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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

Nano-structural Characteristics of N-doped ZnO Thin Films and Fabrication of Film Bulk Acoustic Resonator Devices

N-doped ZnO thin films (ZnO:N) with c-axis preferred orientation were prepared on p-Si(100) wafers, using an RF magnetron sputter deposition. For ZnO deposition, N{sub 2}O gas was employed as a dopant source and various deposition conditions such as N{sub 2}O gas fraction and RF power were applied. In addition, the film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) devices with three kinds of top electrodes patterns were fabricated by using the N-doped ZnO thin films as the piezoelectric layers. The depth profiles of the nitrogen [N] atoms incorporated into the ZnO thin films were investigated by an Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES) and the nano-scale structural characteristics of the N-doped ZnO (ZnO:N) thin films were also investigated by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) technique. The fabricated resonators were evaluated by measuring the return loss (S{sub 11}) characteristics using a probe station and E8361A PNA Network Analyzer.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

TM-30 Guidance

Minimum color quality standards are necessary, because the light sources most efficient at producing lumens are impractical for use in architectural lighting due to poor color rendition. Thus, accurate measures of color rendition and accompanying performance criteria are essential for helping technology developers and users balance tradeoffs between energy efficiency and lighting quality. Setting higher color-rendition criteria while maintaining use of CRI (e.g., CRI ≥ 90) may filter out some unacceptable light sources, but also filters out many highly desirable light sources and requires a greater tradeoff with energy efficiency. In contrast, specifying color rendition using TM-30 Rf, Rg, and Rcs,h1 has been shown to be effective for differentiating desirable sources while maintaining flexibility for technology development and energy efficiency.

Royer, Michael P.↗

Operational Experience with the Nb/Pb SRF Photoelectron Gun

SRF photoelectron guns offer the promise of high brightness, high average current beam production for the next generation of accelerator driven light sources such as free electron lasers, THz radiation sources or energy-recovery linac driven synchrotron radiation sources. In a first step a fully superconducting RF (SRF) photoelectron gun is under development by a collaboration between HZB, DESY, JLAB, BNL and NCBJ. The aim of the experiment is to understand and improve the performance of a Nb SRF gun cavity coated with a small metallic Pb cathode film on the cavity backplane. This paper describes the highlights from the commissioning and beam parameter measurements. The main focus is on lessons learned from operation of the SRF gun.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

A New 2.5 MeV Injector and Beam Test Facility for the Spallation Neutron Source

The U.S. Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) now operates with 1.2 MW of beam power on target with the near-term goal of delivering 1.4 MW and a longer-term goal of delivering >2 MW to support a planned second target station. Presently, H- beam pulses (50-60 mA, 1 ms, 60 Hz) from an RF-driven, Cs-enhanced, multi-cusp ion source are first accelerated to 2.5 MeV by a Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) accelerator, injected into a ~1 GeV linac, compressed to <1μs in an accumulator ring and ultimately delivered to a liquid mercury target for pulsed neutron production. In recent years concerns about the RFQ performance has motivated the procurement of a new RFQ and the creation of a Beam Test Facility (BTF) to allow off-line testing. The purpose of the BTF is to first validate performance of the new RFQ before installing it in place of the existing RFQ and later to serve as a stand-alone 2.5 MeV research accelerator employing the original SNS RFQ. After validating the new RFQ with respect to energy, emittance and transmission, the initial applications of the BTF will be to conduct 6D beam dynamic studies, develop & demonstrate ion sources capable of meeting the current and future requirements of the SNS, and contribute to neutron moderator development. This report provides a facility update, description of the BTF ion source systems as well as a discussion of the first LEBT and RFQ beam current measurements performed at the BTF.REFERENCES

Welton, Robert F.↗

Growth of Highly Transparent Amorphous Carbon Films Using Beam Plasma Source

A single beam plasma source was used to deposit hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) coatings at room temperature. Using methane source gas, a-C:H coatings were deposited at different radio frequency (RF) power to fabricate transparent and durable coatings. The film deposition rate was almost linearly proportional to the ion source power. Hydrogenated amorphous carbon films of ~100 nm thickness appeared to be highly transparent from UV to the infrared range with a transmittance of ~90% and optical bandgap of ~3.7 eV. The coatings also possess desirable mechanical properties with Young’s modulus of ~78 GPa and density of ~1.9 g/cm3. The combined material properties of high transmittance and high durability make the ion-source-deposited a-C:H coatings attractive for many applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Record high-gradient SRF beam acceleration at Fermilab

Here, many modern and future particle accelerators employ high gradient superconducting RF (SRF) to generate beams of high energy, high intensity and high brightness for research in high energy and nuclear physics, basic energy sciences, etc. In this paper we report the record performance large-scale SRF system with average beam accelerating gradient matching the International Linear Collider (ILC) specification of 31.5 MV m –1 . Design of the eight cavity 1.3 GHz SRF cryomodule, its performance without the beam and results of the system commissioning with high intensity electron beam at Fermilab Accelerator Science and Technology (FAST) facility are presented. We also briefly discuss opportunities for further beam studies and tests at FAST including those on even higher gradient and more efficient SRF acceleration, as well as exploration of the system performance with full ILC-type beam specifications.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

RF sheath induced sputtering on Proto-MPEX part 2: Impurity transport modeling and experimental comparison

The Prototype Material Plasma Exposure eXperiment (Proto-MPEX) is a pulsed linear plasma device that uses a radio frequency (RF) helicon antenna and a helicon ceramic window as the plasma ionization source. Modeling performed within this work on the helicon operations predicts hot spots on the helicon ceramic window due to an RF-induced sheath. The RF sheath potential leads to physical sputtering of the ceramic window predominantly where the helicon antenna sits around the helicon window. The role of oxygen in sputtering within Proto-MPEX is also investigated and is needed to match the experimental data. Experiments on Proto-MPEX show reasonable agreement with the modeled erosion/redeposition pattern on the helicon window, and the modeled impurity flux to the target shows radial transport within the device as expected from classical collisional impurity transport. Temperature screening of impurities is shown to be needed for Proto-MPEX to reduce impurity flux to the target. The modeling approach used in this work can be applied to other plasma RF applications for the determination of impurity production and transport.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Recent performance of the SNS H - ion source with a record long run

The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) accelerator system includes a 65 keV H - injector, a 2.5 MeV radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ), a 1 GeV linac chain (DTL-CCL-SCL) and an accumulator ring. The H - injector consists of an RF-driven, Cs-enhanced, multi-cusp H - ion source and a compact, two-lens electrostatic low energy beam transport (LEBT). In 2018, a new RFQ was installed in place of the original RFQ along with upgraded ion source support infrastructure. This paper presents the operational performance and some highlights of beam studies with the SNS ion source since the new RFQ was put into operation. SNS routinely operates at 1.4 MW average beam power for three run cycles per year. During the most recently finished run, FY20B, we operated a single source for the entire run spanning ~4 months with a >99.5% availability. A single dose of cesiation was conducted during the ion source startup which yielded ≥54 mA current for the entire run with just few minor adjustments of parameters.

Han, Baoxi↗

Diagnostic for Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition and Etch Systems

In order to meet NASA's requirements for the rapid development and validation of future generation electronic devices as well as associated materials and processes, enabling technologies ion the processing of semiconductor materials arising from understanding etch chemistries are being developed through a research collaboration between Stanford University and NASA-Ames Research Center, Although a great deal of laboratory-scale research has been performed on many of materials processing plasmas, little is known about the gas-phase and surface chemical reactions that are critical in many etch and deposition processes, and how these reactions are influenced by the variation in operating conditions. In addition, many plasma-based processes suffer from stability and reliability problems leading to a compromise in performance and a potentially increased cost for the semiconductor manufacturing industry. Such a lack of understanding has hindered the development of process models that can aid in the scaling and improvement of plasma etch and deposition systems. The research described involves the study of plasmas used in semiconductor processes. An inductively coupled plasma (ICP) source in place of the standard upper electrode assembly of the Gaseous Electronics Conference (GEC) radio-frequency (RF) Reference Cell is used to investigate the discharge characteristics and chemistries. This ICP source generates plasmas with higher electron densities (approximately 10(exp 12)/cu cm) and lower operating pressures (approximately 7 mTorr) than obtainable with the original parallel-plate version of the GEC Cell. This expanded operating regime is more relevant to new generations of industrial plasma systems being used by the microelectronics industry. The motivation for this study is to develop an understanding of the physical phenomena involved in plasma processing and to measure much needed fundamental parameters, such as gas-phase and surface reaction rates. species concentration, temperature, ion energy distribution, and electron number density. A wide variety of diagnostic techniques are under development through this consortium grant to measure these parameters. including molecular beam mass spectrometry (MBMS). Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, broadband ultraviolet (UV) absorption spectroscopy, a compensated Langmuir probe. Additional diagnostics. Such as microwave interferometry and microwave absorption for measurements of plasma density and radical concentrations are also planned.

Cappelli, Mark A.↗

ICRF antenna matching systems with ferrite tuners for the Alcator C-Mod tokamak

Real-time fast ferrite tuning (FFT) has been successfully implemented on the ICRF antennas on Alcator C-Mod. The former prototypical FFT system on the E-port 2-strap antenna has been upgraded using new ferrite tuners. A new FFT system with two ferrite tuners and one fixed-length stub has been installed on the transmission line of the D-port 2-strap antenna. These two systems can maintain the reflected power to the transmitters to less than 1% in real time under almost all plasma conditions and help ensure reliable high power operation of the antennas. The loading insensitivity feature vs. plasma conditions of the innovative field-aligned (FA) 4-strap antenna on the J-port allows us to significantly improve the matching by installing a carefully designed stub on each of the two transmission lines. The reduction of the RF voltages in the transmission lines has enabled the J-port FA antenna to deliver 3.7 MW RF power to plasmas out of 4 MW source power. The matching on the J-port antenna can be improved even more by adding a single ferrite tuner under real-time control on each transmission line and this scheme will be implemented in the near future.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Full-wave modeling of RF waves in fusion plasmas with finite element method: Progress in past decades and its future role

This paper reviews the progress in computing radio frequency (RF) wave fields in fusion plasmas, specifically focusing on simulations utilizing the finite element method (FEM) over the past few decades. Computing RF wave fields in fusion plasmas presents unique challenges due to large simulation domains, complex antenna structures, non-local dielectric properties, and wide ranges of spatial scales. It highlights key developments and outlines future directions, primarily addressing waves in the ion cyclotron (IC) to lower hybrid (LH) frequency range. We begin with briefly revisiting earlier developments before the widespread availability of modern computer-aided engineering (CAE) software based on FEM. This historical perspective illuminates early progress and the physics difficulties that motivated ongoing work within the community. Modern wave simulations for RF antennas based on FEM are characterized by the use of detailed 3D antenna model geometry generated from engineering CAD software and localized wave dielectric model. Significant advancements have also been made in improving physics models to include phenomena such as RF sheath rectification and wave scattering. FEM-based RF simulations have also been applied to compute wave propagation in the core region, where the inclusion of non-local dielectric response is crucial. This is a challenging goal, and several promising approaches have been proposed in this area. Additionally, RF simulation development initiatives based on open-source libraries have gained popularity, demonstrating scalability and flexibility in extending physics models. This paper will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using such a publicly available FEM library.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Polarity-inverted ScAlN film growth by ion beam irradiation and application to overtone acoustic wave (000-1)/(0001) film resonators

Polarity inversion in wurtzite film is generally achieved by the epitaxial growth on a specific under-layer. We demonstrate polarity inversion of c-axis oriented ScAlN films by substrate ion beam irradiation without using buffer layer. Substrate ion beam irradiation was induced by either sputtering a small amount of oxide (as a negative ion source) onto the cathode or by applying a RF bias to the substrate. Polarity of the films was determined by a press test and nonlinear dielectric measurement. Second overtone thickness extensional mode acoustic resonance and suppression of fundamental mode resonance, indicating complete polarity inversion, were clearly observed in bilayer highly oriented (000-1)/(0001) ScAlN film.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Large amplitude spin torque vortex oscillations at zero external field using a perpendicular spin polarizer

We investigate the microwave response of a spin transfer vortex based oscillator in a magnetic tunnel junction with an in-plane reference layer combined with a spin valve with an out-of-plane magnetization spin polarizing layer. The main advantage of this perpendicular spin polarizer is to induce a large spin transfer force even at zero magnetic field, thus leading to a record emitted power (up to 0.6 μW) associated to a very narrow spectral linewidth of a few hundreds of kHz. The characteristics of this hybrid vortex based spin transfer nano-oscillator obtained at zero field and room temperature are of great importance for applications based on rf spintronic devices as integrated and tunable microwave source and/or microwave detector.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Direct measurements of ion dynamics in collisional magnetic presheaths

Ion velocities and temperatures are measured in the presheath of a grounded plate downstream from an argon helicon plasma source using laser-induced fluorescence (P{sub rf}≈450→750 W, T{sub e}=2.5→5 eV, T{sub i}=0.1→0.6 eV, n{sub 0}≈1×10{sup 12}cm{sup −3}, p{sub n}=1→6.5 mTorr, λ=0.3→2 cm, ρ{sub i}≈ 0.5 cm). The plate is held 16°→60° relative to the 1 kG background axial magnetic field. The velocity profiles are compared to a 1D fluid model similar to those presented by Riemann [Phys. Plasmas 1, 552 (1994)] and Ahedo [Phys. Plasmas 4, 4419 (1997)] for the 1 mTorr dataset and are shown to agree well. The model is sensitive to parameters such as collision and ionization frequencies and simplified models, such one presented by Chodura [Phys. Fluids 25, 1628 (1982)], are shown to be inaccurate. E{sup →}×B{sup →} flows as large as 40% of c{sub s} at the sheath edge are inferred. Definitions for the term “magnetic presheath” and implications for ion flow to tokamak divertors and Hall thruster walls are discussed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

A new technique for RF distribution

For independent phase and amplitude control, RF cavities are often driven by one power source per cavity. In many cases it would be advantageous in terms of cost to instead use one higher power source for many cavities. Vector modulators have been developed, which, when used with a single source provide for the independent phase and amplitude control which would have been otherwise lost. The key components of these vector modulators are a novel type of phase shifter — adjustable fast phase shifters with perpendicularly biased garnets. The vector modulators have been constructed and used with a single klystron in a 3.4 MeV test linac to successfully accelerate proton beam.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

ICRF antenna matching systems with ferrite tuners for the Alcator C-Mod tokamak

Real-time fast ferrite tuning (FFT) has been successfully implemented on the ICRF antennas on Alcator C-Mod. The former prototypical FFT system on the E-port 2-strap antenna has been upgraded using new ferrite tuners. A new FFT system with two ferrite tuners and one fixed-length stub has been installed on the transmission line of the D-port 2-strap antenna. These two systems are able to achieve and maintain the reflected power to the transmitters to less than 1% in real time under almost all plasma conditions and help ensure reliable high power operation of the antennas. The loading insensitivity feature vs. plasma conditions of the innovative field-aligned (FA) 4-strap antenna on the J-port allows us to significantly improve the matching by installing a carefully designed stub on each of the two transmission lines. The reduction of the RF voltages in the transmission lines has enabled the J-port FA antenna to deliver 3.7 MW RF power to plasmas out of 4 MW source power. The matching on the J-port antenna can be further improved by adding a single ferrite tuner under real-time control on each transmission line and this scheme will be implemented in the near future.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Radiofrequency radiation

Sources, biophysical characteristics, and potential biological effects of rf radiation are described. Standards are given for exposure of spacecraft personnel to rf radiation.

Nachtwey, D. S.↗

Fiber optic sensing system

A fiber optic interferometer utilizes a low coherence light emitting diode (LED) laser as a light source which is filtered and driven at two RF frequencies, high and low, that are specific to the initial length of the resonator chamber. A displacement of a reflecting mirror changes the length traveled by the nonreferencing signal. The low frequency light undergoes destructive interference which reduces the average intensity of the wave while the high frequency light undergoes constructive interference which increases the average intensity of the wave. The ratio of these two intensity measurements is proportional to the displacement incurred.

Adamovsky, Grigory↗