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At least 883 records · Page 49
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2012

Microscopic analysis of irradiated AGR-1 coated particle fuel compacts

The AGR-1 experiment involved irradiation of 72 TRISO-coated particle fuel compacts to a peak burnup of 19.5% FIMA with no in-pile failures observed out of 3×105 total particles. Irradiated AGR-1 fuel compacts have been cross-sectioned and analyzed with optical microscopy to characterize kernel, buffer, and coating behavior. Five compacts have been examined so far, spanning a range of irradiation conditions (burnup, fast fluence, and irradiation temperature) and including all four TRISO coating variations irradiated in the AGR-1 experiment. The cylindrical specimens were sectioned both transversely and longitudinally, then polished to expose between approximately 40-80 individual particles on each mount. The analysis focused primarily on kernel swelling and porosity, buffer densification and fracturing, buffer-IPyC debonding, and fractures in the IPyC and SiC layers. Characteristic morphologies have been identified, over 800 particles have been classified, and spatial distributions of particle types have been mapped. No significant spatial patterns were discovered in these cross sections. However, some trends were found between morphological types and certain behavioral aspects. Buffer fractures were found in approximately 23% of the particles, and these fractures often resulted in unconstrained kernel swelling into the open cavities. Fractured buffers and buffers that stayed bonded to IPyC layers appear related to larger pore size in kernels. Buffer-IPyC interface integrity evidently factored into initiation of rare IPyC fractures. Fractures through part of the SiC layer were found in only three particles, all in conjunction with IPyC-SiC debonding. Compiled results suggest that the deliberate coating fabrication variations influenced the frequencies of IPyC fractures, IPyC-SiC debonds, and SiC fractures.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Microstructural Characterization of AGR-2 TRISO-coated Particle Buffer, IPyC, and Buffer-IPyC Interfaces

Investigating the microstructural, mechanical, and chemical behaviors of Tristructural Isotropic (TRISO) fuel particles is vital for its qualification and use in advanced reactors. Central to the study of TRISO particles is understanding the silicon carbide (SiC) layer's ability to confine fission products, with failure mechanisms linked to chemical degradation following mechanical degradation of the buffer and IPyC layers. Research has been done to quantify the micro-tensile properties of the buffer, inner pyrolytic carbon (IPyC), and buffer-IPyC interlayer regions and their interactions within both irradiated and un-irradiated TRISO particles. Techniques such as atom probe tomography (APT) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) have also been deployed to examine microstructural defects and fission product distribution in detail. The goal is to understand layer delamination, establish connections between microstructure and mechanical attributes, and inform computational predictions of fuel performance. This work may help refine predictive models of TRISO fuel behavior and facilitating its certification for use in advanced reactors.

11 - NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Broadening of the spectral lines of a buffer gas and target substance in laser ablation

The broadening of discrete spectral lines from the plasma produced in the laser ablation of metal targets in a broad pressure range (10{sup 2} - 10{sup 7} Pa) of the ambient gas (Ar, He, H{sub 2}) was studied experimentally. The behaviour of spectral line broadening for the buffer gases was found to be significantly different from that for the atoms and ions of the target material. In comparison with target atoms, the atoms of buffer gases radiate from denser plasma layers, and their spectral line profiles are complex in shape. (interaction of laser radiation with matter. laser plasma)

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2011

Interrelation of the construction of the metamorphic InAlAs/InGaAs nanoheterostructures with the InAs content in the active layer of 76-100% with their surface morphology and electrical properties

The influence of the construction of a metamorphic buffer on the surface morphology and electrical properties of InAlAs/InGaAs/InAlAs nanoheterostructures with InAs content in the active layer from 76 to 100% with the use of the GaAs and InP substrates is studied. It is shown that such parameters as the electron mobility and the concentration, as well as the root-mean-square surface roughness, substantially depend on the construction of the metamorphic buffer. It is established experimentally that these parameters largely depend on the maximal local gradient of the lattice constant of the metamorphic buffer in the growth direction of the layers rather than on its average value. It is shown that, with selection of the construction of the metamorphic buffer, it is possible to form nanostructured surfaces with a large-periodic profile.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Control over the morphology of AlN during molecular beam epitaxy with the plasma activation of nitrogen on Si (111) substrates

The results of studies of the growth kinetics of AlN layers during molecular beam epitaxy with the plasma activation of nitrogen using Si (111) substrates are presented. The possibility of the growth of individual AlN/Si (111) nanocolumns using growth conditions with enrichment of the surface with metal near the formation mode of Al drops, at a substrate temperature close to maximal, during molecular beam epitaxy with the plasma activation of nitrogen (T{sub s} ≈ 850°C) is shown. The possibility of growing smooth AlN layers on a nanocolumnar AlN/Si (111) buffer with the use of T{sub s} ≈ 750°C and growth conditions providing enrichment with metal is shown.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2018

Multijunction Solar Cells With Graded Buffer Bragg Reflectors

Metamorphic solar cells can have optimal bandgap combinations through the use of compositionally graded buffers, where the lattice constant is slowly varied over several microns of growth. Bragg reflectors consist of several microns of alternating layers with refractive index contrast and provide a useful internal reflection to multijunction solar cells with optically thin subcells. In this work, we implement distributed Bragg reflectors within the compositionally graded buffers of inverted metamorphic solar cells to add functionality to the buffer. The reflectance of this AlGaInAs 'graded buffer Bragg reflector' is very similar to the reflectance of a similar AlGaAs Bragg reflector external to a buffer as well as the reflectance predicted by the transfer matrix model, indicating that the roughness of the buffer does not drastically reduce the reflection. Reflectance of 72%, 91%, and 98% is achieved in 2, 4, and 8 um buffers using AlGaInAs layers that alternate between 30% and 70% aluminum content. Using a 2 um graded buffer Bragg reflector, the 1.0-eV mismatched subcell of a GaAs/GaInAs tandem has a minor increase in threading dislocation density compared to a standard graded buffer and a small, 20 mV, loss in voltage. As the buffer is thickened, the voltage loss is recuperated and excellent subcell voltages are achieved, indicating that the Bragg reflector is not severely hindering dislocation glide. We demonstrate that the benefits of the graded buffer Bragg reflector for optically thin subcells and subcells containing quantum wells, and conclude that Bragg reflectors can effectively be implemented within graded buffers, adding functionality without adding cost.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

TRIO: Burst Buffer Based I/O Orchestration, In: 2015 IEEE International Conference on Cluster Computing

The growing computing power on leadership HPC systems is often accompanied by ever-escalating failure rates. Checkpointing is a common defensive mechanism used by scientific applications for failure recovery. However, directly writing the large and bursty checkpointing dataset to parallel file systems can incur significant I/O contention on storage servers. Such contention in turn degrades bandwidth utilization of storage servers and prolongs the average job I/O time of concurrent applications. Recently burst buffers have been proposed as an intermediate layer to absorb the bursty I/O traffic from compute nodes to storage backend. But an I/O orchestration mechanism is still desirable to efficiently move checkpointing data from burst buffers to storage backend. In this paper, we propose a burst buffer based I/O orchestration framework, named TRIO, to intercept and reshape the bursty writes for better sequential write traffic to storage servers. Meanwhile, TRIO coordinates the flushing orders among concurrent burst buffers to alleviate the contention on storage server. Our experimental results demonstrated that TRIO could efficiently utilize storage bandwidth and reduce the average job I/O time by 37% on average for data-intensive applications in typical checkpointing scenarios.

Computer Science↗
DOE OSTI2015

TRIO: Burst Buffer Based I/O Orchestration

The growing computing power on leadership HPC systems is often accompanied by ever-escalating failure rates. Checkpointing is a common defensive mechanism used by scientific applications for failure recovery. However, directly writing the large and bursty checkpointing dataset to parallel filesystem can incur significant I/O contention on storage servers. Such contention in turn degrades the raw bandwidth utilization of storage servers and prolongs the average job I/O time of concurrent applications. Recently burst buffer has been proposed as an intermediate layer to absorb the bursty I/O traffic from compute nodes to storage backend. But an I/O orchestration mechanism is still desired to efficiently move checkpointing data from bursty buffers to storage backend. In this paper, we propose a burst buffer based I/O orchestration framework, named TRIO, to intercept and reshape the bursty writes for better sequential write traffic to storage severs. Meanwhile, TRIO coordinates the flushing orders among concurrent burst buffers to alleviate the contention on storage server bandwidth. Our experimental results reveal that TRIO can deliver 30.5% higher bandwidth and reduce the average job I/O time by 37% on average for data-intensive applications in various checkpointing scenarios.

Wang, Teng↗
DOE OSTI2016

Overshoot effects of electron on efficiency droop in InGaN/GaN MQW light-emitting diodes

To evaluate electron leakage in InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) light emitting diodes (LEDs), analytic models of ballistic and quasi-ballistic transport are developed. With this model, the impact of critical variables effecting electron leakage, including the electron blocking layer (EBL), structure of multiple quantum wells (MQWs), polarization field, and temperature are explored. The simulated results based on this model shed light on previously reported experimental observations and provide basic criteria for suppressing electron leakage, advancing the design of InGaN/GaN LEDs.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2022

Litter removal impacts on soil biodiversity and eucalypt plantation development in the seasonal tropics

The little layer of tree plantations provides primary nutrients for uptake, buffers changes in soil moisture, and provides habitat and substrate to soil epigeic fauna. However, this layer in eucalypt plantations is often removed to reduce fuel load during the fire season in the Brazilian savanna (Cerrado). Therefore, it is necessary to quantify the effects of changes in litter dynamics on the function of these plantations, on key nutrient cycling processes and on epigeic fauna diversity and abundance. In two adjacent stands (one juvenile and one mature), the consequences of two years of litter removal were quantified as monthly litterfall, leaf and fine wood litter decomposition, epigeic fauna abundance and diversity, soil biogeochemical variables, and tree diameter and basal area increments. Monthly litterfall rates in juvenile and mature stands did not change with litter removal over the study period. Annual litterfall ranged from 4.1 to 4.9 Mg ha -1 a -1 in litter removal plots and from 3.9 to 4.8 Mg ha -1 a -1 in control plots. Fine wood litter decomposition was slower in litter removal plots compared to controls, while leaf decomposition rates were similar in both. Two years of litter removal in the juvenile stand did not affect topsoil biogeochemical parameters but decreased available phosphorus at 20–40 cm depth relative to controls. In the mature stand, total cation exchange capacity (0–20 cm) was higher in controls (6.4 cmol c dm -3 ) relative to litter removal plots (6.3 cmol c dm -3 ), while soil moisture (0–40 cm depth) was lower in litter removal (25.45 m 3 m -3 ) compared to control plots (26 m 3 m -3 ) in the dry season. A non-metric multidimensional scaling ordination revealed an increased homogeneity in epigeic fauna where litter was removed. Litterfall, decomposition, diameter increment, four soil physical parameters and fourteen chemical parameters at 0–20 and 20–40 cm depth explained the differences in soil epigeic fauna composition between litter removal and control plots. Diameter increment decreased with litter removal only in the juvenile stand, which had reached its growth peak. The results indicate that removing excess litter to decrease fuel volume can alter soil biodiversity and edaphic conditions that negatively affect nutrient cycling and tree growth.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2013

Controlled Chemical Doping of Semiconductor Nanocrystals Using Redox Buffers

Semiconductor nanocrystal solids are attractive materials for active layers in next-generation optoelectronic devices; however, their efficient implementation has been impeded by the lack of precise control over dopant concentrations. Herein we demonstrate a chemical strategy for the controlled doping of nanocrystal solids under equilibrium conditions. Exposing lead selenide nanocrystal thin films to solutions containing varying proportions of decamethylferrocene and decamethylferrocenium incrementally and reversibly increased the carrier concentration in the solid by 2 orders of magnitude from their native values. This application of redox buffers for controlled doping provides a new method for the precise control of the majority carrier concentration in porous semiconductor thin films.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Kinetics of self-induced nucleation and optical properties of GaN nanowires grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on amorphous Al{sub x}O{sub y}

Nucleation kinetics of GaN nanowires (NWs) by molecular beam epitaxy on amorphous Al{sub x}O{sub y} buffers deposited at low temperature by atomic layer deposition is analyzed. We found that the growth processes on a-Al{sub x}O{sub y} are very similar to those observed on standard Si(111) substrates, although the presence of the buffer significantly enhances nucleation rate of GaN NWs, which we attribute to a microstructure of the buffer. The nucleation rate was studied vs. the growth temperature in the range of 720–790 °C, which allowed determination of nucleation energy of the NWs on a-Al{sub x}O{sub y} equal to 6 eV. This value is smaller than 10.2 eV we found under the same conditions on nitridized Si(111) substrates. Optical properties of GaN NWs on a-Al{sub x}O{sub y} are analyzed as a function of the growth temperature and compared with those on Si(111) substrates. A significant increase of photoluminescence intensity and much longer PL decay times, close to those on silicon substrates, are found for NWs grown at the highest temperature proving their high quality. The samples grown at high temperature have very narrow PL lines. This allowed observation that positions of donor-bound exciton PL line in the NWs grown on a-Al{sub x}O{sub y} are regularly lower than in samples grown directly on silicon suggesting that oxygen, instead of silicon, is the dominant donor. Moreover, PL spectra suggest that total concentration of donors in GaN NWs grown on a-Al{sub x}O{sub y} is lower than in those grown under similar conditions on bare Si. This shows that the a-Al{sub x}O{sub y} buffer efficiently acts as a barrier preventing uptake of silicon from the substrate to GaN.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Core-shell Si@TiO 2 nanosphere anode by atomic layer deposition for Li-ion batteries

Silicon (Si) is regarded as next-generation anode for high-energy lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to its high Li storage capacity (4200 mA h g -1 ). However, the mechanical degradation and resultant capacity fade critically hinder its practical application. In this regard, we demonstrate that nanocoating of Si spheres with a 3 nm titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) layer via atomic layer deposition (ALD) can utmostly balance the high conductivity and the good structural stability to improve the cycling stability of Si core material. The resultant sample, Si@TiO 2 -3 nm core–shell nanospheres, exhibits the best electrochemical performance of all with a highest initial Coulombic efficiency and specific charge capacity retention after 50 cycles at 0.1C (82.39% and 1580.3 mA h g -1 ). In addition to making full advantage of the ALD technique, we believe that our strategy and comprehension in coating the electrode and the active material could provide a useful pathway towards enhancing Si anode material itself and community of LIBs.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2012

Heteroepitaxial Film Silicon Solar Cell Grown on Ni-W Foils

Heteroepitaxial semiconductor films on low-cost, flexible metal foil templates are a potential route to inexpensive, high-efficiency solar cells. Here, we report epitaxial growth of Si films on low-cost, flexible, biaxially-textured Ni-W substrates. A robust buffer architecture comprised of multiple epitaxial oxide layers has been developed to grow high quality, heteroepitaxial Si films without any undesired reaction between the Si film and the metal substrate and with a single biaxial texture. XRD analysis including {omega}-scans, {phi}-scans, and pole figures confirms that the buffers and silicon are all epitaxial, with excellent cube-on-cube epitaxy. A photo-conversion efficiency of 1.1% is demonstrated from a proof-of-concept heteroepitaxial film Si solar cell.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Efficient I/O for Neural Network Training with Compressed Data

FanStore is a shared object store that enables efficient and scalable neural network training on supercomputers. By providing a global cache layer on node-local burst buffers using a compressed representation, it significantly enhances the processing capability of deep learning (DL) applications on existing hardware. In addition, FanStore allows POSIX-compliant file access to the compressed data in user space. We investigate the tradeoff between runtime overhead and data compression ratio using real-world datasets and applications, and propose a compressor selection algorithm to maximize storage capacity given performance constraints. We consider both asynchronous (i.e., with prefetching) and synchronous I/O strategies, and propose mechanisms for selecting compressors for both approaches. Using FanStore, the same storage hardware can host 2-13x more data for example applications without significant runtime overhead. Empirically, our experiments show that FanStore scales to 512 compute nodes with near linear performance scalability.

Zhang, Zhao↗
DOE OSTI2019

Measurement of kernel swelling and buffer densification in irradiated UCO and UO 2 TRISO fuel particles from AGR-2

The second Advanced Gas Reactor irradiation (AGR-2) featured UCO tristructural isotropic (TRISO)-coated particle fuel and, for comparison purposes, UO2 TRISO fuel. Particles from three UCO fuel compacts and one UO2 fuel compact were chosen for analysis of kernel swelling and buffer shrinkage. Both kernel swelling and buffer shrinkage are common elements of TRISO fuel performance models. More recently, the AGR program has determined that buffer shrinkage may impact the integrity of the inner pyrolytic carbon (IPyC) layer, which may impact SiC layer integrity (particularly during high-temperature heating tests). Therefore, measurements of buffer irradiation-induced shrinkage may be useful in improving existing models and developing new models that capture buffer-IPyC-SiC-fission product interactions observed in recent AGR post-irradiation examination (PIE). TRISO particles were mounted in epoxy, ground, polished, and imaged via optical microscopy in four separate iterations. Each of the four iterations revealed progressively deeper cross sections within the particles. Images collected from each iteration were analyzed for the circumferences/radii of the kernel, buffer, IPyC, and SiC. Spheres were fit to each set of measurements to generate spherical radii representative of the components of the fuel particle. From these radii, volumes were computed and compared to the as-fabricated volumes. UCO kernel swelling was similar among the three AGR-2 compacts ranging from approximately 28 to 32%. This is only slightly higher swelling than was measured in an earlier study of an AGR-1 compact. However, the burnup at which this swelling occurred in AGR-2 was lower than in AGR-1, indicating a faster swelling rate for the AGR-2 kernels for the irradiation conditions covered by these compacts. The AGR-2 UO2 kernel swelling was less, at 9.9%, comparable to other studies of UO2 kernel swelling. While AGR-2 UCO and UO2 kernels demonstrated different rates of swelling, the extent of buffer shrinkage was similar among the two fuel types, ranging from 24-28%. For comparison, a prior study showed that AGR-1 Compact 1-3-1 experienced 39% buffer shrinkage. A commonly-observed post-irradiation particle morphology is where the buffer pulls away from the IPyC (at least in some regions of the particle). Besides the possibility of the buffer degrading the IPyC when it pulls away from the IPyC, this gap is significant because it may also reduce heat transfer within the particle. Average AGR-2 buffer-IPyC gaps were similar for the UCO and UO2 particles, ranging from 22.2 to 26.0 µm. This is similar to what was measured for AGR-1 Compact 1-3-1.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
NASA NTRS1976

The effect of adhesive layer on crack propagation in laminates

The effect of the adhesive layer on crack propagation in composite materials is investigated. The composite medium consists of parallel load carrying laminates and buffer strips arranged periodically and bonded with thin adhesive layers. The strips, assumed to be isotropic and linearly elastic, contain symmetric cracks of arbitrary lengths located normal to the interfaces. Two problems are considered: (1) thin adhesive layers are approximated by uncoupled tension and shear springs distributed along the interfaces of the strips for which only the case of internal cracks can be treated rigorously; (2) broken laminates and the true singular behavior in the presence of the adhesive layer are studied. The adhesive is then treated as an isotropic, linearly elastic continuum. General expressions for field quantities are obtained in terms of infinite Fourier integrals. These expressions give a system of singular integral equations in terms of the crack surface displacement derivatives. By using appropriate quadrature formulas, the integral equations reduce to a system of linear algebraic equations which are solved numerically.

Gecit, M. R.↗