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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 1,063 records · Page 59
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2013

Numerical verification of Orbit and Nemato codes for magnetic topology diagnosis

We present the results of a benchmark study involving the Orbit and Nemato codes. The two codes have been used to compare magnetic structure in a reversed-field pinch (RFP), where conserved magnetic structures/islands appear both in the core (dominated by m = 1 modes) and in the edge (dominated by m = 0 modes). As input, a snapshot of a 3D nonlinear MHD visco-resistive simulation (produced by the SpeCyl code) has been used. The first test is given by the reconstruction via Poincaré surface of section plot of an island generated by a single mode. In this case, the magnetic field topology corresponds to a time-independent Hamiltonian and shows conserved flux-surfaces used as a reference. Both codes successfully yield field lines which follow the same flux surfaces, in both the m = 1 and m = 0 cases. The benchmark between the codes has then been extended to a more complex configuration with chaotic magnetic field, using as input a fully 3D multiple mode RFP condition, characterized by the typical chain of edge magnetic islands providing a transport barrier. Finally, a quantitative benchmark has been performed, using the same 3D input, by estimating the correlation length of the magnetic field line in a bounded stochastic domain. The conclusion is that both codes yield consistent Poincaré plot structure on one hand, and very good quantitative agreement in correlation length estimate. This gives confidence to the application of both codes to magnetic topology in the RFX-mod device, for which they are used routinely, as well as for a generic fusion device.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Dielectric property of NiTiO{sub 3} doped substituted ortho-chloropolyaniline composites

Ortho-chloropolyaniline (OCP)-NiTiO{sub 3} composites have been synthesized via in-situ polymerization of ortho-chloroaniline with various weight percentages of NiTiO{sub 3.} Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopic studies of Ortho-chloropolyaniline and its composites indicated the formation of composites as a result of Vander Waal's interaction between OCP and NiTiO{sub 3} particles. Surface morphology of OCP and OCP-NiTiO{sub 3} composites were studied using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The SEM micrographs indicated a modified morphology after the composite formation. Dielectric properties and electric modulus of OCP and OCP-NiTiO{sub 3} composites have been investigated in the frequency range of 50 Hz – 5 MHz. It has been noticed that electrical resistance decreases with increase in weight percentage of NiTiO{sub 3} particles in polymer matrix as well as with applied frequency. The display of semicircular arcs in Cole-Cole plots indicates the formation of series resistor and capacitor in network causing a decrease in the relaxation time and as a result conductivity enhances in these composites. The facile and cost effective synthesis process and excellent dielectric and conductivity response of these materials makes them promising materials for practical applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2013

Evaluation of minority and majority spin band energies of ferromagnetic GdN thin film using optical absorption spectroscopy

Temperature dependent optical Tauc plots of AlN/GdN/AlN heterostructures have showed two optically induced transitions, and those optical transitions could be attributed to the minority and majority spin band energy. In contrast, temperature dependent magnetization measurements of GdN thin film provide direct evidence of spin ordering below 39 K, and which is also evidenced by Arrott plots.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Low temperature spin dynamics in Cr{sub 7}Ni-Cu-Cr{sub 7}Ni coupled molecular rings

Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) relaxation measurements have been performed down to very low temperature (50 mK) to determine the effect of coupling two Cr{sub 7}Ni molecular rings via a Cu{sup 2+} ion. No difference in the spin dynamics was found from nuclear spin lattice relaxation down to 1.5 K. At lower temperature, the {sup 1}H-NMR line broadens dramatically indicating spin freezing. From the plot of the line width vs. magnetization, it is found that the freezing temperature is higher (260 mK) in the coupled ring with respect to the single Cr{sub 7}Ni ring (140 mK)

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Signature of quantum entanglement in NH{sub 4}CuPO{sub 4}·H{sub 2}O

Entangled solid state systems have gained a great deal of attention due to their fruitful applications in modern quantum technologies. Herein, detection of entanglement content from experimental magnetic susceptibility and specific heat data is reported for NH{sub 4}CuPO{sub 4}·H{sub 2}O in its solid state crystalline form. NH{sub 4}CuPO{sub 4}·H{sub 2}O is a prototype of Heisenberg spin 1/2 dimer system. Temperature dependent magnetic susceptibility and specific data are fitted to an isolated dimer model and the exchange coupling constant is determined. Field dependent magnetization isotherms taken at different temperatures are plotted in a three dimensional plot. Subsequently, entanglement is detected both from susceptibility and specific heat through two different entanglement measures; entanglement witness and entanglement of formation. The temperature evolution of entanglement is studied and the critical temperature is determined up to which entanglement exists. Temperature dependent nature of entanglement extracted from susceptibility and specific heat shows good consistency with each other. Moreover, the field dependent entanglement is also investigated.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

How much improvement in thermoelectric performance can come from reducing thermal conductivity?

Large improvements in the performance of thermoelectric materials have come from designing materials with reduced thermal conductivity. Yet as the thermal conductivity of some materials now approaches their amorphous limit, it is unclear if microstructure engineering can further improve thermoelectric performance in these cases. In this contribution, we use large data sets to examine 300 compositions in 11 families of thermoelectric materials and present a type of plot that quickly reveals the maximum possible zT that can be achieved by reducing the thermal conductivity. This plot allows researchers to quickly distinguish materials where the thermal conductivity has been optimized from those where improvement can be made. Moreover, through these large data sets we examine structure-property relationships to identify methods that decrease thermal conductivity and improve thermoelectric performance. We validate, with the data, that increasing (i) the volume of a unit cell and/or (ii) the number of atoms in the unit cell decreases the thermal conductivity of many classes of materials, without changing the electrical resistivity.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Heterogeneous recurrence monitoring and control of nonlinear stochastic processes

Recurrence is one of the most common phenomena in natural and engineering systems. Process monitoring of dynamic transitions in nonlinear and nonstationary systems is more concerned with aperiodic recurrences and recurrence variations. However, little has been done to investigate the heterogeneous recurrence variations and link with the objectives of process monitoring and anomaly detection. Notably, nonlinear recurrence methodologies are based on homogeneous recurrences, which treat all recurrence states in the same way as black dots, and non-recurrence is white in recurrence plots. Heterogeneous recurrences are more concerned about the variations of recurrence states in terms of state properties (e.g., values and relative locations) and the evolving dynamics (e.g., sequential state transitions). This paper presents a novel approach of heterogeneous recurrence analysis that utilizes a new fractal representation to delineate heterogeneous recurrence states in multiple scales, including the recurrences of both single states and multi-state sequences. Further, we developed a new set of heterogeneous recurrence quantifiers that are extracted from fractal representation in the transformed space. To that end, we integrated multivariate statistical control charts with heterogeneous recurrence analysis to simultaneously monitor two or more related quantifiers. Experimental results on nonlinear stochastic processes show that the proposed approach not only captures heterogeneous recurrence patterns in the fractal representation but also effectively monitors the changes in the dynamics of a complex system.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Pairing preferences of the model mono-valence mono-atomic ions investigated by molecular simulation

We carried out a series of potential of mean force calculations to study the pairing preferences of a series of model mono-atomic 1:1 ions with evenly varied sizes. The probabilities of forming the contact ion pair (CIP) and the single water separate ion pair (SIP) were presented in the two-dimensional plots with respect to the ion sizes. The pairing preferences reflected in these plots largely agree with the empirical rule of matching ion sizes in the small and big size regions. In the region that the ion sizes are close to the size of the water molecule; however, a significant deviation from this conventional rule is observed. Our further analysis indicated that this deviation originates from the competition between CIP and the water bridging SIP state. The competition is mainly an enthalpy modulated phenomenon in which the existing of the water bridging plays a significant role.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2014

High-resolution X-ray diffraction analysis of Al{sub x}Ga{sub 1−x}N/In{sub x}Ga{sub 1−x}N/GaN on sapphire multilayer structures: Theoretical, simulations, and experimental observations

The work presents a comparative study on the effects of In incorporation in the channel layer of AlGaN/GaN type-II heterostructures grown on c-plane sapphire by Plasma Assisted Molecular Beam Epitaxy. The structural characterizations of these samples were performed by High-Resolution X-Ray Diffraction (HRXRD), X-ray Reflectivity (XRR), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy, and High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy. The two-dimensional electron gas in the AlGaN/GaN and AlGaN/InGaN interface was analyzed by electrochemical capacitance voltage and compared with theoretical results based on self-consistent solution of Schördinger–Poisson equations. The carrier profile shows enhanced confinement in InGaN channel (1.4393 × 10{sup 13} cm{sup −2} compared to 1.096 × 10{sup 13} cm{sup −2} in GaN). On the basis of HRXRD measurements, the stress-strain of the layers was examined. The c- and a-lattice parameters of the epilayers as well as in-plane and out-of plane strains were determined from the ω-2θ for symmetric scan and ω-Xθ (X represents the coupling coefficient) for asymmetric scan. Strain, tilt, and correlation lengths were calculated from Williamson–Hall plots, whereas stress was examined from modified plot of the same data assuming Uniform Stress Deformation Model. Moreover, the twist angle was measured from skew symmetric scan of (102), (103), and (105) plane along with (002) symmetric plane. The composition and strain/relaxation state of the epilayers were observed in detail by reciprocal space mapping (RSM). The symmetric (002) triple axis RSM and asymmetric (105 and 114) double axis RSM of grazing incidence and exit geometry were carried out on each sample. The defect density was measured from HRXRD curves of skew symmetric (002) and (102) reflection plane. The Al and In mole fraction and strain states of the layers were calculated by fitting the experimental curves with computer simulations and compared with theoretical findings based on elastic theory. The thicknesses of the layers and roughness of the interfaces were measured from simulation of the nominal structure by fitting with XRR experimental curves. The HRXRD measured thicknesses of the layers were further confirmed by cross sectional electron micrographs.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Cole-cole analysis and electrical conduction mechanism of N{sup +} implanted polycarbonate

In this paper, we present the analysis of the dielectric (dielectric constant, dielectric loss, a.c. conductivity) and electrical properties (I–V characteristics) of pristine and nitrogen ion implanted polycarbonate. The samples of polycarbonate were implanted with 100 keV N{sup +} ions with fluence ranging from 1 × 10{sup 15} to 1 × 10{sup 17} ions cm{sup −2}. The dielectric measurements of these samples were performed in the frequency range of 100 kHz to 100 MHz. It has been observed that dielectric constant decreases whereas dielectric loss and a.c. conductivity increases with increasing ion fluence. An analysis of real and imaginary parts of dielectric permittivity has been elucidated using Cole-Cole plot of the complex permittivity. With the help of Cole-Cole plot, we determined the values of static dielectric constant (ε{sub s}), optical dielectric constant (ε{sub ∞}), spreading factor (α), average relaxation time (τ{sub 0}), and molecular relaxation time (τ). The I–V characteristics were studied using Keithley (6517) electrometer. The electrical conduction behaviour of pristine and implanted polycarbonate specimens has been explained using various models of conduction.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Nonlinear instability of an Oldroyd elastico–viscous magnetic nanofluid saturated in a porous medium

Through viscoelastic potential theory, a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability of two semi-infinite fluid layers, of Oldroydian viscoelastic magnetic nanofluids (MNF), is investigated. The system is saturated by porous medium through two semi-infinite fluid layers. The Oldroyd B model is utilized to describe the rheological behavior of viscoelastic MNF. The system is influenced by uniform oblique magnetic field that acts at the surface of separation. The model is used for the MNF incorporated the effects of uniform basic streaming and viscoelasticity. Therefore, a mathematical simplification must be considered. A linear stability analysis, based upon the normal modes analysis, is utilized to find out the solutions of the equations of motion. The onset criterion of stability is derived; analytically and graphs have been plotted by giving numerical values to the various parameters. These graphs depict the stability characteristics. Regions of stability and instability are identified and discussed in some depth. Some previous studies are recovered upon appropriate data choices. The stability criterion in case of ignoring the relaxation stress times is also derived. To relax the mathematical manipulation of the nonlinear approach, the linearity of the equations of motion is taken into account in correspondence with the nonlinear boundary conditions. Taylor's theory is adopted to expand the governing nonlinear characteristic equation according to of the multiple time scales technique. This analysis leads to the well-known Ginzburg–Landau equation, which governs the stability criteria. The stability criteria are achieved theoretically. To simplify the mathematical manipulation, a special case is considered to achieve the numerical estimations. The influence of orientation of the magnetic fields on the stability configuration, in linear as well as nonlinear approaches, makes a dual role for the magnetic field strength in the stability graphs. Stability diagram is plotted for different sets of physical parameters. A new stability as well as instability region, in the parameter space, appears due to the nonlinear effects.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Investigating the plasma parameters of an Ar/O{sub 2} discharge during the sputtering of Al targets in an inverted cylindrical magnetron

The plasma parameters and reaction kinetics in an inverted cylindrical magnetron chamber have been studied with an energy resolved mass spectrometer during the sputtering of aluminum targets in an Ar/O{sub 2} discharge. Mixtures of argon and oxygen were studied as a function of oxygen percentage (0%–90%) in the discharge. The plasma was powered at 4 kW and 40 kHz at a process pressure of 5 mTorr. Al{sup +}, Al, AlO, AlO{sup +}, O{sub 2}{sup +}, O{sup +}, Al{sub 2}O{sup +}, and Ar{sup +} were among the species detected in the discharge. The deposition rate of the deposited thin film decreased with increasing oxygen percentage in the discharge and results indicated that the pure gamma-alumina was obtained when the percentage of oxygen was approximately 70%. The linear plot of energy distributions of the positively charged film forming species changed from a single peak to a bimodal distribution as the percentage of oxygen exceeds 65%. In a log plot, however, the distributions showed multiple peaks ranging from 2 eV to 78 eV. Fluctuations of about 1 eV in peak energies were observed.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Magnetocaloric properties and critical behavior of high relative cooling power FeNiB nanoparticles

Low cost magnetocaloric nanomaterials have attracted considerable attention for energy efficient applications. We report a very high relative cooling power (RCP) in a study of the magnetocaloric effect in quenched FeNiB nanoparticles. RCP increases from 89.8 to 640 J kg{sup −1} for a field change of 1 and 5 T, respectively, these values are the largest for rare earth free iron based magnetocaloric nanomaterials. To investigate the magnetocaloric behavior around the Curie temperature (T{sub C}), the critical behavior of these quenched nanoparticles was studied. Detailed analysis of the magnetic phase transition using the modified Arrott plot, Kouvel-Fisher method, and critical isotherm plots yields critical exponents of β = 0.364, γ = 1.319, δ = 4.623, and α = −0.055, which are close to the theoretical exponents obtained from the 3D-Heisenberg model. Our results indicate that these FeNiB nanoparticles are potential candidates for magnetocaloric fluid based heat pumps and low grade waste heat recovery.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Coexistence of colossal stress and texture gradients in sputter deposited nanocrystalline ultra-thin metal films

This paper demonstrates experimentally that ultra-thin, nanocrystalline films can exhibit coexisting colossal stress and texture depth gradients. Their quantitative determination is possible by X-ray diffraction experiments. Whereas a uniform texture by itself is known to generally cause curvature in so-called sin{sup 2}ψ plots, it is shown that the combined action of texture and stress gradients provides a separate source of curvature in sin{sup 2}ψ plots (i.e., even in cases where a uniform texture does not induce such curvature). On this basis, the texture and stress depth profiles of a nanocrystalline, ultra-thin (50 nm) tungsten film could be determined.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Double Gaussian distribution of barrier height observed in densely packed GaN nanorods over Si (111) heterostructures

GaN nanorods were grown by plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy on intrinsic Si (111) substrates which were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, and photoluminescence. The current–voltage characteristics of the GaN nanorods on Si (111) heterojunction were obtained from 138 to 493 K which showed the inverted rectification behavior. The I-V characteristics were analyzed in terms of thermionic emission model. The temperature variation of the apparent barrier height and ideality factor along with the non-linearity of the activation energy plot indicated the presence of lateral inhomogeneities in the barrier height. The observed two temperature regimes in Richardson's plot could be well explained by assuming two separate Gaussian distribution of the barrier heights.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Microstructural and ionic transport studies of hydrothermally synthesized lanthanum fluoride nanoparticles

This article presents the structural and transport characteristics of hydrothermally synthesized LaF{sub 3} nanoparticles with an average crystallite size of 35nm. The phase formation of the material is confirmed by both X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy techniques. In addition, phase purity of the LaF{sub 3} nanoparticles is corroborated by micro-Raman spectroscopy studies. The complex impedance plots at different temperatures reveal that the conductivity is predominantly due to the intrinsic bulk grains and the conductivity relaxation is non-Debye in nature. The frequency variation of conductivity exhibits dispersion at higher frequencies that can be explained with the frame work of Almond-West formalism. The conduction process is controlled by the mobility of the charge carriers and the charge of transport of mobile fluoride ions occur through hopping mechanism. The scaling behavior of both frequency dependence of conductivity and complex impedance plots at different temperatures confirm that the relaxation mechanism of the mobile fluoride ions is independent of temperature.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Study of barrier height and trap centers of Au/n-Hg{sub 3}In{sub 2}Te{sub 6} Schottky contacts by current-voltage (I-V) characteristics and deep level transient spectroscopy

The temperature-dependent electrical characteristics of the Au/n-Hg{sub 3}In{sub 2}Te{sub 6} Schottky contact have been studied at the temperature range of 140 K–315 K. Based on the thermionic emission theory, the ideality factor and Schottky barrier height were calculated to decrease and increase from 3.18 to 1.88 and 0.39 eV to 0.5 eV, respectively, when the temperature rose from 140 K to 315 K. This behavior was interpreted by the lateral inhomogeneities of Schottky barrier height at the interface of Au/n-Hg{sub 3}In{sub 2}Te{sub 6} contact, which was shown by the plot of zero-bias barrier heights Φ{sub bo} versus q/2kT. Meanwhile, it was found that the Schottky barrier height with a Gaussian distribution was 0.67 eV and the standard deviation σ{sub 0} was about 0.092 eV, indicating that the uneven distribution of barrier height at the interface region. In addition, the mean value of Φ{sup ¯}{sub b0} and modified Richardson constant was determined to be 0.723 eV and 62.8 A/cm{sup 2}K{sup 2} from the slope and intercept of the ln(I{sub o}/T{sup 2}) – (qσ{sub 0}{sup 2}/2k{sup 2}T{sup 2}) versus q/kT plot, respectively. Finally, two electron trap centers were observed at the interface of Au/n-Hg{sub 3}In{sub 2}Te{sub 6} Schottky contact by means of deep level transient spectroscopy.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Dynamics of neutrals and ions in an ultrafast laser produced Zn plasma

Optical time of flight dynamics of neutrals and ions in an ultrafast laser produced zinc plasma generated by irradiating a solid zinc target using 100 fs laser pulses is investigated. An acceleration of ions is observed which arises from internal Coulomb forces acting between charged species in the plasma. Some of the fast ions recombine with electrons in the plasma and generate fast neutrals. Plasma plume imaging performed at various ambient pressures indicates adiabatic expansion at lower pressures and plume front deceleration at higher pressures: at lower pressures the plume front-time (R-t) plot displays a linear expansion, shock wave model fits to the data at 5 Torr and at higher pressures the data fits better to the drag model. Furthermore, around an intermediate pressure of 10 Torr, the R-t plot fits to the shock wave model at earlier stages of plasma expansion, while it fits to the drag model at the later stages. These investigations provide relevant information on the acceleration of ions and neutrals in an expanding zinc plasma plume produced by ultrafast laser pulses.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗