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At least 631 records · Page 35

Challenges in synthesis of heterostructures

Developing the ability to reproducibly prepare materials drives the advancement of human technology. Trends in historical advances and extrapolation of current technologies suggest that the next logical step is developing the ability to control structure and composition at near atomic scales in device manufacturing to take advantage of emergent properties discovered in 2D materials and heterostructures. This article reviews a subset of synthetic approaches used to prepare heterostructures, outlining key reaction steps, and how experimental parameters are used to control which product forms. The positive attributes of each synthesis approach are discussed along with some of their limitations. The elemental reactant (MER) approach is discussed in more depth.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Prediction of the structures and heats of formation of MO 2 , MO 3 , and M 2 O 5 for M = V, Nb, Ta, Pa

Structures for the mono-, di-, and tri-bridge isomers of M 2 O 5 as well as those for the MO 2 and MO 3 fragments for M = V, Nb, Ta, and Pa were optimized at the density functional theory (DFT) level. Single point CCSD(T) calculations extrapolated to the complete basis set (CBS) limit at the DFT geometries were used to predict the energetics. Here, the lowest energy dimer isomer was the di-bridge for M = V and Nb and the tri-bridge for M = Ta and Pa. The di-bridge isomers were predicted to be composed of MO 2 + and MO 3 - fragments, whereas the mono- and tri-bridge are two MO 2 + fragments linked by an O 2 - . The heats of formation of M 2 O 5 dimers, as well as MO 2 and MO 3 neutral and ionic species were predicted using the Feller–Peterson–Dixon (FPD) approach. The heats of formation of the MF 5 species were calculated to provide additional benchmarks. Dimerization energies to form the M 2 O 5 dimers are predicted to become more negative going down group 5 and range from -29 to -45 kcal mol -1 . The ionization energies (IEs) for VO 2 and TaO 2 are essentially the same at 8.75 eV whereas the IEs for NbO 2 and PaO 2 are 8.10 and 6.25 eV, respectively. The predicted adiabatic electron affinities (AEAs) range from 3.75 eV to 4.45 eV for the MO 3 species and vertical detachment energies from 4.21 to 4.59 eV for MO 3 - . The calculated M[double bond, length as m-dash]O bond dissociation energies increase from 143 kcal mol -1 for M = V to ~170 kcal mol -1 for M = Nb and Ta to ~200 kcal mol -1 for M = Pa. The M–O bond dissociation energies are all similar ranging from 97 to 107 kcal mol -1 . Natural bond analysis provided insights into the types of chemical bonds in terms of their ionic character. Pa 2 O 5 is predicted to behave like an actinyl species dominated by the interactions of approximately linear PaO 2 + groups.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Effect of rare earth size on network structure and glass forming ability in binary aluminum garnets

Rare earth aluminate glasses are potentially useful for optical, luminescence, and laser applications. As reluctant glass formers, these materials exhibit unconventional atomic structures. To better understand how their structures correlate with glass formation, we investigate two rare earth aluminum garnet melts, La 3 Al 5 O 12 (LAG) and Yb 3 Al 5 O 12 (YbAG), which represent the relative extremes of good and poor glass forming ability in rare earth aluminates. Structural models have been refined to high-energy X-ray diffraction data over 1340–2740 K. Both melts contain mixtures of AlO 4 , AlO 5 , and AlO 6 polyhedra, with larger fractions of [5] Al and [6] Al in YbAG. Extrapolation of the Al–O coordination distributions to the glass transition match closely with 27 Al nuclear magnetic resonance measurements of (La 1−z Y z ) 3 Al 5 O 12 glasses, z = 0 to 1. During cooling, the mean coordination numbers increase for La–O in LAG from 6.45(8) to 6.98(8) and for Yb–O in YbAG from 6.02(8) to 6.21(8). Linkedness among Al–O polyhedra at ∼2450 K is mostly corner-sharing, with 9% edge-sharing in LAG and 19% in YbAG. Among [4] Al units, both melts have 6% edge-sharing that convert to all corner-sharing upon cooling. Network connectivity is compared using a newly defined metric, K n , that is similar to the Q n distribution but that accounts for the edge-sharing and triply bonded oxygen present in these melts. The lower glass forming ability in YbAG as compared to LAG correlates with more edge-sharing, associated with the larger fractions of [5] Al and [6] Al, and lower connectivity among [4] Al units.

Wilke, Stephen K. [Materials Development, Inc., Ar↗

Investigating trends in actinide covalency and magnetism with 35/37 Cl SSNMR spectroscopy and first-principles calculations

Solid-state NMR (SSNMR) spectroscopy is a powerful technique for studying actinide chemistry but has been significantly limited due to the complex paramagnetism, and radiological hazards presented by these materials. Lanthanide and actinide salts often feature magnetic ordering and can be paramagnetic, ferromagnetic, or antiferromagnetic depending on temperature and electronic structure. Paramagnetic interactions can manifest in SSNMR both as secular spectral shifts and/or couplings as well as contributions from non-secular relaxation. Both effects can be directly measured with NMR and used to extrapolate rich chemical information such as coordination environments, bonding characteristics, local molecular dynamics, and correlation times. Typically, these studies are carried out on high-γ and highly abundant NMR-active isotopes (e.g., 1 H, 6/7 Li, 19 F, 23 Na, etc.) or on enriched rare isotopes (e.g., 2 H and 17 O), which can be expensive. Herein, we present a facile methodology to measure the 35/37 Cl electric-field gradient (EFG) and paramagnetic shift anisotropy (SA) tensor components using static wideline SSNMR measurements of LaCl 3 , NdCl 3 , UCl 3 , and UCl 4 . The static powder spectra were measured with both 35 Cl and 37 Cl SSNMR to increase the fidelity of the extracted tensor parameters. Variable temperature NMR of a select case confirms the Curie–Weiss paramagnetism. Relaxation measurements of both nuclei further corroborate observations owing to the paramagnetic relaxation enhancement and reveal simultaneous quadrupolar relaxation mechanisms. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations using Hubbard U corrections to the uranium valence orbitals show excellent agreement with experimental EFG tensor parameters and help describe the bonding characteristics in these lanthanide and actinide systems.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Spectroscopic investigation of cation effects in U(VI)-NO3- complexation in aqueous solutions

Understanding and manipulating uranyl speciation in aqueous solutions is critical for advancing chemical separation, sensing, and understanding environmental transport of uranyl. We report on the significant enhancement in the complexation of uranyl with nitrate in aqueous solutions containing quaternary ammonium cations leading to the formation of anionic complexes. We base this on the comparative study of the effect of monovalent cations (Na+, Li+, NH4+, and N(CH3)4+) on the complexation equilibria of uranyl-nitrate in solutions, probed by time-resolved laser induced fluorescence spectroscopy (TRLFS). Lifetime-corrected spectra, obtained by extrapolating the time-resolved spectra to t = 0, were used to study speciation to mitigate the effects of variations in the fluorescence lifetimes that depend on extraneous factors such as dynamic quenching. We demonstrate that the lifetime-corrected spectra can be used to determine uranyl speciation in aqueous solutions where the mono-nitrate complex forms, and in acetonitrile with N(CH3)4NO3 where di-nitrate and tris-nitrato species are formed. Aqueous solutions containing N(CH3)4+ are shown to promote the formation of higher complexes of uranyl compared to other inorganic nitrate salts based on the higher redshift in the spectra, poor fits to the two-component model, and the higher apparent formation constants. Comparing the trends in uranyl speciation in the presence of N(CH3)4+ in aqueous and acetonitrile solutions, it is proposed that the quaternary ammonium cations (quats) promote the formation of anionic complexes of uranyl by the ion-association mechanism. These results provide a basis for designing quat-assisted separation systems that target anionic actinide species in aqueous solutions.

Nayak, Srikanth (ORCID:0000000302135796)↗

Extending empirical constraints on the SZ–mass scaling relation to higher redshifts via HST weak lensing measurements of nine clusters from the SPT-SZ survey at z ≳ 1

We present a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) weak gravitational lensing study of nine distant and massive galaxy clusters with redshifts 1.0 ≲ z ≲ 1.7 (z median = 1.4) and Sunyaev Zel’dovich (SZ) detection significance ξ > 6.0 from the South Pole Telescope Sunyaev Zel’dovich (SPT-SZ) survey. We measured weak lensing galaxy shapes in HST/ACS F606W and F814W images and used additional observations from HST/WFC3 in F110W and VLT/FORS2 in U HIGH to preferentially select background galaxies at z ≳ 1.8, achieving a high purity. We combined recent redshift estimates from the CANDELS/3D-HST and HUDF fields to infer an improved estimate of the source redshift distribution. We measured weak lensing masses by fitting the tangential reduced shear profiles with spherical Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) models. We obtained the largest lensing mass in our sample for the cluster SPT-CL J2040—4451, thereby confirming earlier results that suggest a high lensing mass of this cluster compared to X-ray and SZ mass measurements. Combining our weak lensing mass constraints with results obtained by previous studies for lower redshift clusters, we extended the calibration of the scaling relation between the unbiased SZ detection significance ζ and the cluster mass for the SPT-SZ survey out to higher redshifts. We found that the mass scale inferred from our highest redshift bin (1.2 < z < 1.7) is consistent with an extrapolation of constraints derived from lower redshifts, albeit with large statistical uncertainties. Thus, our results show a similar tendency as found in previous studies, where the cluster mass scale derived from the weak lensing data is lower than the mass scale expected in a PlanckνΛCDM (i.e. νΛ cold dark matter) cosmology given the SPT-SZ cluster number counts.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Towards a self-consistent model of the convective core boundary in upper main sequence stars: I. 2.5D and 3D simulations

There is strong observational evidence that the convective cores of intermediate-mass and massive main sequence stars are substantially larger than those predicted by standard stellar-evolution models. However, it is unclear what physical processes cause this phenomenon or how to predict the extent and stratification of stellar convective boundary layers. Convective penetration is a thermal-timescale process that is likely to be particularly relevant during the slow evolution on the main sequence. We use our low-Mach-number S EVEN -L EAGUE H YDRO code to study this process in 2.5D and 3D geometries. Starting with a chemically homogeneous model of a 15 M ⊙ zero-age main sequence star, we construct a series of simulations with the luminosity increased and opacity decreased by the same factor, ranging from 10 3 to 10 6 . After reaching thermal equilibrium, all of our models show a clear penetration layer; its thickness becomes statistically constant in time and it is shown to converge upon grid refinement. The penetration layer becomes nearly adiabatic with a steep transition to a radiative stratification in simulations at the lower end of our luminosity range. This structure corresponds to the adiabatic ‘step overshoot’ model often employed in stellar-evolution calculations. The simulations with the highest and lowest luminosity differ by less than a factor of two in the penetration distance. The high computational cost of 3D simulations makes our current 3D data set rather sparse. Depending on how we extrapolate the 3D data to the actual luminosity of the initial stellar model, we obtain penetration distances ranging from 0.09 to 0.44 pressure scale heights, which is broadly compatible with observations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Evolution of the CMS Global Submission Infrastructure for the HL-LHC Era

Efforts in distributed computing of the CMS experiment at the LHC at CERN are now focusing on the functionality required to fulfill the projected needs for the HL-LHC era. Cloud and HPC resources are expected to be dominant relative to resources provided by traditional Grid sites, being also much more diverse and heterogeneous. Handling their special capabilities or limitations and maintaining global flexibility and efficiency, while also operating at scales much higher than the current capacity, are the major challenges being addressed by the CMS Submission Infrastructure team. These proceedings discuss the risks to the stability and scalability of the CMS HTCondor infrastructure extrapolated to such a scenario, thought to be derived mostly from its growing complexity, with multiple Negotiators and schedulers flocking work to multiple federated pools. New mechanisms for enhanced customization and control over resource allocation and usage, mandatory in this future scenario, are also described.

Yzquierdo, Antonio Pérez-Calero↗

Validation of Thermal Scattering Laws for Light Water at Elevated Temperatures with Diffusion Experiments

Light water is the most important neutron moderator in many reactor applications. Thermal neutron scattering kernels for H bound in H 2 O are represented by ENDF-format thermal scattering laws (TSLs) evaluated at discrete temperatures T . Nuclear data evaluations are conventionally validated utilizing a combination of critical benchmarks and experimental cross section data. Existing public critical benchmarks may be inadequate for testing water TSLs over the full range of T of interest in reactor applications, and experimental thermal scattering cross section data for water is sparse at elevated T . In this work, MC21 is used to simulate the decay of the equilibrium thermal neutron flux in light-water spheres of several radii. The fundamental-mode time eigenvalue $\mathcal{a}$ is calculated at 22 °C and 227 °C (at saturation pressure) for each sphere using three different H-H 2 O TSLs. Fitting $\mathcal{a}$ to a polynomial function of geometric buckling allows calculation of the thermal neutron diffusion length L . Extrapolation lengths are treated as a function of the transport mean free path and geometry. Experimental L data from 25 publications at 49 temperatures (from 10 °C to 295 °C), computed by several different time-dependent and space-dependent decay methods, is used to develop an empirical fit of L vs. T . The MC21-calculated L for the TSLs tested are within ±1% of the predicted values at 22 °C and 227 °C. This validation approach, which may be repeated at arbitrary T , constitutes an integral benchmark specific to and characterizing the detailed physics of the thermal scattering kernel applied.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Shedding light on thermal photon and dilepton production

Electromagnetic radiation from the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is an important observable to be considered in heavy ion collision experiments. I will provide an update on recent advancements from perturbation theory and quenched lattice simulations. The resummed next-to-leading order (NLO) emission rate has recently been decomposed into transverse and longitudinal components, and extended to non-zero baryon chemical potential. The associated spectral function has also been tested against the Euclidean correlator, for continuum-extrapolated lattice data (at μ B = 0).

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Collectivity in ultra-peripheral heavy-ion collisions

We present full (3+1 )D dynamical simulations to study collective behavior in ultra-peripheral nucleus-nucleus collisions (UPC) at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) with the 3DGlauber+MUSIC+UrQMD framework [1, 2]. By extrapolating from asymmetric p+Pb collisions, we simulate a quasi-real photon γ* interacting with the Pb nucleus in an ultra-peripheral collision at the LHC, assuming strong final-state effects. We study the elliptic flow hierarchy between p+Pb and γ*+Pb collisions, which is dominated by the difference in longitudinal flow decorrelations. Our theoretical framework provides a quantitative tool to study collectivity in small asymmetric collision systems at current and future collider experiments.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

A multi-wavelength streaked optical pyrometer for dynamic shock compression measurements above 2500 K

This work presents a concept and implementation of a calibrated streaked spectral pyrometer (SSP) temperature diagnostic used in dynamically driven shock experiments on a two-stage gas gun. This system relies upon measuring the total system response using a tunable monochromator, a NIST-traceable calibrated power meter, and a SSP. The diagnostic performance is validated against previously measured temperatures of shock driven z-cut quartz at 99 GPa and 93 GPa. The results are found to agree with the literature to within 5% and are discussed in this manuscript. The experimental setup utilizes measurements from multiple SSP systems per sample, providing several independent measurements and substantially increasing confidence in the extrapolated shock driven sample temperature.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Spectroscopic and theoretical studies of UN and UN +

The low-energy electronic states of UN and UN+ have been examined using high-level electronic structure calculations and two-color photoionization techniques. The experimental measurements provided an accurate ionization energy for UN (IE = 50 802 +/- 5 cm -1 ). Spectra for UN+ yielded ro-vibrational constants and established that the ground state has the electronic angular momentum projection omega = 4. Ab initio calculations were carried out using the spin-orbit state interacting approach with the complete active space second-order perturbation theory method. A series of correlation consistent basis sets were used in conjunction with small-core relativistic pseudopotentials on U to extrapolate to the complete basis set limits. The results for UN correctly obtained an omega = 3.5 ground state and demonstrated a high density of configurationally related excited states with closely similar ro-vibrational constants. Similar results were obtained for UN + , with reduced complexity owing to the smaller number of outer-shell electrons. The calculated IE for UN was in excellent agreement with the measured value. Improved values for the dissociation energies of UN and UN + , as well as their heats of formation, were obtained using the Feller-Peterson-Dixon composite thermochemistry method, including corrections up through coupled cluster singles, doubles, triples and quadruples. An analysis of the ab initio results from the perspective of the ligand field theory shows that the patterns of electronic states for both UN and UN + can be understood in terms of the underlying energy level structure of the atomic metal ion.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Local electric field measurement in GaN diodes by exciton Franz–Keldysh photocurrent spectroscopy

The eXciton Franz–Keldysh (XFK) effect is observed in GaN p–n junction diodes via the spectral variation of photocurrent responsivity data that redshift and broaden with increasing reverse bias. Photocurrent spectra are quantitatively fit over a broad photon energy range to an XFK model using only a single fit parameter that determines the line shape and the local bias (V l ), uniquely determining the local electric field maximum and depletion widths. As expected, the spectrally determined values of V l vary linearly with the applied bias (V) and reveal a large reduction in the local electric field due to electrostatic non-uniformity. The built-in bias (V bi ) is estimated by extrapolating V l at V=0, which, when compared with independent C-V measurements, indicates an overall ±0.31 V accuracy of V l . This demonstrates sub-bandgap photocurrent spectroscopy as a local probe of electric field in wide bandgap diodes that can be used to map out regions of device breakdown (hot spots) for improving electrostatic design of high-voltage devices.

42 ENGINEERING↗

A light weight regularization for wave function parameter gradients in quantum Monte Carlo

The parameter derivative of the expectation value of the energy, ∂E/∂p, is a key ingredient in variational Monte Carlo (VMC) wave function optimization methods. In some cases, a naïve estimate of this derivative suffers from an infinite variance, which inhibits the efficiency of optimization methods that rely on a stable estimate of the derivative. In this work, we derive a simple regularization of the naïve estimator, which is trivial to implement in existing VMC codes, has finite variance, and a negligible bias, which can be extrapolated to zero bias with no extra cost. We use this estimator to construct an unbiased, finite variance estimation of ∂E/∂p for a multi-Slater–Jastrow trial wave function on the LiH molecule and in the optimization of a multi-Slater–Jastrow trial wave function on the CuO molecule. This regularized estimator is a simple and efficient estimator of ∂E/∂p for VMC optimization techniques.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

An analysis of carrier dynamics in methylammonium lead triiodide perovskite solar cells using cross correlation noise spectroscopy

Using cross correlation current noise spectroscopy, we have investigated carrier dynamics in methylammonium lead triiodide solar cells. This method provides space selectivity for devices with a planar multi-layered structure, effectively amplifying current noise contributions coming from the most resistive element of the stack. In the studied solar cells, we observe near full-scale shot noise, indicating the dominance of noise generation by a single source, likely the interface between the perovskite and the spiro-organic 2,2',7,7'-tetrakis(N,N-di-p-methoxyphenyl-amine)9,9'-spirobifluorene hole-transport layer. In this paper, we argue that the strong 1/f noise term has contributions from both the perovskite layer and interfaces. It displays a non-ideal dependence on photocurrent, S $\propto$ I 1.4 (instead of usual S $\propto$ I 2 ), which is likely due to current-induced halide migration. Finally, we observe generation–recombination noise. We argue that this contribution is due to bimolecular recombination in the perovskite bulk absorption layer. Extrapolating our results, we estimate that at standard 1 sun illumination, the electron–hole recombination time is 5 microseconds.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Explicitly correlated coupled cluster method for accurate treatment of open-shell molecules with hundreds of atoms

We present a near-linear scaling formulation of the explicitly correlated coupled-cluster singles and doubles with the perturbative triples method [CCSD(T)F12¯] for high-spin states of open-shell species. The approach is based on the conventional open-shell CCSD formalism [M. Saitow et al., J. Chem. Phys. 146, 164105 (2017)] utilizing the domain local pair-natural orbitals (DLPNO) framework. The use of spin-independent set of pair-natural orbitals ensures exact agreement with the closed-shell formalism reported previously, with only marginally impact on the cost (e.g., the open-shell formalism is only 1.5 times slower than the closed-shell counterpart for the C160H322 n-alkane, with the measured size complexity of ≈1.2). Evaluation of coupled-cluster energies near the complete-basis-set (CBS) limit for open-shell systems with more than 550 atoms and 5000 basis functions is feasible on a single multi-core computer in less than 3 days. The aug-cc-pVTZ DLPNO-CCSD(T)F12¯ contribution to the heat of formation for the 50 largest molecules among the 348 core combustion species benchmark set [J. Klippenstein et al., J. Phys. Chem. A 121, 6580–6602 (2017)] had root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) from the extrapolated CBS CCSD(T) reference values of 0.3 kcal/mol. For a more challenging set of 50 reactions involving small closed- and open-shell molecules [G. Knizia et al., J. Chem. Phys. 130, 054104 (2009)], the aug-cc-pVQ(+d)Z DLPNO-CCSD(T)F12¯ yielded a RMSD of ∼0.4 kcal/mol with respect to the CBS CCSD(T) estimate.

Kumar, Ashutosh (ORCID:0000000175896030)↗