and real thickness are below than 2%. This is considerably very low variation from original values. Therefore, verifying the neutron radiography technique used in this project.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Terahertz inline wall thickness monitoring system for plastic pipe extrusion

Conventional and commercially available inline wall thickness monitoring systems for pipe extrusion are usually based on ultrasonic or x-ray technology. Disadvantages of ultrasonic systems are the usual need of water as a coupling media and the high damping in thick walled or foamed pipes. For x-ray systems special safety requirements have to be taken into account because of the ionizing radiation. The terahertz (THz) technology offers a novel approach to solve these problems. THz waves have many properties which are suitable for the non-destructive testing of plastics. The absorption of electrical isolators is typically very low and the radiation is non-ionizing in comparison to x-rays. Through the electromagnetic origin of the THz waves they can be used for contact free measurements. Foams show a much lower absorption in contrast to acoustic waves. The developed system uses THz pulses which are generated by stimulating photoconductive switches with femtosecond laser pulses. The time of flight of THz pulses can be determined with a resolution in the magnitude of several ten femtoseconds. Hence the thickness of an object like plastic pipes can be determined with a high accuracy by measuring the time delay between two reflections on materials interfaces e.g. at the pipe's inner and outer surface, similar to the ultrasonic technique. Knowing the refractive index of the sample the absolute layer thickness from the transit time difference can be calculated easily. This method in principle also allows the measurement of multilayer systems and the characterization of foamed pipes.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Effect of thickness and carrier density on the optical polarization of Al{sub 0.44}Ga{sub 0.56}N/Al{sub 0.55}Ga{sub 0.45}N quantum well layers

The thickness and carrier density of AlGaN quantum well (QW) layers have a strong influence on the valence subband structure, and the resulting optical polarization and light extraction of ultraviolet light-emitting diodes. An ultraviolet-emitting (270–280 nm) multiple quantum well heterostructure consisting of 3 periods of Al{sub 0.44}Ga{sub 0.56}N/Al{sub 0.55}Ga{sub 0.45}N with individual layer thicknesses between 2–3.2 nm is studied both experimentally and theoretically. The optical polarization changes to preferentially polarized perpendicular to the QW plane as the QW thickness increases or the carrier density increases. Calculations show these trends are due to (a) a larger decrease in overlap of conduction band to light and heavy hole envelope functions compared to crystal-field split-off envelope functions, and (b) coupling between the valence subbands where higher heavy hole subbands couple to lower light hole and crystal-field split-off subbands. These changes in the valence band have a profound effect on the optical polarization, emission patterns, and eventual light extraction for ultraviolet emitters at these compositions and thicknesses, and need to be controlled to ensure high device efficiency.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

High strain rate metalworking with vaporizing foil actuator: Control of flyer velocity by varying input energy and foil thickness

Electrically driven rapid vaporization of thin metallic foils can generate a high pressure which can be used to launch flyers at high velocities. Recently, vaporizing foil actuators have been applied toward a variety of impulse-based metal working operations. In order to exercise control over this useful tool, it is imperative that an understanding of the effect of characteristics of the foil actuator on its ability for mechanical impulse generation is developed. Here, foil actuators made out of 0.0508 mm, 0.0762 mm, and 0.127 mm thick AA1145 were used for launching AA2024-T3 sheets of thickness 0.508 mm toward a photonic Doppler velocimeter probe. Launch velocities ranging between 300 m/s and 1100 m/s were observed. In situ measurement of velocity, current, and voltage assisted in understanding the effect of burst current density and deposited electrical energy on average pressure and velocity with foil actuators of various thicknesses. For the pulse generator, geometry, and flyer used here, the 0.0762 mm thick foil was found to be optimal for launching flyers to high velocities over short distances. Experimenting with annealed foil actuators resulted in no change in the temporal evolution of flyer velocity as compared to foil actuators of full hard temper. A physics-based analytical model was developed and found to have reasonable agreement with experiment.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2014

Thickness independent reduced forming voltage in oxygen engineered HfO{sub 2} based resistive switching memories

The conducting filament forming voltage of stoichiometric hafnium oxide based resistive switching layers increases linearly with layer thickness. Using strongly reduced oxygen deficient hafnium oxide thin films grown on polycrystalline TiN/Si(001) substrates, the thickness dependence of the forming voltage is strongly suppressed. Instead, an almost constant forming voltage of about 3 V is observed up to 200 nm layer thickness. This effect suggests that filament formation and switching occurs for all samples in an oxidized HfO{sub 2} surface layer of a few nanometer thickness while the highly oxygen deficient thin film itself merely serves as a oxygen vacancy reservoir.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Impact of barrier thickness on transistor performance in AlN/GaN high electron mobility transistors grown on free-standing GaN substrates

A series of six ultrathin AlN/GaN heterostructures with varied AlN thicknesses from 1.5–6 nm have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy on free-standing hydride vapor phase epitaxy GaN substrates. High electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) were fabricated from the set in order to assess the impact of barrier thickness and homo-epitaxial growth on transistor performance. Room temperature Hall characteristics revealed mobility of 1700 cm{sup 2}/V s and sheet resistance of 130 Ω/□ for a 3 nm thick barrier, ranking amongst the lowest room-temperature sheet resistance values reported for a polarization-doped single heterostructure in the III-Nitride family. DC and small signal HEMT electrical characteristics from submicron gate length HEMTs further elucidated the effect of the AlN barrier thickness on device performance.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Tunability of conduction at the LaAlO{sub 3}/SrTiO{sub 3} heterointerface: Thickness and compositional studies

The role of chemistry, film thickness, and oxygen pressure in influencing the electrical and thermal transport properties of LaAlO{sub 3}/SrTiO{sub 3} heterointerfaces is explored. Unit-cell precise growth was accomplished for films between 3 and 160 unit cells thick using reflection high-energy electron diffraction-assisted pulsed-laser deposition. Subsequent temperature-dependent studies of electrical resistivity reveal three important observations: (1) by tuning the laser fluence, we can systematically tune the interfacial conductance in a step-wise manner in this system, (2) all films exhibit a critical thickness of 3–4 unit cells for the onset of conduction, and (3) the nature of the conductance is highly influenced by the stoichiometry of the LaAlO{sub 3} film with La-deficient samples showing dramatic changes with thickness, while stoichiometric and La-excess films show little dependence. Time-domain thermoreflectance studies show a diminished interfacial thermal conductance for the La-deficient films when compared to La-excess and stoichiometric films, suggesting that the interfacial conductance is more influenced by extrinsic factors such as oxygen deficiency.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗