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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Prospects for Antiferromagnetic Spintronic Devices

This article examines recent advances in the field of antiferromagnetic spintronics from the perspective of potential device realization and applications. We discuss advances in the electrical control of antiferromagnetic order by current-induced spin–orbit torques, particularly in antiferromagnetic thin films interfaced with heavy metals. We also review possible scenarios for using voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy as a more efficient mechanism to control antiferromagnetic order in thin films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Next, we discuss the problem of electrical detection (i.e., readout) of antiferromagnetic order and highlight recent experimental advances in realizing anomalous Hall and tunneling magnetoresistance effects in thin films and tunnel junctions, respectively, which are based on noncollinear antiferromagnets. Understanding the domain structure and dynamics of antiferromagnetic materials is essential for engineering their properties for applications. For this reason, we then provide an overview of imaging techniques as well as micromagnetic simulation approaches for antiferromagnets. Finally, we present a perspective on potential applications of antiferromagnets for magnetic memory devices, terahertz sources, and detectors.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

In Situ High-Temperature TEM Observation of Inconel Corrosion by Molten Chloride Salts with N 2 , O 2 , or H 2 O

Here, in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) diffraction and imaging techniques are used to monitor and quantify corrosion of Inconel-625 by pure molten chloride salts (MgCl 2 – NaCl – KCl) at 500 °C–800 °C in 1.0 atm inert N 2 or pure O2, or by salts which are controllably hydrated in a high vacuum chamber. The isothermal corrosion rate R in inert N 2 increases from 203 ± 30 μ m year –1 at 700 °C to 463 ± 30 μ m year –1 at 800 °C. An oxygen ambient causes a six-fold increase to R = 1261 ± 170 μ m year –1 at 700 °C. Salt hydration dramatically accelerates corrosion to R > 3 × 10 5 μ m year –1 at 700 °C while it leads to a more moderate R = 95 ± 20 and 486 ± 30 μ m year –1 at 500 °C and 600 °C, respectively. These isothermal corrosion rates indicate that the molten chloride corrosion is significantly accelerated by salt hydration at temperatures above 600 °C, where corrosion is aggravated by increased generation and solubility of corrosive HCl gases. Hence, to reduce rate of corrosion it is important to both avoid incorporation of H 2 O into the system at each stage and ensure proper flushing of the system before increasing the temperature beyond 600 °C. Compositional analysis of the corroded cells indicate that corrosion in O 2 ambient is dominated by oxidation of metals by O 2 gas dissolved in the chloride melt, but corrosion in H 2 O ambients is caused by chlorination of metals by dissolved HCl gas and MgOH + ions. So, to reduce rate of corrosion, steps should be taken to tailor chloride melt compositions that has low solubility for HCl and O 2 . All of our corroded samples exhibit passive-protective oxide layers of Cr, Mg, and Ni. In addition, distinct volatile compounds of Ni, Mo and Cr involving NiCl 2 , (Na,K) 2 MoO 4 and CrO 2 (OH) 2 are detected in N 2 , H 2 O, and O 2 ambients, respectively. We believe that corrosion acceleration can be minimized by minimizing formation of volatile by-products or promoting reactions that could convert these volatile compounds to solid phases, as these volatile compounds led to destruction of protective oxide layers.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Motility Analysis of T-Cell Histories in Activation (Matcha) v0.1.0

Despite advances in microscopy, imaging techniques only capture a very small spatial and temporal fraction of T cell activity within a tissue. For this reason, we have pursued the development of a virtual T cell model. Matcha's objective is to design virtual T cells that move like biological T cells. The virtual T cells will match the speed and turning angle distributions of biological cells. In addition, Matcha will also attempt to match the volume patrolled by the biological cells and the dependence on speed and turning angle on the previous speed.

Rouson, Damian↗
DOE OSTI2017

Trace: a high-throughput tomographic reconstruction engine for large-scale datasets

Abstract Background Modern synchrotron light sources and detectors produce data at such scale and complexity that large-scale computation is required to unleash their full power. One of the widely used imaging techniques that generates data at tens of gigabytes per second is computed tomography (CT). Although CT experiments result in rapid data generation, the analysis and reconstruction of the collected data may require hours or even days of computation time with a medium-sized workstation, which hinders the scientific progress that relies on the results of analysis. Methods We present Trace, a data-intensive computing engine that we have developed to enable high-performance implementation of iterative tomographic reconstruction algorithms for parallel computers. Trace provides fine-grained reconstruction of tomography datasets using both (thread-level) shared memory and (process-level) distributed memory parallelization. Trace utilizes a special data structure called replicated reconstruction object to maximize application performance. We also present the optimizations that we apply to the replicated reconstruction objects and evaluate them using tomography datasets collected at the Advanced Photon Source. Results Our experimental evaluations show that our optimizations and parallelization techniques can provide 158× speedup using 32 compute nodes (384 cores) over a single-core configuration and decrease the end-to-end processing time of a large sinogram (with 4501 × 1 × 22,400 dimensions) from 12.5 h to <5 min per iteration. Conclusion The proposed tomographic reconstruction engine can efficiently process large-scale tomographic data using many compute nodes and minimize reconstruction times.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2025

Applications of ultrafast nano-spectroscopy and nano-imaging with tip-based microscopy

Innovation in microscopy has often been critical in advancing both fundamental science and technological progress. Notably, the evolution of ultrafast near-field optical nano-spectroscopy and nano-imaging has unlocked the ability to image at spatial scales from nanometers to ångströms and temporal scales from nanoseconds to femtoseconds. This approach revealed a plethora of fascinating light-matter states and quantum phenomena, including various species of polaritons, quantum phases, and complex many-body effects. This review focuses on the working principles and state-of-the-art development of ultrafast tip-enhanced and near-field microscopy, integrating diverse optical pump-probe methods across the terahertz (THz) to ultraviolet (UV) spectral ranges. It highlights their utility in examining a broad range of materials, including two-dimensional (2D), organic molecular, and hybrid materials. The review concludes with a spatio-spectral-temporal comparison of ultrafast nano-imaging techniques, both within already well-defined domains, and offering an outlook on future developments of ultrafast tip-based microscopy and their potential to address a wider range of materials.

Zhao, Zhichen [Tongji University, Shanghai (China)↗
DOE OSTI2022

Joint physics-based and data-driven time-lapse seismic inversion: Mitigating data scarcity

In carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), developing rapid and effective imaging techniques is crucial for real-time monitoring of the spatial and temporal dynamics of CO 2 propagation during/after injection. With continuing improvements in computational power and data storage, data-driven techniques based on machine learning (ML) have been effectively applied to seismic inverse problems. In particular, ML helps alleviate the ill-posedness and high computational cost of full-waveform inversion (FWI). However, such data-driven inversion techniques require massive high-quality training data sets to ensure prediction accuracy, which hinders their application to time-lapse monitoring of CO 2 sequestration. We propose an efficient “hybrid” time-lapse workflow that combines physics-based FWI and data-driven ML inversion. The scarcity of the available training data is addressed by developing a new data-generation technique with physics constraints. The method is vali dated on a synthetic CO 2 -sequestration model based on the Kimberlina storage reservoir in California. The proposed approach is shown to synthesize a large volume of high-quality, physically realistic training data, which is critically important in accurately characterizing the CO 2 movement in the reservoir. In conclusion, the developed hybrid methodology can also simultaneously predict the variations in velocity and saturation and achieve high spatial resolution in the presence of realistic noise in the data.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

NSUF Rad-AFM: Nanoscale Material Property Measurements of Radioactive Materials

Many advances in our understanding of radiation induced damage mechanisms are due to imaging techniques including transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. However, the effect of these radiation induced defects characterized on the atomic to micrometer scale are often interpreted by changes in bulk material properties measured in the hundreds of microns to cm scale. In order to bridge this gap, additional tools need to be developed for use with radioactive materials. To this end a new Asylum Infinity multimodal atomic force microscope (AFM) has been added to the library of Nuclear Science User Facility (NSUF) instruments for use on radioactive materials. This instrument is housed in the Radiochemical Processing Laboratory (RPL) which is a Department of Energy Hazard Category II Non-Reactor Nuclear Facility operated by Battelle at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. This allows for the handling, sample preparation, and characterization of highly radioactive materials providing a unique capability to understand fundamental properties of nuclear materials and the effects of radiation induced damage.

Riechers, Shawn L.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Temporal prepulse contrast degradation in high-intensity CPA lasers from anisotropy of amplifier gain media

Here, we present a study of the temporal pre-pulse contrast degradation of high focused intensity pulses produced in CPA laser systems due to imperfections in amplifier design, alignment of amplifier components, and crystal inhomogeneity. Using an extended cross-polarized imaging technique, we demonstrate the presence of multiple crystal domains inside Ti:sapphire slabs with ≈10 cm diameter. Furthermore, the results of our numerical calculations show that crystalline c-axis orientation inhomogeneity caused by these crystal domains can lead to generation of pre-pulses with relative contrast >10 -10 within several picoseconds before the main pulse. In a multiple-slab amplifier head configuration sometimes used in high repetition rate systems, the misalignment of the amplifier slabs crystalline c-axes with respect to each other can lead to the generation of pre-pulses with relative contrast as high as 10 -6 , depending on the magnitude of misalignment.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Near-field imaging and spectroscopy of terahertz resonators and metasurfaces [Invited]

Terahertz (THz) metasurfaces have become a key platform for engineering light-matter interaction at THz frequencies. They have evolved from simple metallic resonator arrays into tunable and programmable devices, displaying ultrafast modulation rates and incorporating emerging quantum materials. The electrodynamics which govern metasurface operation can only be directly revealed at the scale of subwavelength individual metasurface elements, through sampling their evanescent fields. It requires near-field spectroscopy and imaging techniques to overcome the diffraction limit and provide spatial resolution down to the nanoscale. Through a series of case studies, this review provides an in-depth overview of recently developed THz near-field microscopy capabilities for research on metamaterials.

Hale, Lucy L. (ORCID:0000000176544272)↗
DOE OSTI2021

Enhancing high-order harmonic generation by controlling the diffusion of the electron wave packet

We experimentally study the enhancement of high-order harmonic generation (HHG) driven by synthesized ω <#comment/> − <#comment/> 3 ω <#comment/> laser fields, where we control whether the ionization rate or the electron wave packet’s diffusion is the dominant enhancement mechanism. When minimizing the electron wave packet’s diffusion, the excursion times of the corresponding electron trajectories are reduced by a factor of 2 or more. This result is important for imaging techniques that use the returning electron wave packet to probe the remaining ion. Furthermore, we achieve a 10 × <#comment/> to 3800 × <#comment/> enhancement of the harmonic yield driven by the bichromatic fields relative to that of an optimized single-color field, showing that the bichromatic fields improve HHG’s capability as a light source. We also measure that the two-color field’s harmonics have half the divergence angle compared to their single-color counterpart, suggesting that the “short” electron trajectories play a more prominent role compared to their “long” trajectory counterparts, thus improving the wavefront of the emerging harmonic beam.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Nanoscale Examination of Microdamage in Sheep Cortical Bone Using Synchrotron Radiation Transmission X-Ray Microscopy

Microdamageoccurs inbone through repeatedandexcessive loading. Accumulationofmicrodamageweakensbone, leading to a loss of strength, stiffness and energy dissipation in the tissue. Imaging techniques used to examine microdamagehave typicallybeen limited to themicroscale. In thecurrent studymicrodamagewas examinedat the nanoscale using transmission x-raymicroscopywith an x-ray negative stain, lead-uranyl acetate. Microdamagewas generatedinnotchedandunnotchedbeamsofsheepcorticalbone(262620mm),withmonotonicandfatigueloading. Bulksectionswere removedfrombeamsandstainedwith lead-uranyl acetateto identifymicrodamage. Sampleswere sectionedto50micronsandimagedusingtransmissionx-raymicroscopyproducingprojectionimagesofmicrodamage withnanoscale resolution. Staining indicatedmicrodamageoccurred inboth the tensileandcompressive regions. A comparisonbetweenmonotonicandfatigueloadingindicatedastatisticallysignificantgreateramountofstainpresent in fatigueloadedsections.Microdamageoccurredinthreeforms:stainingtoexistingbonestructures,crosshatchdamageand asinglecrackextending fromthenotchtip. Comparisontomicrocomputedtomographydemonstrateddifferences in damagemorphologyandtotaldamagebetweenthemicroscaleandnanoscale. Thismethodhas futureapplications for understandingtheunderlyingmechanismsformicrodamageformationaswellasthree-dimensionalnanoscaleexamination ofmicrodamage.

BIO↗
DOE OSTI2023

Steptoe Valley NV Data Compilation: Understanding a Stratigraphic Hydrothermal Resource through Geophysical Imaging

Sandia National Laboratories partnered with a multi-disciplinary group of subject matter experts to evaluate a stratigraphic geothermal resource in Steptoe Valley, Nevada using both established and novel geophysical imaging techniques. Provided here are a compilation of newly acquired data over the area and select modeling efforts. This encompasses a 3D geological model (inclusive of full Leapfrog files, Leapfrog viewer files, and XYZ data for faults and stratigraphy) with embedded geophysical modeling, controlled-source electromagnetic (CSEM) and magnetotelluric (MT) data packages, aqueous spring geochemistry data, seismic reflection interpretations, and a gravity data package. The stratigraphic reservoir in Steptoe Valley was previously discovered during oil and gas exploration. Subsequent studies, such as the Nevada Play Fairway Analysis, added data which further highlighted potential resource targets in the basin. Geophysical surveys, complimented with refined geologic mapping and geochemical sampling, were deployed to further characterize the resource. The resulting 3D geologic interpretation, conceptual model refinements, and reservoir simulations suggest that a power-capable reservoir is economically accessible in the Paleozoic carbonates of the deep/central basin. Additional geophysical characterization and exploration drilling efforts are recommended to calibrate interpretation and determine where/how to potentially develop the Steptoe resource. The geophysical tools, interpretations, lessons learned, and publicly available data generated by this study establish an exploration methodology to inform decisions for successful development of stratigraphic reservoirs.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Assessing failure in epitaxially encapsulated micro-scale sensors using micro and nano x-ray computed tomography

Millions of micro electro mechanical system sensors are fabricated each year using an ultra-clean process that allows for a vacuum-encapsulated cavity. These devices have a multi-layer structure that contains hidden layers with highly doped silicon, which makes common imaging techniques ineffective. Thus, examining device features post-fabrication, and testing, is a significant challenge. Here in this paper, we use a combination of micro- and nano-scale x-ray computed tomography to study device features and assess failure mechanisms in such devices without destroying the ultra-clean cavity. This provides a unique opportunity to examine surfaces and trace failure mechanisms to specific steps in the fabrication process.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2012

Microscopic Measurements of Electrical Potential in Hydrogenated Nanocrystalline Silicon Solar Cells: Preprint

We report on a direct measurement of electrical potential and field profiles across the n-i-p junction of hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) solar cells, using the nanometer-resolution potential imaging technique of scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy (SKPFM). It was observed that the electric field is nonuniform across the i layer. It is much higher in the p/i region than in themiddle and the n/i region, illustrating that the i layer is actually slightly n-type. A measurement on a nc-Si:H cell with a higher oxygen impurity concentration shows that the nonuniformity of the electric field is much more pronounced than in samples having a lower O impurity, indicating that O is an electron donor in nc-Si:H materials. This nonuniform distribution of electric field implies amixture of diffusion and drift of carrier transport in the nc-Si:H solar cells. The composition and structure of these nc-Si:H cells were further investigated by using secondary-ion mass spectrometry and Raman spectroscopy, respectively. The effects of impurity and structural properties on the electrical potential distribution and solar cell performance are discussed.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Interseismic Strain Accumulation between the Colorado Plateau and the Eastern California Shear Zone: Implications for the Seismic Hazard near Las Vegas, Nevada

ABSTRACT Crustal deformation in the central Basin and Range between the Colorado plateau and the Eastern California Shear Zone is active but slow, making it a challenge to assess how strain is distributed and crustal motion transferred. However, knowledge of strain rates is very important, particularly for addressing the seismic hazard for both the Las Vegas urban area and the site of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, in southern Nevada. Global Positioning System (GPS) data provide important constraints, particularly now that the GPS network in the area has substantially expanded in recent years. However, because deformation is slow, it is important to mitigate any transient tectonic and nontectonic signals to obtain the most accurate long-term interseismic motion and robust estimation of strain rates. We use data from all GPS stations in the region including both long-running continuous and semicontinuous stations. We model and remove postseismic displacements at these stations using source parameters for 41 events, dating back to the 1700 Cascadia megathrust earthquake, which contribute significantly to the deformation field within the central Basin and Range. We also remove correlated noise from the time series with the common-mode component imaging technique. We find that removal of both the postseismic transients and common-mode noise substantially reduces the uncertainties and spatial variation in the velocities. We find east–west extension across the Las Vegas Valley of 0.5–0.6 mm/yr. The interseismic strain rate field, calculated with the final velocities, reveals higher strain rates through southern Nevada than in previous studies, with rates within Las Vegas Valley of 8.5±2.4×10−9 yr−1. Our results also confirm shear along the Pahranagat shear zone, but the estimated amplitude is strongly affected by postseismic relaxation.

Geochemistry & Geophysics↗
DOE OSTI2011

Experimental investigation of the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability.

The Richtmyer-Meshkov instability (RMI) is experimentally investigated using several different initial conditions and with a range of diagnostics. First, a broadband initial condition is created using a shear layer between helium+acetone and argon. The post-shocked turbulent mixing is investigated using planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF). The signature of turbulent mixing is present in the appearance of an inertial range in the mole fraction energy spectrum and the isotropy of the late-time dissipation structures. The distribution of the mole fraction values does not appear to transition to a homogeneous mixture, and it is possible that this effect may be slow to develop for the RMI. Second, the influence of the RMI on the kinetic energy spectrum is investigated using particle image velocimetry (PIV). The influence of the perturbation is visible relatively far from the interface when compared to the energy spectrum of an initially flat interface. Closer to the perturbation, an increase in the energy spectrum with time is observed and is possibly due to a cascade of energy from the large length scales of the perturbation. Finally, the single mode perturbation growth rate is measured after reshock using a new high speed imaging technique. This technique produced highly time-resolved interface position measurements. Simultaneous measurements at the spike and bubble location are used to compute a perturbation growth rate history. The growth rates from several experiments are compared to a new reshock growth rate model.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2011

Biomolecular Interactions and Responses of Human Epithelial and Macrophage Cells to Engineered Nanomaterials

Engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) are increasingly being used in commercial products, particularly in the biomedical, cosmetic, and clothing industries. For example, pants and shirts are routinely manufactured with silver nanoparticles to render them 'wrinkle-free.' Despite the growing applications, the associated environmental health and safety (EHS) impacts are completely unknown. The significance of this problem became pervasive within the general public when Prince Charles authored an article in 2004 warning of the potential social, ethical, health, and environmental issues connected to nanotechnology. The EHS concerns, however, continued to receive relatively little consideration from federal agencies as compared with large investments in basic nanoscience R&D. The mounting literature regarding the toxicology of ENMs (e.g., the ability of inhaled nanoparticles to cross the blood-brain barrier; Kwon et al., 2008, J. Occup. Health 50, 1) has spurred a recent realization within the NNI and other federal agencies that the EHS impacts related to nanotechnology must be addressed now. In our study we proposed to address critical aspects of this problem by developing primary correlations between nanoparticle properties and their effects on cell health and toxicity. A critical challenge embodied within this problem arises from the ability to synthesize nanoparticles with a wide array of physical properties (e.g., size, shape, composition, surface chemistry, etc.), which in turn creates an immense, multidimensional problem in assessing toxicological effects. In this work we first investigated varying sizes of quantum dots (Qdots) and their ability to cross cell membranes based on their aspect ratio utilizing hyperspectral confocal fluorescence microscopy. We then studied toxicity of epithelial cell lines that were exposed to different sized gold and silver nanoparticles using advanced imaging techniques, biochemical analyses, and optical and mass spectrometry methods. Finally we evaluated a new assay to measure transglutaminase (TG) activity; a potential marker for cell toxicity.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2013

Using Plasmon Peaks in Electron Energy-Loss Spectroscopy to Determine the Physical and Mechanical Properties of Nanoscale Materials

In this program, we developed new theoretical and experimental insights into understanding the relationships among fundamental universality and scaling phenomena, the solid-state physical and mechanical properties of materials, and the volume plasmon energy as measured by electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS). Particular achievements in these areas are summarized as follows: (i) Using a previously proposed physical model based on the universal binding-energy relation (UBER), we established close phenomenological connections regarding the influence of the valence electrons in materials on the longitudinal plasma oscillations (plasmons) and various solid-state properties such as the optical constants (including absorption and dispersion), elastic constants, cohesive energy, etc. (ii) We found that carbon materials, e.g., diamond, graphite, diamond-like carbons, hydrogenated and amorphous carbon films, exhibit strong correlations in density vs. E p (or maximum of the volume plasmon peak) and density vs. hardness, both from available experimental data and ab initio DFT calculations. This allowed us to derive a three-dimensional relationship between hardness and the plasmon energy, that can be used to determine experimentally both hardness and density of carbon materials based on measurements of the plasmon peak position. (iii) As major experimental accomplishments, we demonstrated the possibility of in-situ monitoring of changes in the physical properties of materials with conditions, e.g., temperature, and we also applied a new plasmon ratio-imaging technique to map multiple physical properties of materials, such as the elastic moduli, cohesive energy and bonding electron density, with a sub-nanometer lateral resolution. This presents new capability for understanding material behavior. (iv) Lastly, we demonstrated a new physical phenomenon - electron-beam trapping, or electron tweezers - of a solid metal nanoparticle inside a liquid metal. This phenomenon is analogous to that of optical trapping of solid microparticles in solution known as "optical tweezers", which is currently being used to manipulate molecules and inorganic materials in a variety of nanotechnology applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗