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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 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Analysis of vibronic coupling in a 4f molecular magnet with FIRMS

Vibronic coupling, the interaction between molecular vibrations and electronic states, is a fundamental effect that profoundly affects chemical processes. In the case of molecular magnetic materials, vibronic, or spin-phonon, coupling leads to magnetic relaxation, which equates to loss of magnetic memory and loss of phase coherence in molecular magnets and qubits, respectively. The study of vibronic coupling is challenging, and most experimental evidence is indirect. Here we employ far-infrared magnetospectroscopy to directly probe vibronic transitions in [Yb(trensal)] (where H 3 trensal = 2,2,2-tris(salicylideneimino)trimethylamine). We find intense signals near electronic states, which we show arise due to an “envelope effect” in the vibronic coupling Hamiltonian, which we calculate fully ab initio to simulate the spectra. We subsequently show that vibronic coupling is strongest for vibrational modes that simultaneously distort the first coordination sphere and break the C 3 symmetry of the molecule. With this knowledge, vibrational modes could be identified and engineered to shift their energy towards or away from particular electronic states to alter their impact. Hence, these findings provide new insights towards developing general guidelines for the control of vibronic coupling in molecules.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Performance assessment of ensembles of in situ workflows under resource constraints

Summary Scientific breakthroughs in biomolecular methods and improvements in hardware technology have shifted from a long‐running simulation to a large set of shorter simulations running simultaneously, called an ensemble. In an ensemble, simulations are usually coupled with analyses of data produced by the simulations. In situ methods can be used to analyze large volumes of data generated by scientific simulations at runtime (i.e., simulations and analyses are performed concurrently). In this work, we study the execution of ensemble‐based simulations paired with in situ analyses using in‐memory staging methods. Using an ensemble of molecular dynamics in situ workflows with multiple simulations and analyses, we first show that collecting traditional metrics such as makespan, instructions per cycle, memory usage, or cache miss ratio is not sufficient to characterize complex behaviors of ensembles. We propose a method to evaluate the performance of ensembles of workflows that captures multiple resource usage aspects: resource efficiency, resource allocation, and resource provisioning. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can effectively distinguish the performance of different component placements in an ensemble with up to 32 ensemble members. By evaluating different co‐location scenarios, our proposed performance indicators demonstrate benefits of co‐locating simulation and coupled analyses within a compute node.

Do, Tu Mai Anh↗
DOE OSTI2026

Ground and excited state gradients with end-to-end differentiable semiempirical quantum chemistry

Accurate and efficient gradients of molecular energy with respect to nuclear degrees of freedom are essential for geometry optimization and molecular dynamics, including simulations that go beyond the Born–Oppenheimer regime. A common approach involves deriving analytical formulas for new electronic structure methods, which is often conceptually difficult and requires tedious coding. Here, we implement analytical, semi-numerical, and automatic differentiation (AD)-based gradient pathways for semiempirical Hamiltonian models in the PYSEQM software package, leveraging both graphics processing unit (GPU) and central processing unit (CPU) architectures. We further extend these capabilities to excited states calculated using the configuration interaction singles and time-dependent Hartree–Fock ansätze. We benchmark wall time, peak memory usage, and accuracy across three molecular families of varying chemical complexity, including systems of up to a thousand atoms. For ground-state simulations, analytical and AD gradients achieve near-identical GPU runtimes, while semi-numerical gradients are slower on GPU but remain competitive on CPU. For excited states, both analytical and custom AD approaches using implicit differentiation show similar performance and low memory requirements, whereas gradients with full AD are memory-limited. AD gradients match analytical ones in accuracy across all tested systems, aided by a quaternion-based diatomic frame rotation for two-center quantities that ensures smooth energy surfaces. Overall, automatic differentiation emerges as a practical alternative to analytical gradients in semiempirical quantum chemistry, offering high accuracy while allowing seamless integration in AI-driven workflows and popular packages, such as PyTorch and JAX. Our results provide actionable guidance for selecting optimal gradient strategies in large-scale ground- and excited-state molecular dynamics simulations.

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

Cations Control Lipid Bilayer Memcapacitance Associated with Long-Term Potentiation

Phospholipid bilayers can be described as capacitors whose capacitance per unit area (specific capacitance, C m ) is determined by their thickness and dielectric constant–independent of applied voltage. It is also widely assumed that the C m of membranes can be treated as a “biological constant”. Recently, using droplet interface bilayers (DIBs), it was shown that zwitterionic phosphatidylcholine (PC) lipid bilayers can act as voltage-dependent, nonlinear memory capacitors, or memcapacitors. When exposed to an electrical “training” stimulation protocol, capacitive energy storage in lipid membranes was enhanced in the form of long-term potentiation (LTP), which enables biological learning and long-term memory. LTP was the result of membrane restructuring and the progressive asymmetric distribution of ions across the lipid bilayer during training, which is analogous, for example, to exponential capacitive energy harvesting from self-powered nanogenerators. Here, we describe how LTP could be produced from a membrane that is continuously pumped into a nonequilibrium steady state, altering its dielectric properties. During this time, the membrane undergoes static and dynamic changes that are fed back to the system’s potential energy, ultimately resulting in a membrane whose modified molecular structure supports long-term memory storage and LTP. Here, we also show that LTP is very sensitive to different salts (KCl, NaCl, LiCl, and TmCl 3 ), with LiCl and TmCl 3 having the most profound effect in depressing LTP, relative to KCl. This effect is related to how the different cations interact with the bilayer zwitterionic PC lipid headgroups primarily through electric-field-induced changes to the statistically averaged orientations of water dipoles at the bilayer headgroup interface.

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

Analytical nonadiabatic coupling and state-specific energy gradient for the crystal field Hamiltonian describing lanthanide single-ion magnets

Paramagnetic molecules with a metal ion as an electron spin center are promising building blocks for molecular qubits and high-density memory arrays. However, fast spin relaxation and decoherence in these molecules lead to a rapid loss of magnetization and quantum information. Nonadiabatic coupling (NAC), closely related to spin-vibrational coupling, is the main source of spin relaxation and decoherence in paramagnetic molecules at higher temperatures. Predicting these couplings using numerical differentiation requires a large number of computationally intensive ab initio or crystal field electronic structure calculations. To reduce computational cost and improve accuracy, we derive and implement analytical NAC and state-specific energy gradient for the ab initio parametrized crystal field Hamiltonian describing single-ion molecular magnets. Our implementation requires only a single crystal field calculation. In addition, the accurate NACs and state-specific energy gradients can be used to model spin relaxation using sophisticated nonadiabatic molecular dynamics, which avoids the harmonic approximation for molecular vibrations. To test our implementation, we calculate the NAC values for three lanthanide complexes. Finally, the predicted values support the relaxation mechanisms reported in previous studies.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2024

Spectroscopic Signatures of Phonon Character in Molecular Electron Spin Relaxation

Spin–lattice relaxation constitutes a key challenge for the development of quantum technologies, as it destroys superpositions in molecular quantum bits (qubits) and magnetic memory in single molecule magnets (SMMs). Gaining mechanistic insight into the spin relaxation process has proven challenging owing to a lack of spectroscopic observables and contradictions among theoretical models. Here, we use pulse electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) to profile changes in spin relaxation rates (T 1 ) as a function of both temperature and magnetic field orientation, forming a two-dimensional data matrix. For randomly oriented powder samples, spin relaxation anisotropy changes dramatically with temperature, delineating multiple regimes of relaxation processes for each Cu(II) molecule studied. We show that traditional T 1 fitting approaches cannot reliably extract this information. Single-crystal T 1 anisotropy experiments reveal a surprising change in spin relaxation symmetry between these two regimes. We interpret this switch through the concept of a spin relaxation tensor, enabling discrimination between delocalized lattice phonons and localized molecular vibrations in the two relaxation regimes. Variable-temperature T 1 anisotropy thus provides a unique spectroscopic method to interrogate the character of nuclear motions causing spin relaxation and the loss of quantum information.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
NASA NTRS2002

Transcriptional profiling reveals regulated genes in the hippocampus during memory formation

Transcriptional profiling (TP) offers a powerful approach to identify genes activated during memory formation and, by inference, the molecular pathways involved. Trace eyeblink conditioning is well suited for the study of regional gene expression because it requires the hippocampus, whereas the highly parallel task, delay conditioning, does not. First, we determined when gene expression was most regulated during trace conditioning. Rats were exposed to 200 trials per day of paired and unpaired stimuli each day for 4 days. Changes in gene expression were most apparent 24 h after exposure to 200 trials. Therefore, we profiled gene expression in the hippocampus 24 h after 200 trials of trace eyeblink conditioning, on multiple arrays using additional animals. Of 1,186 genes on the filter array, seven genes met the statistical criteria and were also validated by real-time polymerase chain reaction. These genes were growth hormone (GH), c-kit receptor tyrosine kinase (c-kit), glutamate receptor, metabotropic 5 (mGluR5), nerve growth factor-beta (NGF-beta), Jun oncogene (c-Jun), transmembrane receptor Unc5H1 (UNC5H1), and transmembrane receptor Unc5H2 (UNC5H2). All these genes, except for GH, were downregulated in response to trace conditioning. GH was upregulated; therefore, we also validated the downregulation of the GH inhibitor, somatostatin (SST), even though it just failed to meet criteria on the arrays. By during situ hybridization, GH was expressed throughout the cell layers of the hippocampus in response to trace conditioning. None of the genes regulated in trace eyeblink conditioning were similarly affected by delay conditioning, a task that does not require the hippocampus. These findings demonstrate that transcriptional profiling can exhibit a repertoire of genes sensitive to the formation of hippocampal-dependent associative memories.

Non-NASA Center↗
DOE OSTI2021

Toward the Minimal Floating Operation Count Cholesky Decomposition of Electron Repulsion Integrals

As quantum chemistry calculations deal with molecular systems of increasing size, the memory requirement to store electron-repulsion integrals (ERIs) greatly outpaces the physical memory available in computing hardware. Here, the Cholesky decomposition of ERIs provides a convenient yet accurate technique to reduce the storage requirement of integrals. Recent developments of a two-step algorithm have drastically reduced the memory operation (MOP) count, leaving the floating operation (FLOP) count as the last frontier of cost reduction in the Cholesky ERI algorithm. In this report, we introduce a dynamic integral tracking, reusing, and compression/elimination protocol embedded in the two-step Cholesky ERI method. Benchmark studies suggest that this technique becomes particularly advantageous when the basis set consists of many computationally expensive high-angular-momentum basis functions. With this dynamic ERI improvement, the Cholesky ERI approach proves to be a highly efficient algorithm with minimal FLOP and MOP count.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2024

Effects of carbon concentration on the local atomic structure of amorphous GST

Ge-Sb-Te (GST) alloys are leading phase-change materials for data storage due to the fast phase transition between amorphous and crystalline states. Ongoing research aims at improving the stability of the amorphous phase to improve retention. This can be accomplished by the introduction of carbon as a dopant to Ge 2 Sb 2 Te 5 , which is known to alter the short- and mid-range structure of the amorphous phase and form covalently bonded C clusters, both of which hinder crystallization. The relative importance of these processes as a function of C concentration is not known. Here we used molecular dynamics simulation based on density functional theory to study how carbon doping affects the atomic structure of GST-C. Carbon doping results in an increase in tetrahedral coordination, especially of Ge atoms, and this is known to stabilize the amorphous phase. We observe an unexpected, non-monotonous trend in the number of tetrahedral bonded Ge with the amount of carbon doping. Our simulations show an increase in the number of tetrahedral bonded Ge up to 5 at.% C, after which the number saturates and begins to decrease above 14 at.% C. The carbon atoms aggregate into clusters, mostly in the form of chains and graphene flakes, leaving less carbon to disrupt the GST matrix at higher carbon concentrations. Different degrees of carbon clustering can explain divergent experimental results for recrystallization temperature for carbon doped GST.

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

Neuromorphic heat transport effects in a molecular junction

Understanding energy transport at the nanoscale is an open and fundamental challenge in the molecular sciences with direct implications for the design of new electronics, computing devices, and materials. While nanoscale energy transport under steady-state conditions has been studied extensively, there is much less known about energy transport under time-dependent driving forces, particularly in the far-from-equilibrium regime. In this work, we use nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations and stochastic thermodynamics to investigate energy transport in a well-studied nanoscale system—a molecular junction—subjected to a time-periodic temperature gradient. The primary observation is that molecular junctions can exhibit heat transport hysteresis, a phenomenon in which the heat flux through a system depends not only on the instantaneous value of a time-dependent temperature bias but also on the temporal history of that bias. The presented findings illustrate that molecular junctions can exhibit the specific memory effect—heat transport hysteresis—that is essential for the design of thermal neuromorphic computers. This work elucidates a potential pathway toward the realization of such devices.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
NASA NTRS1973

An improved holographic recording medium

Solid, linear chain hydrocarbons with molecular weight ranging from about 300 to 2000 can serve as long-lived recording medium in optical memory system. Suitable recording hydrocarbons include microcrystalline waxes and low molecular weight polymers or ethylene.

Gange, R. A.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Charge Transport Characteristics of Molecular Electronic Junctions Studied by Transition Voltage Spectroscopy

The field of molecular electronics is prompted by tremendous opportunities for using a single-molecule and molecular monolayers as active components in integrated circuits. Until now, a wide range of molecular devices exhibiting characteristic functions, such as diodes, transistors, switches, and memory, have been demonstrated. However, a full understanding of the crucial factors that affect charge transport through molecular electronic junctions should yet be accomplished. Remarkably, recent advances in transition voltage spectroscopy (TVS) elucidate that it can provide key quantities for probing the transport characteristics of the junctions, including, for example, the position of the frontier molecular orbital energy relative to the electrode Fermi level and the strength of the molecule–electrode interactions. These parameters are known to be highly associated with charge transport behaviors in molecular systems and can then be used in the design of molecule-based devices with rationally tuned electronic properties. This article highlights the fundamental principle of TVS and then demonstrates its major applications to study the charge transport properties of molecular electronic junctions.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Unveiling the structure and electronic characteristics of amorphous GeS for high performance threshold switching

Ovonic threshold switching selectors are widely studied owing to the essential application in high density phase-change memory. Amorphous GeS is proposed as a potential candidate for the excellent performance. However, the knowledge of amorphous GeS is still insufficient up to date. Here, we have studied the structure and electronic characteristics of GeS in the amorphization process, by using ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. The results indicate that the amorphous GeS is mainly made up of Ge–S bonds. The Ge- and S-centered clusters are dominantly in the form of octahedral structures in liquid GeS. Furthermore, during the amorphization process, most of Ge-centered clusters become highly coordinated octahedrons while a small number of Ge-centered clusters change to tetrahedrons, and the S-centered clusters deviate from the octahedral structure gradually. In addition, the large bandgap and the relatively small mid-gap states in amorphous GeS lead to a high switching voltage.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Optical and microstructural characterization of Er 3+ doped epitaxial cerium oxide on silicon

Rare-earth ion dopants in solid-state hosts are ideal candidates for quantum communication technologies, such as quantum memories, due to the intrinsic spin–photon interface of the rare-earth ion combined with the integration methods available in the solid state. Erbium-doped cerium oxide (Er:CeO 2 ) is a particularly promising host material platform for such a quantum memory, as it combines the telecom-wavelength (~ 1.5 μm) 4f–4f transition of erbium, a predicted long electron spin coherence time when embedded in CeO 2 , and a small lattice mismatch with silicon. In this work, we report on the epitaxial growth of Er:CeO 2 thin films on silicon using molecular beam epitaxy, with controlled erbium concentration between 2 and 130 parts per million (ppm). We carry out a detailed microstructural study to verify the CeO 2 host structure and characterize the spin and optical properties of the embedded Er 3+ ions as a function of doping density. In as-grown Er:CeO 2 in the 2–3 ppm regime, we identify an EPR linewidth of 245(1) MHz, an optical inhomogeneous linewidth of 9.5(2) GHz, an optical excited state lifetime of 3.5(1) ms, and a spectral diffusion-limited homogeneous linewidth as narrow as 4.8(3) MHz. We test the annealing of Er:CeO 2 films up to 900 °C, which yields narrowing of the inhomogeneous linewidth by 20% and extension of the excited state lifetime by 40%.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Room-temperature rack-mounted quantum buffer for high-rate time-bin qubits

This report summarizes the results from DE-SC0022395, a phase 1 SBIR award to investigate the feasibility of designing a commercial quantum memory using gradient echo techniques for storage. The authors conclude that the technology has several key limitations which would present significant barriers to practical commercialization for quantum networking.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Real Space and Time Imaging of Collective Headgroup Dipole Motions in Zwitterionic Lipid Bilayers

Lipid bilayers are supramolecular structures responsible for a range of processes, such as transmembrane transport of ions and solutes, and sorting and replication of genetic materials, to name just a few. Some of these processes are transient and currently, cannot be visualized in real space and time. Here, we developed an approach using 1D, 2D, and 3D Van Hove correlation functions to image collective headgroup dipole motions in zwitterionic phospholipid bilayers. We show that both 2D and 3D spatiotemporal images of headgroup dipoles are consistent with commonly understood dynamic features of fluids. However, analysis of the 1D Van Hove function reveals lateral transient and re-emergent collective dynamics of the headgroup dipoles—occurring at picosecond time scales—that transmit and dissipate heat at longer times, due to relaxation processes. At the same time, the headgroup dipoles also generate membrane surface undulations due a collective tilting of the headgroup dipoles. A continuous intensity band of headgroup dipole spatiotemporal correlations—at nanometer length and nanosecond time scales—indicates that dipoles undergo stretching and squeezing elastic deformations. Importantly, the above mentioned intrinsic headgroup dipole motions can be externally stimulated at GHz-frequency scale, enhancing their flexoelectric and piezoelectric capabilities (i.e., increased conversion efficiency of mechanical energy into electric energy). In conclusion, we discuss how lipid membranes can provide molecular-level insights about biological learning and memory, and as platforms for the development of the next generation of neuromorphic computers.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Ion fluxes and memory effects in an Ar–O 2 modulated radiofrequency-driven atmospheric pressure plasma jet

In this work we used molecular beam mass spectrometry to characterize ion fluxes produced by a modulated radiofrequency (RF)-driven atmospheric pressure plasma jet operating in a homogeneous gas environment (Ar + 1% O 2 ). The influence of the RF modulation frequency (100 Hz to 20 kHz) on the ion fluxes was investigated by time-resolved measurements, and the lifetimes of the dominant ions, O 2 + , NO + , O − , O 2 − and O 3 − , were found to be 28 ± 2, 117 ± 8, 7.3 ± 0.4, 17 ± 1 and 23 ± 2 μs, respectively. The absolute ion densities in the near afterglow region were found to be of the order of 1011 cm−3. Significant differences in the dynamics of the positive and negative ions were found; these are explained by the presence of electrons at similar densities in the afterglow produced by electron detachment reactions from negative ions due to the large concentrations of atomic oxygen and singlet delta oxygen. Transitions in ion flux dynamics for different modulation frequencies and at the startup of the plasma were analyzed together with intensified charge coupled device images recording the plasma propagation in order to assess the dynamics of plasma plume propagation and how it is impacted by ‘memory effects’. Quantitative measurements of the ion densities enabling these memory effects are reported. The results in this paper highlight the tremendous impact of memory effects on plasma propagation and the corresponding pre-ionization.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Physical insights into biological memory using phospholipid membranes

Electrical signals may propagate along neuronal membranes in the brain, thus enabling communication between nerve cells. In doing so, lipid bilayers, fundamental scaffolds of all cell membranes, deform and restructure in response to such electrical activity. These changes impact the electromechanical properties of the membrane, which then physically store biological memory. This memory can exist either over a short or long period of time. Traditionally, biological memory is defined by the strengthening or weakening of transmissions between individual neurons. In this report we show that electrical stimulation may also alter the properties of the lipid membrane, thus pointing toward a novel mechanism for memory storage. Furthermore, based on the analysis of existing electrophysiological data, we study molecular mechanisms underlying the long-term potentiation in phospholipid membranes. Finally, we examine possible relationships between the memory capacitive properties of lipid membranes, neuronal learning, and memory.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗