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Deployable large area solar cell array testing
Large area deployable solar cell array testing
LACIE (Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment) Programme
Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment was a three year experiment conducted jointly by the United States Department of Agriculture, NASA, and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) to determine if global wheat production can be forecast from LANDSAT data to within 90% of actual yield for each observed 9 years out of 10. Data for the third crop year (1976-1977) was compiled. The proportional area of cultivated land devoted to wheat was estimated based on a statistical sampling of LANDSAT data. Yield is presently estimated by NOAA using regression models developed from historical weather and yield information. Results are discussed.
The Chandra Large Area Synoptic X-ray Survey (CLASXS) of the Lockman Hole-Northwest: The X-ray Catalog
We present the X-ray catalog and basic results from our Chandra Large Area Synoptic X-ray Survey (CLASXS) of the Lockman Hole-Northwest field. Our 9 ACIS-I fields cover a contiguous solid angle of approx. 0.4 sq deg and reach fluxes of 5 x 10(exp -16) ergs/sq cm/s (0.4-2 keV) and 3 x 10(exp -15) ergs/sq cm/s (2-8 keV). Our survey bridges the gap between ultradeep pencil-beam surveys, such as the Chandra Deep Fields (CDFs), and shallower, large area surveys, allowing a better probe of the X-ray sources that contribute most of the 2-10 keV cosmic X-ray background (CXB). We find a total of 525 X-ray point sources and 4 extended sources. At approx. 10(exp -14)ergs/sq cm/s (2-8 keV), our number counts are significantly higher than those of several non-contiguous, large area surveys. Such a large difference is an indication of clustering in the X-ray sources. On the other hand, the integrated flux from the CLASXS field, combined with ASCA and Chandra ultradeep surveys, is consistent with results from other large area surveys, within the variance of the CXB. We see spectral evolution in the hardening of the sources at fluxes below 10(exp -14) ergs/sq cm/s, which agrees with previous observations from Chandra and XMM-Newton. About 1/3 of the sources in the CLASXS field have multiple observations, allowing variability tests. Above 4 x 10(exp -14) ergs/sq cm/s (0.4-8 keV), approx. 61% of the sources are variable. We also investigated the spectral variability of the variable sources. While most show spectral softening with increasing flux, or no significant spectral change, there are a few sources that show a different trend. Four extended sources in CLASXS is consistent with the previously measured LogN-LogS of galaxy clusters. Using X-ray spectra and optical colors, we argue that 3 of the 4 extended sources are galaxy clusters or galaxy groups. We report the discovery of a gravitational lensing arc associated with one of these sources. Using red sequence and brightest cluster galaxy methods, we find that the redshifts of the extended sources are in the range z approx. 0.5 - 1. The inferred masses within the Einstein radii are consistent with the mass profiles of local groups scaled to the same virial radii.
Waveform analysis of a large-area superconducting nanowire single photon detector
Superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) are typically used as single-mode-fiber-coupled single-pixel detectors, but large area detectors are increasingly critical for applications ranging from microscopy to free-space quantum communications. However, the long meander-line length of such large-area SNSPDs results in a proportionately large kinetic inductance that affects the waveform generated by the device. Here, we explore changes in the rising edge of the readout pulse for a single-pixel large-area SNSPD as a function of the optical spot size on the detector and compare to the rising edge of the dark-count waveform. We observe a bimodal distribution of bright-count rise times and show that the probability of a slow rise time increases in the limit of large spot sizes, indicative of a position sensitive response. Additionally, in the limit of low bias currents, the dark-count readout pulse is most similar to the large spot-size bright-count readout pulse, which suggests that dark counts arise from locations spanning the device. Overall, these results are consistent with a simple model of traveling microwave modes excited by single photons incident at varying positions along the length of the nanowire.
Performance of the Anti-Coincidence Detector on the GLAST Large Area Telescope
The Anti-Coincidence Detector (ACD), the outermost detector layer in the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) Large Area Telescope (LAT), is designed to detect and veto incident cosmic ray charged particles, which outnumber cosmic gamma rays by 3-4 orders of magnitude. The challenge in ACD design is that it must have high (0.9997) detection efficiency for singly-charged relativistic particles, but must also have a low probability for self-veto of high-energy gammas by backplash radiation from interactions in the LAT calorimeter. Simulations and tests demonstrate that the ACD meete its design requirements. The performance of the ACD has remained stable thrugh stand-alone environmental testing, shipment across the U.S. installation onto the LAT, shipment back across the U.S., LAT environmental testing, and shipment to Arizona. As part of the fully-assembled GLAST observatory, the ACD is being readied for final testing before launch.
Thermal response of large area high temperature superconducting YBaCuO infrared bolometer
Thermal analysis of large area high temperature superconducting infrared detector operating in the equilibrium mode (bolometer) was performed. An expression for the temperature coefficient beta=1/R(dR/dT) in terms of the thermal conductance and the thermal time constant of the detector were derived. A superconducting transition edge bolometer is a thermistor consisting of a thin film superconducting YBaCuO evaporated into a suitable thermally isolated substrate. The operating temperature of the bolometer is maintained close to the midpoint of the superconducting transition region where the resistance R has a maximum dynamic range. A detector with a strip configuration was analyzed and an expression for the temperature rise (delta T) above the ambient due to a uniform illumination with a source of power density P(sub i) was calculated. An expression for the thermal responsivity of the detector was derived using the thermal diffusion analysis with appropriate boundary conditions. It was found that the thermal responsibility depends upon the spatial modulation frequency and the angular frequency of the incoming radiation. The problem of the thermal cross talk between different detector elements was addressed. In the case of monolithic HTS detector array with a row of square elements of dimensions 2a and CCD or CID readout electronics the thermal spread function was derived for different spacing between elements. This analysis can be critical for future design and applications of large area focal plane arrays as broad band optical detectors made of granular thin films HTS YBaCuO.
Large-Area Vacuum Ultraviolet Sensors
Pt/(n-doped GaN) Schottky-barrier diodes having active areas as large as 1 cm square have been designed and fabricated as prototypes of photodetectors for the vacuum ultraviolet portion (wavelengths approximately equal 200 nm) of the solar spectrum. In addition to having adequate sensitivity to photons in this wavelength range, these photodetectors are required to be insensitive to visible and infrared components of sunlight and to have relatively low levels of dark current.
GLAST Large Area Telescope Multiwavelength Planning
Gamma-ray astrophysics depends in many ways on multiwavelength studies. The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) Large Area Telescope (LAT) Collaboration has started multiwavelength planning well before the scheduled 2007 launch of the observatory. Some of the high-priority multiwavelength needs include: (1) availability of contemporaneous radio and X-ray timing of pulsars; (2) expansion of blazar catalogs, including redshift measurements; (3) improved observations of molecular clouds, especially at high galactic latitudes; (4) simultaneous broad-spectrum blazar monitoring; (5) characterization of gamma-ray transients, including gamma ray bursts; (6) radio, optical, X-ray and TeV counterpart searches for reliable and effective sources identification and characterization. Several of these activities are needed to be in place before launch.
Orientation-Controlled Large-Area Epitaxial PbI 2 Thin Films with Tunable Optical Properties
Lead iodide (PbI 2 ) as a layered material has emerged as an excellent candidate for optoelectronics in the visible and ultraviolet regime. Micrometer-sized flakes synthesized by mechanical exfoliation from bulk crystals or by physical vapor deposition have shown a plethora of applications from low-threshold lasing at room temperature to high-performance photodetectors with large responsivity and faster response. However, large-area centimeter-sized growth of epitaxial thin films of PbI 2 with well-controlled orientation has been challenging. Additionally, the nature of grain boundaries in epitaxial thin films of PbI 2 remains elusive. Here, we use mica as a model substrate to unravel the growth mechanism of large-area epitaxial PbI 2 thin films. The partial growth leading to uncoalesced domains reveals the existence of inversion domain boundaries in epitaxial PbI 2 thin films on mica. Combining the experimental results with first-principles calculations, we also develop an understanding of the thermodynamic and kinetic factors that govern the growth mechanism, which paves the way for the synthesis of high-quality large-area PbI 2 on other substrates and heterostructures of PbI 2 on single-crystalline graphene. Here, the ability to reproducibly synthesize high-quality large-area thin films with precise control over orientation and tunable optical properties could open up unique and hitherto unavailable opportunities for the use of PbI 2 and its heterostructures in optoelectronics, twistronics, substrate engineering, and strain engineering.
The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope and Gamma-Ray Bursts
The Gamma-ray Large Area Telescope (GLAST) is a satellite-based observatory to study the high energy gamma-ray sky. The main instrument on GLAST, the Large Area Telescope (LAT) is a pair-conversion telescope that will survey the sky from 20 MeV to greater than 300 GeV. With the GLAST launch in 2007, the LAT will open a new and important window on a wide variety of high energy phenomena, including supermassive black holes and active galactic nuclei, gamma-ray bursts, supernova remnants and cosmic ray acceleration and dark matter. A second instrument, the GLAST Burst Monitor (GBM), greatly enhances GLAST s capability to study GRB by providing important spectral and timing information in the 10 keV to 30 MeV range. We describe how the instruments, spacecraft and ground system work together to provide observations of gamma-ray bursts from 8 keV - 300 GeV and to provide rapid notification of bursts to the wider gamma-ray burst community.
The Large Area Pulsed Solar Simulator (LAPSS)
The Large Area Pulsed Solar Simulator (LAPSS) has been installed at JPL. It is primarily intended to be used to illuminate and measure the electrical performance of photovoltaic devices. The simulator, originally manufactured by Spectrolab, Sylmar, CA, occupies an area measuring about 3 m wide x 12 m long. The data acquisition and data processing subsystems have been modernized. Tests on the LAPSS performance resulted in better than plus or minus 2 percent uniformity of irradiance at the test plane and better than plus or minus 0.3 percent measurement repeatability after warm-up. Glass absorption filters reduce the ultraviolet light emitted from the xenon flash lamps. This results in a close match to three different standard airmass zero and airmass 1.5 spectral irradiances. The 2-ms light pulse prevents heating of the device under test, resulting in more reliable temperature measurements. Overall, excellent electrical performance measurements have been made of many different types and sizes of photovoltaic devices. Since the original printing of this publication, in 1993, the LAPSS has been operational and new capabilities have been added. This revision includes a new section relating to the installation of a method to measure the I-V curve of a solar cell or array exhibiting a large effective capacitance. Another new section has been added relating to new capabilities for plotting single and multiple I-V curves, and for archiving the I-V data and test parameters. Finally, a section has been added regarding the data acquisition electronics calibration.
The Anti-Coincidence Detector for the GLAST Large Area Telescope
This paper describes the design, fabrication and testing of the Anti-Coincidence Detector (ACD) for the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) Large Area Telescope (LAT). The ACD is LAT's first-level defense against the charged cosmic ray background that outnumbers the gamma rays by 3-5 orders of magnitude. The ACD covers the top and 4 sides of the LAT tracking detector, requiring a total active area of -8.3 square meters. The ACD detector utilizes plastic scintillator tiles with wave-length shifting fiber readout. In order to suppress self-veto by shower particles at high gamma-ray energies, the ACD is segmented into 89 tiles of different sizes. The overall ACD efficiency for detection of singly charged relativistic particles entering the tracking detector from the top or sides of the LAT exceeds the required 0.9997.
Production and testing of the large-area photon detector ArCLight
Compact large-area dielectric photon detectors that ensure modular noble liquid detectors can sense scintillation light signals for triggering and reconstruction purposes with minimal impact to the overall target volume. ArCLight is a small-volume, sizeable sensitive-area detector that consists of a light trap covered in a thin layer of TPB that can be placed inside a time projection chamber's electric field. These sensors are used in the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment Near Detector liquid argon (DUNE ND-LAr). They are constructed and tested at the University of Bern and will be deployed in the prototype experiment ProtoDUNE-ND. The talk discusses the details of assembling ArCLights, the quality control methods, and the test studies done with LEDs to assess their performance.
Bonding large area silicon wafers Quarterly report
Bonding large area silicon single crystals to heat sinks
Bonding large area silicon wafers
Diffusion welding of large area silicon wafers without altering electrical properties of semiconductor devices in wafers
The use of LANDSAT data in a Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment /LACIE/
A Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment (LACIE) has been undertaken jointly by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the Department of Commerce and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to prove out an economically important application of remote sensing from space. At the outset LACIE will concentrate on wheat grown in the North American area. The experiment will combine crop area measurements obtained from LANDSAT data and meteorological information from NOAA satellites and from ground stations designed to relate weather conditions to yield assessment and ultimately to production forecasts. The Department of Agriculture will study the utilization of the experimentally derived production estimates in its crop reports. These reports are made public as a routine service to the domestic and international agriculture community. If this activity is successful and the results prove useful the application will be extended to other regions and ultimately to other crops.
The Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment (LACIE)
A Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment (LACIE) was undertaken to prove out an economically important application of remote sensing from space. The experiment focused upon determination of wheat acreages in the U.S. Great Plains and upon the development and testing of yield models. The results and conclusions are presented.