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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 955 records · Page 53
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Constraints on Local Primordial Non-Gaussianity with 3D Velocity Reconstruction from the Kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effect

The cosmic velocity field is an unbiased probe of the total matter distribution but is challenging to measure directly at intermediate and high redshifts. The large-scale velocity field imprints a signal in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) through the kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich (kSZ) effect. We perform the first 3D reconstruction of the large-scale velocity field from the kSZ effect by applying a quadratic estimator to CMB temperature maps and the 3D positions of galaxies. We do so by combining CMB data from the fifth data release of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (in combination with Planck) and a spectroscopic galaxy sample from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We then measure the galaxy-velocity cross-power spectrum and detect the presence of the kSZ signal at a signal-to-noise ratio of 7.2⁢𝜎. Using this galaxy-velocity cross-correlation alone, we constrain the amplitude of local primordial non-Gaussianity finding 𝑓 NL =−9⁢0$^{+210}_{−350}$. In conclusion, this pathfinder measurement sets the stage for joint galaxy-CMB kSZ constraints to significantly enhance the 𝑓 NL information obtained from galaxy surveys through sample variance cancellation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS2021

Assessing Ceres’ Past and Current Habitability

Dwarf planet Ceres is a compelling target as an evolved ocean world with, at least, regional brine reservoirs and potentially ongoing geological activity. Situated in the Main Belt of asteroids, Ceres is the most water-rich body in the inner solar system (in relative abundance) and is accessible enough for a sample return with the resources of a typical medium-class (New Frontiers) NASA mission. NASA’s Dawn mission at Ceres revealed the presence of liquid, brine-driven activity, organic matter, and a rich salt chemistry. With this evidence, the overarching goals of the mission concept presented herein are to quantify Ceres’ current habitability potential and origin. A sample return from young evaporite deposits in Occator crater offers greater science return than an in situ exploration mission by enabling high-resolution analysis of (1) organic matter expected from terrestrial and chondritic analogs that are trapped in salt minerals and (2) isotopes of refractory elements for a similar cost and less science risk. The sample return concept would be executed with a single flight system due to Ceres’ relative proximity to Earth and low gravity. Solar electric propulsion was identified as the most cost-effective approach for getting to Ceres and back. De-orbiting, landing, and takeoff are performed with a throttleable monopropellant hydrazine system. The solar arrays are stowed prior to landing and takeoff. Sample acquisition builds on the pneumatic system designed by Honeybee Robotics. The sample return mission concept relies on the availability of key technologies: an enhanced landing vision system leveraging investments from Mars 2020; retractable/redeployable solar arrays, which have been demonstrated on the International Space Station but not at Ceres’ gravity; and an emerging design from upcoming missions for sample transfer from the pneumatic sampling system to the sample return capsule. Return of a sample of mass ~100 g from Ceres, maintained at ≤ -20°C, is without precedent for any currently advocated Ocean World mission, enabling a vast range of experimental techniques back on Earth with sensitivities and accuracies far beyond those feasible with in situ instruments. A sample of this size also enables analyses to benefit from techniques that will become available in the future.

Casillas, Raul Polit↗
DOE OSTI2016

WIDE-BAND SPECTRA OF GIANT RADIO PULSES FROM THE CRAB PULSAR

We present the results of the simultaneous observation of giant radio pulses (GRPs) from the Crab pulsar at 0.3, 1.6, 2.2, 6.7, and 8.4 GHz with four telescopes in Japan. We obtain 3194 and 272 GRPs occurring at the main pulse and the interpulse phases, respectively. A few GRPs detected at both 0.3 and 8.4 GHz are the most wide-band samples ever reported. In the frequency range from 0.3 to 2.2 GHz, we find that about 70% or more of the GRP spectra are consistent with single power laws and their spectral indices are distributed from −4 to −1. We also find that a significant number of GRPs have such a hard spectral index (approximately −1) that the fluence at 0.3 GHz is below the detection limit (“dim-hard” GRPs). Stacking light curves of such dim-hard GRPs at 0.3 GHz, we detect consistent enhancement compared to the off-GRP light curve. Our samples show apparent correlations between the fluences and the spectral hardness, which indicates that more energetic GRPs tend to show softer spectra. Our comprehensive studies on the GRP spectra are useful materials to verify the GRP model of fast radio bursts in future observations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Classifying supernovae using only galaxy data

We present a new method for probabilistically classifying supernovae (SNe) without using SN spectral or photometric data. Unlike all previous studies to classify SNe without spectra, this technique does not use any SN photometry. Instead, the method relies on host-galaxy data. We build upon the well-known correlations between SN classes and host-galaxy properties, specifically that core-collapse SNe rarely occur in red, luminous, or early-type galaxies. Using the nearly spectroscopically complete Lick Observatory Supernova Search sample of SNe, we determine SN fractions as a function of host-galaxy properties. Using these data as inputs, we construct a Bayesian method for determining the probability that an SN is of a particular class. This method improves a common classification figure of merit by a factor of >2, comparable to the best light-curve classification techniques. Of the galaxy properties examined, morphology provides the most discriminating information. We further validate this method using SN samples from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Palomar Transient Factory. We demonstrate that this method has wide-ranging applications, including separating different subclasses of SNe and determining the probability that an SN is of a particular class before photometry or even spectra can. Since this method uses completely independent data from light-curve techniques, there is potential to further improve the overall purity and completeness of SN samples and to test systematic biases of the light-curve techniques. Further enhancements to the host-galaxy method, including additional host-galaxy properties, combination with light-curve methods, and hybrid methods, should further improve the quality of SN samples from past, current, and future transient surveys.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Hafnium Isotope Ratio Method for Enhanced Safeguards at Research Reactors

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is developing a Hafnium (Hf)-based, enhanced safeguards measure for the verification of energy production in a research reactor. Historically, verification of nuclear reactor use has been based on extracting and measuring physical samples from non-fuel components of the reactor. The Hafnium Isotope Ratio Method for Enhanced Safeguards (HIRMES) provides a means of verifying reactor operation based upon measuring the changes in isotopic ratios in purpose-built coupons. The first activity is installing a purpose-built, integrated sample collection coupon containing hafnium which undergoes isotopic changes when irradiated in the reactor. The second activity is analysis of the isotopic changes of the irradiated coupon after removal of the coupon using the isotope ratio method (IRM). The energy, or plutonium production, in a fission reactor can be estimated using IRM by measuring and correlating stable isotope ratios in non-fuel reactor components using standard reactor modelling methods. This paper presents HIRMES, a technology intended to provide an inexpensive, accurate, and robust measurement capability for validating operator declarations at low-power research reactors. Deploying HIRMES in research reactors would provide the IAEA with an in-core reactor “odometer” on total energy production with higher accuracy than other methods. HIRMES could be integrated in new fuel or reactor core designs as part of a protocol that is simple to implement and minimizes effort required of the operator or inspector. This paper also discusses early demonstrations at U.S. research reactors to-date, which demonstrate HIRMES as a practical tool for independent verification of low-power research reactor utilization. Specifically, the measurement uncertainty during an irradiation campaign of 39766 MWh was 22 MWh, representing two hours at a 10 MW reactor for a total irradiation campaign over the course of approximately six months.

research reactor safeguards, isotope ratio method↗
DOE OSTI2019

Corrosion Inhibition Study of Mg-Nd-Y High Strength Magnesium Alloy Using Organic Inhibitor

A study on corrosion inhibition mechanism has been performed on rare earth containing WE43 magnesium alloy in 3.5 wt.% NaCl containing 8-hydroxyquinoline (HQ). After an initial increase in corrosion rate due to the formation of sparingly soluble MgQ{sub 2} complex, it was found to decrease owing to inhibition effect of the complex. Scanning electrochemical microscopic analysis showed a decrease in corrosion currents and enhanced resistance to pitting corrosion was observed for WE43 samples in the presence of HQ after an exposure of 48 h. With time, the MgQ{sub 2} thus generated formed a protective layer on the Mg alloy surface to prevent further corrosion. The corrosion rate of WE43 samples decreased by ~ 50% in HQ containing medium after a constant exposure of 28 days (from ~ 0.22 mg/cm{sup 2} day in no HQ to ~ 0.11 mg/cm{sup 2} day in HQ). For the WE43 samples in the presence of HQ, formation of MgO and MgQ{sub 2} was detected by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction. Shallower and smaller pits appeared on the magnesium alloy with HQ in the solution as compared to deeper and larger pits on the samples with no HQ in the solution. The significance of metal-complexing organic agent, hydroxyquinoline, in initial acceleration and subsequent prevention of Mg corrosion via protective MgQ{sub 2} complex layer formation is demonstrated.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Multivariate exploration of non-intrusive load monitoring via spatiotemporal pattern network

Non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM) of electrical demand for the purpose of identifying load components has thus far mostly been studied using univariate data, e.g., using only whole building electricity consumption time series to identify a certain type of end-use such as lighting load. However, using additional variables in the form of multivariate time series data may provide more information in terms of extracting distinguishable features in the context of energy disaggregation. In this work, a novel probabilistic graphical modeling approach, namely the spatiotemporal pattern network (STPN) is proposed for energy disaggregation using multivariate time-series data. The STPN framework is shown to be capable of handling diverse types of multivariate time-series to improve the energy disaggregation performance. The technique outperforms the state of the art factorial hidden Markov models (FHMM) and combinatorial optimization (CO) techniques in multiple real-life test cases. Furthermore, based on two homes' aggregate electric consumption data, a similarity metric is defined for the energy disaggregation of one home using a trained model based on the other home (i.e., out-of-sample case). The proposed similarity metric allows us to enhance scalability via learning supervised models for a few homes and deploying such models to many other similar but unmodeled homes with significantly high disaggregation accuracy.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2022

Learning in continuous action space for developing high dimensional potential energy models

Reinforcement learning (RL) approaches that combine a tree search with deep learning have found remarkable success in searching exorbitantly large, albeit discrete action spaces, as in chess, Shogi and Go. Many real-world materials discovery and design applications, however, involve multi-dimensional search problems and learning domains that have continuous action spaces. Exploring high-dimensional potential energy models of materials is an example. Traditionally, these searches are time consuming (often several years for a single bulk system) and driven by human intuition and/or expertise and more recently by global/local optimization searches that have issues with convergence and/or do not scale well with the search dimensionality. Here, in a departure from discrete action and other gradient-based approaches, we introduce a RL strategy based on decision trees that incorporates modified rewards for improved exploration, efficient sampling during playouts and a “window scaling scheme" for enhanced exploitation, to enable efficient and scalable search for continuous action space problems. Using high-dimensional artificial landscapes and control RL problems, we successfully benchmark our approach against popular global optimization schemes and state of the art policy gradient methods, respectively. We demonstrate its efficacy to parameterize potential models (physics based and high-dimensional neural networks) for 54 different elemental systems across the periodic table as well as alloys. We analyze error trends across different elements in the latent space and trace their origin to elemental structural diversity and the smoothness of the element energy surface. Broadly, our RL strategy will be applicable to many other physical science problems involving search over continuous action spaces.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Atom probe tomographic mapping directly reveals the atomic distribution of phosphorus in resin embedded ferritin

In this study, we report the atomic-scale analysis of biological interfaces using atom probe tomography. Embedding the protein ferritin in an organic polymer resin lacking nitrogen provided chemical contrast to visualize atomic distributions and distinguish organic-organic and organic-inorganic interfaces. The sample preparation method can be directly extended to further enhance the study of biological, organic and inorganic nanomaterials relevant to health, energy or the environment.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Chapter 1: Reliably Measuring the Performance of Emerging Photovoltaic Solar Cells

Determining the power conversion efficiency of photovoltaic solar cells, especially those from new, emerging areas of technology, is important if advances in performance are to be made. However, although precise measurements are important, it is the accuracy of these types of measurements that can cause issues. Accurate measurements not only promote the development of new technology platforms, but they also enable comparisons with established technologies and allow assessments of advancements within the same field. This chapter provides insights into how measurements can be made with reasonable accuracy using both the components of the measuring system and a good protocol to acquire good data. The chapter discusses how to measure a calibrated lamp spectrum, determine a spectral mismatch factor, identify the correct reference cell and filter, define the illuminated active area, measure J-V curves to avoid any hysteresis effects, take note of sample degradation issues and avoid the temptation to artificially enhance efficiency data.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Shock-reshock of zirconium to explore the effect of microstructure on the alpha-omega phase transformation

Phase transformations play an important role in the mechanical behavior of materials subjected to extreme loading conditions. A series of shock-reshock experiments were fielded to determine whether the phase transitions in materials are significantly enhanced or inhibited by preexisting microstructural features. Polycrystalline zirconium samples were shock loaded using gas-gun plate impact and soft recovered to examine microstructure using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). Drive conditions were varied to study the (hcp) alpha to (hexagonal) omega solidsolid phase transformation. Recovered samples were then subjected to a second shock loading event to determine the change in material behavior as a function of pre-shock microstructure. Crystallography of phase fragments in the final microstructure showed that prior twinning (formed during the shock to a peak stress below the transition threshold) appeared to suppress omega formation/retention after reshock. Conversely, when a material was initially shocked into the omega phase field, retained-omega was not found to have a large impact on subsequent omega formation during reshock. This suggests that nucleation and growth of omega phase are important processes, and the relative activity of nucleation vs. growth processes is modified by a pre-existing substructure. Additionally, orientation relationships reveal a reverse transformation pathway (omega to alpha) dominates the final microstructure, suggesting significant grain growth in the omega phase field is possible even for dynamic timescales.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2013

Surface InP/In{sub 0.48}Ga{sub 0.52}P quantum dots: Carrier recombination dynamics and their interaction with fluorescent dyes

We describe the properties and carrier dynamics of surface InP quantum dots (QDs) on In{sub 0.48}Ga{sub 0.52}P, lattice-matched to GaAs (100). The structures were grown using gas-source molecular beam epitaxy. The average height and lateral size of the dots are in the range of 2–6 and 30–50 nm, respectively. The photoluminescence of the surface dots peaks between 750 and 830 nm, depending on the growth conditions, and is red-shifted compared to the emission of the capped QDs grown under similar conditions. The integrated photoluminescence intensity is comparable to that of the capped QDs. The decay time of both surface and capped QDs is around 1 ns at 15 K. The strong luminescence of surface QDs is explained by the effect of acting vacuum/air as an effective barrier and saturated surface states. Enhancement of the QDs luminescence is observed for the samples coated with a fluorescent dye.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Cavity-enhanced resonant tunneling photodetector at telecommunication wavelengths

An AlGaAs/GaAs double barrier resonant tunneling diode (RTD) with a nearby lattice-matched GaInNAs absorption layer was integrated into an optical cavity consisting of five and seven GaAs/AlAs layers to demonstrate cavity enhanced photodetection at the telecommunication wavelength 1.3 μm. The samples were grown by molecular beam epitaxy and RTD-mesas with ring-shaped contacts were fabricated. Electrical and optical properties were investigated at room temperature. The detector shows maximum photocurrent for the optical resonance at a wavelength of 1.29 μm. At resonance a high sensitivity of 3.1×10{sup 4} A/W and a response up to several pA per photon at room temperature were found.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Silicon nanocrystals in SiN{sub x}/SiO{sub 2} hetero-superlattices: The loss of size control after thermal annealing

Superlattices containing 3 nm thick silicon rich silicon nitride sublayers and 3 nm and 10 nm thick SiO{sub 2} barriers were prepared by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Despite the as-prepared samples represented a well-kept multilayer structure with smooth interfaces, the high temperature annealing resulted in the total destruction of multilayer structure in the samples containing 3 nm SiO{sub 2} barriers. Energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy images of these samples indicated a silicon nanoclusters formation with sizes of 2.5–12.5 nm, which were randomly distributed within the structure. Although in the sample with 10 nm SiO{sub 2} barriers some fragments of the multilayer structure could be still observed after thermal annealing, nevertheless, the formation of large nanocrystals with diameters up to 10 nm was confirmed by dark field transmission electron microscopy. Thus, in contrast to the previously published results, the expected size control of silicon nanocrystals was lost. According to the FTIR results, the thermal annealing of SiN{sub x}/SiO{sub 2} superlattices led to the formation of silicon nanocrystals in mostly oxynitride matrix. Annealed samples demonstrated a photoluminescence peak at 885 nm related to the luminescence of silicon nanocrystals, as confirmed by time-resolved photoluminescence measurements. The loss of nanocrystals size control is discussed in terms of the migration of oxygen atoms from the SiO{sub 2} barriers into the silicon rich silicon nitride sublayers. A thermodynamic mechanism responsible for this process is proposed. According to this mechanism, the driving force for the oxygen migration is the gain in the configuration entropy related to the relative arrangements of oxygen and nitrogen atoms.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Localized surface plasmon resonance enhanced ultraviolet emission and F-P lasing from single ZnO microflower

In this work, monodispersed ZnO microflowers are fabricated by a vapor phase transport method, and Au nanoparticles (NPs) are directly decorated on the surface of the ZnO microflowers. The micro-photoluminescence of a single ZnO microflower demonstrates that the near band-edge emission is tremendously enhanced while the defect-related emission is completely suppressed after Au decoration. The average enhancement factor reaches up to 65 fold. The enhancement mechanism is assumed to be the electron transfer from excited Au NPs to the ZnO microflower induced by the localized surface plasmon resonance based on the time-resolved photoluminescence. The enhanced F-P lasing from a single ZnO sample is further realized.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Spectra of surface plasmon polariton enhanced electroluminescence from electroformed Al-Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}-Ag diodes

Narrow band-pass filters have been used to measure the spectral distribution of electroluminescent photons with energies between 1.8 eV and 3.0 eV from electroformed Al-Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}-Ag diodes with anodic Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} thicknesses between 12 nm and 18 nm. Electroforming of metal-insulator-metal (MIM) diodes is a non-destructive dielectric breakdown that results in a conducting channel in the insulator and changes the initial high resistance of the MIM diode to a low resistance state. It is a critical step in the development of resistive-switching memories that utilize MIM diodes as the active element. Electroforming of Al-Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}-Ag diodes in vacuum results in voltage-controlled negative resistance (VCNR) in the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics. Electroluminescence (EL) and electron emission into vacuum (EM) develop simultaneously with the current increase that results in VCNR in the I-V characteristics. EL is due to recombination of electrons injected at the Al-Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} interface with radiative defect centers in Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}. Measurements of EL photons between 1.8 eV and 3.0 eV using a wide band-pass filter showed that EL intensity is exponentially dependent on Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} thickness for Al-Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}-Ag diodes between 12 nm and 20 nm thick. Enhanced El intensity in the thinnest diodes is attributed to an increase in the spontaneous emission rate of recombination centers due to high electromagnetic fields generated in Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} when EL photons interact with electrons in Ag or Al to form surface plasmon polaritons at the Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}-Ag or Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}-Al interface. El intensity is a maximum at 2.0–2.2 eV for Al-Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}-Ag diodes with Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} thicknesses between 12 nm and 18 nm. EL in diodes with 12 nm or 14 nm of Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} is enhanced by factors of 8–10 over EL from a diode with 18 nm of Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}. The extent of EL enhancement in the thinnest diodes can vary significantly between samples. A narrow band of recombination centers was found in one Al-Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}-Ag diode with 12 nm of Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}; it had EL intensity 100 times greater at 2.15 eV than the diode with 18 nm of Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}. EL intensity for photons with energies greater than 2.6 eV is nearly the same for all diodes.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Electrical and thermal properties of polycrystalline Si thin films with phononic crystal nanopatterning for thermoelectric applications

Electrical and thermal properties of polycrystalline Si thin films with two-dimensional phononic patterning were investigated at room temperature. Electrical and thermal conductivities for the phononic crystal nanostructures with a variety of radii of the circular holes were measured to systematically investigate the impact of the nanopatterning. The concept of phonon-glass and electron-crystal is valid in the investigated electron and phonon transport systems with the neck size of 80 nm. The thermal conductivity is more sensitive than the electrical conductivity to the nanopatterning due to the longer mean free path of the thermal phonons than that of the charge carriers. The values of the figure of merit ZT were 0.065 and 0.035, and the enhancement factors were 2 and 4 for the p-doped and n-doped phononic crystals compared to the unpatterned thin films, respectively, when the characteristic size of the phononic crystal nanostructure is below 100 nm. The greater enhancement factor of ZT for the n-doped sample seems to result from the strong phonon scattering by heavy phosphorus atoms at the grain boundaries.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗