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At least 1,135 records · Page 63

Detector thickness effects on nanosecond-gated imager response

Hybrid CMOS multi-frame imagers with exposure times down to ~2 ns have made significant impacts in high energy density physics and inertial confinement fusion research. The detector thickness is a key parameter in both detector quantum efficiency and temporal response. The Icarus hybrid CMOS imager has been fabricated with Si detector thicknesses of 8, 25, and 100 µm. The temporal response of imaging sensors with exposure time down to 2 ns has been examined and compared to directly measured photodiode current. The 100-μm thick variant displays extended features related to charge carrier collection and is more susceptible to field collapse. Here, we also demonstrate charge collection time effects on spatial response.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Gallium vacancy formation in oxygen annealed β-Ga 2 O 3

Here, the formation and character of gallium vacancies (V Ga ) and their complexes in near surface and bulk regions of single crystal β-Ga 2 O 3 were explored using unintentionally doped single crystals grown by the Czochralski method. As-grown and O 2 annealed (up to 1550 °C) samples were investigated using positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS) to study the top 0.05–6 μm, and also current–voltage measurements and infrared (IR) spectroscopy, with hydrogenated samples to probe V Ga , to study the bulk. After annealing in O 2 > 1000 °C, the β-Ga 2 O 3 resistivity begins increasing, up to ~10 9 Ω cm for 1550 °C treatment, with the top 0.5 mm being many orders of magnitude more resistive. PAS measurements of the top 6 μm (S values) and very near surface 200 nm (diffusion length, L) indicate differential behavior as a function of peak annealing temperature. At least four temperature regimes of behavior are described. V Ga are present in the bulk after growth, but considerable changes occur upon annealing at a temperature ≈1000 °C, where L and S decrease simultaneously, suggesting an increasing defect concentration (L) but a decreasing defect volume (S). Annealing at a temperature ≈1400 °C increases S again, showing an increasing volume concentration of V Ga , with IR absorption showing a large signature of V Ga -2H, indicative of increased V Ga formation that was not present when annealing at a temperature ≈1000 °C. These results suggest that defect changes from annealing in oxygen are depth dependent, and that V Ga configuration may not be the same near the oxygen-exposed surface of the sample and in the bulk.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Preliminary benchmarks and analysis of boundary conditions in a trenched microstructured silicon radiation detector

Microstructured neutron detectors have the benefit of enhanced neutron detection efficiency as compared to planar devices, achieved by etching 6 LiF-filled trenches on the top surface of a silicon PIN diode. This sensor geometry results in a complex electric field distribution and depletion characteristics within the diode under reverse bias. For the first time on record, the effects of a fixed oxide charge on the microstructured device depletion characteristics and mobile carrier transport is investigated. Prototype detectors were fabricated with non-conformal surface doping. Capacitance voltage and current voltage measurements were performed for these prototypes and compared with COMSOL Multiphysics simulations. A spectral response from an 241Am alpha particle source was acquired and analyzed. It was found that monoenergetic alpha particles produce three prominent peaks in the pulse height spectrum output by the device. The peaks were confirmed by simulations to correlate with dead layers and incident trajectories into the microstructure. It was also found that significant differences in pulse rise time result, corresponding with events arriving in a low-field region in the fins and a high-field region in the bulk. Geant4 was utilized for radiation transport, interaction modeling, and benchmarking the spectral data. The results of this simulation work provide confidence in the ability to attain and benchmark electrical characteristics and spectral data for semiconductor radiation detectors employing complex microstructures.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Influence of surface adsorption on MoS 2 memtransistor switching kinetics

Sulfur-deficient polycrystalline two-dimensional (2D) molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) memtransistors exhibit gate-tunable memristive switching to implement emerging memory operations and neuromorphic computing paradigms. Grain boundaries and sulfur vacancies are critical for memristive switching; however, the underlying physical mechanisms are not fully understood. Furthermore, the adsorption of water and gaseous species strongly perturbs electronic transport in monolayer MoS 2 , and little work has been done to explore the influence of surface interactions on defect-related kinetics that produces memristive switching. Here, we study the switching kinetics of back-gated MoS 2 memtransistors using current transient measurements in a controlled atmosphere chamber. Here, we observe that adsorbed water molecules lead to suppression of the electronic trap-filling processes concomitant with the resistive switching process, resulting in altered kinetics of the resistive switching. Additionally, using the transient response from “bunched” drain voltage pulse trains performed as a function of temperature, we extract the energy of the affected trap state and find that it places the trap roughly midgap [E T = E C – 0.7 (±0.4) eV]. Our results highlight the importance of controlling for surface interactions that may affect switching kinetics in 2D memtransistors, synaptic transistors, and related memory devices.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Ultra-fast single-crystal CVD diamonds in the particle time-of-flight (PTOF) detector for low yield burn-history measurements on the NIF (invited)

The Particle Time of Flight (PTOF) diagnostic is a chemical vapor deposition diamond-based detector and is the only diagnostic for measuring nuclear bang times of low yield (<1013) shots on the National Ignition Facility. Recently, a comprehensive study of detector impulse responses revealed certain detectors with very fast and consistent impulse responses with a rise time of <50 ps, enabling low yield burn history measurements. At the current standoff of 50 cm, this measurement is possible with fast 14 MeV neutrons from deuterium–tritium (DT) fusion plasmas. PTOF-inferred DT burn width numbers compare well with widths inferred from the gamma reaction history diagnostic on mid-yield (1013–1015) shots, where both systems are capable of making this measurement. These new capabilities could be extended to 2.5 MeV deuterium–deuterium neutrons from D plasmas and to even lower yield by reducing the detector standoff distance to 10 cm; a design for this is also presented.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Investigations of the linear and non-linear flow harmonics using the a multi-phase transport model

The multi-phase transport model (AMPT) is used to study the effects of the parton-scattering cross-sections (σ pp ) and hadronic re-scattering on the linear contributions to the flow harmonic v 4 , the non-linear response coefficients, and the correlations between different order flow symmetry planes in Au + Au collisions at 200 GeV. The model results, which agree with current experimental measurements, indicate that the higher-order flow harmonics are sensitive to the σ pp variations. However, the non-linear response coefficients and the correlations between different order flow symmetry planes are σ pp independent. Furthermore, these results suggest that further detailed experimental measurements which span a broad range of collision systems and beam energies could serve as an additional constraint for the theoretical models' calculations.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Effect of rotation on negative triangularity plasmas in DIII-D

At the DIII-D tokamak, plasmas with negative triangularity (NT) have been found to have similar energy confinement times as H-mode plasmas with positive triangularity. These NT plasmas also have a stable edge that inhibits H-mode, lacks dangerous edge transients, and has naturally low impurity confinement. For these reasons, NT plasmas have the potential to be a transformative reactor scenario. To determine the importance of strong co-current neutral beam torque for NT performance at DIII-D, scans of neutral beam torque at constant neutral beam power have been performed. These scans have shown that the energy confinement time for a basic, inductive NT scenario (q 95 ≈ 2.8) decreases by 16% when torque is reduced to reactor levels. This reduction in confinement can be replicated with gyrofluid modeling that isolates the role of E x B shear in the change in transport. In a separate set of discharges with lower plasma current (q 95 ≈ 2.5), no significant correlation between confinement time and rotation was found. Throughout this investigation, excellent MHD stability was observed, even with very low toroidal rotation. Further, low impurity confinement was found at multiple rotation levels. Throughout the campaign, rotation near the edge was counter-current, consistent with the measurement of counter-current intrinsic edge rotation, and these observations agree with NT results from the TCV tokamak.

confinement↗

Diabetes and hypertension are related to amyloid-beta burden in the population-based Rotterdam Study

Abstract Higher vascular disease burden increases the likelihood of developing dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. Better understanding the association between vascular risk factors and Alzheimer’s disease pathology at the predementia stage is critical for developing effective strategies to delay cognitive decline. In this work, we estimated the impact of six vascular risk factors on the presence and severity of in vivo measured brain amyloid-beta (Aβ) plaques in participants from the population-based Rotterdam Study. Vascular risk factors (hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia, diabetes, obesity, physical inactivity and smoking) were assessed 13 (2004–2008) and 7 years (2009–2014) prior to 18F-florbetaben PET (2018–2021) in 635 dementia-free participants. Vascular risk factors were associated with binary amyloid PET status or continuous PET readouts (standard uptake value ratios, SUVrs) using logistic and linear regression models, respectively, adjusted for age, sex, education, APOE4 risk allele count and time between vascular risk and PET assessment. Participants’ mean age at time of amyloid PET was 69 years (range: 60–90), 325 (51.2%) were women and 190 (29.9%) carried at least one APOE4 risk allele. The adjusted prevalence estimates of an amyloid-positive PET status markedly increased with age [12.8% (95% CI 11.6; 14) in 60–69 years versus 35% (36; 40.8) in 80–89 years age groups] and APOE4 allele count [9.7% (8.8; 10.6) in non-carriers versus 38.4% (36; 40.8) to 60.4% (54; 66.8) in carriers of one or two risk allele(s)]. Diabetes 7 years prior to PET assessment was associated with a higher risk of a positive amyloid status [odds ratio (95% CI) = 3.68 (1.76; 7.61), P < 0.001] and higher standard uptake value ratios, indicating more severe Aβ pathology [standardized beta = 0.40 (0.17; 0.64), P = 0.001]. Hypertension was associated with higher SUVr values in APOE4 carriers (mean SUVr difference of 0.09), but not in non-carriers (mean SUVr difference 0.02; P = 0.005). In contrast, hypercholesterolaemia was related to lower SUVr values in APOE4 carriers (mean SUVr difference −0.06), but not in non-carriers (mean SUVr difference 0.02). Obesity, physical inactivity and smoking were not related to amyloid PET measures. The current findings suggest a contribution of diabetes, hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia to the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease in a general population of older non-demented adults. As these conditions respond well to lifestyle modification and drug treatment, further research should focus on the preventative effect of early risk management on the development of Alzheimer’s disease neuropathology.

van Arendonk, Joyce (ORCID:0000000172941633)↗

Topological quantum computation on a chiral Kondo chain

We describe the chiral Kondo chain model based on the symplectic Kondo effect and demonstrate that it has a quantum critical ground state populated by non-Abelian anyons. We show that the fusion channel of two arbitrary anyons can be detected by locally coupling the two anyons to an extra single channel of chiral current and measuring the corresponding conductance at a finite frequency. Based on such measurements, we propose that the chiral Kondo chain model with symplectic symmetry can be used for the implementation of measurement-only topological quantum computations, and it possesses several distinct features favorable for such applications. Furthermore, the sources and effects of errors in the proposed system are analyzed and possible material realizations are discussed.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Many-Body Signatures of Collective Decay in Atomic Chains

Fully inverted atoms placed at exactly the same location synchronize as they deexcite, and light is emitted in a burst (known as “Dicke’s superradiance”). We investigate the role of finite interatomic separation on correlated decay in mesoscopic chains and provide an understanding in terms of collective jump operators. We show that the superradiant burst survives at small distances, despite Hamiltonian dipole-dipole interactions. However, for larger separations, competition between different jump operators leads to dephasing, suppressing superradiance. Collective effects are still significant for arrays with lattice constants of the order of a wavelength, and lead to a photon emission rate that decays nonexponentially in time. We calculate the two-photon correlation function and demonstrate that emission is correlated and directional, as well as sensitive to small changes in the interatomic distance. Furthermore, these features can be measured in current experimental setups, and are robust to realistic imperfections.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Multimodal hard X-ray nanoprobe techniques for operando investigations of photovoltaic devices

Compared with conventional laboratory-scale X-ray techniques, synchrotron based X-rays with higher brilliance and higher coherence allow for the investigation of various material properties with high spatial resolution. The microscopic behaviours of materials can be examined using the Hard X-ray Nanoprobe beamline (I14) at Diamond Light Source, which provides a 50 nm focused beam and has been successfully employed to identify nanoscale optoelectronic features in energy-harvesting materials such as halide perovskites that exhibit local heterogeneity. We have developed X-ray beam-induced current (XBIC) measurement capability at I14 to address the growing demand for operando analysis in energy-harvesting research. Here, we demonstrate that X-ray fluorescence (XRF)/XBIC multimodal measurements are feasible at I14 and apply these newly implemented techniques to study perovskite solar cells with various additive concentrations to understand the effect of the additive on nanoscale optoelectronic performance. This expanded operando characterization capability offers the possibility of monitoring nanometre-scale compositional variations and corresponding optoelectronic features of actual solar cell configurations.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Recursive Dynamic Compressive Sensing in Smart Distribution Systems

With a transition to a smarter grid, we are witnessing a significant growth in smart metering infrastructure and sensor deployment in the distribution system. The underlying communication infrastructure is stressed due to the large volume of data that is generated by the smart meters/sensors. Furthermore, real time operations such as state estimation and control are impaired due to the lack of reliable aggregation of the data. In this paper, we exploit the underlying sparsity in grid data to implement two recursive dynamic compressive sensing (CS) approaches-streaming modified weighted-`1 CS and Kalman filtered CS. These approaches aim to reconstruct the sparse signal using the current underdetermined measurements and the prior information about the sparse signal and its support set. Slow signal and support change is in distribution grid data is validated using Pecan Street data. Both the IEEE 34 node test feeder system and PecanStreet data are considered as two examples to validate the superior performance of the two recursive CS techniques relative to classic CS.

Karimi, Hazhar Sufi↗

Carrier Diffusion Lengths in Continuously Grown and Etched-and-Regrown GaN Pin Diodes

Advanced GaN power devices are promising for many applications in high power electronics but performance limitations due to material quality in etched-and-regrown junctions prevent their widespread use. Carrier diffusion length is a critical parameter that not only determines device performance but is also a diagnostic of material quality. Here we present the use of electron-beam induced current to measure carrier diffusion lengths in continuously grown and etched-and-regrown GaN pin diodes as models for interfaces in more complex devices. Variations in the quality of the etched-and-regrown junctions are observed and shown to be due to the degradation of the n-type material. Finally, we observe an etched-and-regrown junction with properties comparable to a continuously grown junction.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Three-Terminal Bipolar Junction Bottom Cell as Simple as PERC: Towards Lean Tandem Cell Processing

Silicon-based tandem cells are a potential upgrade for the dominating PERC technology and can greatly increase the conversion efficiency. A novel approach, the three-terminal (3T) tandem using interdigitated back-contact (IBC) cells, was shown to combine the advantages of four- and two-terminal tandem cells at the expense of a more complex bottom cell fabrication process. In this paper, we propose a simplified and lean PERC-like 3T bipolar junction bottom cell featuring two minority-carrier selective contacts and a single majority-carrier selective contact, and thus resembling a bipolar junction transistor architecture. We present the lean PERC-like fabrication process and explain the working principle by using current-voltage measurements of illuminated 3T IBC cells.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Detection of False Data Injection Attacks in Battery Stacks Using Input Noise-Aware Nonlinear State Estimation and Cumulative Sum Algorithms

Grid-scale battery energy storage systems (BESSs) are vulnerable to false data injection attacks (FDIAs), which could be used to disrupt state of charge (SoC) estimation. Inaccurate SoC estimation has negative impacts on system availability, reliability, safety, and the cost of operation. In this article a combination of a Cumulative Sum (CUSUM) algorithm and an improved input noise-aware extended Kalman filter (INAEKF) is proposed for the detection and identification of FDIAs in the voltage and current sensors of a battery stack. The series-connected stack is represented by equivalent circuit models, the SoC is modeled with a charge reservoir model and the states are estimated using the INAEKF. Further, the root mean squared error of the states’ estimation by the modified INAEKF was found to be superior to the traditional EKF. By employing the INAEKF, this article addresses the research gap that many state estimators make asymmetrical assumptions about the noise corrupting the system. Additionally, the INAEKF estimates the input allowing for the identification of FDIA, which many alternative methods are unable to achieve. The proposed algorithm was able to detect attacks in the voltage and current sensors in 99.16% of test cases, with no false positives. Utilizing the INAEKF compared to the standard EKF allowed for the identification of FDIA in the input of the system in 98.43% of test cases.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Testing of the ITER Central Solenoid Modules

The ITER Central Solenoid is under fabrication by the U.S. ITER organization and its subcontractors. U.S. ITER will supply seven modules to ITER IO, six of which will be assembled in a stack that forms the ITER Central Solenoid. The first modules that were built by GA at their facility, went into high voltage testing, including Paschen testing in the vacuum, and then they were tested at 4.5 K and up to 40 kA to demonstrate compliance of the coil with the ITER requirements. In this article, we present the Test Plan and results of the central solenoid (CS) module’s performance, especially at the full current. We measured critical temperatures in several pancakes, we measured ac losses, joint resistance, and hydraulic characteristics of the coils. We also measured displacements of the coil height and hoop strain of the CS module (CSM) to verify the structural mechanical characteristics of the coil along with the cooldown shrinkage of the coil. We studied the performance of the cowound quench detectors and confirmed their effectiveness in the suppression of inductive noise. This information is necessary for verification of the stack behavior of CS in ITER operation. The test results and preliminary analyses are presented, compared to expectations, and discussed.

Martovetsky, Nicolai↗