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At least 1,351 records · Page 75

Anisotropic giant magnetoresistance in NbSb₂

We report large transverse magnetoreistance (the magnetoresistant ratio ~ 1.3 × 10⁵% in 2 K and 9 T field, and 4.3 × 10⁶% in 0.4 K and 32 T field, without saturation) and field-induced metal semiconductor-like transition in NbSb₂. Magnetoresistance is significantly suppressed but the metal-semiconductor-like transition persists when the current is along the ac -plane. The sign reversal of the Hall resistivity and Seebeck coefficient in the field, plus the electronic structure reveal the coexistence of a small number of holes with very high mobility and a large number of electrons with low mobility. The large MR is attributed to the change of the Fermi surface induced by the magnetic field in addition to the high mobility metal.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Analytical examples of reversal current, zero core current, and surface current, toroidal magnetostatic equilibria with nested flux surfaces

We present exact analytical examples of three types of axisymmetric toroidal magnetostatic equilibria with nested flux surfaces: (1) current reversal equilibria, for which the net toroidal current switches from a negative to a positive value when moving away from the magnetic axis; these equilibria have a non-monotonic pressure profile, in accordance with Hammett et al.'s theorem stating that the pressure on the current reversal surface has to exceed the volume-averaged pressure within that surface; (2) zero core current equilibria, in which the toroidal current density vanishes inside some flux surface; and (3) surface current equilibria, constituted of an arbitrary number of nested layers inside which the plasma pressure is constant and the magnetic field force-free, with two adjacent layers being separated by a current sheet. All these configurations are obtained by shaping in an adequate way the arbitrary function which intervenes in the class of generalized isodynamic equilibria first constructed by Palumbo and recovered later on by Bishop and Taylor. A derivation of these equilibria by a method slightly different from Palumbo's is given in an Appendix.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Reversed-polarity regions

The 58 RPRS studied have a lifespan comparable to normal active regions and have no tendency to rotate toward a more normal alignment. They seem to have stable configurations with no apparent evidence suggesting stress due to their anomalous magnetic alignment. Magnetic complexity in RPRs is the key to flare productivity just as it is in normal regions - weak field RPRs produced no flares and regions with complex spots produced more flares than regions with noncomplex spots by a factor of 5. The RPRs however, differ from normal regions in the frequency of having complex spots, particularly the long lived complex spots, in them. Less than 17 percent of normal ARs have complex spots; less than 1.8 percent have long lived complex spots. In contrast, 41 percent of RPRs have complex spots and 24 percent have long lived complex spots.

Tang, F.↗

Global ion heating/transport during merging spherical tokamak formation

Here we report global ion heating/transport characteristics of magnetic reconnection during merging spherical tokamak formation experiment on TS-6 (TS-3U). Using the 96CH/320CH ultra high resolution ion Doppler tomography diagnostics, the full- 2 D imaging measurement clearly revealed that magnetic reconnection initially forms localized hot spots in the downstream region of outflow jet with inboard/outboard asymmetry (more deposition in the high field side) but the continuous accumulation of the heating coupled with transport process expands the high temperature region globally and forms characteristic poloidally ring-like structure aligned with field lines. The dynamic ion heating/transport process is also affected by the polarity of toroidal field and poloidally tilted/rotating global structure has experimentally been found both during and after merging. The characteristic poloidal asymmetry gets flipped when toroidal field direction is reversed and it was found that higher temperature appears in the positive potential side, which is opposite to the conventional understanding/prediction of guide field reconnection. Through the parallel acceleration process coupled with global heat transport, poloidally asymmetric non-classical feature has experimentally been found for the first time.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Electric fields in the ionosphere

F-region drift velocities, measured by incoherent-scatter radar were analyzed in terms of diurnal, seasonal, magnetic activity, and solar cycle effects. A comprehensive electric field model was developed that includes the effects of the E and F-region dynamos, magnetospheric sources, and ionospheric conductivities, for both the local and conjugate regions. The E-region dynamo dominates during the day but at night the F-region and convection are more important. This model provides much better agreement with observations of the F-region drifts than previous models. Results indicate that larger magnitudes occur at night, and that daily variation is dominated by the diurnal mode. Seasonal variations in conductivities and thermospheric winds indicate a reversal in direction in the early morning during winter from south to northward. On magnetic perturbed days and the drifts deviate rather strongly from the quiet days average, especially around 13 L.T. for the northward and 18 L.T. for the westward component.

Kirchhoff, V. W. J. H.↗

A Simple and Efficient Methodology To Improve Geometric Accuracy in Gamma Knife Radiation Surgery: Implementation in Multiple Brain Metastases

Purpose: To propose, verify, and implement a simple and efficient methodology for the improvement of total geometric accuracy in multiple brain metastases gamma knife (GK) radiation surgery. Methods and Materials: The proposed methodology exploits the directional dependence of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-related spatial distortions stemming from background field inhomogeneities, also known as sequence-dependent distortions, with respect to the read-gradient polarity during MRI acquisition. First, an extra MRI pulse sequence is acquired with the same imaging parameters as those used for routine patient imaging, aside from a reversal in the read-gradient polarity. Then, “average” image data are compounded from data acquired from the 2 MRI sequences and are used for treatment planning purposes. The method was applied and verified in a polymer gel phantom irradiated with multiple shots in an extended region of the GK stereotactic space. Its clinical impact in dose delivery accuracy was assessed in 15 patients with a total of 96 relatively small (<2 cm) metastases treated with GK radiation surgery. Results: Phantom study results showed that use of average MR images eliminates the effect of sequence-dependent distortions, leading to a total spatial uncertainty of less than 0.3 mm, attributed mainly to gradient nonlinearities. In brain metastases patients, non-eliminated sequence-dependent distortions lead to target localization uncertainties of up to 1.3 mm (mean: 0.51 ± 0.37 mm) with respect to the corresponding target locations in the “average” MRI series. Due to these uncertainties, a considerable underdosage (5%-32% of the prescription dose) was found in 33% of the studied targets. Conclusions: The proposed methodology is simple and straightforward in its implementation. Regarding multiple brain metastases applications, the suggested approach may substantially improve total GK dose delivery accuracy in smaller, outlying targets.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

Concurrence of quantum anomalous Hall and topological Hall effects in magnetic topological insulator sandwich heterostructures

The quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect is a consequence of non-zero Berry curvature in momentum space. The QAH insulator harbours dissipation-free chiral edge states in the absence of an external magnetic field. Yet, the topological Hall (TH) effect, a hallmark of chiral spin textures, is a consequence of real-space Berry curvature. Herein, by inserting a topological insulator (TI) layer between two magnetic TI layers, we realized the concurrence of the TH effect and the QAH effect through electric-field gating. The TH effect is probed by bulk carriers, whereas the QAH effect is characterized by chiral edge states. The appearance of the TH effect in the QAH insulating regime is a consequence of chiral magnetic domain walls that result from the gate-induced Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction and occurs during the magnetization reversal process in the magnetic TI sandwich samples. The coexistence of chiral edge states and chiral spin textures provides a platform for proof-of-concept dis- sipationless spin-textured spintronic applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Nanoscale Imaging of Electrostatic and Magnetic Fields

The research objectives of this grant were to observe and to quantify nanoscale electrostatic and magnetic fields using the technique of off-axis electron holography. There have been two major areas of activity during the current reporting period, which spans September 2011 through December 2015; i) measurement of the 2D electrostatic potential distributions across complex semiconductor heterojunctions and devices; and ii) investigation of the remanent states and magnetization reversal mechanisms in magnetic thin films and nanostructures.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Radio emission from RS CVn binaries. II - Polarization and spectral properties

Multiepoch radio observations of circular polarization and spectral characteristics of several close, late-type stellar binaries are reported. The median luminosity of four well-studied systems ranged from 16.2 to 17.1 ergs/s/Hz. For individual systems, the fractional circular polarization decreases with increasing luminosity, particularly at frequencies above 5 GHz. Eclipsing binaries have significantly lower average circular polarization compared with noneclipsing systems. Helicity reversal is almost always observed between 1.4 and 4.9 GHz for systems with high orbital inclination. Comparison with ten years of previously published polarization observations for two RS CVn stellar systems show that the same helicity occurs at a given frequency for a given source, indicating a very stable, large-scale magnetic field geometry. These spectral and polarization characteristics strongly support a model of inhomogeneous gyrosynchrotron emission arising from electrons with power law energy spectra interacting with inhomogeneous magnetic fields.

Mutel, R. L.↗

Electric-field control of tri-state phase transformation with a selective dual-ion switch

Materials can be transformed from one crystalline phase to another by using an electric field to control ion transfer, in a process that can be harnessed in applications such as batteries, smart windows and fuel cells. Increasing the number of transferrable ion species and of accessible crystalline phases could in principle greatly enrich material functionality. However, studies have so far focused mainly on the evolution and control of single ionic species (for example, oxygen, hydrogen or lithium ions). In this paper, we describe the reversible and non-volatile electric-field control of dual-ion (oxygen and hydrogen) phase transformations, with associated electrochromic and magnetoelectric effects. We show that controlling the insertion and extraction of oxygen and hydrogen ions independently of each other can direct reversible phase transformations among three different material phases: the perovskite SrCoO 3-δ , the brownmillerite SrCoO 2.5 , and a hitherto-unexplored phase, HSrCoO 2.5 . By analysing the distinct optical absorption properties of these phases, we demonstrate selective manipulation of spectral transparency in the visible-light and infrared regions, revealing a dual-band electrochromic effect that could see application in smart windows. Moreover, the starkly different magnetic and electric properties of the three phases—HSrCoO 2.5 is a weakly ferromagnetic insulator, SrCoO 3-δ is a ferromagnetic metal, and SrCoO 2.5 is an antiferromagnetic insulator—enable an unusual form of magnetoelectric coupling, allowing electric-field control of three different magnetic ground states. Finally, these findings open up opportunities for the electric-field control of multistate phase transformations with rich functionalities.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Remote query measurement of pressure, fluid-flow velocity, and humidity using magnetoelastic thick-film sensors

Free-standing magnetoelastic thick-film sensors have a characteristic resonant frequency that can be determined by monitoring the magnetic flux emitted from the sensor in response to a time varying magnetic field. This property allows the sensors to be monitored remotely without the use of direct physical connections, such as wires, enabling measurement of environmental parameters from within sealed, opaque containers. In this work, we report on application of magnetoelastic sensors to measurement of atmospheric pressure, fluid-flow velocity, temperature, and mass load. Mass loading effects are demonstrated by fabrication of a remote query humidity sensor, made by coating the magnetoelastic thick film with a thin layer of solgel deposited Al2O3 that reversibly changes mass in response to humidity. c2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.

NASA Discipline Life Sciences Technologies↗

Multi-jump magnetic switching in ion-beam sputtered amorphous Co{sub 20}Fe{sub 60}B{sub 20} thin films

Unconventional multi-jump magnetization reversal and significant in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy (UMA) in the ion-beam sputtered amorphous Co{sub 20}Fe{sub 60}B{sub 20}(5–75 nm) thin films grown on Si/amorphous SiO{sub 2} are reported. While such multi-jump behavior is observed in CoFeB(10 nm) film when the magnetic field is applied at 10°–20° away from the easy-axis, the same is observed in CoFeB(12.5 nm) film when the magnetic field is 45°–55° away from easy-axis. Unlike the previous reports of multi-jump switching in epitaxial films, their observance in the present case of amorphous CoFeB is remarkable. This multi-jump switching is found to disappear when the films are crystallized by annealing at 420 °C. The deposition geometry and the energy of the sputtered species appear to intrinsically induce a kind of bond orientation anisotropy in the films, which leads to the UMA in the as-grown amorphous CoFeB films. Exploitation of such multi-jump switching in amorphous CoFeB thin films could be of technological significance because of their applications in spintronic devices.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Thermal transport dynamics in the quasi-single helicity state

A dynamical model describing oscillations between multiple and single helicity configurations in the quasi-single helicity (QSH) state of the reversed field pinch [P. W. Terry and G. G. Whelan, Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 56, 094003 (2014)] is extended to include electron temperature profile dynamics. It is shown that QSH dynamics is linked to the electron temperature profile because the suppression of mode coupling between tearing modes proposed to underlie QSH also suppresses magnetic-fluctuation-induced thermal transport. Above the threshold of dominant-mode shear that marks the transition to QSH, the model produces temperature-gradient steepening in the strong shear region. Oscillations of the dominant and secondary mode amplitudes give rise to oscillations of the temperature gradient. The phasing and amplitude of temperature gradient oscillations relative to those of the dominant mode are in agreement with experiment. This provides further evidence that the model, while heuristic, captures key physical aspects of the QSH state.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Spherical tokamak physics research in preparation for the operation of NSTX-U

The National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade (NSTX-U) is preparing to resume operation, representing a crucial step toward realizing compact, cost-effective fusion pilot plants. In advance of this, extensive modeling and data analysis have been conducted to advance the physics basis for low-aspect-ratio, high-performance plasma regimes, focusing on three core objectives: confinement and stability, power and particle handling, and steady-state operation. Significant progress has been made in understanding the electron temperature flattening in high-β plasmas, which is shown to be driven by a complex interplay of magnetohydrodynamic instabilities (e.g. non-resonant infernal modes), fast-ion-driven Alfvén eigenmodes, and electron and ion-scale micro-instabilities, particularly Kinetic Ballooning Modes (KBMs), whose destabilization is strongly dependent on parallel magnetic field fluctuations (δB ∥ ). Furthermore, a new gyrokinetic critical pedestal model was developed, accurately predicting pedestal structure by identifying KBMs as the primary stability limit, offering a critical constraint for future high-confinement scenarios. To address the challenge of high heat flux, novel liquid lithium plasma-facing components were modeled. The analysis confirmed that lithium vapor shielding is a self-regulating mechanism for heat mitigation, while also emphasizing that strong main ion parallel flow is essential to minimize core lithium contamination. Finally, progress toward steady-state operation was anchored by developing the required physics basis and control tools. This includes predictive modeling for reversed magnetic shear sustainment, demonstrating that magnetic island-induced bootstrap current reduction is negligible in STs, and advancing real-time control and disruption avoidance capabilities. The development of high-speed surrogate models (e.g. MMMNet) provides computationally efficient tools vital for non-inductive scenario optimization and integrated, low-disruptivity operations planned for NSTX-U.

NSTX-U↗

Electric field measurements across the Harang discontinuity

The Harang discontinuity, the area separating the positive and negative bay regions in the midnight sector of the auroral zone, is a focal point for changes in behavior of many phenomena. Through this region the electric field, in a frame corotating with the earth, rotates through the west from a basically northward field in the positive bay region to a basically southward field in the negative bay region, appearing as a reversal in a single-axis measurement of the north-south component. Thirty-two of these reversals have been identified in the Ogo 6 data from November and December 1969. The discontinuity is dynamic in nature, moving southward and steepening its latitudinal profile as magnetic activity is increased. As activity decreases, it relaxes poleward and spreads out in latitudinal width. It occurs over several hours of magnetic local time.

Maynard, N. C.↗

The radial evolution of the solar wind, 1-10 AU

The interplanetary plasma and magnetic field observations from 1 to 10 AU are reviewed. Over this distance no clear reduction in average speed is seen. The range of wind speeds becomes smaller though high speed streams are still observed. The density, temperature and magnetic field profiles become dominated by the large values seen in the co-rotating interaction regions. The temperature falls more slowly than would be expected from a simple, adiabatic model. Co-rotating shocks appear beyond approximately 3 AU in Voyager data as opposed to beyond approximately 1.5 AU in the Pioneer data. Reverse shocks appear later than forward shocks; reverse shocks do not begin to appear until approximately 4 AU; reverse shocks appear to decay more rapidly than forward shocks. No clear effect due to interaction with the interstellar medium was seen in this radial range.

Gazis, P. R.↗

Simulations of pulsed electron beam injection during active experiments

Two-dimensional electromagnetic particle simulations are used to investigate the characteristics of the spacecraft charging, particle acceleration, and wave emissions during beam injection, turnoff and subsequent pulsing of the beam. It is shown that, during beam injection, the beam current is neutralized by a spatially separate return current region extending several tens of meters from the beam region, with the currents being closed across the field lines by the perpendicular acceleration of ambient plasma ions into the beam region. After beam turnoff, this current system reverses after a time lag of about an ion plasma period. The current reversal is accompanied by prolonged electron collection by the spacecraft near the beam region, preferential ion collection by sections of the spacecraft magnetically connected to the initial return current regions, and the creation of hot plasma extending well into the return current regions. Because of the time lag, the currents induced in the plasma during periodic beam injection can be strongly modified from the imposed beam current.

Winglee, R. M.↗

System and method for damping vibration in a drill string using a magnetorheological damper

A system for damping vibration in a drill string can include a magnetorheological fluid valve assembly having a supply of a magnetorheological fluid. A remanent magnetic field is induced in the valve during operation that can be used to provide the magnetic field for operating the valve so as to eliminate the need to energize the coils except temporarily when changing the amount of damping required. The current to be supplied to the coil for inducing a desired magnetic field in the valve is determined based on the limiting hysteresis curve of the valve and the history of the magnetization of the value using a binary search methodology. The history of the magnetization of the valve is expressed as a series of sets of current and it resulting magnetization at which the current experienced a reversal compared to prior values of the current.

42 ENGINEERING↗