Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “BACKSCATTERING”

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 1,423 records · Page 79
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2013

Self-focusing and stimulated Brillouin back-scattering of a long intense laser pulse in a finite temperature relativistic plasma

The nonlinear dynamics of electromagnetic waves propagating through a plasma considering the effects of relativistic mass and ponderomotive nonlinearities is investigated. The modified electron density distribution, the dispersion relation, and the spatial profiles of electromagnetic wave amplitude in the plasma are obtained. It is shown that the cut-off frequency decreases, and there is an intensity range in which the ponderomotive self-focusing takes place. In the upper limit of this range, the laser beam is defocused due to the relativistic ponderomotive force. In addition, the stability of electromagnetic waves to stimulated Brillouin scattering is studied, and the backscattered wave resulting from decay of high power electromagnetic beam is resolved in relativistic regime. The study of effects of electron density and temperature on the growth rate of backscattered wave has been shown that by increasing these effects, the growth rate of instability increases.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Characterization of microstructure with low frequency electromagnetic techniques

A new computational method for characterizing the relationship between surface crystallography and electrical conductivity in anisotropic materials with low frequency electromagnetic techniques is presented. The method is discussed from the standpoint of characterizing the orientation of a single grain, as well as characterizing statistical information about grain ensembles in the microstructure. Large-area electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) data was obtained and used in conjunction with a synthetic aperture approach to simulate the eddy current response of beta annealed Ti-6Al-4V. Experimental eddy current results are compared to the computed eddy current approximations based on electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) data, demonstrating good agreement. The detectability of notches in the presence of noise from microstructure is analyzed with the described simulation method and advantages and limitations of this method are discussed relative to other NDE techniques for such analysis.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Imperfect relativistic mirrors in the quantum regime

The collective backscattering of intense laser radiation by energetic electron beams is considered in the relativistic quantum regime. Exact solutions for the radiation field are obtained, for arbitrary electron pulse shapes and laser intensities. The electron beams act as imperfect nonlinear mirrors on the incident laser radiation. This collective backscattering process can lead to the development of new sources of ultra-short pulse radiation in the gamma-ray domain. Numerical examples show that, for plausible experimental conditions, intense pulses of gamma-rays, due to the double Doppler shift of the harmonics of the incident laser radiation, can be produced using the available technology, with durations less than 1 as.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

The topological insulator in a fractal space

We investigate the band structures and transport properties of a two-dimensional model of topological insulator, with a fractal edge or a fractal bulk. A fractal edge does not affect the robust transport even when the fractal pattern has reached the resolution of the atomic-scale, because the bulk is still well insulating against backscattering. On the other hand, a fractal bulk can support the robust transport only when the fractal resolution is much larger than a critical size. Smaller resolution of bulk fractal pattern will lead to remarkable backscattering and localization, due to strong couplings of opposite edge states on narrow sub-edges which appear almost everywhere in the fractal bulk.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

Coulomb impurity scattering in topological insulator thin films

Inter-surface coupling in thin-film topological insulators can reduce the surface state mobility by an order of magnitude in low-temperature transport measurements. The reduction is caused by a reduction in the group velocity and an increased s{sub z} component of the surface-state spin which weakens the selection rule against large-angle scattering. An intersurface potential splits the degenerate bands into a Rashba-like bandstructure. This reduces the intersurface coupling, it largely restores the selection rule against large angle scattering, and the ring-shaped valence band further reduces backscattering by requiring, on average, larger momentum transfer for backscattering events. The effects of temperature, Fermi level, and intersurface potential on the Coulomb impurity scattering limited mobility are analyzed and discussed.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

In situ measurement of low-Z material coating thickness on high Z substrate for tokamaks

Rutherford backscattering of energetic particles can be used to determine the thickness of a coating of a low-Z material over a heavier substrate. Simulations indicate that 5 MeV alpha particles from an {sup 241}Am source can be used to measure the thickness of a Li coating on Mo tiles between 0.5 and 15 μm thick. Using a 0.1 mCi source, a thickness measurement can be accomplished in 2 h of counting. This technique could be used to measure any thin, low-Z material coating (up to 1 mg/cm{sup 2} thick) on a high-Z substrate, such as Be on W, B on Mo, or Li on Mo. By inserting a source and detector on a moveable probe, this technique could be used to provide an in situ measurement of the thickness of Li coating on NSTX-U Mo tiles. A test stand with an alpha source and an annular solid-state detector was used to investigate the measurable range of low-Z material thicknesses on Mo tiles.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2014

Smart antennas based on graphene

We report two configurations of smart graphene antennas, in which either the radiation pattern of the antenna or the backscattering of the periodic metallic arrays is controlled by DC biases that induce metal-insulator reversible transitions of graphene monolayers. Such a transition from a high surface resistance (no bias) to a low surface resistance state (finite bias voltage) causes the radiation pattern of metallic antennas backed with graphene to change dramatically, from omnidirectional to broadside. Moreover, reflectarrays enhance the backscattered field due to the same metal-dielectric transition.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Photon mirror acceleration in the quantum regime

Reflection of an electron beam by an intense laser pulse is considered. This is the so-called photon mirror configuration for laser acceleration in vacuum, where the energy of the incident electron beam is nearly double-Doppler shifted due to reflection on the laser pulse front. A wave-electron optical description for electron reflection and resonant backscattering, due to both linear electric field force and quadratic ponderomotive force, is provided beyond the paraxial approximation. This is done by assuming that the single electron of the beam is spin-less and therefore its motion can be described by a quantum scalar field whose spatiotemporal evolution is governed by the Klein-Gordon equation (Klein-Gordon field). Our present model, not only confirms the classical results but also shows the occurrence of purely quantum effects, such as partial reflection of the incident electron beam and enhanced backscattering due to Bragg resonance.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Bandgap and optical absorption edge of GaAs{sub 1−x}Bi{sub x} alloys with 0 < x < 17.8%

The compositional dependence of the fundamental bandgap of pseudomorphic GaAs{sub 1−x}Bi{sub x} layers on GaAs substrates is studied at room temperature by optical transmission and photoluminescence spectroscopies. All GaAs{sub 1−x}Bi{sub x} films (0 ≤ x ≤ 17.8%) show direct optical bandgaps, which decrease with increasing Bi content, closely following density functional theory predictions. The smallest measured bandgap is 0.52 eV (∼2.4 μm) at 17.8% Bi. Extrapolating a fit to the data, the GaAs{sub 1−x}Bi{sub x} bandgap is predicted to reach 0 eV at 35% Bi. Below the GaAs{sub 1−x}Bi{sub x} bandgap, exponential absorption band tails are observed with Urbach energies 3–6 times larger than that of bulk GaAs. The Urbach parameter increases with Bi content up to 5.5% Bi, and remains constant at higher concentrations. The lattice constant and Bi content of GaAs{sub 1−x}Bi{sub x} layers (0 < x ≤ 19.4%) are studied using high resolution x-ray diffraction and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy. The relaxed lattice constant of hypothetical zincblende GaBi is estimated to be 6.33 ± 0.05 Å, from extrapolation of the Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and x-ray diffraction data.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Compact tunable Compton x-ray source from laser-plasma accelerator and plasma mirror

We present an in-depth experimental-computational study of the parameters necessary to optimize a tunable, quasi-monoenergetic, efficient, low-background Compton backscattering (CBS) x-ray source that is based on the self-aligned combination of a laser-plasma accelerator (LPA) and a plasma mirror (PM). The main findings are (1) an LPA driven in the blowout regime by 30 TW, 30 fs laser pulses produce not only a high-quality, tunable, quasi-monoenergetic electron beam, but also a high-quality, relativistically intense (a{sub 0} ∼ 1) spent drive pulse that remains stable in profile and intensity over the LPA tuning range. (2) A thin plastic film near the gas jet exit retro-reflects the spent drive pulse efficiently into oncoming electrons to produce CBS x-rays without detectable bremsstrahlung background. Meanwhile, anomalous far-field divergence of the retro-reflected light demonstrates relativistic “denting” of the PM. Exploiting these optimized LPA and PM conditions, we demonstrate quasi-monoenergetic (50% FWHM energy spread), tunable (75–200 KeV) CBS x-rays, characteristics previously achieved only on more powerful laser systems by CBS of a split-off, counter-propagating pulse. Moreover, laser-to-x-ray photon conversion efficiency (∼6 × 10{sup −12}) exceeds that of any previous LPA-based quasi-monoenergetic Compton source. Particle-in-cell simulations agree well with the measurements.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Intrinsic magnetic properties of L1{sub 0} FeNi obtained from meteorite NWA 6259

FeNi having the tetragonal L1{sub 0} crystal structure is a promising new rare-earth-free permanent magnet material. Laboratory synthesis is challenging, however, tetragonal L1{sub 0} FeNi—the mineral “tetrataenite”—has been characterized using specimens found in nickel-iron meteorites. Most notably, the meteorite NWA 6259 recovered from Northwest Africa is 95 vol. % tetrataenite with a composition of 43 at. % Ni. Hysteresis loops were measured as a function of sample orientation on a specimen cut from NWA 6259 in order to rigorously deduce the intrinsic hard magnetic properties of its L1{sub 0} phase. Electron backscatter diffraction showed that NWA 6259 is strongly textured, containing L1{sub 0} grains oriented along any one of the three equivalent cubic directions of the parent fcc structure. The magnetic structure was modeled as a superposition of the three orthonormal uniaxial variants. By simultaneously fitting first-quadrant magnetization data for 13 different orientations of the sample with respect to the applied field direction, the intrinsic magnetic properties were estimated to be saturation magnetization 4πM{sub s} = 14.7 kG and anisotropy field H{sub a} = 14.4 kOe. The anisotropy constant K = 0.84 MJ/m{sup 3} is somewhat smaller than the value K = 1.3 MJ/m{sup 3} obtained by earlier researchers from nominally equiatomic FeNi prepared by neutron irradiation accompanied by annealing in a magnetic field, suggesting that higher Ni content (fewer Fe antisite defects) may improve the anisotropy. The fit also indicated that NWA 6259 contains one dominant variant (62% by volume), the remainder of the sample being a second variant, and the third variant being absent altogether.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

The development of laser-plasma interaction program LAP3D on thousands of processors

Modeling laser-plasma interaction (LPI) processes in real-size experiments scale is recognized as a challenging task. For explorering the influence of various instabilities in LPI processes, a three-dimensional laser and plasma code (LAP3D) has been developed, which includes filamentation, stimulated Brillouin backscattering (SBS), stimulated Raman backscattering (SRS), non-local heat transport and plasmas flow computation modules. In this program, a second-order upwind scheme is applied to solve the plasma equations which are represented by an Euler fluid model. Operator splitting method is used for solving the equations of the light wave propagation, where the Fast Fourier translation (FFT) is applied to compute the diffraction operator and the coordinate translations is used to solve the acoustic wave equation. The coupled terms of the different physics processes are computed by the second-order interpolations algorithm. In order to simulate the LPI processes in massively parallel computers well, several parallel techniques are used, such as the coupled parallel algorithm of FFT and fluid numerical computation, the load balance algorithm, and the data transfer algorithm. Now the phenomena of filamentation, SBS and SRS have been studied in low-density plasma successfully with LAP3D. Scalability of the program is demonstrated with a parallel efficiency above 50% on about ten thousand of processors.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Amplification of a seed pumped by a chirped laser in the strong coupling Brillouin regime

Seed amplification via Brillouin backscattering of a long pump laser-pulse is considered. The interaction takes place in the so called strong coupling regime. Pump chirping is applied to mitigate spontaneous Raman backscattering of the pump before interacting with the seed. The strong coupling regime facilitates stronger exponential growth and narrower seeds compared to the so called weak coupling regime, although in the latter the scaling with pump amplitude is stronger. Strong coupling is achieved when the pump laser amplitude exceeds a certain threshold. It is shown how the chirp influences both the linear as well as the nonlinear amplification process. First, linear amplification as well as the seed profiles are determined in dependence of the chirping rate. In contrast to the weak coupling situation, the evolution is not symmetric with respect to the sign of the chirping rate. In the nonlinear stage of the amplification, we find an intrinsic chirp of the seed pulse even for an un-chirped pump. We show that chirping the pump may have a strong influence on the shape of the seed in the nonlinear amplification phase. Also, the influence of pump chirp on the efficiency of Brillouin seed amplification is discussed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Large grain CBMM Nb ingot slices: An ideal test bed for exploring the microstructure-electromagnetic property relationships relevant to SRF

High purity (RRR > 200), large grain (> 5-10 cm) niobium ingot slices have been successfully used to fabricate radio frequency (RF) cavities for particle accelerators. They offer significantly reduced fabrication cost by eliminating processing steps and furthermore they provide the opportunity to study the influence of individual grain boundaries in SRF Nb. Here we summarize our measurements of grain boundary (GB) effects on the superconducting properties of large grain high purity niobium sheet manufactured by CBMM. We show by magneto-optical (MO) imaging that GBs allow premature flux penetration, but only when they are oriented close to the direction of the magnetic field. However, even low angle GBs produced by minor deformations commensurate with half-cell forming produce localized flux penetration. The transport properties of grain boundaries were investigated by direct transport across them and evidence for preferential vortex flow along the GBs of SRF Nb was observed for the first time. Using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and micro crystallographic analysis with electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD), we were able to quantitatively characterize surface substructures that can lead to localized thermal breakdown of superconductivity. Important to these studies was the development of sample preparation techniques that made the cutout single, bi-crystal and tri-crystal Nb coupons as representative as possible of the surface properties of cavities manufactured by standard techniques.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2015

Identifying the dominant interstitial complex in dilute GaAsN alloys

Significant composition-dependent incorporation of N into non-substitutional sites is often reported for dilute GaAsN alloys. To distinguish (N-N){sub As}, (N-As){sub As}, and (As{sub Ga}-N{sub As}) complexes, we compare Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and nuclear reaction analysis (NRA) spectra with Monte Carlo-Molecular Dynamics simulations along the [100], [110], and [111] directions. For the Monte Carlo simulation, we assume that (N-N){sub As} is aligned along the [111] direction, while (N-As){sub As} is aligned along the [010] direction. The measured channeling NRA spectra exhibit the highest (lowest) yield in the [111] ([100]) directions. Similar trends are observed for simulations of (N-As){sub As}, suggesting that (N-As){sub As} is the dominant interstitial complex in dilute GaAsN.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Gyrokinetic simulation of driftwave instability in field-reversed configuration

Following the recent remarkable progress in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) stability control in the C-2U advanced beam driven field-reversed configuration (FRC), turbulent transport has become one of the foremost obstacles on the path towards an FRC-based fusion reactor. Significant effort has been made to expand kinetic simulation capabilities in FRC magnetic geometry. The recently upgraded Gyrokinetic Toroidal Code (GTC) now accommodates realistic magnetic geometry from the C-2U experiment at Tri Alpha Energy, Inc. and is optimized to efficiently handle the FRC's magnetic field line orientation. Initial electrostatic GTC simulations find that ion-scale instabilities are linearly stable in the FRC core for realistic pressure gradient drives. Estimated instability thresholds from linear GTC simulations are qualitatively consistent with critical gradients determined from experimental Doppler backscattering fluctuation data, which also find ion scale modes to be depressed in the FRC core. Beyond GTC, A New Code (ANC) has been developed to accurately resolve the magnetic field separatrix and address the interaction between the core and scrape-off layer regions, which ultimately determines global plasma confinement in the FRC. The current status of ANC and future development targets are discussed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Lattice damage and compositional changes in Xe ion irradiated In{sub x}Ga{sub 1-x}N (x = 0.32−1.0) single crystals

Lattice disorder and compositional changes in In{sub x}Ga{sub 1-x}N (x = 0.32, 0.47, 0.7, 0.8, and 1.0) films on GaN/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} substrates, induced by room-temperature irradiation of 5 MeV Xe ions, have been investigated using both Rutherford backscattering spectrometry under ion-channeling conditions and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry. The results show that for a fluence of 3 × 10{sup 13 }cm{sup −2}, the relative level of lattice disorder in In{sub x}Ga{sub 1-x}N increases monotonically from 59% to 90% with increasing indium concentration x from 0.32 to 0.7; a further increase in x up to 1.0 leads to little increase in the disorder level. In contrast to Ga-rich In{sub x}Ga{sub 1-x}N (x = 0.32 and 0.47), significant volume swelling of up to ∼25% accompanied with oxidation in In-rich In{sub x}Ga{sub 1-x}N (x = 0.7, 0.8, and 1.0) is observed. In addition, irradiation-induced atomic mixing occurs at the interface of In-rich In{sub x}Ga{sub 1-x}N and GaN. The results from this study indicate an extreme susceptibility of the high In-content In{sub x}Ga{sub 1-x}N to heavy-ion irradiation, and suggest that cautions must be exercised in applying ion-implantation techniques to these materials at room temperature. Further studies of the irradiation behavior at elevated temperatures are warranted.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗