Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “attributes”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,369 records · Page 76
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2014

Observation of incomplete fusion reactions at l < l {sub crit}

In order to understand the presence of incomplete fusion at low energies i.e. 4-7MeV/nucleon and also to study its dependence on various entrance-channel parameters, the two type of measurements (i) excitation function for {sup 12}C+{sup 159}Tb, and (ii) forward recoil ranges for {sup 12}C+{sup 159}Tb systems have been performed. The experimentally measured excitation functions have been analyzed within the framework of compound nucleus decay using statistical model code PACE4. Analysis of data suggests the production of xn/px)n-channels via complete fusion, as these are found to be well reproduced by PACE4 predictions, while, a significant enhancement in the excitation functions of α-emitting channels has been observed over the theoretical ones, which has been attributed due to the incomplete fusion processes. Further, the incomplete fusion events observed in case of forward recoil range measurements have been explained on the basis of the breakup fusion model, where these events may be attributed to the fusion of {sup 8}Be and/or {sup 4}He from {sup 12}C projectile to the target nucleus. In the present work, the SUMRULE model calculations are found to highly underestimate the observed incomplete fusion cross-sections which indicate that the l-values lower than l {sub crit} (limit of complete fusion) significantly contribute to the incomplete fusion reactions.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Enhancement of the photovoltaic performance in P3HT: PbS hybrid solar cells using small size PbS quantum dots

Different approaches of surface modification of the quantum dots (QDs), namely, solution-phase (octylamine, octanethiol) and post-deposition (acetic acid, 1,4-benzenedithiol) ligand exchange were used in the fabrication of hybrid bulk heterojunction solar cell containing poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and small (2.4 nm) PbS QDs. We show that replacing oleic acid by shorter chain ligands improves the figures of merit of the solar cells. This can possibly be attributed to a combination of a reduced thickness of the barrier for electron transfer and an optimized phase separation. The best results were obtained for post-deposition ligand exchange by 1,4-benzenedithiol, which improves the power conversion efficiency of solar cells based on a bulk heterojunction of lead sulfide (PbS) QDs and P3HT up to two orders of magnitude over previously reported hybrid cells based on a bulk heterojunction of P3HT:PbS QDs, where the QDs are capped by acetic acid ligands. The optimal performance was obtained for solar cells with 69 wt. % PbS QDs. Besides the ligand effects, the improvement was attributed to the formation of an energetically favorable bulk heterojunction with P3HT, when small size (2.4 nm) PbS QDs were used. Dark current density-voltage (J-V) measurements carried out on the device provided insight into the working mechanism: the comparison between the dark J-V characteristics of the bench mark system P3HT:PCBM and the P3HT:PbS blends allows us to conclude that a larger leakage current and a more efficient recombination are the major factors responsible for the larger losses in the hybrid system.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2014

InGaAs/GaAsP strain balanced multi-quantum wires grown on misoriented GaAs substrates for high efficiency solar cells

Quantum wires (QWRs) form naturally when growing strain balanced InGaAs/GaAsP multi-quantum wells (MQW) on GaAs [100] 6° misoriented substrates under the usual growth conditions. The presence of wires instead of wells could have several unexpected consequences for the performance of the MQW solar cells, both positive and negative, that need to be assessed to achieve high conversion efficiencies. In this letter, we study QWR properties from the point of view of their performance as solar cells by means of transmission electron microscopy, time resolved photoluminescence and external quantum efficiency (EQE) using polarised light. We find that these QWRs have longer lifetimes than nominally identical QWs grown on exact [100] GaAs substrates, of up to 1 μs, at any level of illumination. We attribute this effect to an asymmetric carrier escape from the nanostructures leading to a strong 1D-photo-charging, keeping electrons confined along the wire and holes in the barriers. In principle, these extended lifetimes could be exploited to enhance carrier collection and reduce dark current losses. Light absorption by these QWRs is 1.6 times weaker than QWs, as revealed by EQE measurements, which emphasises the need for more layers of nanostructures or the use light trapping techniques. Contrary to what we expected, QWR show very low absorption anisotropy, only 3.5%, which was the main drawback a priori of this nanostructure. We attribute this to a reduced lateral confinement inside the wires. These results encourage further study and optimization of QWRs for high efficiency solar cells.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

The production mechanisms of OH radicals in a pulsed direct current plasma jet

The production mechanism of OH radicals in a pulsed DC plasma jet is studied by a two-dimensional (2-D) plasma jet model and a one-dimensional (1-D) discharge model. For the plasma jet in the open air, electron-impact dissociation of H{sub 2}O, electron neutralization of H{sub 2}O{sup +}, as well as dissociation of H{sub 2}O by O(1D) are found to be the main reactions to generate the OH species. The contribution of the dissociation of H{sub 2}O by electron is more than the others. The additions of N{sub 2}, O{sub 2}, air, and H{sub 2}O into the working gas increase the OH density outside the tube slightly, which is attributed to more electrons produced by Penning ionization. On the other hand, the additions of O{sub 2} and H{sub 2}O into the working gas increase the OH density inside the tube substantially, which is attributed to the increased O (1D) and H{sub 2}O concentration, respectively. The gas flow will transport high density OH out of the tube during pulse off period. It is also shown that the plasma chemistry and reactivity can be effectively controlled by the pulse numbers. These results are supported by the laser induced fluorescence measurements and are relevant to several applications of atmospheric-pressure plasmas in health care, medicine, and materials processing.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Crystal orientation effects on helium ion depth distributions and adatom formation processes in plasma-facing tungsten

We present atomistic simulations that show the effect of surface orientation on helium depth distributions and surface feature formation as a result of low-energy helium plasma exposure. We find a pronounced effect of surface orientation on the initial depth of implanted helium ions, as well as a difference in reflection and helium retention across different surface orientations. Our results indicate that single helium interstitials are sufficient to induce the formation of adatom/substitutional helium pairs under certain highly corrugated tungsten surfaces, such as (1 1 1)-orientations, leading to the formation of a relatively concentrated layer of immobile helium immediately below the surface. The energies involved for helium-induced adatom formation on (1 1 1) and (2 1 1) surfaces are exoergic for even a single adatom very close to the surface, while (0 0 1) and (0 1 1) surfaces require two or even three helium atoms in a cluster before a substitutional helium cluster and adatom will form with reasonable probability. This phenomenon results in much higher initial helium retention during helium plasma exposure to (1 1 1) and (2 1 1) tungsten surfaces than is observed for (0 0 1) or (0 1 1) surfaces and is much higher than can be attributed to differences in the initial depth distributions alone. The layer thus formed may serve as nucleation sites for further bubble formation and growth or as a source of material embrittlement or fatigue, which may have implications for the formation of tungsten “fuzz” in plasma-facing divertors for magnetic-confinement nuclear fusion reactors and/or the lifetime of such divertors.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Comparative study of polar and semipolar (112⁻2) InGaN layers grown by metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy

InGaN layers were grown simultaneously on (112⁻2) GaN and (0001) GaN templates by metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy. At higher growth temperature (≥750°C), the indium content (<15%) of the (112⁻2) and (0001) InGaN layers was similar. However, for temperatures less than 750°C, the indium content of the (112⁻2) InGaN layers (15%–26%) were generally lower than those with (0001) orientation (15%–32%). The compositional deviation was attributed to the different strain relaxations between the (112⁻2) and (0001) InGaN layers. Room temperature photoluminescence measurements of the (112⁻2) InGaN layers showed an emission wavelength that shifts gradually from 380 nm to 580 nm with decreasing growth temperature (or increasing indium composition). The peak emission wavelength of the (112⁻2) InGaN layers with an indium content of more than 10% blue-shifted a constant value of ≈(50–60) nm when using higher excitation power densities. This blue-shift was attributed to band filling effects in the layers.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Understanding pop-ins in spherical nanoindentation

In this study, pop-ins, or sudden displacement-bursts at constant load in a nanoindentation test, are typically attributed to the difficulty of setting up potent dislocation sources in the very small indentation zones in these experiments. Such displacement (and strain) bursts would intuitively indicate a sharp drop in stress during the pop-in event itself. However, spherical indentation stress-strain curves routinely exhibit a high and stable indentation stress value during the pop-in, and the indentation stresses decrease only after a further finite amount of additional indentation displacement has been applied. In order to understand this discrepancy, we utilize a combination of interrupted spherical indentation tests along with depth profiling of the residual indentation surfaces using in-situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) to study pop-ins. The AFM surface profile maps show that there is an asymmetric profile change over a limited region around the indentation contact area for a single pop-in; the asymmetry disappears upon further loading beyond the pop-in. A plausible sequence of physical processes (related to metal plasticity) occurring underneath the indenter during and immediately after the occurrence of the pop-in is proposed to explain these observations.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Femtosecond time-resolved XUV + UV photoelectron imaging of pure helium nanodroplets

Liquid helium nanodroplets, consisting of on average 2 × 10{sup 6} atoms, are examined using femtosecond time-resolved photoelectron imaging. The droplets are excited by an extreme ultraviolet light pulse centered at 23.7 eV photon energy, leading to states within a band that is associated with the 1s3p and 1s4p Rydberg levels of free helium atoms. The initially excited states and subsequent relaxation dynamics are probed by photoionizing transient species with a 3.2 eV pulse and using velocity map imaging to measure time-dependent photoelectron kinetic energy distributions. Significant differences are seen compared to previous studies with a lower energy (1.6 eV) probe pulse. Three distinct time-dependent signals are analyzed by global fitting. A broad intense signal, centered at an electron kinetic energy (eKE) of 2.3 eV, grows in faster than the experimental time resolution and decays in ∼100 fs. This feature is attributed to the initially excited droplet state. A second broad transient feature, with eKE ranging from 0.5 to 4 eV, appears at a rate similar to the decay of the initially excited state and is attributed to rapid atomic reconfiguration resulting in Franck-Condon overlap with a broader range of cation geometries, possibly involving formation of a Rydberg-excited (He{sub n})* core within the droplet. An additional relaxation pathway leads to another short-lived feature with vertical binding energies ≳2.4 eV, which is identified as a transient population within the lower-lying 1s2p Rydberg band. Ionization at 3.2 eV shows an enhanced contribution from electronically excited droplet states compared to ejected Rydberg atoms, which dominate at 1.6 eV. This is possibly the result of increased photoelectron generation from the bulk of the droplet by the more energetic probe photons.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2014

Charge transport in single CuO nanowires

Charge transport in single crystal, p-type cupric oxide (CuO) nanowire (NW) was studied through temperature based (120 K–400 K) current-voltage measurements. CuO NW with a diameter of 85 nm was attached to Au electrodes 2.25 μm apart, using dielectrophoresis. At low electrical field (<0.89 × 103 V/cm), an ohmic conduction is observed with an activation energy of 272 meV. The injected electrons fill traps with an average energy, ET = 26.6 meV and trap density, NT = 3.4 × 1015 cm−3. After the traps are saturated, space charge limited current mechanism becomes dominant. For 120 K ≤ T ≤ 210 K phonon scattering limits mobility. For T ≥ 220 K, a thermally activated mobility is observed and is attributed to small polaron hopping with an activation energy of 44 meV. This mechanism yields a hole mobility of 0.0015 cm2/V s and an effective hole concentration of 4 × 1018 cm−3 at 250 K.

Wu, Junnan↗
DOE OSTI2014

Influence of different sulfur to selenium ratios on the structural and electronic properties of Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se){sub 2} thin films and solar cells formed by the stacked elemental layer process

In this study, we investigate the effect of different elemental selenium to elemental sulfur ratios on the chalcopyrite phase formation in Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se){sub 2} thin films. The films are formed by the stacked elemental layer process. The structural and electronic properties of the thin films and solar cells are analyzed by means of scanning electron microscopy, glow discharge optical emission spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, Raman spectroscopy, spectral photoluminescence as well as current-voltage, and quantum efficiency measurements. The influence of different S/(S+Se) ratios on the anion incorporation and on the Ga/In distribution is investigated. We find a homogenous sulfur concentration profile inside the film from the top surface to the bottom. External quantum efficiency measurements show that the band edge of the solar cell device is shifted to shorter wavelength, which enhances the open-circuit voltages. The relative increase of the open-circuit voltage with S/(S+Se) ratio is lower than expected from the band gap energy trend, which is attributed to the presence of S-induced defects. We also observe a linear decrease of the short-circuit current density with increasing S/(S+Se) ratio which can be explained by a reduced absorption. Above a critical S/(S+Se) ratio of around 0.61, the fill factor drops drastically, which is accompanied by a strong series resistance increase which may be attributed to changes in the back contact or p-n junction properties.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Balancing high gain and bandwidth in multilayer organic photodetectors with tailored carrier blocking layers

We present detailed studies of the high photocurrent gain behavior in multilayer organic photodiodes containing tailored carrier blocking layers we reported earlier in a Letter [W. T. Hammond and J. Xue, Appl. Phys. Lett. 97, 073302 (2010)], in which a high photocurrent gain of up to 500 was attributed to the accumulation of photogenerated holes at the anode/organic active layer interface and the subsequent drastic increase in secondary electron injection from the anode. Here, we show that both the hole-blocking layer structure and layer thickness strongly influence the magnitude of the photocurrent gain. Temporal studies revealed that the frequency response of such devices is limited by three different processes with lifetimes of 10 μs, 202 μs, and 2.72 ms for the removal of confined holes, which limit the 3 dB bandwidth of these devices to 1.4 kHz. Furthermore, the composition in the mixed organic donor-acceptor photoactive layer affects both gain and bandwidth, which is attributed to the varying charge transport characteristics, and the optimal gain-bandwidth product is achieved with approximately 30% donor content. Finally, these devices show a high dynamic range of more than seven orders of magnitude, although the photocurrent shows a sublinear dependence on the incident optical power.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2014

Giant room-temperature magnetodielectric coupling in spark plasma sintered brownmillerite ceramics

The dielectric, magnetic, and magnetodielectric properties of Ca{sub 2}FeAO{sub 5+δ} (A = Al, Ga) ceramics were investigated together with their crystal structures. Rietveld refinement of the X-ray diffraction data indicated that the space group of the Ca{sub 2}FeAlO{sub 5+δ} ceramic was Ibm2, whereas that of the Ca{sub 2}FeGaO{sub 5+δ} ceramic was Pcmn. Dielectric relaxation above room temperature, originating from the Maxwell–Wagner effect and polaronic hole hopping between Fe{sup 3+} and Fe{sup 4+} ions, was observed in both ceramics. Weak ferrimagnetic behavior was identified from the magnetic-field-dependent magnetization in these ceramics, which was attributed to the non-cancelled spins of the antiferromagnetic-ordered Fe{sup 3+} and Fe{sup 4+} ions. An intrinsic, giant, room-temperature magnetodielectric coefficient of up to −23.3% was achieved in the Ca{sub 2}FeAlO{sub 5+δ} ceramic at 50 MHz, which was attributed to the suppression of charge fluctuations of Fe{sup 3+} and Fe{sup 4+} ions in the magnetic field.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Time-resolved terahertz dynamics in thin films of the topological insulator Bi 2 Se 3

We use optical pump–THz probe spectroscopy at low temperatures to study the hot carrier response in thin Bi 2 Se 3 films of several thicknesses, allowing us to separate the bulk from the surface transient response. We find that for thinner films the photoexcitation changes the transport scattering rate and reduces the THz conductivity, which relaxes within 10 picoseconds (ps). For thicker films, the conductivity increases upon photoexcitation and scales with increasing both the film thickness and the optical fluence, with a decay time of approximately 5 ps as well as a much higher scattering rate. Furthermore, these different dynamics are attributed to the surface and bulk electrons, respectively, and demonstrate that long-lived mobile surface photo-carriers can be accessed independently below certain film thicknesses for possible optoelectronic applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Thickness-dependent metal-insulator transition in epitaxial SrRuO{sub 3} ultrathin films

Transport characteristics of ultrathin SrRuO{sub 3} films, deposited epitaxially on TiO{sub 2}-terminated SrTiO{sub 3} (001) single-crystal substrates, were studied as a function of film thickness. Evolution from a metallic to an insulating behavior is observed as the film thickness decreases from 20 to 4 unit cells. In films thicker than 4 unit cells, the transport behavior obeys the Drude low temperature conductivity with quantum corrections, which can be attributed to weak localization. Fitting the data with 2-dimensional localization model indicates that electron-phonon collisions are the main inelastic relaxation mechanism. In the film of 4 unit cells in thickness, the transport behavior follows variable range hopping model, indicating a strongly localized state. Magnetoresistance measurements reveal a likely magnetic anisotropy with the magnetic easy axis along the out-of-plane direction.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Characterization of one-dimensional molecular chains of 4,4′-biphenyl diisocyanide on Au(111) by scanning tunneling microscopy

The morphology and electronic structure of vapor deposited 4,4′-biphenyldiisocyanide (BPDI) on a Au(111) surface were investigated using variable-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy. When deposited at room temperature, BPDI molecules form one-dimensional molecular chains similar to that recently observed for the structurally related 1,4-phenyl diisocyanide (PDI). Compared to PDI, the longer periodicity for the BPDI molecular chains is consistent with the addition of a second phenyl ring and supports a structural model in which the BPDI molecules lie parallel to the surface and interconnected by Au-adatoms. The molecular chains are mostly aligned along the [11{sup -}0] direction of the Au(111) substrate, but exhibit frequent changes in angle that are consistent with directions between fcc and hcp three-fold hollow sites. Dispersion-corrected density functional theory calculations for one-dimensional chains of BPDI molecules bound end-to-end via their isocyanide groups to Au-adatoms reproduce the observed periodicity of the chains and show that this morphology is energetically favored over upright binding with one free —NC group. The spatially resolved conductance (dI/dV) map for BPDI on Au(111) exhibits a feature centered at −0.67 eV below the Fermi level which are delocalized along the chain with maxima at the Au-adatom and biphenyl positions. This occupied resonant feature is close to that previously observed for the PDI in both photoemission and conductance measurements and is attributed to an occupied interfacial state resulting from BPDI-Au interactions.

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

The electron spin resonance study of heavily nitrogen doped 6H SiC crystals

The magnetic and electronic properties of heavily doped n-type 6H SiC samples with a nitrogen concentration of 10{sup 19} and 4 × 10{sup 19 }cm{sup −3} were studied with electron spin resonance (ESR) at 5–150 K. The observed ESR line with a Dysonian lineshape was attributed to the conduction electrons (CE). The CE ESR (CESR) line was fitted by Lorentzian (insulating phase) (T < 40 K) and by Dysonian lineshape (metallic phase) above 40 K, demonstrating that Mott insulator-metal (IM) transition takes place at ∼40 K, accompanied by significant change in the microwave conductivity. The temperature dependence of CESR linewidth follows the linear Korringa law below 40 K, caused by the coupling of the localized electrons (LE) and CE, and is described by the exponential law above 40 K related to the direct relaxation of the LE magnetic moments via excited levels driven by the exchange interaction of LE with CE. The g-factor of the CESR line (g{sub ‖} = 2.0047(3), g{sub ⊥} = 2.0034(3)) is governed by the coupling of the LE of nitrogen donors at hexagonal and quasi-cubic sites with the CE. The sharp drop in CESR line intensity (25–30 K) was explained by the formation of antiferromagnetic ordering in the spin system close to the IM transition. The second broad ESR line overlapped with CESR signal (5–25 K) was attributed to the exchange line caused by the hopping motion of electrons between occupied and non-occupied positions of the nitrogen donors. Two mechanisms of conduction, hopping and band conduction, were distinguished in the range of T = 10–25 K and T > 50 K, respectively.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

X-ray continuum as a measure of pressure and fuel–shell mix in compressed isobaric hydrogen implosion cores

Pressure, by definition, characterizes the conditions within an isobaric implosion core at peak compression [Gus'kov et al., Nucl. Fusion 16, 957 (1976); Betti et al., Phys. Plasmas 8, 5257 (2001)] and is a key parameter in quantifying its near-ignition performance [Lawson, Proc. Phys. Soc. London, B 70, 6 (1957); Betti et al., Phys. Plasmas 17, 058102 (2010); Goncharov et al., Phys. Plasmas 21, 056315 (2014); and Glenzer et al., Phys. Plasmas 19, 056318 (2012)]. At high spectral energy, where the x-ray emission from an imploded hydrogen core is optically thin, the emissivity profile can be inferred from the spatially resolved core emission. This emissivity, which can be modeled accurately under hot-core conditions, is dependent almost entirely on the pressure when measured within a restricted spectral range matched to the temperature range anticipated for the emitting volume. In this way, the hot core pressure at the time of peak emission can be inferred from the measured free-free emissivity profile. The pressure and temperature dependences of the x-ray emissivity and the neutron-production rate explain a simple scaling of the total filtered x-ray emission as a constant power of the total neutron yield for implosions of targets of similar design over a broad range of shell implosion isentropes. This scaling behavior has been seen in implosion simulations and is confirmed by measurements of high-isentrope implosions [Sangster et al., Phys. Plasmas 20, 056317 (2013)] on the OMEGA laser system [Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)]. Attributing the excess emission from less-stable, low-isentrope implosions, above the level expected from this neutron-yield scaling, to the higher emissivity of shell carbon mixed into the implosion's central hot spot, the hot-spot “fuel–shell” mix mass can be inferred.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗