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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 721 records · Page 40
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Fabrication of the HFVMTF Double-Bath Cryostat

The High Field Vertical Magnet Test Facility (HFVMTF) at Fermilab is designed to test superconducting magnets up to 20 tons and 1.3 meters in diameter. Central to the facility is a double-bath superfluid helium cryostat reaching 1.8 K at 1.2 bar. Integrated with a 15 T superconducting dipole from LBNL, HFVMTF supports HTS cable testing for fusion applications. This paper presents the design and fabrication of the cryostat, with a focus on two complex components: the 2 K heat exchanger and the lambda plate. The heat exchanger thermally links sub-atmospheric and pressurized helium baths. The 1.4-meter lambda plate provides thermal isolation and structural support for over 20 tons under 1.3 bar pressure differential. Finite Element Analysis validated the vessel's integrity under maximum load conditions.

Bruce, R. [Fermilab] (ORCID:0000000234200612)↗
DOE OSTI2026

Neural-network quantum states for the nuclear many-body problem

A long-standing goal of nuclear theory is to explain how the structure and dynamics of atomic nuclei and neutron-star matter emerge from the underlying interactions among protons and neutrons. Achieving this goal requires solving the nuclear quantum many-body problem with high accuracy across a wide range of length scales and density regimes. In this review, we discuss how artificial neural network representations of the nuclear many-body wave function have significantly extended the capabilities of continuum quantum Monte Carlo methods. In particular, neural network quantum states enable calculations of larger systems than were previously accessible and provide a flexible framework for capturing phenomena that challenge conventional approaches, including the emergence of nuclear clusters and superfluid phases in dense matter. We highlight recent applications to finite nuclei, infinite nuclear and neutron matter, and dynamical processes relevant to lepton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus scattering. We also discuss conceptual and methodological connections with condensed matter physics, emphasizing developments in neural network quantum states that bridge strongly correlated systems across disciplines. Together, these developments demonstrate how neural-network methods open new avenues toward unified and accurate descriptions of nuclear structure, matter, and reactions.

Lovato, Alessandro [Argonne; TIFPA-INFN, Trento; V↗
DOE OSTI2022

Thermodynamic properties of nodal superconductors close to a magnetic quantum critical point

In this work we study thermodynamic manifestations of the quantum criticality in multiband unconventional superconductors. As a guiding example we consider the scenario of magnetic quantum critical point in the model that captures superconductivity coexistence with the spin-density wave. We show that in situations when the superconducting order parameter has incidental nodes at isolated points, quantum magnetic fluctuations lead to the renormalization of the relative 𝑇-linear slope of the London penetration depth. This leads to the nonmonotonic dependence of the penetration depth as a function of doping and the concomitant peak structure across the quantum critical point. In addition, we determine contribution of magnetic fluctuations to the specific heat at the onset of the coexistence phase. Furthermore, our theoretical analysis is corroborated by making a comparison of our results with the recent experimental data from the low-temperature thermodynamic measurements at optimal composition in BaFe 2 (As 1-x P x ) 2 .

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Uranium Doped Gallium Nitride Epitaxial Thin Films

Gallium nitride (GaN) is near ubiquitous in modern day technologies, forming the backbone of solid-state lighting and high-power electronics. Engineering the physical properties of GaN has been investigated to some degree by the incorporation or doping of most of the elements of the periodic table, but the actinides remain unexplored. Molecular beam epitaxy is used to demonstrate uranium doping of GaN single crystals. High structural quality of the host matrix is maintained despite partial elemental segregation of the uranium dopant into 1D structures at the levels presented here. Electronic transport measurements reveal relatively high conductivity, which persists down to cryogenic temperature and is characterized by the formation of narrow gaps in the electronic band structures very close to the Fermi level. Photoluminescence measurements reveal that the U-doped GaN exhibits optical behavior similar to that of the GaN substrate. The addition of actinide materials to a non-centrosymmetric, optically active, radiation-hard, and electronically tunable host matrix opens a world of possibilities for investigating and leveraging elements with high electron correlations in the pursuit of novel devices.

36 - MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

The role of excess vacancies in stabilizing solute clusters in low-alloy steels

The formation of solute clusters in irradiated low-alloy steels, such as reactor pressure vessel steels, is a critical cause of radiation hardening and embrittlement. However, the chemical interactions among solute elements and excess vacancies remain to be fully understood. This study employs density functional theory, cluster expansion, and lattice-based Monte Carlo simulations to examine the stability and morphology of nano-size coherent solute clusters with excess vacancies. The findings reveal that excess vacancies are crucial in stabilizing and promoting the growth of Mn-Ni-Si-vacancy clusters. A minimum of seven vacancies is required for stable nucleation and growth of these clusters. These Mn-Ni-Si clusters act as defect sinks, effectively trapping and absorbing mobile vacancies generated under irradiation. Furthermore, phosphorus (P) preferentially dissolves in Mn-Ni-Si clusters due to chemical coupling with vacancies. In conclusion, this study offers new insights into solute-vacancy interactions, enhancing our understanding of solute-defect cluster formation and embrittlement in low-alloy steels.

36 - MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Tuning Kinetic Inductance with Doping in Superconducting Electron Gases at the KTaO 3 (111) Interface

We used coplanar waveguide resonators fabricated from the two-dimensional superconductor formed at KTaO 3 (111) interfaces to characterize the superconductor’s sheet kinetic inductance L K/□ . Upon varying the carrier density, in samples with T c ranging from 0.62 to 1.81 K, we can tune L K/□ between 1.88 and 7.42 nH/□ at the lowest temperatures, exceeding the highest values reported for granular aluminum films. The temperature dependence of L K/□ is consistent with a superconducting gap without nodes. The high L K/□ of superconducting KTaO 3 (111) interfacial electron gases combined with the high dielectric constant of KTaO 3 results in resonators with exceedingly low phase velocities (“slow light”) and small mode volumes. In addition, superconducting KTaO 3 (111) interfacial electron gases are robust in magnetic fields well above a Tesla. In conclusion, these features can enable unique device applications in superconducting electronics and quantum information science.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2026

Atomistic Mechanisms of Stress-Dependent Molten Salt Corrosion in NiCr Alloys

Ni-based structural alloys in molten salt environments often experience simultaneous mechanical loading and corrosive attack, yet the mechanisms governing stress-corrosion interactions remain unclear. Prior studies largely emphasize tensile stress, while the role of compressive stress has received limited attention. Here, reactive molecular dynamics simulations are used to investigate the coupled effects of applied strain and corrosion in Ni 0.75 Cr 0.25 exposed to molten FLiNaK at 800 °C. A Σ5(210) grain boundary model is subjected to tensile (+4%) to compressive (−4%) uniaxial strains, and corrosion behavior is evaluated through fluorine adsorption, charge redistribution, and grain boundary evolution. Tensile strain accelerates intergranular corrosion susceptibility by reducing local atomic packing through elastic dilation and increasing excess free volume at the grain boundary, which enhances atomic mobility and salt infiltration. In contrast, compressive strain can suppress corrosion by promoting the formation of a ridge-like surface layer along the grain boundary, limiting salt access to the underlying alloy. These results provide atomistic insight into how stress states influence grain boundary corrosion in molten salts.

36 - MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

A modular ultra-high vacuum millikelvin scanning tunneling microscope

We describe the design, construction, and performance of an ultra-high vacuum (UHV) scanning tunneling microscope (STM) capable of imaging at dilution-refrigerator temperatures and equipped with a vector magnet. The primary objective of our design is to achieve a high level of modularity by partitioning the STM system into a set of easily separable, interchangeable components. This naturally segregates the UHV needs of STM instrumentation from the typically non-UHV construction of a dilution refrigerator, facilitating the usage of non-UHV materials while maintaining a fully bakeable UHV chamber that houses the STM. Here, the modular design also permits speedy removal of the microscope head from the rest of the system, allowing for repairs, modifications, and even replacement of the entire microscope head to be made at any time without warming the cryostat or compromising the vacuum. Without using cryogenic filters, we measured an electron temperature of 184 mK on a superconducting Al(100) single crystal.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2025

Defect-induced phonon-resonant scattering and its influence on thermal transport of irradiated thorium-dioxide

Thermal transport in proton irradiated thorium-dioxide (ThO 2 ) is investigated. Using a combination of experiments and first-principles computational framework, the role of lattice defects on thermal conductivity is analyzed. A resonant-phonon scattering mechanism beyond the traditionally considered Rayleigh scattering is found to significantly influence low-temperature thermal transport in the presence of irradiation-induced point defects. The existence of localized phonon modes associated with irradiation-induced defects is suggested by the inability of the first-principles based thermal conductivity model—which considers only three-phonon interactions and phonon-defects scattering using the Tamura formalism—to predict the experimental results, unless a resonant scattering mechanism is included. The emergence of additional peaks in the Raman spectra in the proximity of phonon-resonant frequency provides further evidence for the existence of localized modes. Coupled with a microstructure evolution model, this analysis enables more accurate analysis for contrasting the contributions of different phonon scattering mechanisms across all irradiation doses and temperatures.

11 - NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Local imaging of diamagnetism in proximity-coupled niobium nanoisland arrays on gold thin films.

In this work, we study the effect of engineered disorder on the local magnetic response of proximity-coupled superconducting island arrays by comparing scanning superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) susceptibility measurements to a model in which we treat the system as a network of one-dimensional (1D) superconductor-normal-metal-superconductor Josephson junctions, each with a Josephson coupling energy E-J determined by the junction length or distance between islands. We find that the disordered arrays exhibit a spatially inhomogeneous diamagnetic response which, for low local applied magnetic fields, is well described by this junction network model, and we discuss these results as they relate to inhomogeneous 2D superconductors. Our model of the static magnetic response of the arrays does not fully capture the onset of nonlinearity and dissipation with increasing applied field, as these effects are associated with vortex motion due to the dynamic nature of the scanning SQUID susceptometry measurement. This work demonstrates a model 2D superconducting system with engineered disorder, and it highlights the impact of dissipation on the local magnetic properties of 2D superconductors and Josephson junction arrays.

Bishop-Van Horn, Logan↗
DOE OSTI2023

Improved quasiparticle self-consistent electronic band structure and excitons in β – LiGaO 2

The band structure of β–LiGaO 2 is calculated using the quasiparticle self-consistent QSGWˆ method where the screened Coulomb interaction Wˆ is evaluated including electron-hole interaction ladder diagrams and G is the one-electron Green's function. Improved convergence compared to previous calculations leads to a significantly larger band gap of about 7.0 eV. However, exciton binding energies are found to be large and lead to an exciton gap of about 6.0 eV if also a zero-point-motion correction of about –0.4 eV is included. Furthermore, these results are in excellent agreement with recent experimental results on the onset of absorption. Besides the excitons observed thus far, the calculations indicate the existence of a Rydberg-like series of exciton excited states, which is however modified from the classical Wannier exciton model by the anisotropies of the material and the more complex mixing of Bloch states in the excitons resulting from the Bethe-Salpeter equation. The exciton fine structure and the exciton wave functions are visualized and analyzed in various ways.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Vortex dynamics induced by scanning SQUID susceptometry

In this work, we measured the local magnetic response of a niobium thin film by applying a millitesla-scale AC magnetic field using a micron-scale field coil and detecting the response with a micron-scale pickup loop in a scanning superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) susceptometry measurement. Near the film's critical temperature, we observed a steplike nonlinear and dissipative magnetic response due to the dynamics of a small number of vortex-antivortex pairs induced in the film by the local applied AC field. We modeled the dynamics of the measurement using a combined two-dimensional London-Maxwell and time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau approach, allowing us to construct a detailed real-space picture of the vortex motion causing the observed dissipative response. This work pushes scanning SQUID susceptometry of two-dimensional superconductors beyond the regime of linear response and lays the foundation for microscopic studies of vortex dynamics and pinning in superconducting devices and more exotic materials systems.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2023

Magnetotropic susceptibility

The magnetotropic susceptibility is the thermodynamic coefficient associated with the rotational anisotropy of the free energy in an external magnetic field and is closely related to the magnetic susceptibility. It emerges naturally in frequency-shift measurements of oscillating mechanical cantilevers, which are becoming an increasingly important tool in the quantitative study of the thermodynamics of modern condensed-matter systems. Here, in this work, we discuss the basic properties of the magnetotropic susceptibility as they relate to the experimental aspects of frequency-shift measurements, as well as to the interpretation of those experiments in terms of the intrinsic properties of the system under study.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2024

Experimental evidence for nonspherical magnetic form factor in Ru 3 +

The Mott insulator ..alpha..-RuCl3 has generated great interest in the community due to its possible field-induced Kitaev quantum spin liquid state. Despite enormous effort spent trying to obtain the form of the low-energy Hamiltonian, there is currently no agreed upon set of parameters which is able to explain all of the data. A key piece of missing information lies in the determination of the magnetic form factor of Ru3+, particularly for a true quantitative treatment of inelastic neutron scattering data. Here we present the experimentally derived magnetic form factor of Ru3+ in the low spin 4d5 state using polarized neutron diffraction within the paramagnetic regime on high-quality single crystals of ..alpha..-RuCl3. We observe strong evidence of an anisotropic form factor, expected of the spin-orbit coupled jeff=12 ground state. We model the static magnetization density in increasing complexity from simple isotropic cases, to a multipolar expansion, and, finally, ab initio calculations of the generalized jeff=12 ground state. Comparison of both single ion models and inclusion of Cl- anions support the presence of hybridization of Ru3+ with the surrounding Cl- ligands.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Torque and Angular-Momentum Transfer in Merging Rotating Bose-Einstein Condensates

When rotating classical fluid drops merge together, angular momentum can be advected from one to another due to the viscous shear flow at the drop interface. It remains elusive what the corresponding mechanism is in inviscid quantum fluids such as Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). In this work, we report our theoretical study of an initially static BEC merging with a rotating BECin three-dimensional space along the rotational axis. We show that a solitonlike sheet, resembling a corkscrew, spontaneously emerges at the interface. Furthermore, rapid angular momentum transfer at a constant rate universally proportional to the initial angular-momentum density is observed. Strikingly, this transfer does not necessarily involve fluid advection or drifting of the quantized vortices. We reveal that the corkscrew structure can exert a torque that directly creates angular momentum in the static BEC and annihilates angular momentum in the rotating BEC. Uncovering this intriguing angular momentum transport mechanism may benefit our understanding of various coherent matter-wave systems, spanning from atomtronics on chips to dark matter BECs at cosmic scales.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2021

Anomalous Drag in Electron-Hole Condensates with Granulated Order

We explain the strong interlayer drag resistance observed at low temperatures in bilayer electron-hole systems in terms of an interplay between local electron-hole-pair condensation and disorder-induced carrier density variations. Smooth disorder drives the condensate into a granulated phase in which interlayer coherence is established only in well-separated and disconnected regions, or grains, within which the densities of electrons and holes accidentally match. The drag resistance is then dominated by Andreev-like scattering of charge carriers between layers at the grains that transfers momentum between layers. We show that this scenario can account for the observed dependence of the drag resistivity on temperature and, on average, charge imbalance between layers.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗