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At least 1,027 records · Page 57
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2018

Thickness-Dependent Ordering Kinetics in Cylindrical Block Copolymer/Homopolymer Ternary Blends

The slow kinetics of block copolymer self-assembly may hinder, or even prevent, the realization of expected equilibrium ordered morphologies. Here in this paper we investigate the self-assembly kinetics of cylinder-forming polystyrene-block-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PS-b-PMMA) and its corresponding ternary blends with low molecular weight PS and PMMA in thin films ranging from <1 to several cylinder layers in thickness. In situ grazing-incidence X-ray scattering coupled with ex situ electron microscopy reveals pathway-dependent ordering substantially altered by homopolymer blending. In particular, the neat (unblended) block copolymer (BCP) is kinetically frustrated in films more than ~1 cylinder layer thick and is unable to reach a state of ordered hexagonally packed cylinders during the annealing interval. On the other hand, while blends exhibit similar pattern coarsening behavior to neat BCPs for hexagonally ordered cylinders, reorientation transitions between vertical or horizontal cylinders are dramatically accelerated in blend thin films. We infer that more rapid early stage ordering observed in blends can be attributed in part to faster reorientation transitions.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Low-Tortuosity Thick Electrodes with Active Materials Gradient Design for Enhanced Energy Storage

The ever-growing energy demand of modern society calls for the development of high-loading and high-energy-density batteries, and substantial research efforts are required to optimize electrode microstructures for improved energy storage. Low-tortuosity architecture proves effective in promoting charge transport kinetics in thick electrodes; however, heterogeneous electrochemical mass transport along the depth direction is inevitable, especially at high C-rates. In this work, we create an active material gradient in low-tortuosity electrodes along ion-transport direction to compensate for uneven reaction kinetics and the nonuniform lithiation/delithiation process in thick electrodes. The gradual decrease of active material concentration from the separator to the current collector reduces the integrated ion diffusion distance and accelerates the electrochemical reaction kinetics, leading to improved rate capabilities. Further, the structure advantages combining low-tortuosity pores and active material gradient offer high mass loading (60 mg cm –2 ) and enhanced performance. Comprehensive understanding of the effect of active material gradient architecture on electrode kinetics has been elucidated by electrochemical characterization and simulations, which can be useful for development of batteries with high-energy/power densities.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2011

Surface Relaxation and Electronic States of Pt(111) Surface with Varying Slab Thickness

Surface relaxation and electronic DOS's of Pt(111) surface have been studied with varying slab thickness using ab-initio SIESTA method. We found the expansion in the top layer and contraction in the subsurface layers of Pt(111) surface. Our results match with the experimental results. Also observing electronic density of states we found that as we increase the thickness of slab, the PDOS of Pt(111) surface goes towards the bulk density of states and Fermi energy shifts towards the bulk fermi energy.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2011

High Energy PIXE at the ARRONAX Facility for Multi Elemental Analysis of Thick Samples

Proton Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) using high energy protons is a nondestructive multi-elemental technique that can analyze medium and heavy trace elements on thick samples. A new experimental setup is being built at the ARRONAX facility (Nantes, France) for this purpose. Experiments on multi-layer targets have been made in order to identify the sequences and to measure the different layer thicknesses. Our approach is to consider the relative intensities of K{alpha}/K{beta} lines in different layers as well as the gamma intensity ray ratio from each layer versus the reference layer. Two multi-layer targets were used: the first one composed of 10 {mu}m Au, 30{mu}m Bi and 250 {mu}m Cu, and the second composed of 125 {mu}m Ti, 10 {mu}m Au and 50 {mu}m Ag. In both cases, we used Al 100 {mu}m as a reference layer. This work emphasizes the importance of having both X-ray and gamma-ray information in multi-layer analyses.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2012

Thick-wall effects in the theory of resistive wall modes

Magnetic interaction of the plasma perturbations with the nearby resistive wall is considered as a resistive wall mode (RWM) problem, but with two essential differences from the traditional thin-wall approach. First, the wall is treated as magnetically thick, which means that the skin depth is not assumed larger than the wall thickness. Second, the plasma is allowed to enter the region where the RWM must be deeply unstable without rotation. The latter corresponds to the plasma operation above the no-wall stability limit demonstrated in the DIII-D tokamak [E. J. Strait et al., Phys. Plasmas 11, 2505 (2004)]. It is shown that the rotational stabilization observed in these experiments can be reproduced in this model if the mode is forced to rotate with a frequency above a critical level. The analytical estimates show that this effect (absent in the model based on the thin-wall approximation) is strong at realistic parameters. The model also predicts that the locking of the rotationally stabilized mode gives rise to instability with a growth rate much larger than its thin-wall estimate.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Effect of (Bi, La)(Fe, Zn)O{sub 3} thickness on the microstructure and multiferroic properties of BiFeO{sub 3} thin films

The effect of Bi{sub 0.90}La{sub 0.10}Fe{sub 0.90}Zn{sub 0.10}O{sub 3} (BLFZO) thicknesses on the microstructure and multiferroic properties of BiFeO{sub 3} (BFO) thin films was investigated, and all bilayered thin films were grown on Pt-coated silicon substrates without any buffer layers by a radio frequency sputtering. A (110) orientation is dominant in all the bilayers, and two grain growth modes are identified in these bilayers by using an atomic force microscope, where different grain growth modes significantly affect their leakage behavior. The dielectric constant ({epsilon}{sub r}) of bilayers gradually increases, and magnetic properties were deteriorated with the addition of BLFZO with a higher {epsilon}{sub r} and a weaker magnetic behavior. An enhanced ferroelectric behavior of 2P{sub r} {approx} 116.2 {mu}C/cm{sup 2} and 2E{sub c} {approx} 524 kV/cm could be observed in the BFO/BLFZO bilayered thin film with 80 nm BLFZO layer owing to a higher orientation degree of (110) and an interface coupling together with a lower leakage current density. As a result, electrical properties of BFO could be tailored by modifying the thicknesses of BLFZO.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2013

Improving electrical performance and bias stability of HfInZnO-TFT with optimizing the channel thickness

RF magnetron sputtered HfInZnO film and atomic layer deposition (ALD) Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} film were employed for thin film transistors (TFTs) as channel layer and gate insulator, respectively. To achieve HfInZnO-TFT with high performance and good bias stability, the thickness of HfInZnO active layer was optimized. The performance of HfInZnO-TFTs was found to be thickness dependent. As the HfInZnO active layer got thicker, the leakage current greatly increased from 1.73 × 10{sup −12} to 2.54 × 10{sup −8} A, the threshold voltage decreased from 7.4 to −4.7 V, while the subthreshold swing varied from 0.41 to 1.07 V/decade. Overall, the HfInZnO film showed superior performance, such as saturation mobility of 6.4 cm{sup 2}/V s, threshold voltage of 4.2 V, subthreshold swing of 0.43 V/decade, on/off current ratio of 3 × 10{sup 7} and V{sub th} shift of 3.6 V under V{sub GS}= 10 V for 7200 s. The results demonstrate the possibility of fabricating TFTs using HfInZnO film as active layer and using ALD Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} as gate insulator.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2013

Thickness dependent exchange bias in martensitic epitaxial Ni-Mn-Sn thin films

A thickness dependent exchange bias in the low temperature martensitic state of epitaxial Ni-Mn-Sn thin films is found. The effect can be retained down to very small thicknesses. For a Ni{sub 50}Mn{sub 32}Sn{sub 18} thin film, which does not undergo a martensitic transformation, no exchange bias is observed. Our results suggest that a significant interplay between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic regions, which is the origin for exchange bias, is only present in the martensite. The finding is supported by ab initio calculations showing that the antiferromagnetic order is stabilized in the phase.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Effect of the spin-twist structure on the spin-wave dynamics in Fe{sub 55}Pt{sub 45}/Ni{sub 80}Fe{sub 20} exchange coupled bi-layers with varying Ni{sub 80}Fe{sub 20} thickness

We have investigated optically induced ultrafast magnetization dynamics of a series of Fe{sub 55}Pt{sub 45}/Ni{sub 80}Fe{sub 20} exchange spring bi-layers with varying Ni{sub 80}Fe{sub 20} thickness. Rich spin-wave spectra are observed; whose frequency shows a strong dependence on the Ni{sub 80}Fe{sub 20} layer thickness. Micromagnetic simulations based on a simplified magnetic microstructure were able to reproduce the experimental data qualitatively. The spin twist structure introduced in the Ni{sub 80}Fe{sub 20} layer gives rise to new modes in the composite system as opposed to the bare Ni{sub 80}Fe{sub 20} films.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Measurement of sheath thickness at a floating potential

In a cylindrical Langmuir probe measurement, ion current is collected from the surface of the sheath surrounded at probe tip, not at the surface of the probe tip. By using this, the sheath thickness can be obtained, if we know some unknown parameters, such as ion current, plasma density, and electron temperature. In this paper, we present a method to measure sheath thickness by using a wave cutoff method and a floating harmonic method. The measured result is in a good agreement with Allen-Boyd-Reynolds theory.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Engineering the (In, Al, Ga)N back-barrier to achieve high channel-conductivity for extremely scaled channel-thicknesses in N-polar GaN high-electron-mobility-transistors

Scaling down the channel-thickness (t{sub ch}) in GaN/(In, Al, Ga)N high-electron-mobility-transistors (HEMTs) is essential to eliminating short-channel effects in sub 100 nm gate length HEMTs. However, this scaling can degrade both charge density (n{sub s}) and mobility (μ), thereby reducing channel-conductivity. In this study, the back-barrier design in N-polar GaN/(In, Al, Ga)N was engineered to achieve highly conductive-channels with t{sub ch} < 5-nm using metal organic chemical vapor deposition. Compositional-grading was found to be the most effective approach in reducing channel-conductivity for structures with t{sub ch} ∼ 3-nm. For a HEMT with 3-nm-thick-channel, a sheet-resistance of 329 Ω/◻ and a peak-transconductance of 718 mS/mm were demonstrated.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Investigation on edge fringing effect and oxide thickness dependence of inversion current in metal-oxide-semiconductor tunneling diodes with comb-shaped electrodes

A particular edge-dependent inversion current behavior of metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) tunneling diodes was investigated utilizing square and comb-shaped electrodes. The inversion tunneling current exhibits the strong dependence on the tooth size of comb-shaped electrodes and oxide thickness. Detailed illustrations of current conduction mechanism are developed by simulation and experimental measurement results. It is found that the electron diffusion current and Schottky barrier height lowering for hole tunneling current both contribute on inversion current conduction. In MOS tunneling photodiode applications, the photoresponse can be improved by decreasing SiO{sub 2} thickness and using comb-shaped electrodes with smaller tooth spacing. Meantime, the high and steady photosensitivity can also be approached by introducing HfO{sub 2} into dielectric stacks.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

A microstructural approach toward the effect of thickness on semiconductor-to-metal transition characteristics of VO{sub 2} epilayers

We report the control of semiconductor to metal transition in VO{sub 2}(010) epilayers integrated with Si(100) substrates buffered with an NiO[111]/YSZ[100] intermediate layer. VO{sub 2} epitaxial thin films were grown at different thicknesses varying from 10 to 200 nm using pulsed laser deposition technique. An epitaxial relationship of VO{sub 2}(010)‖NiO(111)‖ YSZ(001)‖Si(001) and VO{sub 2}[100]‖NiO[110]‖ YSZ[100]‖Si[100] was established at room temperature. The crystallographic alignment across the VO{sub 2}/NiO interface changes to VO{sub 2}(100)‖NiO(111) and VO{sub 2}[001]‖NiO[110] at the temperature of growth giving rise to a misfit strain of about 33.5% and 3.0% along two orthogonal in-plane orientations. The transition temperature was observed to vary from about 353 to 341 K, the transition amplitude increased by about five orders of magnitude, and the hysteresis decreased to about 3 K, as the thickness of VO{sub 2} layers increased from about 10 to 200 nm. These observations were explained based on strain characteristics, overall defect content and grain boundaries, and phenomenological thermodynamic models.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Liquid film thickness measurement by two-line TDLAS

A fiber-based two-line tunable diode-laser absorption sensor with two near-infrared (NIR) distributed-feedback (DFB) diode lasers at ∼1.4 μm was used for non-intrusive time-resolved liquid water film thickness measurement. When probing the liquid film at two different wavelengths with significantly different absorption cross-sections, the additional signal losses due to surface fowling, reflection and beam steering can be eliminated. In this work, the evaporation process of a liquid film on transparent quartz plate was tracked and large fluctuations of film thickness were found at the end of the evaporation.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2014

Quantum rings of non-uniform thickness in magnetic field

We consider a model of crater-shaped quantum dot in form of a thin layer whose thickness linearly increases with the distance from the axis. We show that one-particle wave equation for the electron confined in such structure can be completely separated in the adiabatic limit when the quantum dot thickness is much smaller than its lateral dimension. Analytical solutions found for this model has been used as base functions for analysing the effect of non-homogeneity on the electronic spectrum in the framework of the exact diagonalization method.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

High efficiency proton beam generation through target thickness control in femtosecond laser-plasma interactions

Bright proton beams with maximum energies of up to 30 MeV have been observed in an experiment investigating ion sheath acceleration driven by a short pulse (<50 fs) laser. The scaling of maximum proton energy and total beam energy content at ultra-high intensities of ∼10{sup 21} W cm{sup −2} was investigated, with the interplay between target thickness and laser pre-pulse found to be a key factor. While the maximum proton energies observed were maximised for μm-thick targets, the total proton energy content was seen to peak for thinner, 500 nm, foils. The total proton beam energy reached up to 440 mJ (a conversion efficiency of 4%), marking a significant step forward for many laser-driven ion applications. The experimental results are supported by hydrodynamic and particle-in-cell simulations.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Fabrication of sub-12 nm thick silicon nanowires by processing scanning probe lithography masks

Silicon nanowires are key elements to fabricate very sensitive mechanical and electronic devices. We provide a method to fabricate sub-12 nm silicon nanowires in thickness by combining oxidation scanning probe lithography and anisotropic dry etching. Extremely thin oxide masks (0.3–1.1 nm) are transferred into nanowires of 2–12 nm in thickness. The width ratio between the mask and the silicon nanowire is close to one which implies that the nanowire width is controlled by the feature size of the nanolithography. This method enables the fabrication of very small single silicon nanowires with cross-sections below 100 nm{sup 2}. Those values are the smallest obtained with a top-down lithography method.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Liquid crystal films as on-demand, variable thickness (50–5000 nm) targets for intense lasers

We have developed a new type of target for intense laser-matter experiments that offers significant advantages over those currently in use. The targets consist of a liquid crystal film freely suspended within a metal frame. They can be formed rapidly on-demand with thicknesses ranging from nanometers to micrometers, where the particular value is determined by the liquid crystal temperature and initial volume as well as by the frame geometry. The liquid crystal used for this work, 8CB (4′-octyl-4-cyanobiphenyl), has a vapor pressure below 10{sup −6} Torr, so films made at atmospheric pressure maintain their initial thickness after pumping to high vacuum. Additionally, the volume per film is such that each target costs significantly less than one cent to produce. The mechanism of film formation and relevant physics of liquid crystals are described, as well as ion acceleration data from the first shots on liquid crystal film targets at the Ohio State University Scarlet laser facility.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗