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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 1,351 records · Page 75
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2013

Topological insulators in silicene: Quantum hall, quantum spin hall and quantum anomalous hall effects

Silicene is a monolayer of silicon atoms forming a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice, which shares almost every remarkable property with graphene. The low energy dynamics is described by Dirac electrons, but they are massive due to relatively large spin-orbit interactions. I will explain the following properties of silicene: 1) The band structure is controllable by applying an electric field. 2) Silicene undergoes a phase transition from a topological insulator to a band insulator by applying external electric field. 3) The topological phase transition can be detected experimentally by way of diamagnetism. 4) There is a novel valley-spin selection rules revealed by way of photon absorption. 5) Silicene yields a remarkably many phases such as quantum anomalous Hall phase and valley polarized metal when the exchange field is additionally introduced. 6) A silicon nanotubes can be used to convey spin currents under an electric field.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Development and application of InAsP/InP quantum well infrared detector

InAs{sub x}P{sub 1-x}/InP quantum wells grown using metal organic vapor phase epitaxy are investigated for infrared detector applications. The structural parameters of the QWs are evaluated from high resolution x-ray diffraction. The electronic transition energies measured from surface photo voltage and photoconductivity confirms that these QWs can be used for fabricating IR detectors in the wide wavelength range, i.e. 0.9–1.46 µm by inter-band transitions and 7–18 µm by inter-sub-band transitions. Subsequently the functionality of one such fabricated InAs{sub x}P{sub 1-x}/InPQW detector is verified by measuring the photoluminescence of suitable semiconductor quantum well structure. At the request of all authors of the paper, and with the agreement of the Proceedings Editor, an updated version of this article was published on 24 June 2016. The original version supplied to AIP Publishing contained an error in the Figures 1 and 2 where the right side of the images were cutoff. The error has been corrected in the updated and re-published article.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Mechanism for Anomalous Hall Ferromagnetism in Twisted Bilayer Graphene

Motivated by the recent observation of an anomalous Hall effect in twisted bilayer graphene, here we use a lowest Landau level model to understand the origin of the underlying symmetry-broken correlated state. This effective model is rooted in the occurrence of Chern bands which arise due to the coupling between the graphene device and its encapsulating substrate. Our model exhibits a phase transition from a spin-valley polarized insulator to a partial or fully valley unpolarized metal as the bandwidth is increased relative to the interaction strength, consistent with experimental observations. In sharp contrast to standard quantum Hall ferromagnetism, the Chern number structure of the flat bands precludes an instability to an intervalley coherent phase, but allows for an excitonic vortex lattice at large interaction anisotropy.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2025

Topological solitons in square-root graphene nanoribbons controlled by electric fields

Conjugational defects, also known as solitons, play an important role in the electronic, magnetic, and optical properties of materials. Understanding solitons can uncover intriguing physics and provide insights for designing quantum materials with tailored band structures and electronic properties. Here we propose a framework to create and control solitons via topological phase transitions in a class of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) called square-root GNRs, using a transverse electric field. To demonstrate the experimental feasibility, we design and synthesize a representative GNR with a bottom-up approach, with first-principles calculations revealing topological soliton states at the domain wall induced by the electric field. In conclusion, the framework introduced in this work can potentially enable direct manipulation of solitons and provide a platform to study them systematically.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Nonequilibrium gas-liquid transition in the driven-dissipative photonic lattice

In this work, we study the nonequilibrium steady state of the driven-dissipative Bose-Hubbard model with Kerr nonlinearity. Employing a mean-field decoupling for the intercavity hopping J, we find that the steep crossover between low and high photon-density states inherited from the single cavity transforms into a gas–liquid bistability at large cavity-coupling J. We formulate a van der Waals–like gas–liquid phenomenology for this nonequilibrium setting and determine the relevant phase diagrams, including a new type of diagram where a lobe-shaped boundary separates smooth crossovers from sharp, hysteretic transitions. Calculating quantum trajectories for a one-dimensional system, we provide insights into the microscopic origin of the bistability.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2018

Longitudinal dynamics of high baryon density matter in high-energy heavy-ion collisions

In high-energy heavy-ion collisions, the two colliding nuclei pass through each other leaving behind an almost baryon-free central rapidity region. Most of the baryons are carried away by the nuclear remnants and are located in the so-called fragmentation regions. In previous papers, it has been argued that very high baryon densities, more than ten times larger than the normal nuclear density, can be achieved in these fragmentation regions. In this paper, we assume the high baryon density matter is thermalized at the same time as the baryon-free quark-gluon plasma in the central rapidity region. We perform a 1+1D (temporal + longitudinal) hydrodynamic simulation covering both the fragmentation regions and the central rapidity region with the baryon diffusion equation included. Baryons are found to diffuse from the fragmentation regions to the central rapidity region driven by fugacity gradients. Here, the baryon chemical potential at freezeout monotonically increases from the central rapidity region to the fragmentation regions, suggesting a rapidity scan in high-energy heavy-ion collisions might be helpful in searching for the critical point of the quantum chromodynamics phase diagram.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2026

A limit on the total lepton number in the Universe from BBN and the CMB

At temperatures below the QCD phase transition, any substantial lepton number in the Universe can only be present within the neutrino sector. In this work, we systematically explore the impact of a non-vanishing lepton number on Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) and the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Relying on our recently developed framework based on momentum averaged quantum kinetic equations for the neutrino density matrix, we solve the full BBN reaction network to obtain the abundances of primordial elements. We find that the maximal primordial total lepton number L allowed by BBN and the CMB is -0.12 (-0.10) ≤ L ≤ 0.13 (0.12) for NH (IH), while specific flavor directions can be even more constrained. This bound is complementary to the limits obtained from avoiding baryon overproduction through sphaleron processes at the electroweak phase transition since, although numerically weaker, it applies at lower temperatures and is obtained completely independently. We publicly release the C++ code COFLASY-C on GitHub (https://github.com/mariofnavarro/COFLASY/tree/COFLASY-C) which solves for the evolution of the neutrino quantum kinetic equations numerically.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Quantum Machine-Learning for Eigenstate Filtration in Two-Dimensional Materials

Quantum machine-learning algorithms have emerged to be a promising alternative to their classical counterparts as they leverage the power of quantum computers. Such algorithms have been developed to solve problems like electronic structure calculations of molecular systems and spin models in magnetic systems. However, the discussion in all these recipes focuses specifically on targeting the ground state. Herein we demonstrate a quantum algorithm that can filter any energy eigenstate of the system based on either symmetry properties or a predefined choice of the user. The workhorse of our technique is a shallow neural network encoding the desired state of the system with the amplitude computed by sampling the Gibbs–Boltzmann distribution using a quantum circuit and the phase information obtained classically from the nonlinear activation of a separate set of neurons. We show that the resource requirements of our algorithm are strictly quadratic. To demonstrate its efficacy, we use state filtration in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides which are hitherto unexplored in any flavor of quantum simulations. We implement our algorithm not only on quantum simulators but also on actual IBM-Q quantum devices and show good agreement with the results procured from conventional electronic structure calculations. We thus expect our protocol to provide a new alternative in exploring the band structures of exquisite materials to usual electronic structure methods or machine-learning techniques that are implementable solely on a classical computer.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

Structural and magnetic phase transitions near optimal superconductivity in BaFe 2 (As 1-x P x ) 2

In this study, we use nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), high-resolution x-ray and neutron scattering to study structural and magnetic phase transitions in phosphorus-doped BaFe 2 (As 1-x P x ) 2 . Thus, previous transport, NMR, specific heat, and magnetic penetration depth measurements have provided compelling evidence for the presence of a quantum critical point (QCP) near optimal superconductivity at x = 0.3. However, we show that the tetragonal-to-orthorhombic structural (T s ) and paramagnetic to antiferromagnetic (AF, T N ) transitions in BaFe 2 (As 1-x P x ) 2 are always coupled and approach to T N ≈ T s ≥ T c (≈ 29 K) for x = 0.29 before vanishing abruptly for x ≥ 0.3. These results suggest that AF order in BaFe 2 (As 1-x P x ) 2 disappears in a weakly first order fashion near optimal superconductivity, much like the electron-doped iron pnictides with an avoided QCP.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Local lattice distortions and magnetic properties of CdCr{sub 2}Se{sub 4−x}S{sub x}

Interplay between structural disorder and magnetic interaction is investigated here for a multiferroic candidate material, CdCr{sub 2}Se{sub 4}. Ferromagnetic order in CdCr{sub 2}Se{sub 4} sets in below T{sub C} ∼ 130 K as a result of competition between the direct Cr-Cr spin coupling and the near neighbour Cr-Se-Cr exchange interactions. Hence, a small change in the crystal structure is expected to drastically affect its magnetic order. In this report, local lattice distortions within the overall cubic symmetry were brought about by replacing a small percentage of Se by isovalent S. Detailed crystal structure study using EXAFS and Raman Spectroscopy reflects the presence of local distortions within the overall cubic symmetry. Contrary to the expectation, magnetic properties of the substituted compositions do not show any drastic changes. Though, a signature of spin-phonon coupling is present across the magnetic ordering temperature. No structural phase transition occurs within the investigated temperature range of 80–300 K.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2017

Gravitational wave and collider implications of electroweak baryogenesis aided by non-standard cosmology

Here, we consider various models realizing baryogenesis during the electroweak phase transition (EWBG). Our focus is their possible detection in future collider experiments and possible observation of gravitational waves emitted during the phase transition. We also discuss the possibility of a non-standard cosmological history which can facilitate EWBG. We show how acceptable parameter space can be extended due to such a modification and conclude that next generation precision experiments such as the ILC will be able to confirm or falsify many models realizing EWBG. We also show that, in general, collider searches are a more powerful probe than gravitational wave searches. However, observation of a deviation from the SM without any hints of gravitational waves can point to models with modified cosmological history that generically enable EWBG with weaker phase transition and thus, smaller GW signals.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

The Hagedorn spectrum, nuclear level densities and first order phase transitions

An exponential mass spectrum, like the Hagedorn spectrum, with slope 1/T{sub H} was interpreted as fixing an upper limiting temperature T{sub H} that the system can achieve. However, thermodynamically, such spectrum indicates a 1{sup st} order phase transition at a fixed temperature T{sub H}. A much lower energy example is the log linear level nuclear density below the neutron binding energy that prevails throughout the nuclear chart. We show that, for non-magic nuclei, such linearity implies a 1{sup st} order phase transition from the pairing superfluid to an ideal gas of quasi particles.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2020

Symmetry Breaking and Error Correction in Open Quantum Systems

Symmetry-breaking transitions are a well-understood phenomenon of closed quantum systems in quantum optics, condensed matter, and high energy physics. However, symmetry breaking in open systems is less thoroughly understood, in part due to the richer steady-state and symmetry structure that such systems possess. For the prototypical open system—a Lindbladian—a unitary symmetry can be imposed in a “weak” or a “strong” way. We characterize the possible $\mathbb{Z}_n$ symmetry-breaking transitions for both cases. In the case of $\mathbb{Z}_2$, a weak-symmetry-broken phase guarantees at most a classical bit steady-state structure, while a strong-symmetry-broken phase admits a partially protected steady-state qubit. Viewing photonic cat qubits through the lens of strong-symmetry breaking, we show how to dynamically recover the logical information after any gap-preserving strong-symmetric error; such recovery becomes perfect exponentially quickly in the number of photons. Further, our study forges a connection between driven-dissipative phase transitions and error correction.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Intra- and intermolecular effects on the Compton profile of the ionic liquid 1,3-dimethylimidazolium chloride

We present a comprehensive simulation study on the solid-liquid phase transition of the ionic liquid 1,3-dimethylimidazolium chloride in terms of the changes in the atomic structure and their effect on the Compton profile. The structures were obtained by using ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. Chosen radial distribution functions of the liquid structure are presented and found generally to be in good agreement with previous ab initio molecular dynamics and neutron scattering studies. The main contributions to the predicted difference Compton profile are found to arise from intermolecular changes in the phase transition. This prediction can be used for interpreting future experiments.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2026

Noncollinear spin order, field-induced transitions, and short-range correlations in Cu 4 ⁢SO 4 ⁢(OH) 6

We report a comprehensive study of spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ quantum magnet brochantite, Cu 4 ⁢SO 4 ⁢(OH) 6 , combining high-field thermodynamic measurements, polarized neutron diffraction, inelastic neutron scattering, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Using bulk magnetization and specific heat measurements we construct the magnetic 𝐻−𝑇 phase diagram for magnetic fields applied along main crystallographic directions up to 24.1 T. Polarized neutron diffraction reveals a noncollinear magnetic ground state confined to the 𝑎⁢𝑏 plane. A field-induced transition is observed for magnetic fields in the 𝑎⁢𝑏 plane whose critical field and character evolve continuously with field direction in the 𝑎⁢𝑏 plane. While the transition for 𝐻 ∥ 𝑏 might be a spin-flop-like transition, the one for 𝐻 ∥ 𝑎 resembles the short-range correlated state above 𝑇 N , suggesting a magnetic configuration related to the quasi-two-dimensional correlations in the 𝑏⁢𝑐 planes. The experimental results demonstrate that the ground-state and field-induced phases cannot be explained by a simple XXZ model with a single dominant exchange interaction and that weaker interchain and anisotropic interactions have to be taken into account. Our work establishes brochantite as a low-symmetry Cu-based quantum magnet with noncollinear order and complex field-induced behavior.

Prokhnenko, Oleksandr [Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (H↗
DOE OSTI2014

The chiral phase transition of QED{sub 3} around the critical number of fermion flavors

At zero temperature and density, the nature of the chiral phase transition in QED{sub 3} with N{sub f} massless fermion flavors is investigated. To this end, in Landau gauge, we numerically solve the coupled Dyson–Schwinger equations for the fermion and boson propagator within the bare and simplified Ball–Chiu vertices separately. It is found that, in the bare vertex approximation, the system undergoes a high-order continuous phase transition from the Nambu–Goldstone phase into the Wigner phase when the number of fermion flavors N{sub f} reaches the critical number N{sub f,c}, while the system exhibits a typical characteristic of second-order phase transition for the simplified Ball–Chiu vertex.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2023

Intrinsic 1${T}^{{\prime} }$ phase induced in atomically thin 2 H -MoTe 2 by a single terahertz pulse

The polymorphic transition from 2H to 1${T}^{{\prime} }$-MoTe 2 , which was thought to be induced by high-energy photon irradiation among many other means, has been intensely studied for its technological relevance in nanoscale transistors due to the remarkable improvement in electrical performance. However, it remains controversial whether a crystalline 1${T}^{{\prime} }$ phase is produced because optical signatures of this putative transition are found to be associated with the formation of tellurium clusters instead. Here we demonstrate the creation of an intrinsic 1${T}^{{\prime} }$ lattice after irradiating a mono- or few-layer 2H-MoTe 2 with a single field-enhanced terahertz pulse. Unlike optical pulses, the low terahertz photon energy limits possible structural damages. We further develop a single-shot terahertz-pump-second-harmonic-probe technique and reveal a transition out of the 2H-phase within 10 ns after photoexcitation. Our results not only provide important insights to resolve the long-standing debate over the light-induced polymorphic transition in MoTe 2 but also highlight the unique capability of strong-field terahertz pulses in manipulating quantum materials.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Clogging, dynamics, and reentrant fluid for active matter on periodic substrates

Here, we examine the collective states of run-and-tumble active matter disks driven over a periodic obstacle array. When the drive is applied along a symmetry direction of the array, we find a clog-free uniform liquid state for low activity, while at higher activity, the density becomes increasingly heterogeneous and an active clogged state emerges in which the mobility is strongly reduced. For driving along nonsymmetry or incommensurate directions, there are two different clogging behaviors consisting of a drive-dependent clogged state in the low activity thermal limit and a drive-independent clogged state at high activity. These regimes are separated by a uniform flowing liquid at intermediate activity. There is a critical activity level above which the thermal clogged state does not occur, as well as an optimal activity level that maximizes the disk mobility. Thermal clogged states are dependent on the driving direction while active clogged states are not. In the low activity regime, diluting the obstacles produces a monotonic increase in the mobility; however, for large activities, the mobility is more robust against obstacle dilution. We also examine the velocity-force curves for driving along nonsymmetry directions and find that they are linear when the activity is low or intermediate but become nonlinear at high activity and show behavior similar to that found for the plastic depinning of solids. At higher drives, the active clustering is lost. For low activity, we also find a reentrant fluid phase, where the system transitions from a high mobility fluid at low drives to a clogged state at higher drives and then back into another fluid phase at very high drives. We map the regions in which the thermally clogged, partially clogged, active uniform fluid, clustered fluid, active clogged, and directionally locked states occur as a function of disk density, drift force, and activity.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗