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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 1,423 records · Page 79
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

Thickness, humidity, and polarization dependent ferroelectric switching and conductivity in Mg doped lithium niobate

Mg doped lithium niobate (Mg:LN) exhibits several advantages over undoped LN such as resistance to photorefraction, lower coercive fields, and p-type conductivity that is particularly pronounced at domain walls and opens up a range of applications, e.g., in domain wall electronics. Engineering of precise domain patterns necessitates well founded knowledge of switching kinetics, which can differ significantly from that of undoped LN. In this work, the role of humidity and sample composition in polarization reversal has been investigated under application of the same voltage waveform. Control over domain sizes has been achieved by varying the sample thickness and initial polarization as well as atmospheric conditions. In addition, local introduction of proton exchanged phases allows for inhibition of domain nucleation or destabilization, which can be utilized to modify domain patterns. Polarization dependent current flow, attributed to charged domain walls and band bending, demonstrates the rectifying ability of Mg:LN in combination with suitable metal electrodes that allow for further tailoring of conductivity.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Adjoint Fokker-Planck equation and runaway electron dynamics

The adjoint Fokker-Planck equation method is applied to study the runaway probability function and the expected slowing-down time for highly relativistic runaway electrons, including the loss of energy due to synchrotron radiation. In direct correspondence to Monte Carlo simulation methods, the runaway probability function has a smooth transition across the runaway separatrix, which can be attributed to effect of the pitch angle scattering term in the kinetic equation. However, for the same numerical accuracy, the adjoint method is more efficient than the Monte Carlo method. The expected slowing-down time gives a novel method to estimate the runaway current decay time in experiments. A new result from this work is that the decay rate of high energy electrons is very slow when E is close to the critical electric field. This effect contributes further to a hysteresis previously found in the runaway electron population.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Control of magnetic relaxation by electric-field-induced ferroelectric phase transition and inhomogeneous domain switching

Electric-field modulation of magnetism in strain-mediated multiferroic heterostructures is considered a promising scheme for enabling memory and magnetic microwave devices with ultralow power consumption. However, it is not well understood how electric-field-induced strain influences magnetic relaxation, an important physical process for device applications. Here, we investigate resonant magnetization dynamics in ferromagnet/ferroelectric multiferroic heterostructures, FeGaB/PMN-PT and NiFe/PMN-PT, in two distinct strain states provided by electric-field-induced ferroelectric phase transition. The strain not only modifies magnetic anisotropy but also magnetic relaxation. In FeGaB/PMN-PT, we observe a nearly two-fold change in intrinsic Gilbert damping by electric field, which is attributed to strain-induced tuning of spin-orbit coupling. By contrast, a small but measurable change in extrinsic linewidth broadening is attributed to inhomogeneous ferroelastic domain switching during the phase transition of the PMN-PT substrate.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Temperature dependent behavior of localized and delocalized electrons in nitrogen-doped 6H SiC crystals as studied by electron spin resonance

We have studied the temperature behavior of the electron spin resonance (ESR) spectra of nitrogen (N) donors in n-type 6H SiC crystals grown by Lely and sublimation sandwich methods (SSM) with donor concentration of 10{sup 17 }cm{sup −3} at T = 60–150 K. A broad signal in the ESR spectrum was observed at T ≥ 80 K with Lorentzian lineshape and g{sub ||} = 2.0043(3), g{sub ⊥} = 2.0030(3), which was previously assigned in the literature to the N donors in the 1s(E) excited state. Based on the analysis of the ESR lineshape, linewidth and g-tensor we attribute this signal to the conduction electrons (CE). The emergence of the CE ESR signal at T > 80 K was explained by the ionization of electrons from the 1s(A{sub 1}) ground and 1s(E) excited states of N donors to the conduction band while the observed reduction of the hyperfine (hf) splitting for the N{sub k1,k2} donors with the temperature increase is attributed to the motional narrowing effect of the hf splitting. The temperature dependence of CE ESR linewidth is described by an exponential law (Orbach process) with the activation energy corresponding to the energy separation between 1s(A{sub 1}) and 1s(E) energy levels for N residing at quasi-cubic sites (N{sub k1,k2}). The theoretical analysis of the temperature dependence of microwave conductivity measured by the contact-free method shows that due to the different position of the Fermi level in two samples the ionization of free electrons occurs from the energy levels of N{sub k1,k2} donors in Lely grown samples and from the energy level of N{sub h} residing at hexagonal position in 6H SiC grown by SSM.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Influence of annealing on the photodeposition of silver on periodically poled lithium niobate

The preferential deposition of metal nanoparticles onto periodically poled lithium niobate surfaces, whereby photogenerated electrons accumulate in accordance with local electric fields and reduce metal ions from solution, is known to depend on the intensity and wavelength of the illumination and the concentration of the solution used. Here, it is shown that for identical deposition conditions (wavelength, intensity, concentration), post-poling annealing for 10 h at 200 °C modifies the surface reactivity through the reorientation of internal defect fields. Whereas silver nanoparticles deposit preferentially on the +z domains on unannealed crystals, the deposition occurs preferentially along 180° domain walls for annealed crystals. In neither case is the deposition selective; limited deposition occurs also on the unannealed –z domain surface and on both annealed domain surfaces. The observed behavior is attributed to a relaxation of the poling-induced defect frustration mediated by Li{sup +} ion mobility during annealing, which affects the accumulation of electrons, thereby changing the surface reactivity. The evolution of the defect field with temperature is corroborated using Raman spectroscopy.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Improved performance in vertical GaN Schottky diode assisted by AlGaN tunneling barrier

In a vertical GaN Schottky barrier diode, the free electron concentration n in the 6-μm-thick drift layer was found to greatly impact the diode reverse leakage current, which increased from 2.1 × 10{sup −7} A to 3.9 × 10{sup −4} A as n increased from 7.5 × 10{sup 14 }cm{sup −3} to 6.3 × 10{sup 15 }cm{sup −3} at a reverse bias of 100 V. By capping the drift layer with an ultrathin 5-nm graded AlGaN layer, reverse leakage was reduced by more than three orders of magnitude with the same n in the drift layer. We attribute this to the increased Schottky barrier height with the AlGaN at the surface. Meanwhile, the polarization field within the graded AlGaN effectively shortened the depletion depth, which led to the formation of tunneling current at a relatively small forward bias. The turn-on voltage in the vertical Schottky diodes was reduced from 0.77 V to 0.67 V—an advantage in reducing conduction loss in power switching applications.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Photoreflectance study of the near-band-edge transitions of chemical vapor deposition-grown mono- and few-layer MoS{sub 2} films

Room-temperature photoreflectance (PR) and reflectance (R) spectroscopy are utilized to investigate the near-band-edge transitions of molybdenum disulfide (MoS{sub 2}) thin films grown on sapphire substrates by a hot-wall chemical vapor deposition system. The layer thickness and optical properties of the MoS{sub 2} thin films are confirmed by Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscope, and photoluminescence (PL) analysis. The B exciton shows relatively weak PL intensity in comparing with the A exciton even for monolayer MoS{sub 2} films. In the R spectrum of few‐layer MoS{sub 2}, it is not possible to clearly observe exciton related features. The PR spectra have two sharp, derivative-like features on a featureless background. Throughout the PR lineshape fitting, the transition energies are designated as the A and B excitons at the K-point of the Brillouin zone, but at room temperature there seems to be no distinguishable feature corresponding to an H‐point transition for the mono- and few-layer MoS{sub 2} films unlike in bulk. These transition energies are slightly larger than those obtained by PL, which is attributed to the Stokes shifts related to doping level. The obtained values of valence-band spin-orbit splitting are in good agreement with those from other experimental methods. By comparing the PR lineshapes, the dominant modulation mechanism is attributed to variations of the exciton transition energies due to change in the built-in electric field. On the strength of this study, PR spectroscopy is demonstrated as a powerful technique for characterizing the near-band-edge transitions of MoS{sub 2} from monolayer to bulk.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Effects of aging time and temperature of Fe-1wt.%Cu on magnetic Barkhausen noise and FORC

Magnetic Barkhausen noise (MBN), hysteresis measurements, first order reversal curves (FORC), Vickers microhardness, and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) analyses were performed on Fe-1wt.%Cu (Fe-Cu) samples isothermally aged at 700°C for 0.5 – 25 hours to obtain samples with different sized Cu precipitates and dislocation structures. Fe-Cu is used to simulate the thermal and irradiation-induced defects in copper-containing nuclear reactor materials such as cooling system pipes and pressure vessel materials. The sample series showed an initial increase followed by a decrease in hardness and coercivity with aging time, which is explained by Cu precipitates formation and growth as observed by TEM measurements. Further, the MBN envelope showed a continuous decrease in its magnitude and the appearance of a second peak with aging. Also, FORC diagrams showed multiple peaks whose intensity and location changed for different aging time. The changes in FORC diagrams are attributed to combined changes of the magnetic behavior due to Cu precipitate characteristics and dislocation structure. A second series of samples aged at 850°C, which is above the solid solution temperature of Fe-Cu, was studied to isolate the effects of dislocations. These samples showed a continuous decrease in MBN amplitude with aging time although the coercivity and hardness did not change significantly. The decrease of MBN amplitude and the appearance of the second MBN envelope peak are attributed to the changes in dislocation density and structure. This study shows that the effect of dislocations on MBN and FORC of Fe-Cu materials can vary significantly and should be considered in interpreting magnetic signatures.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Hybrid quantum dot-tin disulfide field-effect transistors with improved photocurrent and spectral responsivity

We report an improved photosensitivity in few-layer tin disulfide (SnS 2 ) field-effect transistors(FETs) following doping with CdSe/ZnS core/shell quantum dots(QDs). The hybrid QD-SnS 2 FET devices achieve more than 500% increase in the photocurrent response compared with the starting SnS 2 -only FET device and a spectral responsivity reaching over 650 A/W at 400 nm wavelength. The negligible electrical conductance in a control QD-only FET device suggests that the energy transfer between QDs and SnS 2 is the main mechanism responsible for the sensitization effect, which is consistent with the strong spectral overlap between QDphotoluminescence and SnS 2 optical absorption as well as the large nominal donor-acceptor interspacing between QD core and SnS 2 . Furthermore, we also find enhanced charge carrier mobility in hybrid QD-SnS 2 FETs which we attribute to a reduced contact Schottky barrier width due to an elevated background charge carrier density.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

A comparative study on charge carrier recombination across the junction region of Cu{sub 2}ZnSn(S,Se){sub 4} and Cu(In,Ga)Se{sub 2} thin film solar cells

A comparative study with focusing on carrier recombination properties in Cu{sub 2}ZnSn(S,Se){sub 4} (CZTSSe) and the CuInGaSe{sub 2} (CIGS) solar cells has been carried out. For this purpose, electroluminescence (EL) and also bias-dependent time resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) using femtosecond (fs) laser source were performed. For the similar forward current density, the EL-intensity of the CZTSSe sample was obtained significantly lower than that of the CIGS sample. Primarily, it can be attributed to the existence of excess amount of non-radiative recombination center in the CZTSSe, and/or CZTSSe/CdS interface comparing to that of CIGS sample. In case of CIGS sample, TRPL decay time was found to increase with the application of forward-bias. This can be attributed to the reduced charge separation rate resulting from the reduced electric-field at the junction. However, in CZTSSe sample, TRPL decay time has been found almost independent under the forward and reverse-bias conditions. This phenomenon indicates that the charge recombination rate strongly dominates over the charge separation rate across the junction of the CZTSSe sample. Finally, temperature dependent V{sub OC} suggests that interface related recombination in the CZTSSe solar cell structure might be one of the major factors that affect EL-intensity and also, TRPL decay curves.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Quantitative comparison of electron temperature fluctuations to nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations in C-Mod Ohmic L-mode discharges

Long wavelength turbulent electron temperature fluctuations (k{sub y}ρ{sub s} < 0.3) are measured in the outer core region (r/a > 0.8) of Ohmic L-mode plasmas at Alcator C-Mod [E. S. Marmar et al., Nucl. Fusion 49, 104014 (2009)] with a correlation electron cyclotron emission diagnostic. The relative amplitude and frequency spectrum of the fluctuations are compared quantitatively with nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations using the GYRO code [J. Candy and R. E. Waltz, J. Comput. Phys. 186, 545 (2003)] in two different confinement regimes: linear Ohmic confinement (LOC) regime and saturated Ohmic confinement (SOC) regime. When comparing experiment with nonlinear simulations, it is found that local, electrostatic ion-scale simulations (k{sub y}ρ{sub s} ≲ 1.7) performed at r/a ∼ 0.85 reproduce the experimental ion heat flux levels, electron temperature fluctuation levels, and frequency spectra within experimental error bars. In contrast, the electron heat flux is robustly under-predicted and cannot be recovered by using scans of the simulation inputs within error bars or by using global simulations. If both the ion heat flux and the measured temperature fluctuations are attributed predominantly to long-wavelength turbulence, then under-prediction of electron heat flux strongly suggests that electron scale turbulence is important for transport in C-Mod Ohmic L-mode discharges. In addition, no evidence is found from linear or nonlinear simulations for a clear transition from trapped electron mode to ion temperature gradient turbulence across the LOC/SOC transition, and also there is no evidence in these Ohmic L-mode plasmas of the “Transport Shortfall” [C. Holland et al., Phys. Plasmas 16, 052301 (2009)].

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Formation of snowflake domains during fast cooling of lithium tantalate crystals

Formation of the original dendrite snowflake-shape domains during fast cooling after heating above phase transition temperature by pulse laser irradiation was revealed in congruent lithium tantalate crystals. The effect was attributed to polarization reversal under the action of spatially nonuniform pyroelectric field. Two stages of the domain shape evolution at the surface were separated: (1) growth of circular domains by sideways motion of the domain walls and (2) backswitching leading to formation of the snowflake domains. The simulated spatial distribution of the pyroelectric field in regular two-dimensional structure was used for an explanation of the obtained results. The backswitching process in the surface layer has been attributed to change of the sign of the pyroelectric field at the domain wall. The snowflake domain shape is caused by the formation of isolated nanodomain fingers and hampering of their merging.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Structure, ferroelectric ordering, and semiempirical quantum calculations of lanthanide based metal-organic framework: [Nd(C{sub 4}H{sub 5}O{sub 6})(C{sub 4}H{sub 4}O{sub 6})][3H{sub 2}O]

We investigate the structure and ferroelectric behavior of a lanthanide based metal-organic framework (MOF), [Nd(C{sub 4}H{sub 5}O{sub 6})(C{sub 4}H{sub 4}O{sub 6})][3H{sub 2}O]. X-ray crystal structure analyses reveal that it crystallizes in the P4{sub 1}2{sub 1}2 space group with Nd centres, coordinated by nine oxygen atoms, forming a distorted capped square antiprismatic geometry. The molecules, bridged by tartrate ligands, form a 2D chiral structure. The 2D sheets are further linked into a 3D porous framework via strong hydrogen-bonding scheme (O-H…O ≈ 2.113 Å). Dielectric studies reveal two anomalies at 295 K and 185 K. The former is a paraelectric-ferroelectric transition, and the later is attributed to the freezing down of the motion of the hydroxyl groups. The phase transition is of second order, and the spontaneous polarization in low temperature phase is attributed to the ordering of protons of hydroxyl groups. The dielectric nonlinearity parameters have been calculated using Landau– Devonshire phenomenological theory. In addition, the most recent semiempirical models, Sparkle/PM7, Sparkle/RM1, and Sparkle/AM1, are tested on the present system to assay the accuracy of semiempirical quantum approaches to predict the geometries of solid MOFs. Our results show that Sparkle/PM7 model is the most accurate to predict the unit cell structure and coordination polyhedron geometry. The semiempirical methods are also used to calculate different ground state molecular properties.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Synthesis and characterization of Cr doped CoFe{sub 2}O{sub 4}

Polycrystalline samples of pure and Cr-doped cobalt ferrite (CoFe{sub 2}O{sub 4} and CoCrFeO{sub 4}) were prepared by solid state reaction route method. X-ray diffraction pattern infers that both the samples are in single phase with Fd3m space group. Slight reduction in the lattice parameter of CoCrFeO{sub 4} has been observed as compared to CoFe{sub 2}O{sub 4}. The dielectric dispersion has been explained on the basis of Fe{sup 2+} ↔ Fe{sup 3+} hopping mechanism. The polarizations at lower frequencies are mainly attributed to electronic exchange between Fe{sup 2+} ↔ Fe{sup 3+} ions on the octahedral site in the ferrite lattice. In the present system a part from n-type charge carrier (Fe{sup 3+}/Fe{sup 2+}), the presence of (Co{sup 3+}/Co{sup 2+}) ions give rise to p-type charge carrier. Therefore in addition to n-type charge carrier, the local displacement of p-type charge carrier in direction of external electric field also contributes to net polarization. However, the dielectric constant and loss tangent of CoCrFeO{sub 4} are found to be lower than CoFe{sub 2}O{sub 4} and is attributed to the availability of ferrous ion. CoCrFeO{sub 4} have less amount of ferrous ion available for polarization as compared to that of CoFe{sub 2}O{sub 4}. The impedance spectra reveal a grain interior contribution to the conduction process.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Doping concentration dependence of the photoluminescence spectra of n -type GaAs nanowires

In this work, the photoluminescence spectra of n -type doped GaAs nanowires, grown by the metal organic chemical vapor deposition method, are measured at 4K and 77 K. Our measurements indicate that an increase in carrier concentration leads to an increase in the complexity of the doping mechanism, which we attribute to the formation of different recombination centers. At high carrier concentrations, we observe a blueshift of the effective band gap energies by up to 25 meV due to the Burstein-Moss shift. Based on the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the photoluminescence peaks, we estimate the carrier concentrations for these nanowires, which varies from 6 x 10 17 cm -3 (lightly doped), to 1.5 x 10 18 cm -3 (moderately doped), to 3.5 x 10 18 cm -3 (heavily doped) as the partial pressure of the disilane is varied from 0.01 sccm to 1 sccm during the growth process. We find that the growth temperature variation does not affect the radiative recombination mechanism; however, it does lead to a slight enhancement in the optical emission intensities. For GaAs nanowire arrays measured at room temperature, we observe the same general dependence of band gap, FWHM, and carrier concentration on doping.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Effect of TiO{sub 2} nano fillers on the electrical conductivity of PSAN/TiO{sub 2} polymer nanocomposites

The microstructural characterization of Polystyrene co-acrylonitrile and Titanium dioxide (PSAN/TiO{sub 2}) nanocomposites has been performed by Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy. The decrease of positron lifetime parameters viz. o-Ps lifetime (τ{sub 3}) and free volume size (V{sub f}) up to 0.6 wt% of TiO{sub 2} is attributed to the filling of free volume holes by TiO{sub 2} nanoparticles. The increased free volume size (V{sub f}) after 0.6 wt% of TiO{sub 2} indicates the formation of interface due to TiO{sub 2} nanoclusters. The variation of electrical conductivity at the lower and higher concentration of TiO{sub 2} in (PSAN/TiO{sub 2}) nanocomposites is attributed to the blocking effect and space charge effect respectively.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Non-perturbative measurement of cross-field thermal diffusivity reduction at the O-point of 2/1 neoclassical tearing mode islands in the DIII-D tokamak

Neoclassical tearing modes (NTMs) often lead to the decrease of plasma performance and can lead to disruptions, which makes them a major impediment in the development of operating scenarios in present toroidal fusion devices. Recent gyrokinetic simulations predict a decrease of plasma turbulence and cross-field transport at the O-point of the islands, which in turn affects the NTM dynamics. In this paper, a heat transport model of magnetic islands employing spatially non-uniform cross-field thermal diffusivity (χ{sub ⊥}) is presented. This model is used to derive χ{sub ⊥} at the O-point from electron temperature data measured across 2/1 NTM islands in DIII-D. It was found that χ{sub ⊥} at the O-point is 1 to 2 orders of magnitude smaller than the background plasma transport, in qualitative agreement with gyrokinetic predictions. As the anomalously large values of χ{sub ⊥} are often attributed to turbulence driven transport, the reduction of the O-point χ{sub ⊥} is consistent with turbulence reduction found in recent experiments. Finally, the implication of reduced χ{sub ⊥} at the O-point on NTM dynamics was investigated using the modified Rutherford equation that predicts a significant effect of reduced χ{sub ⊥} at the O-point on NTM saturation.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗