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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 91 records · Page 5
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Electrostatic modulation of the lateral carrier density profile in field effect devices with nonlinear dielectrics

The properties of two-dimensional (2D) electronic systems are often effectively controlled using electrostatic gating. The geometry of such field effect devices influences the effectiveness of the gate and the carrier density profile in the 2D device. Here, in this work, we analyze the gate-induced spatial variations in the lateral carrier density in patterned LaAlO 3 /SrTiO 3 devices. We model the electrostatics of the 2D interface using the Thomas-Fermi approximation and compute the gate-induced charge distribution at the interface. We show that the electric field lines generated by the gate are focused at the edges of the device, causing an increased depletion near its edges. This effect is accentuated in LaAlO 3 /SrTiO 3 due to the large, nonlinear dielectric constant of the substrate, and the large distance between the gate electrode and the interface. We experimentally demonstrate one consequence of this effect by directly imaging current distributions in gated heterostructures, finding that insulating regions nucleate at the edges of the device due to the gate. Our results suggest that device geometry and choice of dielectric materials control the charge distribution in 2D systems.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2025

The scoping, design, and plasma physics optimization of the Eos neutron source stellarator

On the path to a fusion pilot plant, Thea Energy plans to build Eos, a sub-breakeven, deuterium-deuterium, beam-target fusion, stellarator neutron source facility for producing tritium and other valuable radioisotopes. In this paper, a set of 1D plasma physics models are coupled and used to design the operating point of the facility and predict performance. At this foundational stage of the design, analytic and approximate models are sufficient to capture the leading-order effects, and fast enough to run in the inner loop of an optimizer. Higher-fidelity analyses will follow. Models of 1D profile-dependent neutral beam stopping, ion beam slowing down, beam-target fusion, electron-ion classical heat transfer, energy confinement (ISS04), beam pressure, beam heating of ions and electrons, beam-beam fusion fraction, and neutral beam injection and gyrotron heating electrical efficiencies are included. A numerical optimizer is used to determine the minimum required facility electric power to generate tritium at a given rate. A potentially advantageous regime is described in which modern precisely-quasisymmetric stellarators, new high-temperature superconductors, ITER-derived neutral beam injection, and new high-frequency gyrotrons enable a suitible target plasma with hot electrons, cold ions, peaked density and temperature profiles, and high beam-injected ion density. It appears possible at this time for a facility with a medium-scale and medium-strength stellarator whose required facility electric power is less than 40 MW to produce $2.5\times 10^{17}$ neutrons s -1 for the production of radioisotopes. With the addition of a tritium breeding blanket, such a facility could produce 0.2 grams d -1 or 70 grams yr -1 of tritium.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Spatial profile of argon (1s 5 ) metastables in an electron beam generated plasma

Electron beams with an applied magnetic field generate a secondary cold plasma with a selective chemical composition, featuring low-energy ions and metastable species in the discharge periphery, ideal for low-damage plasma treatment of material substrates. In this work, we studied the plasma generated by an e-beam using a 4 kV voltage in a pure argon gas environment under a magnetic field of 150 G and in the pressure range of 25–90 mTorr. We measured the absolute spatial density profile of argon (1 s 5 ) metastables in an electron beam generated plasma by laser-induced fluorescence and found it to be of the order of 10 16 m −3 . The electron temperature and the electron density measured by a Langmuir probe were of the order of 10 16 m −3 and less than an eV respectively. Electron-impact quenching was identified as a significant loss mechanism for the Ar(1s 5 ) state, leading to the saturation of the metastable density at higher pressures. Outside the primary ionization region, the spatial distribution of argon metastables followed a linear diffusion profile, indicating negligible additional production in those regions.

EEDF↗
DOE OSTI2021

Generalized impurity pinch in partially magnetized multi-ion plasma

In a two-ion-species plasma with disparate ion masses, heavy ions tend to concentrate in the low-temperature region of collisionally magnetized plasma and in the high-temperature region of collisionally unmagnetized plasma, respectively. Moreover, collisional magnetization can be determined as the ratio of the light ion gyrofrequency to the collision frequency of light and heavy ion species, and the behavior of this effect in the intermediate regime of partially magnetized plasma is predominantly dependent on this Hall parameter. Multi-ion cross-field transport has been described before in the collisionally magnetized plasma regime, and generalized pinch relations, which describe densities of ion species in equilibrium in that plasma, are found in the literature. Here, the role of collisional magnetization and Larmor magnetization in multi-ion collisional transport is clarified, and generalized pinch relations are extended to the partially magnetized regime in which the ion Hall parameter may be small, as long as electrons remain collisionally magnetized. Equilibrium ion density profiles have the same dependence on external forces and on each other regardless of collisional magnetization of ions. The expansion of the range of validity of multi-ion collisional transport models makes them applicable to a wider range of laboratory plasma conditions. In particular, ion density profiles evolve sufficiently fast for radial impurity transport to be observable around stagnation on MagLIF, leading to expulsion of heavy ion impurities from the hotspot as long as plasma becomes sufficiently collisionally magnetized during the implosion.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

An experimental study of the existence regions and non-linear interactions of drift wave and Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities in a linear magnetized plasma

Experimental observations of the intrinsic excitation and non-linear interactions of drift wave (DW) and Kelvin–Helmholtz (KH) instabilities in a linear magnetized plasma column are presented. The experiments are carried out in the inverse mirror plasma experimental device (IMPED)—a cylindrical, magnetized, linear plasma machine designed to study low-frequency waves and instabilities in plasma. A novel feature of IMPED is the ability to control plasma profiles, such as the density n(r)⁠, electron temperature T e (r)⁠, and plasma potential V p (r) by varying the ratio Rm of the magnetic field in the main chamber to that in the source chamber. At high values of Rm, higher-density gradient scale length promotes the drift wave (DW) instability while lower Rm value results in a higher radial electric field, inducing a sheared poloidal flow that enhances the dominance of the Kelvin–Helmholtz (KH) mode. The background and fluctuating plasma parameters are characterized using various configurations of multiple in situ electric probes at different spatial locations to quantify the local gradients that excite the low-frequency primary instabilities. Statistical, spectral, and bispectral analysis of the density and potential signals help identify these modes in terms of wave number, frequency, phase, and amplitude and also delineate the nature of their non-linear interactions.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Enhanced pedestal transport driven by edge collisionality on Alcator C-Mod and its role in regulating H-mode pedestal gradients

Experimental measurements of plasma and neutral profiles across the pedestal are used in conjunction with 2D edge modeling to examine pedestal stiffness in Alcator C-Mod H-mode plasmas. Enhanced D α experiments on Alcator C-Mod observed pedestal degradation and loss in confinement below a critical value of net power crossing the separatrix, P net = $P^{crit}_{net}$ ≈ 2.3 MW, in the absence of any external fueling. New analysis of ionization and particle flux profiles reveal saturation of the pedestal electron density, $n^{ped}_{e}$, despite continuous increases in ionization throughout the pedestal, inversely related to P net . A limi to the pedestal $\nabla$n e emerges as the particle flux, Γ D , continues to grow, implying increases in the effective particle diffusivity, D eff . This is well-correlated with the separatrix collisionality, $v^*_{sep}$ and a turbulence control parameter, α t , implying a possible transition in type of turbulence. The transition is well correlated with the experimentally observed value of $P^{crit}_{net}$. SOLPS-ITER modeling is performed for select discharges from the power scan, constrained with experimental electron and neutral densities, measured at the outer midpane. The modeling confirms general growth in D eff , consistent with experimental findings, and additionally suggests even larger growth in Χ e at the same $P^{crit}_{net}$.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Constraints on Nonthermal Pressure at Galaxy Cluster Outskirts from a Joint SPT and XMM-Newton Analysis

We present joint South Pole Telescope and XMM-Newton observations of eight massive galaxy clusters (0.8–2 × 10$^{15}$ M$_{⊙}$) spanning a redshift range of 0.16–0.35. Employing a novel Sunyaev–Zel’dovich + X-ray fitting technique, we effectively constrain the thermodynamic properties of these clusters out to the virial radius. The resulting best-fit electron density, deprojected temperature, and deprojected pressure profiles are in good agreement with previous observations of massive clusters. For the majority of the cluster sample (five out of eight clusters), the entropy profiles exhibit a self-similar behavior near the virial radius. We further derive hydrostatic mass, gas mass, and gas fraction profiles for all clusters up to the virial radius. Comparing the enclosed gas fraction profiles with the universal gas fraction profile, we obtain nonthermal pressure fraction profiles for our cluster sample at >0.5R$_{500}$, demonstrating a steeper increase between R$_{500}$ and R$_{200}$ that is consistent with the hydrodynamical simulations. Our analysis yields nonthermal pressure fraction ranges of 8%–28% (median: 15% ± 11%) at R$_{500}$ and 21%–35% (median: 27% ± 12%) at R$_{200}$. Notably, weak-lensing mass measurements are available for only four clusters in our sample, and our recovered total cluster masses, after accounting for nonthermal pressure, are consistent with these measurements.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Electron Cyclotron Emission–Based Separatrix Identification in ITER with OMFIT Synthetic Modeling

Accurate determination of the separatrix location is essential for understanding edge plasma behavior and optimizing confinement in tokamaks, especially in next-generation devices such as ITER. In this study, a synthetic microwave diagnostics module was developed and implemented in the OMFIT framework to assess the feasibility of an electron cyclotron emission–based separatrix detection method in ITER plasmas. Simulations were carried out using ITER H-mode equilibrium scenarios with different plasma density profiles and different pedestal widths. Here, the results show that the electron emission temperature profiles consistently exhibit an inversion pattern near the edge, with a well-defined minimum point that could serve as a proxy for the separatrix location. However, unlike in the DIII-D, the minimum point in ITER is systematically offset by approximately 2 cm into the scrape-off layer, independent of density or pedestal width, which is within the radial resolution range (2 to 5 cm) determined by the 500-MHz channel spacing. While the method does not provide the exact separatrix location, it offers a reliable indicator of the boundary region and has potential applications for real-time boundary monitoring in ITER and other future fusion devices.

Electron cyclotron emission↗
DOE OSTI2021

Prediction of DIII-D Pedestal Structure From Externally Controllable Parameters

The sharp increase of pressure at the edge of a high confinement mode (H-mode) plasma, the pedestal, strongly impacts overall plasma performance. Predicting the pedestal is a necessity to control and optimize tokamak operations. Here, an experimental data-driven machine learning (ML) approach is presented that predicts the pedestal heights and widths of electron density (n e ) and electron temperature (T e ) profiles as well as the separatrix ne from externally controllable parameters such as the plasma shape, heating method and power, and gas puff rate and integrated gas puff. The OMFIT framework was used with DIII-D data to efficiently, robustly, and automatically build a database of pedestal parameters to train machine learning models. Database creation was enabled by the search engine tool for DIII-D data, TokSearch, which parallelizes data fetching, enabling fast searches through basic signals of thousands of DIII-D shots and selection of relevant time intervals. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) separated the database into three clusters that represent classes of plasma shapes that are regularly used in DIII-D. The most important parameters for setting the pedestal structure were plasma current (I p ), toroidal magnetic field (B Φ ), neutral beam heating power (P NBI ) and shaping quantities. The Deep Jointly Informed Neural Networks (DJINN) algorithm was applied to identify suitable neural network (NN) architectures that appropriately capture the features of the pedestal database. Separate NNs were implemented for each pedestal parameter, and ensembling methods were used to improve the prediction accuracy and allowed estimation of the prediction uncertainty. The pedestal predictions of the test dataset lie within the measurement uncertainties of the pedestal parameters. The NN outperformed simple Linear Regression (LR) analysis, indicating non-linear dependencies in the pedestal structure. The presented achievements illustrate a promising path for future research, using feature extraction to infer experimental trends and thereby improve pedestal models as well as deploying NN for a fast pedestal prediction in DIII-D scenario development.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Differentiating Between Simultaneous Loss Drivers in Earth's Outer Radiation Belt: Multi‐Dimensional Phase Space Density Analysis

Abstract We analyzed the contribution of electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) wave driven electron loss to a flux dropout event in September 2017. The evolution of electron phase space density (PSD) through the dropout showed the formation of a radially peaked PSD profile as electrons were lost at high L* , resembling distributions created by magnetopause shadowing. By comparing 2D Fokker Planck simulations of pitch angle diffusion to the observed change in PSD, we found that the μ and K of electron loss aligned with maximum scattering rates at dropout onset. We conclude that, during this dropout event, EMIC waves produced substantial electron loss. Because pitch angle diffusion occurred on closed drift paths near the last closed drift shell, no radial PSD minimum was observed. Therefore, the radial PSD gradients resembled solely magnetopause shadowing loss, even though the local pitch angle scattering produced electron losses of several orders of magnitude of the PSD.

Staples, F. A.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Heterogeneous Integration Technologies for High-temperature, High-density, Low-profile Power Modules of Wide Bandgap Devices in Electric Drive Applications (Final Technical Report)

The goal of this project is to develop packaging technologies for making high-temperature, high-density, and low-profile wide-bandgap (WBG) power electronics modules for electric drives. These modules are aimed at enabling the DOE’s University Consortium to reach its 2025 inverter targets of ≥ 100 kW/L and ≤ 2.7 $/kW. The specific objectives are to: design and fabricate SiC half-bridge power modules with double-sided cooling and parasitic inductances < 5 nH, heat flux density > 400 W/cm 2 , and working junction temperature of 200 o C; design, fabricate, and deliver a gate driver with double-sided cooled modules for the construction of a 100 kW/L inverter at Oak Ridge National Lab; and design and prototype intelligent gate drivers with integrated current sensor and a low-profile DC-DC power supply with air-core transformer for testing power modules at 200 o C junction temperature. We followed an iterative technical approach of design, simulation, fabrication, and testing of various versions of modules, current sensors, and power supply. The state-of-the-art silicon carbide devices rated at 1.2 kV and 149 A were packaged by sintered-silver bonding on an aluminum nitride direct-bond-copper substrate for high thermal conductivity, high working temperature, and high joint reliability. Porous silver posts were used to interconnect the device’s source pads to the other direct-bond-copper substrate for low mechanical stresses, ease of manufacturing, and double-sided cooling. A current sensor based on package parasitic inductance was developed to measure switching current. A dynamic feedback scheme was developed to compensate the effect of parasitic resistance and temperature variation. A constant-current class-E dc-dc converter with air-core transformer was developed. Air-core transformer was used due to the unavailability of magnetic core at high temperatures. Gate driver and power supply were integrated with the double-side cooled, high temperature SiC power modules for testing the modules at 200 o C junction temperature. Double-pulse and continuous testing of the integrated technologies validated the design and fabrication of the three component technologies. Throughout the project, we overcame the challenge for design verification caused by low prototyping yield, which then helped train the graduate students, the future workforce, to learn the engineering know-how for low-cost manufacturing of reliable products. Below is a summary of the major accomplishments of this project: development of a prototyping process for fabricating double-side cooled (1200 V, 149 A) SiC phase-leg modules capable of working to 200 o C Tj; simulation and experimental verification of the improvement of thermo-mechanical reliability of the double-side cooled SiC phase-leg module by using rigid encapsulant; design and experimental validation of a current sensor based on package parasitic inductance and a compensation solution for eliminating the effect of parasitic resistance; design and experimental validation of a low-profile power supply with six-output air-core transformer for gate driver; functional demonstration of a SiC phase-leg module integrated with its gate driver, current sensor, and an air-core power supply at 200 o C Tj in a double-pulse switching test setup and Buck converter continuous test setup; successful completion of six PhD and two MS students who are or will work at Apple Inc., Tesla Inc., Wolfspeed Inc., Microchip Inc., Monolithic Power Systems Inc., and LG Magna Inc.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2026

Dynamic evolution of ultracold electron beams from nanostructured cathodes

Dynamic Coulomb expansion of dense, nonuniform particle beamlets can lead to causticlike formations in the charge density profile of the resultant beam. Such features only occur for cold beams where thermal diffusion of the particles is minimized. These phenomena have been observed experimentally for select cases with ion beams but not yet for electron beams as the electron dynamics occur over far faster timescales. We simulate the interaction of electron bunches while varying the initial transverse temperature and density profiles to determine the thresholds that characterize this pattern formation. Furthermore, we extend the simulations to geometric arrangements that are more pertinent to the nanotip cathode application and consider the effects of asymmetries and the impact of a low-density halo on the overall process. The simulations are conducted using a previously documented high-fidelity algorithm for collisional particle dynamics. These studies identify the temperature and density thresholds required for caustic formation and provide guidance for optimizing the design of nanoscale structured cathodes. We also demonstrate that the correlation between the final density patterns and the underlying beam parameters enables a virtual diagnostic tool for measuring ultralow emittance beams solely based on a transverse charge density profile.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Isotope effects on transport in LHD

Abstract Isotope effects are one of the most important issues for predicting future reactor operations. Large helical device (LHD) is the presently working largest stellarator/helical device using super conducting helical coils. In LHD, deuterium experiments started in 2017. Extensive studies regarding isotope effects on transport have been carried out. In this paper, the results of isotope effect studies in LHD are reported. The systematic studies were performed adjusting operational parameters and nondimensional parameters. In L mode like normal confinement plasma, where internal and edge transport barriers are not formed, the scaling of global energy confinement time ( τ E ) with operational parameters shows positive mass dependence ( M 0.27 ; where M is effective ion mass) in electron cyclotron heating plasma and no mass dependence ( M 0.0 ) in neutral beam injection heating plasma. The non-negative ion mass dependence is anti-gyro-Bohm scaling. The role of the turbulence in isotope effects was also found by turbulence measurements and gyrokinetic simulation. Better accessibility to electron and ion internal transport barrier (ITB) plasma is found in deuterium (D) plasma than in hydrogen (H). Gyro kinetic non-linear simulation shows reduced ion heat flux due to the larger generation of zonal flow in deuterium plasma. Peaked carbon density profile plays a prominent role in reducing ion energy transport in ITB plasma. This is evident only in plasma with deuterium ions. New findings on the mixing and non-mixing states of D and H particle transports are reported. In the mixing state, ion particle diffusivities are higher than electron particle diffusivities and D and H ion density profiles are almost identical. In the non-mixing state, ion particle diffusivity is much lower than electron diffusivity. Deuterium and hydrogen ion profiles are clearly different. Different turbulence structures were found in the mixing and non-mixing states suggesting different turbulence modes play a role.

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2023

Probing local electron temperature and density inside a sheared flow stabilized Z-pinch using portable optical Thomson scattering

We report the first optical Thomson scattering measurements inside a high electron temperature (≳1 keV) and moderate electron density (mid 10 16 cm –3 ) plasma. This diagnostic has been built to provide critical plasma parameters, such as electron temperature and density, for Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy-supported fusion-energy concepts. It uses an 8 J laser at 532 nm in 1.5 ns to measure the high frequency feature of the Thomson scattering profile at 17 locations along the probe axis. It is able to measure electron density from 5 × 10 17 cm –3 to several 10 19 cm –3 and electron temperatures from tens of eV to several keV. Here, in this paper, we describe the design, deployment, and analysis on the sheared flow stabilized Z-pinch machine at Zap Energy named FuZE. The probe beam is aimed at an axial distance of 20 cm from the central electrode and is timed within the temporal envelope of neutron emission. The high temperature and moderate density plasmas generated on FuZE lie in an unconventional regime for Thomson scattering as they are between tokamaks and laser-produced plasmas. We described the analysis considerations in this regime, show that the electron density was below 5 × 10 16 cm –3 at all times during these measurements, and present a sample shot where the inferred electron temperature varied from 167 ± 16 eV to 700 ± 85 eV over 1.6 cm.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2022

EDGE2D-EIRENE and ERO2.0 predictions of nitrogen molecular break-up and transport in the divertor of JET low-confinement mode plasmas

EDGE2D-EIRENE simulations of nitrogen-seeded partially detached JET L-mode plasmas show that the divertor N I to N V radiation distributions are highly sensitive to the upstream electron density, and less sensitive to changes in the assumed cross-field particle diffusivity for nitrogen ions. The EDGE2D-EIRENE simulations reproduce the peak intensities of N I to N V as measured by vertically viewing divertor filterscopes to within 50 % for a narrow range of the upstream electron density within the experimental uncertainties, while the predicted profiles are narrower than the measured ones. Including nitrogen atoms only in the ERO2.0 simulations implies lower N III and N IV peak intensities by one and two thirds, respectively, compared to EDGE2D-EIRENE. If nitrogen is assumed to recycle exclusively as molecules instead of atoms, ERO2.0 predicts that the N III and N IV intensities in the divertor increase by up to a factor of two and that the time-averaged, volume-integrated number of N 5+ to N 7+ ions in the plasma also increases by approximately a factor of 2.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Effects of collisional ion orbit loss on tokamak radial electric field and toroidal rotation in an L-mode plasma

Abstract Ion orbit loss has been used to model the formation of a strong negative radial electric field E r in the tokamak edge, as well as edge momentum transport and toroidal rotation. To quantitatively measure ion orbit loss, an orbit-flux formulation has been developed and numerically applied to the gyrokinetic particle-in-cell code XGC. We study collisional ion orbit loss in an axisymmetric DIII-D L-mode plasma using gyrokinetic ions and drift-kinetic electrons. Numerical simulations, where the plasma density and temperature profiles are maintained through neutral ionization and heating, show the formation of a quasisteady negative E r in the edge. We have measured a radially outgoing ion gyrocenter flux due to collisional scattering of ions into the loss orbits, which is balanced by the radially incoming ion gyrocenter flux from confined orbits on the collisional time scale. This suggests that collisional ion orbit loss can shift E r in the negative direction compared to that in plasmas without orbit loss. It is also found that collisional ion orbit loss can contribute to a radially outgoing (counter-current) toroidal-angular-momentum flux, which is not balanced by the toroidal-angular-momentum flux carried by ions on the confined orbits. Therefore, the edge toroidal rotation shifts in the co-current direction on the collisional time scale.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Enhancing predictive capabilities in fusion burning plasmas through surrogate-based optimization in core transport solvers

Abstract This work presents the PORTALS framework (Rodriguez-Fernandez et al 2022 Nucl. Fusion 62 076036), which leverages surrogate modeling and optimization techniques to enable the prediction of core plasma profiles and performance with nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations at significantly reduced cost, with no loss of accuracy. The efficiency of PORTALS is benchmarked against standard methods, and its full potential is demonstrated on a unique, simultaneous 5-channel (electron temperature, ion temperature, electron density, impurity density and angular rotation) prediction of steady-state profiles in a DIII-D ITER Similar Shape plasma with GPU-accelerated, nonlinear CGYRO (Candy et al 2016 J. Comput. Phys. 324 73–93). This paper also provides general guidelines for accurate performance predictions in burning plasmas and the impact of transport modeling in fusion pilot plants studies.

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2026

Characterization of Low-energy Ionization Signals in Silicon Detectors for the Nab Experiment

The Nab (Neutron a b) experiment is designed to measure the beta-antineutrino angular correlation in free neutron 𝛽 decay with an ultimate precision goal of 0.1%, providing input for tests of Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix unitarity. This measurement is performed via detection of electrons and protons in delayed coincidence using custom large-area segmented silicon detectors. We present the characterization of one such detector system to establish the proton energy and timing response, using a dedicated proton accelerator. The detected proton peak was studied for 25, 30, and 35 keV incident protons on a set of detector segments and multiple cooling cycles over a one-year period. Ionization losses were consistent with models of the detector dead layer with thicknesses less than 100 nm. The detected proton peak was stable within the uncertainty from energy calibration (0.25 keV). The rise times of detector pulses from 109Cd and 113Sn conversion electron sources were used to extract the impurity density profile and establish a precise model for the detector timing response. The observed impurity density profile varied from (2±2)×109/cm3 at the center to (26±2)×109/cm3 at the edge. This impurity density profile was then used to characterize systematic effects in proton time-of-flight measurements due to detector pulse-shape effects; the resultant proton timing systematic uncertainties were below 0.3 ns, which is sufficient for the Nab experiment.

Taylor, RJ [North Carolina State University]↗