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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 1,171 records · Page 65
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

A confocal microscope position sensor for micron-scale target alignment in ultra-intense laser-matter experiments

A diagnostic tool for precise alignment of targets in laser-matter interactions based on confocal microscopy is presented. This device permits precision alignment of targets within the Rayleigh range of tight focusing geometries for a wide variety of target surface morphologies. This confocal high-intensity positioner achieves micron-scale target alignment by selectively accepting light reflected from a narrow range of target focal planes. Additionally, the design of the device is such that its footprint and sensitivity can be tuned for the desired chamber and experiment. The device has been demonstrated to position targets repeatably within the Rayleigh range of the Scarlet laser system at The Ohio State University, where use of the device has provided a marked increase in ion yield and maximum energy.

Willis, Christopher↗
DOE OSTI2015

Method of mechanical holding of cantilever chip for tip-scan high-speed atomic force microscope

In tip-scan atomic force microscopy (AFM) that scans a cantilever chip in the three dimensions, the chip body is held on the Z-scanner with a holder. However, this holding is not easy for high-speed (HS) AFM because the holder that should have a small mass has to be able to clamp the cantilever chip firmly without deteriorating the Z-scanner’s fast performance, and because repeated exchange of cantilever chips should not damage the Z-scanner. This is one of the reasons that tip-scan HS-AFM has not been established, despite its advantages over sample stage-scan HS-AFM. Here, we present a novel method of cantilever chip holding which meets all conditions required for tip-scan HS-AFM. The superior performance of this novel chip holding mechanism is demonstrated by imaging of the α{sub 3}β{sub 3} subcomplex of F{sub 1}-ATPase in dynamic action at ∼7 frames/s.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2015

Investigation of band structure of {sup 103,105}Rh using microscopic computational technique

The high-spin structure in {sup 61}Cu nucleus is studied in terms of effective two body interaction. In order to take into account the deformed BCS basis, the basis states are expanded in terms of the core eigenfunctions. Yrast band with some other bands havew been obtained and back-bending in moment of inertia has also been calculated and compared with the available experimental data for {sup 61}Cu nucleus. On comparing the available experimental as well as other theoretical data, it is found that the treatment with PSM provides a satisfactory explanation of the available data.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Microscopically crumpled indium-tin-oxide thin films as compliant electrodes with tunable transmittance

Indium-tin-oxide (ITO) thin films are perceived to be stiff and brittle. This letter reports that crumpled ITO thin films on adhesive poly-acrylate dielectric elastomer can make compliant electrodes, sustaining compression of up to 25% × 25% equi-biaxial strain and unfolding. Its optical transmittance reduces with crumpling, but restored with unfolding. A dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) using the 14.2% × 14.2% initially crumpled ITO thin-film electrodes is electrically activated to produce a 37% areal strain. Such electric unfolding turns the translucent DEA to be transparent, with transmittance increased from 39.14% to 52.08%. This transmittance tunability promises to make a low-cost smart privacy window.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Crystallographic analysis of the solid-state dewetting of polycrystalline gold film using automated indexing in a transmission electron microscope

We analyzed the effect of crystallographic anisotropy on the morphological evolution of a 12-nm-thick gold film during solid-state dewetting at high temperatures using automated indexing tool in a transmission electron microscopy. Dewetting initiated at grain-boundary triple junctions adjacent to large grains resulting from abnormal grain growth driven by (111) texture development. Voids at the junctions developed shapes with faceted edges bounded by low-index crystal planes. The kinetic mobility of the edges varied with the crystal orientation normal to the edges, with a predominance of specific edges with the slowest retraction rates as the annealing time was increased.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Electron microscopic investigation of crystal lattice bending-torsion and internal stresses in deformed polycrystalline alloys

Generalization of the results of electron microscopy investigations of the crystal lattice bending-torsion (χ) and the internal stresses (IS) was conducted. The deformed polycrystalline alloys and steels were investigated. The sources of χ and IS origin were established. The regularities of their change with the distance from the sources and the evolution with deformation were revealed. The contribution of IS into the deformation resistance was determined. The nature of formation of two sequences of dislocation substructure transformations during deformation of alloys was established.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Microscopic signature of insulator-to-metal transition in highly doped semicrystalline conducting polymers in ionic-liquid-gated transistors

Electronic state of charge carriers, in particular, in highly doped regions, in thin-film transistors of a semicrystalline conducting polymer poly(2,5-bis(3-alkylthiophene-2-yl)thieno[3,2-b]thiophene), has been studied by using field-induced electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy. By adopting an ionic-liquid gate insulator, a gate-controlled reversible electrochemical hole-doping of the polymer backbone is achieved, as confirmed from the change of the optical absorption spectra. The edge-on molecular orientation in the pristine film is maintained even after the electrochemical doping, which is clarified from the angular dependence of the g value. As the doping level increases, spin 1/2 polarons transform into spinless bipolarons, which is demonstrated from the spin-charge relation showing a spin concentration peak around 1%, contrasting to the monotonic increase in the charge concentration. At high doping levels, a drastic change in the linewidth anisotropy due to the generation of conduction electrons is observed, indicating the onset of metallic state, which is also supported by the temperature dependence of the spin susceptibility and the ESR linewidth. Our results suggest that semicrystalline conducting polymers become metallic with retaining their molecular orientational order, when appropriate doping methods are chosen.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Local probe microscopic studies on Al-doped ZnO: Pseudoferroelectricity and band bending at grain boundaries

In this paper, based on piezoforce measurements, we show the presence of opposite polarization at grains and grain boundaries of Al-doped ZnO (AZO). The polarization can be flipped by 180° in phase by switching the polarity of the applied electric field, revealing the existence of nanoscale pseudoferroelectricity in AZO grown on Pt/TiO{sub 2}/SiO{sub 2}/Si substrate. We also demonstrate an experimental evidence on local band bending at grain boundaries of AZO films using conductive atomic force microscopy and Kelvin probe force microscopy. The presence of an opposite polarization at grains and grain boundaries gives rise to a polarization-driven barrier formation at grain boundaries. With the help of conductive atomic force microscopy, we show that the polarization-driven barrier along with the defect-induced electrostatic potential barrier account for the measured local band bending at grain boundaries. The present study opens a new avenue to understand the charge transport in light of both polarization and electrostatic effects.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Microscopic potential fluctuations in Si-doped AlGaN epitaxial layers with various AlN molar fractions and Si concentrations

Nanoscopic potential fluctuations of Si-doped AlGaN epitaxial layers with the AlN molar fraction varying from 0.42 to 0.95 and Si-doped Al{sub 0.61}Ga{sub 0.39}N epitaxial layers with Si concentrations of 3.0–37 × 10{sup 17 }cm{sup −3} were investigated by cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging combined with scanning electron microscopy. The spot CL linewidths of AlGaN epitaxial layers broadened as the AlN molar fraction was increased to 0.7, and then narrowed at higher AlN molar fractions. The experimental linewidths were compared with the theoretical prediction from the alloy broadening model. The trends displayed by our spot CL linewidths were consistent with calculated results at AlN molar fractions of less than about 0.60, but the spot CL linewidths were markedly broader than the calculated linewidths at higher AlN molar fractions. The dependence of the difference between the spot CL linewidth and calculated line broadening on AlN molar fraction was found to be similar to the dependence of reported S values, indicating that the vacancy clusters acted as the origin of additional line broadening at high AlN molar fractions. The spot CL linewidths of Al{sub 0.61}Ga{sub 0.39}N epitaxial layers with the same Al concentration and different Si concentrations were nearly constant in the entire Si concentration range tested. From the comparison of reported S values, the increase of V{sub Al} did not contribute to the linewidth broadening, unlike the case of the V{sub Al} clusters.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Design and performance of a compact scanning transmission X-ray microscope at the Photon Factory

We present a new compact instrument designed for scanning transmission X-ray microscopy. It has piezo-driven linear stages, making it small and light. Optical components from the virtual source point to the detector are located on a single optical table, resulting in a portable instrument that can be operated at a general-purpose spectroscopy beamline without requiring any major reconstruction. Careful consideration has been given to solving the vibration problem common to high-resolution microscopy, so as not to affect the spatial resolution determined by the Fresnel zone plate. Results on bacteriogenic iron oxides, single particle aerosols, and rare-earth permanent magnets are presented as examples of its performance under diverse applications.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2016

Evaporative cooling of microscopic water droplets in vacuo : Molecular dynamics simulations and kinetic gas theory

In the present study, we investigate the process of evaporative cooling of nanometer-sized droplets in vacuum using molecular dynamics simulations with the TIP4P/2005 water model. The results are compared to the temperature evolution calculated from the Knudsen theory of evaporation which is derived from kinetic gas theory. The calculated and simulation results are found to be in very good agreement for an evaporation coefficient equal to unity. Lastly, our results are of interest to experiments utilizing droplet dispensers as well as to cloud micro-physics.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2016

Self-diffusion and microscopic dynamics in a gold-silicon liquid investigated with quasielastic neutron scattering

We use incoherent quasielastic neutron scattering to study the atomic dynamics of gold in a eutectic Au{sub 81}Si{sub 19} melt. Despite the glass-forming nature of this system, the gold self-diffusivity displays an Arrhenius behavior with a low activation energy characteristic of simple liquids. At high temperatures, long-range transport of gold atoms is well described by hydrodynamic theory with a simple exponential decay of the self-correlation function. On cooling towards the melting temperature, structural relaxation crosses over to a highly stretched exponential behavior. This suggests the onset of a heterogeneous dynamics, even in the equilibrium melt, and is indicative of a very fragile liquid.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Contact stiffness and damping of liquid films in dynamic atomic force microscope

The mechanical properties and dissipation behaviors of nanometers confined liquid films have been long-standing interests in surface force measurements. The correlation between the contact stiffness and damping of the nanoconfined film is still not well understood. We establish a novel computational framework through molecular dynamics (MD) simulation for the first time to study small-amplitude dynamic atomic force microscopy (dynamic AFM) in a simple nonpolar liquid. Through introducing a tip driven dynamics to mimic the mechanical oscillations of the dynamic AFM tip-cantilever assembly, we find that the contact stiffness and damping of the confined film exhibit distinct oscillations within 6-7 monolayer distances, and they are generally out-of-phase. For the solid-like film with integer monolayer thickness, further compression of the film before layering transition leads to higher stiffness and lower damping, while much lower stiffness and higher damping occur at non-integer monolayer distances. These two alternating mechanisms dominate the mechanical properties and dissipation behaviors of simple liquid films under cyclic elastic compression and inelastic squeeze-out. Our MD simulations provide a direct picture of correlations between the structural property, mechanical stiffness, and dissipation behavior of the nanoconfined film.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2016

Microscopic theoretical model study of band gap opening in AA-stacked bi-layer graphene

We address here a tight-binding theoretical model calculation for AA-stacked bi-layer graphene taking into account of a biased potential between two layers to study the density of states and the band dispersion within the total Brillouin zone. We have calculated the electronic Green’s function for electron operator corresponding to A and B sub lattices by Zubarev’s Green’s function technique from which the electronic density of states and the electron band energy dispersion are calculated. The numerically computed density of states and band energy dispersions are investigated by tuning the biased potential to exhibit the band gap by varying the different physical parameters.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Energy-Dependent microscopic optical potential for p+{sup 9}Be elastic scattering

The p+{sup 9}Be elastic scattering at an energy range up to 200 MeV/nucleon is analyzed using the single-folding model. The density- and isospin-dependent M3Y-Paris nucleon-nucleon (NN) interaction is used for the real part and the NN-scattering amplitude of the high-energy approximation for the imaginary one. The analysis reveals that the cross-section data are reproduced well at energies up to 100 MeV/nucleon by use of the partial-wave expansion. For higher energies, the eikonal approximation give results better than the partial-wave expansion calculations. The volume integrals of the optical-potential parts have systematic energy dependencies, and they are parameterized in empirical formulas.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Microscopic modeling of exciton spectra in asymmetric quantum wells

A theoretical model of reflectance spectra is applied to the analysis of spectra of the two high-quality structures with asymmetric InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells. The analysis allows to quantitatively describe the exciton resonances related to the lowest quantum-confined exciton states. Main parameters of the quantum well potential profiles are obtained in the modeling.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Microscopic origin of the charge transfer in single crystals based on thiophene derivatives: A combined NEXAFS and density functional theory approach

We have investigated the charge transfer mechanism in single crystals of DTBDT-TCNQ and DTBDT-F{sub 4}TCNQ (where DTBDT is dithieno[2,3-d;2′,3′-d′] benzo[1,2-b;4,5-b′]dithiophene) using a combination of near-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy (NEXAFS) and density functional theory calculations (DFT) including final state effects beyond the sudden state approximation. In particular, we find that a description that considers the partial screening of the electron-hole Coulomb correlation on a static level as well as the rearrangement of electronic density shows excellent agreement with experiment and allows to uncover the details of the charge transfer mechanism in DTBDT-TCNQ and DTBDT-F{sub 4} TCNQ, as well as a reinterpretation of previous NEXAFS data on pure TCNQ. Finally, we further show that almost the same quality of agreement between theoretical results and experiment is obtained by the much faster Z+1/2 approximation, where the core hole effects are simulated by replacing N or F with atomic number Z with the neighboring atom with atomic number Z+1/2.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗