SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Resistivity”

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.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 775 records · Page 43

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

DOE OSTI2014

Effect of current compliance and voltage sweep rate on the resistive switching of HfO{sub 2}/ITO/Invar structure as measured by conductive atomic force microscopy

The electrical characterization of HfO{sub 2}/ITO/Invar resistive switching memory structure was studied using conductive atomic force microscopy (AFM) with a semiconductor parameter analyzer, Agilent 4156C. The metal alloy Invar was used as the metal substrate to ensure good ohmic contact with the substrate holder of the AFM. A conductive Pt/Ir AFM tip was placed in direct contact with the HfO{sub 2} surface, such that it acted as the top electrode. Nanoscale current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the HfO{sub 2}/ITO/Invar structure were measured by applying a ramp voltage through the conductive AFM tip at various current compliances and ramp voltage sweep rates. It was found that the resistance of the low resistance state (RLRS) decreased with increasing current compliance value, but resistance of high resistance state (RHRS) barely changed. However, both the RHRS and RLRS decreased as the voltage sweep rate increased. The reasons for this dependency on current compliance and voltage sweep rate are discussed.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

DOE OSTI2014

Sheet resistance under Ohmic contacts to AlGaN/GaN heterostructures

For the determination of specific contact resistance in semiconductor devices, it is usually assumed that the sheet resistance under the contact is identical to that between the contacts. This generally does not hold for contacts to AlGaN/GaN structures, where an effective doping under the contact is thought to come from reactions between the contact metals and the AlGaN/GaN. As a consequence, conventional extraction of the specific contact resistance and transfer length leads to erroneous results. In this Letter, the sheet resistance under gold-free Ti/Al-based Ohmic contacts to AlGaN/GaN heterostructures on Si substrates has been investigated by means of electrical measurements, transmission electron microscopy, and technology computer-aided design simulations. It was found to be significantly lower than that outside of the contact area; temperature-dependent electrical characterization showed that it exhibits semiconductor-like behavior. The increase in conduction is attributed to n-type activity of nitrogen vacancies in the AlGaN. They are thought to form during rapid thermal annealing of the metal stack when Ti extracts nitrogen from the underlying semiconductor. The high n-type doping in the region between the metal and the 2-dimensional electron gas pulls the conduction band towards the Fermi level and enhances horizontal electron transport in the AlGaN. Using this improved understanding of the properties of the material underneath the contact, accurate values of transfer length and specific contact resistance have been extracted.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

DOE OSTI2014

Intrinsic SiO{sub x}-based unipolar resistive switching memory. II. Thermal effects on charge transport and characterization of multilevel programing

Multilevel programing and charge transport characteristics of intrinsic SiO{sub x}-based resistive switching memory are investigated using TaN/SiO{sub x}/n{sup ++}Si (MIS) and TiW/SiO{sub x}/TiW (MIM) device structures. Current transport characteristics of high- and low-resistance states (HRS and LRS) are studied in both device structures during multilevel operation. Analysis of device thermal response demonstrates that the effective electron energy barrier is strongly dependent on the resistance of the programed state, with estimates of 0.1 eV in the LRS and 0.6 eV in the HRS. Linear data fitting and conductance analyses indicate Poole-Frenkel emission or hopping conductance in the low-voltage region, whereas Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) or trap-assisted tunneling (TAT) is indicated at moderate voltage. Characterizations using hopping transport lead to hopping distance estimates of ∼1 nm in the LRS for both device structures. Relative permittivity values (ε{sub r}) were extracted using the Poole-Frenkel formulism and estimates of local filament temperature, where ε{sub r} values were ∼80 in the LRS and ∼4 in the HRS, suggesting a strongly polarized medium in the LRS. The onset of F-N tunneling or TAT corresponds to an observed “overshoot” in the I-V response with an estimated threshold of 1.6 ± 0.2 V, in good agreement with reported electro-luminescence results for LRS devices. Resistive switching is discussed in terms of electrochemical reactions between common SiO{sub 2} defects, and specific defect energy levels are assigned to the dominant transitions in the I-V response. The overshoot response in the LRS is consistent with TAT through either the Eγ' oxygen vacancy or the hydrogen bridge defect, both of which are reported to have an effective bandgap of 1.7 eV. The SET threshold at ∼2.5 V is modeled as hydrogen release from the (Si-H){sub 2} defect to generate the hydrogen bridge, and the RESET transition is modeled as an electrochemical reaction that re-forms (SiH){sub 2}. The results provide further insights into charge transport and help identify potential switching mechanisms in SiO{sub x}-based unipolar resistive switching memory.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

DOE OSTI2014

New experimental methodology, setup and LabView program for accurate absolute thermoelectric power and electrical resistivity measurements between 25 and 1600 K: Application to pure copper, platinum, tungsten, and nickel at very high temperatures

In this paper we describe an experimental setup designed to measure simultaneously and very accurately the resistivity and the absolute thermoelectric power, also called absolute thermopower or absolute Seebeck coefficient, of solid and liquid conductors/semiconductors over a wide range of temperatures (room temperature to 1600 K in present work). A careful analysis of the existing experimental data allowed us to extend the absolute thermoelectric power scale of platinum to the range 0-1800 K with two new polynomial expressions. The experimental device is controlled by a LabView program. A detailed description of the accurate dynamic measurement methodology is given in this paper. We measure the absolute thermoelectric power and the electrical resistivity and deduce with a good accuracy the thermal conductivity using the relations between the three electronic transport coefficients, going beyond the classical Wiedemann-Franz law. We use this experimental setup and methodology to give new very accurate results for pure copper, platinum, and nickel especially at very high temperatures. But resistivity and absolute thermopower measurement can be more than an objective in itself. Resistivity characterizes the bulk of a material while absolute thermoelectric power characterizes the material at the point where the electrical contact is established with a couple of metallic elements (forming a thermocouple). In a forthcoming paper we will show that the measurement of resistivity and absolute thermoelectric power characterizes advantageously the (change of) phase, probably as well as DSC (if not better), since the change of phases can be easily followed during several hours/days at constant temperature.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

DOE OSTI2014

Quantification of thermal and contact resistances of scanning thermal probes

Scanning thermal probes are widely used for imaging temperature fields with nanoscale resolution, for studying near-field radiative heat transport and for locally heating samples. In all these applications, it is critical to know the thermal resistance to heat flow within the probe and the thermal contact resistance between the probe and the sample. Here, we present an approach for quantifying the aforementioned thermal resistances using picowatt resolution heat flow calorimeters. The measured contact resistance is found to be in good agreement with classical predictions for thermal contact resistance. The techniques developed here are critical for quantitatively probing heat flows at the nanoscale.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2015

On the magnetic reconnection of resistive tearing mode with the dynamic flow effects

Magnetic reconnection usually occurs in turbulent environments, which may not only provide anomalous resistivity to enhance reconnection rates but also significantly modify the reconnection process through direct nonlinear interaction with magnetic islands. This study presents numerical simulations investigating the effects of an imposed dynamic flow on magnetic reconnection, based on a two-dimensional reduced resistive MHD model. Results show that while the linear stability properties of the resistive tearing mode are moderately affected by the dynamic flow, nonlinear evolution is significantly modified by radial parity, amplitude, and frequency of the dynamic flow. After the slowly evolving nonlinear Rutherford stage, the reconnection process is found to progress in two phases by including the dynamic flow. A Sweet-Parker like current sheet is formed in the first phase. Afterwards, plasmoid instability is triggered in the second phase, where multiple plasmoids are continuously generated and ejected along the current sheet, leading to an impulsive bursty reconnection. The reconnection rate is considerably enhanced in the range of low resistivity as compared to without flow. We found that plasmoid instability onset and evolution are strongly influenced by the frequency and radial parity of the dynamic flows. The scaling of effective reconnection rates with the flow is found to be independent of resistivity.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2015

Low contact resistance in epitaxial graphene devices for quantum metrology

We investigate Ti/Au contacts to monolayer epitaxial graphene on SiC (0001) for applications in quantum resistance metrology. Using three-terminal measurements in the quantum Hall regime we observed variations in contact resistances ranging from a minimal value of 0.6 Ω up to 11 kΩ. We identify a major source of high-resistance contacts to be due bilayer graphene interruptions to the quantum Hall current, whilst discarding the effects of interface cleanliness and contact geometry for our fabricated devices. Moreover, we experimentally demonstrate methods to improve the reproducibility of low resistance contacts (<10 Ω) suitable for high precision quantum resistance metrology.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2015

The influence of temperature and grain boundary volume on the resistivity of nanocrystalline nickel

The thermal stability and modes of recrystallisation of nanocrystalline nickel has been observed through a conduction-based non-destructive test. Resistivity measurements have been utilised to quantify grain boundary volume fraction and microstructure. This observation makes clear the distinction of the factors that contribute to resistivity and demonstrates that these contributions are related to microstructure, either directly or in-directly. In static systems, the contribution of ordered grains and low-order grain boundary atomic arrangements in small grained material has been measured and correlated with resistivity. Measurements of in-situ resistivity conducted at high temperature gives changes with time which are related to grain growth, during heat treatment. This shows that resistivity can be used as a technique for observing the microstructure and grain growth of small grained material.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2016

Effect of tetrahedral amorphous carbon coating on the resistivity and wear of single-walled carbon nanotube network

Single walled carbon nanotube networks (SWCNTNs) were coated by tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) to improve the mechanical wear properties of the composite film. The ta-C deposition was performed by using pulsed filtered cathodic vacuum arc method resulting in the generation of C+ ions in the energy range of 40–60 eV which coalesce to form a ta-C film. The primary disadvantage of this process is a significant increase in the electrical resistance of the SWCNTN post coating. The increase in the SWCNTN resistance is attributed primarily to the intrinsic stress of the ta-C coating which affects the inter-bundle junction resistance between the SWCNTN bundles. E-beam evaporated carbon was deposited on the SWCNTNs prior to the ta-C deposition in order to protect the SWCNTN from the intrinsic stress of the ta-C film. The causes of changes in electrical resistance and the effect of evaporated carbon thickness on the changes in electrical resistance and mechanical wear properties have been studied.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2016

High-resistive layers obtained through periodic growth and in situ annealing of InGaN by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

High-resistive layers were obtained by periodic growth and in situ annealing of InGaN. The effect of the annealing temperature of InGaN on the indium content and the material sheet resistive was investigated. The indium content decreased as the increase of in situ annealing temperature. Additionally, the material sheet resistance increased with the increase of the in situ annealing temperature for the annealed samples and reached 2 × 10{sup 10}Ω/sq in the light and 2 × 10{sup 11}Ω/sq in the dark when the in situ annealing temperature reached 970{sup ∘}C. The acquirement of high-resistive layers is attributed to the generation of indium vacancy-related defects. Introducing indium vacancy-related defects to compensate background carriers can be an effective method to grow high-resistance material.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

DOE OSTI2018

Shaping effects on toroidal magnetohydrodynamic modes in the presence of plasma and wall resistivity

This study explores the effects of plasma shaping on magnetohydrodynamic mode stability and rotational stabilization in a tokamak, including both plasma and wall resistivity. Depending upon the plasma shape, safety factor, and distance from the wall, the β-limit for rotational stabilization is given by either the resistive-plasma ideal-wall (tearing mode) limit or the ideal-plasma resistive-wall (resistive wall mode) limit. In order to explore this broad parameter space, a sharp-boundary model is developed with a realistic geometry, resonant tearing surfaces, and a resistive wall. The β-limit achievable in the presence of stabilization by rigid plasma rotation, or by an equivalent feedback control with imaginary normal-field gain, is shown to peak at specific values of elongation and triangularity. As a result, it is shown that the optimal shaping with rotation typically coincides with transitions between tearing-dominated and wall-dominated mode behavior

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2018

Role of resistivity and viscosity in the excitation of stable m = 0 modes during the RFP sawtooth crash

Visco-resistive magnetohydrodynamic simulations are used herein to investigate the role of resistivity and viscosity in the reversed field pinch sawtooth crash. Specifically, we examine the temporal behavior of the linearly stable ($m, n$) = (0, 1) mode. Both volume-averaged dissipation and dissipation levels in the region near the $m$ = 0 resonance are found to influence characteristic time scales. Increasing resistivity causes the mode rise time, fall time, and total crash duration to decrease, while increasing viscosity has the opposite effect. Examination of energy flow during the sawtooth crash reveals that despite the linear stability of the (0, 1) mode, it receives most of its energy from the mean current profile during the crash rather than from nonlinear interactions with other modes. Resistivity and viscosity do not impact mode behavior directly through dissipative energy loss but rather through modification of the large scale current profile evolution and radial structure of the mode. Computational results are compared to experimental data from the Madison Symmetric Torus and found to largely agree when resistivity and viscosity are similar.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2019

Real frequency tearing layers with parallel dynamics and the effect on error field locking and resistive wall modes

The response to tearing perturbations of a resonant layer within a toroidal plasma often includes real frequencies. These real frequencies are of importance not only for the stability of the tearing mode but also for determining the response to an error field, including locking torques, and the stability properties when interacting with a resistive wall. Unfortunately, including the physics which drives these frequencies can make the model highly complicated and mask the root physics mechanisms driving the response, making it difficult to draw connections between the physics mechanisms occurring in different regimes. Here, we present a simple and intuitive method to derive the tearing mode layer properties in various regimes of resistive MHD with the key physics effects of pressure gradient, toroidal field line curvature and parallel dynamics, focusing on two important regimes: The resistive-inertial (RI) and the viscoresistive (VR) regimes. The usual Glasser effect, a toroidal effect which involves real frequencies, has been discussed only in the context of the RI regime. We find that it occurs in the VR regime as well. Based on these results and the presence of real frequencies in many other tearing regimes, we reach the conclusion that real frequencies in tearing modes are the rule rather than the exception. We also find that the existence of tearing modes with real frequencies in the VR and RI regimes is related to nearby electrostatic resistive interchange modes, themselves with real frequencies. Another important effect we find is that the threshold for the destabilization of resistive wall tearing modes is significantly lowered by plasma rotation in the presence of real frequency layers.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2021

Active control of resistive wall mode via modification of external tearing index

Modification of the external tearing index, Δ ext ′ , by magnetic feedback is analytically investigated for the purpose of controlling the resistive plasma resistive wall mode (RP-RWM). The matching method is pursued by deriving expressions for the close-loop Δ ext ′ and by linking it to the counterpart from the inner layer. Various feedback coil configurations are found to generally reduce Δ ext ′ and stabilize the RWM, with either proportional or derivative control. Feedback modification of Δ ext ′ is found to be generally independent of the inner layer resistive interchange index D R , confirming that feedback action primarily modifies the solution in the outer ideal region for the RP-RWM. Exception occurs when either the inner layer favorable curvature effect becomes sufficiently large or the feedback action is sufficiently strong to introduce a rotating RP-RWM in the static plasma, leading to complex-valued close-loop Δ ext ′ . The perturbed magnetic energy dissipation in the outer region, associated with the eddy current in the resistive wall, is identified as the key physics reason for feedback induced complex Δ ext ′ . Similar results are also obtained for active control of the external kink instability, whose open-loop growth rate is significantly reduced by inclusion of the plasma resistivity. Within the single poloidal harmonic approximation, which is most suitable for the matching approach, external active coils combined with poloidal sensors are often found to be more efficient for feedback stabilization of the mode at large proportional gain values. This counter-intuitive result is explained as the lack of (non-resonant) poloidal harmonics for proper description of the feedback coil geometry.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2025

Resistive hose modes in tokamak runaway electron beams II

Resistive hose instabilities of runaway electron (RE) beams immersed in resistive background plasmas are examined with analytic and numerical calculations. The RE beam-plasma equilibria considered are characteristic of the situation observed post-thermal quench in a tokamak disruption. An analytic linear dispersion relation is presented for the case of a uniform RE current density profile with a sharp boundary in cylindrical geometry. Initial value linear calculations for a more general profile in toroidal geometry find that reducing aspect ratio increases the resistive hose mode growth rates with fixed safety factor profile. Nonlinear calculations in cylindrical and toroidal geometry find that the resistive hose instability-driven fluctuations relax the gradient of the current density profile. In toroidal geometry, changes to the magnetic topology are observed as a result of the resistive hose activity.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2016

Identification and characterization of influenza variants resistant to a viral endonuclease inhibitor

The influenza endonuclease is an essential subdomain of the viral RNA polymerase. It processes host pre-mRNAs to serve as primers for viral mRNA and is an attractive target for antiinfluenza drug discovery. Compound L-742,001 is a prototypical endonuclease inhibitor, and we found that repeated passaging of influenza virus in the presence of this drug did not lead to the development of resistant mutant strains. Reduced sensitivity to L-742,001 could only be induced by creating point mutations via a random mutagenesis strategy. Furthermore, these mutations mapped to the endonuclease active site where they can directly impact inhibitor binding. Engineered viruses containing the mutations showed resistance to L-742,001 both in vitro and in vivo, with only a modest reduction in fitness. Introduction of the mutations into a second virus also increased its resistance to the inhibitor. When using the isolated wild-type and mutant endonuclease domains, we used kinetics, inhibitor binding and crystallography to characterize how the two most significant mutations elicit resistance to L-742,001. These studies lay the foundation for the development of a new class of influenza therapeutics with reduced potential for the development of clinical endonuclease inhibitor-resistant influenza strains.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2024

Rapid, antibiotic incubation-free determination of tuberculosis drug resistance using machine learning and Raman spectroscopy

Tuberculosis (TB) is the world’s deadliest infectious disease, with over 1.5 million deaths and 10 million new cases reported anually. The causative organism Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) can take nearly 40 d to culture, a required step to determine the pathogen’s antibiotic susceptibility. Both rapid identification and rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing of Mtb are essential for effective patient treatment and combating antimicrobial resistance. Here, we demonstrate a rapid, culture-free, and antibiotic incubation-free drug susceptibility test for TB using Raman spectroscopy and machine learning. We collect few-to-single-cell Raman spectra from over 25,000 cells of the Mtb complex strain Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) resistant to one of the four mainstay anti-TB drugs, isoniazid, rifampicin, moxifloxacin, and amikacin, as well as a pan-susceptible wildtype strain. By training a neural network on this data, we classify the antibiotic resistance profile of each strain, both on dried samples and on patient sputum samples. On dried samples, we achieve >98% resistant versus susceptible classification accuracy across all five BCG strains. In patient sputum samples, we achieve ~79% average classification accuracy. We develop a feature recognition algorithm in order to verify that our machine learning model is using biologically relevant spectral features to assess the resistance profiles of our mycobacterial strains. Finally, we demonstrate how this approach can be deployed in resource-limited settings by developing a low-cost, portable Raman microscope that costs <$5,000. We show how this instrument and our machine learning model enable combined microscopy and spectroscopy for accurate few-to-single-cell drug susceptibility testing of BCG.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2025

A WRKY transcription factor confers broad-spectrum resistance to biotic stresses and yield stability in rice

Plants are subject to attack by diverse pests and pathogens. Few genes conferring broad-spectrum resistance to both insects and pathogens have been identified. Because of the growth–defense tradeoff, it is often challenging to balance biotic stress resistance and yield for crops. Here, we report thatOsWRKY36suppresses the resistance to insects and pathogens via transcriptional repression ofPhenylalanine Ammonia Lyases(PALs), a key enzyme in phenylpropanoid pathway in rice. Knocking outOsWRKY36causes elevated lignin biosynthesis and increased sclerenchyma thickness of leaf sheath, leading to enhanced resistance to multiple pests and pathogens. Additionally, loss ofOsWRKY36also derepresses the transcription ofIdeal Plant Architecture 1(IPA1) andMONOCULM2(MOC2), resulting in increased spikelet number per panicle and tiller number. These findings provide mechanistic insights into biotic stress tolerance in rice and offer a promising strategy to breed rice cultivars with broad-spectrum resistance to insects and pathogens while maintaining stable yield.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗