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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 613 records · Page 34
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1995

Noninvasive analysis of human neck muscle function

STUDY DESIGN. Muscle use evoked by exercise was determined by quantifying shifts in signal relaxation times of T2-weighted magnetic resonance images. Images were collected at rest and after exercise at each of two intensities (moderate and intense) for each of four head movements: 1) extension, 2) flexion, 3) rotation, and 4) lateral flexion. OBJECTIVE. This study examined the intensity and pattern of neck muscle use evoked by various movements of the head. The results will help elucidate the pathophysiology, and thus methods for treating disorders of the cervical musculoskeletal system. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA. Exercise-induced contrast shifts in T2 has been shown to indicate muscle use during the activity. The noninvasive nature of magnetic resonance imaging appears to make it an ideal approach for studying the function of the complex neuromuscular system of the neck. METHODS. The extent of T2 increase was examined to gauge how intensely nine different neck muscles or muscle pairs were used in seven subjects. The absolute and relative cross-sectional area of muscle showing a shift in signal relaxation was assessed to infer the pattern of use among and within individual neck muscles or muscle pairs. RESULTS. Signal relaxation increased with exercise intensity for each head movement. The absolute and relative cross-sectional area of muscle showing a shift in signal relaxation also increased with exercise load. Neck muscles or muscle pairs extensively used to perform each head movement were: extension--semispinalis capitis and cervicis and splenius capitis; flexion--sternocleidomastoid and longus capitis and colli; rotation--splenius capitis, levator scapulae, scalenus, semispinalis capitis ipsilateral to the rotation, and sternocleidomastoid contralateral; and lateral flexion--sternocleidomastoid CONCLUSION. The results of this study, in part, agree with the purported functions of neck muscles derived from anatomic location. This also was true for the few selected muscles that have been examined in human electromyographic studies. Neck muscle function and morphology can be studied at a detailed level using exercise-induced shifts in magnetic resonance images.

NASA Program Space Physiology and Countermeasures↗
NASA NTRS2010

Radiation Protection Using Carbon Nanotube Derivatives

BHA and BHT are well-known food preservatives that are excellent radical scavengers. These compounds, attached to single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), could serve as excellent radical traps. The amino-BHT groups can be associated with SWNTs that have carbolyxic acid groups via acid-base association or via covalent association. The material can be used as a means of radiation protection or cellular stress mitigation via a sequence of quenching radical species using nano-engineered scaffolds of SWNTs and their derivatives. It works by reducing the number of free radicals within or nearby a cell, tissue, organ, or living organism. This reduces the risk of damage to DNA and other cellular components that can lead to chronic and/or acute pathologies, including (but not limited to) cancer, cardiovascular disease, immuno-suppression, and disorders of the central nervous system. These derivatives can show an unusually high scavenging ability, which could prove efficacious in protecting living systems from radical-induced decay. This technique could be used to protect healthy cells in a living biological system from the effects of radiation therapy. It could also be used as a prophylactic or antidote for radiation exposure due to accidental, terrorist, or wartime use of radiation- containing weapons; high-altitude or space travel (where radiation exposure is generally higher than desired); or in any scenario where exposure to radiation is expected or anticipated. This invention s ultimate use will be dependent on the utility in an overall biological system where many levels of toxicity have to be evaluated. This can only be assessed at a later stage. In vitro toxicity will first be assessed, followed by in vivo non-mammalian screening in zebra fish for toxicity and therapeutic efficacy.

Conyers, Jodie L., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Radiation Protection Using Single-Wall Carbon Nanotube Derivatives

This invention is a means of radiation protection, or cellular oxidative stress mitigation, via a sequence of quenching radical species using nano-engineered scaffolds, specifically single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and their derivatives. The material can be used as a means of radiation protection by reducing the number of free radicals within, or nearby, organelles, cells, tissue, organs, or living organisms, thereby reducing the risk of damage to DNA and other cellular components (i.e., RNA, mitochondria, membranes, etc.) that can lead to chronic and/or acute pathologies, including but not limited to cancer, cardiovascular disease, immuno-suppression, and disorders of the central nervous system. In addition, this innovation could be used as a prophylactic or antidote for accidental radiation exposure, during high-altitude or space travel where exposure to radiation is anticipated, or to protect from exposure from deliberate terrorist or wartime use of radiation- containing weapons.

Tour, James M.↗
DOE OSTI2014

Phase Behavior of Asymmetrically Charged Colloids Investigated by Monte Carlo Simulation

Using Monte Carlo simulations, we investigate the structural characteristics of an interacting hard sphere system with shifted charge. The focus is placed on understanding the dependence of its phase behavior on charge asymmetry. Two different phase transitions are discovered for this model system. Upon increasing the volume fraction, a liquid-to-crystal transition first occurs at a significantly lower volume fraction in comparison to that of the centro-charged system. This is due to the stronger effective inter-particle repulsion caused by the additional charge anisotropy. Moreover, within the crystal state at higher volume fraction, the system further undergoes a disorder-to-order transition with respect to the charge orientation. The dependence of crystal formation and orientational ordering on charge asymmetry and temperature was also examined. These model studies are essential to advance our future understanding regarding the fundamental physiochemical properties of novel Janus colloidal particles and protein crystallization conditions.

Chen, Wei-Ren↗
DOE OSTI2020

Jamming, fragility and pinning phenomena in superconducting vortex systems

Abstract We examine driven superconducting vortices interacting with quenched disorder under a sequence of perpendicular drive pulses. As a function of disorder strength, we find four types of behavior distinguished by the presence or absence of memory effects. The fragile and jammed states exhibit memory, while the elastic and pinning dominated regimes do not. In the fragile regime, the system organizes into a pinned state during the first pulse, flows during the second perpendicular pulse, and then returns to a pinned state during the third pulse which is parallel to the first pulse. This behavior is the hallmark of the fragility proposed for jamming in particulate matter. For stronger disorder, we observe a robust jamming state with memory where the system reaches a pinned or reduced flow state during the perpendicular drive pulse, similar to the shear jamming of granular systems. We show signatures of the different states in the spatial vortex configurations, and find that memory effects arise from coexisting elastic and pinned components of the vortex assembly. The sequential perpendicular driving protocol we propose for distinguishing fragile, jammed, and pinned phases should be general to the broader class of driven interacting particles in the presence of quenched disorder.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Chemical Complexity Controls Energy Dissipation and Defect Evolution

The development of metallic alloys is arguably one of the oldest sciences, dating back at least 3,000 years. Most research and applications have been focused on alloys with comprised multiple phases with one or two dominant elements, to which the addition of alloying elements in low concentrations leads to various performance improvements and changes in radiation resistance. In sharp contrast to traditional alloys, recent success in the synthesis of single phase concentrated solid solution alloys (SP-CSAs) has opened up new frontiers in materials research. In these alloys, a random arrangement of multiple elemental species on a lattice (fcc or bcc) results in unique site-to-site lattice distortions and local disordered chemical environments. Intense radiation in nuclear fission and fusion energy power systems, nuclear waste forms, high-energy accelerators and space exploration transfers energy to the electrons and atoms that make up the material, and thereby produces defects that ultimately compromise material strength and lifetime. A grand challenge in materials research is to understand complex electronic correlations and non-equilibrium atomic interactions, and how such intrinsic properties and dynamic processes affect energy transfer and defect evolution in irradiated materials. Since SP-CSAs possess unique links between intrinsic material properties (can be altered by alloy complexity), energy dissipation and various defect dynamic processes; they are ideal systems to fill knowledge gaps between electronic- /atomic-level interactions and radiation resistance mechanisms. In our work, we show that chemical disorder and compositional complexity in SP-CSAs have an enormous impact on defect dynamics through substantial modification of energy dissipation pathways. Based on a closely integrated computational and experimental study using a novel set of Ni-based SP-CSAs, we have explicitly demonstrated that increasing chemical disorder can lead to a substantial reduction in the electron mean free path and electrical and thermal conductivity. These reductions have a significant impact on energy dissipation and consequentially on defect evolution during ion irradiation. Considerable enhancement in radiation resistance with increasing chemical complexity from pure nickel to binary, and to more complex quaternary solid solutions, is observed under ion irradiation. Contrary to conventional alloys with low solute concentration but multiple phases, energy dissipation and defect evolution at the level of electrons and atoms in SP- CSA systems with extreme compositional disorder is an unexplored frontier in materials science. The integrated experimental/modeling effort provides new insights into defect dynamics at the level of atoms and electrons, and an innovative path forward towards solving a long-standing challenge in structural materials. Increasing chemical complexity achieved orders-of-magnitude reductions in electron mean free paths and electron and thermal conductivities of alloys of NiCo, NiFe and NiCoFeCr, compared to Ni, and suppressed damage accumulation under ion irradiation. This discovery provides insights to address the grand challenge of understanding complex electronic correlations and non-equilibrium atomic interactions, and the effect of these intrinsic properties and dynamic processes on energy transfer and defect evolution in irradiated materials. Understanding how material properties and defect dynamics can be tailored by alloy complexity may pave the way for new design principles of functional alloys. (authors)

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Classification of fragile topology enabled by matrix homotopy

Flat bands in twisted materials have attracted considerable attention due to the emergence of correlated phases that can be associated with the non-Wannier-representable nature of its single-particle states. Specifically, these bands can exhibit a class of topology that can be nullified by the addition of trivial bands, termed fragile topology, which has required an expansion of prior classification schemes. However, existing approaches for predicting fragile topology rely on momentum-space methods, e.g., Wilson loops, presenting a fundamental challenge for using fragile topology as a predictor of correlated phases in aperiodic systems, such as incommensurate twist angles in moiré materials. Here, we develop a ℤ 2 energy-resolved topological marker for classifying fragile phases using a system’s position-space description, enabling the direct classification of finite, disordered, and aperiodic materials. By translating the physical symmetries protecting the system’s fragile topological phase into matrix symmetries of the system’s Hamiltonian and position operators, we use matrix homotopy to construct our topological marker while simultaneously yielding a quantitative measure of topological robustness. We demonstrate our framework’s effectiveness in both a low-energy tight-binding model and a continuum photonic crystal model of 𝐶 2 ⁢𝒯-symmetric systems, and find that fragile topology can both persist under strong disorder and even exhibit disorder-induced reentrant phase transitions. Our photonic crystal results also demonstrate the robustness of fragile topology, and the applicability of our approach, to heterostructures lacking a bulk spectral gap. Overall, our framework serves as an efficient tool for elucidating fragile topology, offering guidance for the prediction and discovery of correlated phases in both crystalline and aperiodic materials.

Lee, Ki Young [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-N↗
DOE OSTI2018

Structural-Phase Features of Low-Stability Pre-Transitional States of BCC-Alloys with Complexes of Planar Defects (Antiphase Boundaries)

Using the Monte Carlo method, the influence of the complexes of antiphase boundaries (APBs) (a pair of shear APBs and a pair of thermal APBs) on the low-stability, pre-transitional states of BCC-alloys is considered by the example of a conventional copper alloy CuZn and an intermetallic compound NiAl. It is shown that in the region of low-stability structural-phase states the energy of formation of a complex of thermal APBs is higher than that of shear APBs. The contribution of APBs into disordering is appreciable up to the structural-phase transition temperature. The most significant factor in terms of the long-range order is the formation of the defect itself; the differences in the APB type or the plane of their occurrence do not so much affect the longrange order behavior with the temperature variation. The type of APBs however appreciably affects the structural-energy characteristics of the system at the temperatures below the phase transformation temperature. Logically, a system with structural defects is less ordered than a defect-free system. The presence of a defect favors the onset of disordering at lower temperatures: it starts at lower temperatures in the case of thermal APBs (TAPBs) compared to shear APBs (TAPBs). In a BCC-system with a complex of TAPBs the first signs of disordering invariably appear near the phase boundary in the neighborhood of large atoms (Zn–Zn in the CuZn alloy or Al–Al in the NiAl intermetallide). In the alloy with a complex of shear APBs the distortion of ordering at low temperatures is observed in the regions where the boundaries cross. The presence of antiphase boundaries affects the alloy stability under heating. It is shown that disordering is accompanied by smearing of the boundaries and their faceting. It follows from a comparative analysis of the peculiarities of disordering in the BCC-system under study (classical alloy CuZn and intermetallide NiAl) under conditions of higher temperatures in the region of low-stability, pre-transitional states that the order – disorder phase transition in the CuZn alloy takes place as a result of disordering of the system, while in the intermetallide NiAl the change of long-range order results from the structural-phase transition.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2017

The random-bond Ising model in 2.01 and 3 dimensions

We consider the Ising model between 2 and 4 dimensions perturbed by quenched disorder in the strength of the interaction between nearby spins. In the interval 2 < d < 4 this disorder is a relevant perturbation that drives the system to a new fixed point of the renormalization group. At d = 2 such disorder is marginally irrelevant and can be studied using conformal perturbation theory. Combining conformal perturbation theory with recent results from the conformal bootstrap we compute some scaling exponents in an expansion around d = 2. If one trusts these computations also in d =3, one finds results consistent with experimental data and Monte Carlo simulations. In addition, we perform a direct uncontrolled computation in d= 3 using new results for low-lying operator dimensions and OPE coefficients in the 3d Ising model. We compare these new methods with previous studies. Finally, we comment about the O(2) model in d = 3, where we predict a large logarithmic correction to the infrared scaling of disorder.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2020

Strong pinning and slow flux creep relaxation in Co-doped CaFe 2 As 2 single crystals

In this paper we report on measurements of critical current densities J c and flux creep rates S of freestanding Ca(Fe 1–x Co x ) 2 As 2 (x ≈ 0.033) single crystals with T c ≈ 15.7 K by performing magnetization measurements. The magnetic field dependences of J c at low temperature display features related to strong pinning. In addition, we find that the system displays small flux creep rates. The characteristic glassy exponent, μ, and the pinning energy, U 0 , display exceptional high values for pristine crystals. We find that for magnetic fields between 0.3 T and 1 T, μ decreases from ≈ 2.8 to ≈ 2 and U 0 remains ≈ 300 K. Analysis of the pinning force indicates that the mechanism is similar to the observed in polycrystalline systems in which grain boundaries and random disorder produce the vortex pinning. Considering the large U 0 observed in the single crystal, we attempt to improve the pinning by adding random point disorder by 3 MeV proton irradiation with a fluence of 2 × 10 16 proton/cm 2 . The results show that, unlike other iron-based superconductors, the superconducting fraction is sharply reduced by irradiation. This fact indicates that the superconductivity in the system is extremely fragile to an increment in the disorder. The superconducting volume fraction in the irradiated crystal systematically recovers after removal disorder by thermal annealing, which evidences as to the observation of critical state in curves of magnetization versus magnetic field. No features related to a reentrant antiferromagnetic transition are observed for the irradiated sample.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Superuniversality from disorder at two-dimensional topological phase transitions

We investigate the effects of quenched randomness on topological quantum phase transitions in strongly interacting two-dimensional systems. We focus first on transitions driven by the condensation of a subset of fractionalized quasiparticles (“anyons”) identified with “electric charge” excitations of a phase with intrinsic topological order. All other anyons have nontrivial mutual statistics with the condensed subset and hence become confined at the anyon condensation transition. Furthermore, using a combination of microscopically exact duality transformations and asymptotically exact real-space renormalization group techniques applied to these two-dimensional disordered gauge theories, we argue that the resulting critical scaling behavior is “superuniversal” across a wide range of such condensation transitions and is controlled by the same infinite-randomness fixed point as that of the 2D random transverse-field Ising model. We validate this claim using large-scale quantum Monte Carlo simulations that allow us to extract zero-temperature critical exponents and correlation functions in (2+1)D disordered interacting systems. We discuss generalizations of these results to a large class of ground-state and excited-state topological transitions in systems with intrinsic topological order as well as those where topological order is either protected or enriched by global symmetries. When the underlying topological order and the symmetry group are Abelian, our results provide prototypes for topological phase transitions between distinct many-body localized phases.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2021

Transmission of waves through a pinned elastic medium

We investigate the scattering of elastic waves off a disordered region described by a one-dimensional random-phase sine-Gordon model. The collective pinning results in an effective static disorder potential with universal and non-Gaussian correlations, acting on propagating waves. We find signatures of the correlations in the wave transmission in a wide frequency range, which covers both the weak and strong localization regimes. Our theory elucidates the dynamics of collectively-pinned phases occurring in any natural or synthetic elastic medium. The latter one is exemplified by a one-dimensional array of Josephson junctions, for which we specify our results. Here, the obtained results provide benchmarks for the array-enabled quantum simulations addressing the dynamics in broader and yet-unexplored domains of individual pinning and quantum Bose glass.

1-dimensional systems↗
DOE OSTI2011

Photonic crystals with controlled disorder

Photonic crystals are extremely sensitive to structural disorder even to the point of completely losing their functionalities. While, on one side, this can be detrimental for applications in traditional optical devices, on the other side, it gives also rise to very interesting new physics and maybe even new applications. We propose a route to introduce disorder in photonic crystals in a controlled way by creating a certain percentage of vacancies in the lattice. We show how the method works and what type of materials can be obtained this way. Also, we use this system to probe the role of disorder on the resulting transport properties from various points of view, including measurements of the transport and scattering mean free path and the diffusion constant.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2019

Theoretical Modeling of the Non-equilibrium Amorphous State in 1T-TaS{sub 2}

1T-TaS{sub 2} is known for it’s remarkably complex phase diagram and it’s unique long-lived metastable hidden (H) state. Recently, a novel metastable state has been discovered using higher fluences for photoexcitation than in the case of the H state. The state has been dubbed as amorphous (A) due to it’s similarity to glass. Expanding on the work of Brazovskii and Karpov, we show that the A state can be successfully modeled with classical interacting polarons on a two dimensional hexagonal lattice. We have found that the polaron configuration of the A state corresponds to a frustrated screened Coulomb system, where there is no order-disorder phase transition.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Inhomogeneous Broadening Induced Long-Lived Integrated Two-Color Coherence Photon Echo Signal

Recent observations of the long-lasting nonlinear signals in a variety of light-harvesting complexes have initiated an active debate on the origin of long-lived coherence in the biological systems. In this work we show that disorder of site energy can induce a long-lived electronic coherence between two chromophores in a strongly coupled dimer system, in addition to the ensemble dephasing effect. This phenomenon is physically explained as the correlated fluctuation of excitons with the equal delocalization on two sites, when the site-energy distributions overlap to give resonance. Using the integrated two-color coherence photon echo signal as an example, we show that the coherence in such a system exhibits a biexponential decay with a slow component with a lifetime of hundreds of femtoseconds and a rapid component with a lifetime of tens of femtoseconds. The current result provides a possible microscopic basis for the electronic coherence to be the origin of the long-lived coherence signals to be considered along with other recently proposed mechanisms.

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

Dephasing enhanced spin transport in the ergodic phase of a many‐body localizable system

We study high temperature spin transport in a disordered Heisenberg chain in the ergodic regime when bulk dephasing is present. We find that while dephasing always renders the transport diffusive, there is nonetheless a remnant of the diffusive to sub‐diffusive transition found in a system without dephasing manifested in the behaviour of the diffusion constant with the dephasing strength. By studying finite‐size effects we show numerically and theoretically that this feature is caused by the competition between large crossover length scales associated to disorder and dephasing that control the dynamics observed in the thermodynamic limit. We demonstrate that this competition may lead to a dephasing enhanced transport in this model. image

Žnidarič, Marko↗
DOE OSTI2025

Mapping strain and structural heterogeneities around bubbles in amorphous ionically conductive Bi 2 O 3

While amorphous materials are often approximated to have a statistically homogeneous atomic structure, they frequently exhibit localized structural heterogeneity that challenges simplified models. This study uses 4D scanning transmission electron microscopy to investigate the strain and structural modifications around gas bubbles in amorphous Bi 2 O 3 induced by argon irradiation. We present a method for determining strain fields surrounding bubbles that can be used to measure the internal pressure of the gas. Compressive strain is observed around the cavities, with higher-order crystalline symmetries emerging near the cavity interfaces, suggesting paracrystalline ordering as a result of bubble coarsening. This ordering, along with a compressive strain gradient, indicates that gas bubbles induce significant localized changes in atomic packing. By analyzing strain fields with maximum compressive strains of 3%, we estimate a lower bound on the internal pressure of the bubbles at 2.5 GPa. These findings provide insight into the complex structural behavior of amorphous materials under stress, particularly in systems with gas inclusions, and offer new methods for probing the local atomic structure in disordered materials. Although considering structural heterogeneity in amorphous systems is non-trivial, these features have crucial impacts on material functionalities, such as mechanical strength, ionic conductivity, and electronic mobility.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Characterizing skyrmion flow phases with principal component analysis

Principal component analysis (PCA) is a powerful method that can identify patterns in large, complex data sets by constructing low-dimensional order parameters from higher-dimensional feature vectors. There are increasing efforts to use space-and-time-dependent PCA to detect transitions in nonequilibrium systems that are difficult to characterize with equilibrium methods. Here, we demonstrate that feature vectors incorporating the position and velocity information of driven skyrmions moving through random disorder permit PCA to resolve different types of disordered skyrmion motion as a function of driving force and the ratio of the Magnus force to the dissipation. Since the Magnus force creates gyroscopic motion and a finite Hall angle, skyrmions can exhibit a greater range of flow phases than what is observed in overdamped driven systems with quenched disorder. We show that in addition to identifying previously known skyrmion flow phases, PCA detects several additional phases, including different types of channel flow, moving fluids, and partially ordered states. Guided by the PCA analysis, we further characterize the disordered flow phases to elucidate the different microscopic dynamics and show that the changes in the PCA-derived order parameters can be connected to features in bulk transport measures, including the transverse and longitudinal velocity-force curves, differential conductivity, topological defect density, and changes in the skyrmion Hall angle as a function of drive. We discuss how asymmetric feature vectors can be used to improve the resolution of the PCA analysis, and how this technique can be extended to find disordered phases in other nonequilibrium systems with time-dependent dynamics.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗