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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2018

Magnetic Properties of La-Doped ZnO(0001)–Zn Polar Surface with and without Vacancies: a First-Principle Study

The effects of La doping with and without vacancies on the magnetism of a ZnO(0001)–Zn polar surface were studied using the generalized gradient approximation + U (GGA + U) method of density functional theory to determine the magnetism source of La-doped ZnO. Results revealed that La doping with O vacancy did not cause ZnO ferromagnetism, but La-doped ZnO with Zn vacancy was ferromagnetic. The net magnetic moment was primarily related to the unpaired electron amount of the O 2p state and slightly modified by orbital and anomalous magnetic moments. The anomalous magnetic moment originated from the radiating magnetism moment via quantum electrodynamics and was confirmed to exist via theoretical calculations of magnetism. Formation energy showed that La doping easily generated Zn vacancies in ZnO, but magnetic quenching occurred when the ratio of La ions to Zn vacancies was 2:1. The unpaired O 2p electrons induced by Zn vacancies were the magnetism source of La-doped ZnO. Moreover, the Curie temperature of La-doped ZnO with Zn vacancy reached room temperature. Results showed that the ZnO(0001)–Zn polar surface can be utilized as the surface of ZnO-based diluted magnetic semiconductors because of its unipolarity.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2024

Evaluation of Thermal Scattering Law for U 3 Si 2 Using Temperature-Dependent Phonon Density of States

The thermal scattering law for uranium silicide, a candidate material for high-density nuclear fuel, was evaluated from the temperature-dependent phonon density of states obtained using the quasi-harmonic approximation. For uranium silicide model systems of various volumes near the equilibrium volume, Hellmann-Feynman forces were calculated by performing ab initio lattice dynamics simulations based on density functional theory. Subsequently, the quasi-harmonic approximation was applied by interpolating the results of the harmonic approximation for each volume system. As a sensitivity test, the phonon density of states was calculated for the structures with temperature-dependent volumes at 298 K and 1000 K, obtained by the quasi-harmonic approximation, and the corresponding thermal neutron scattering cross section was evaluated. The temperature-dependent volume and heat capacity of uranium silicide obtained by the quasi-harmonic approximation showed reasonable agreement with experimental data while lattice thermal expansion showed deviation from experimental observations. Thermal scattering cross sections evaluated from 0 K and temperature-dependent phonon density of states exhibited differences of up to 4.1% at 1000 K. This study examines the impact of temperature on the thermal scattering law, employing ab initio lattice dynamics simulations through the quasi-harmonic approximation.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Magnetic, Optoelectronic, and Thermodynamic Properties of Sr{sub 2}CrXO{sub 6} (X = La and Y): Half-Metallic and Ferromagnetic Behavior

The effects of spin polarization on the structure, magnetic, and optoelectronic properties of Cr-based series of double perovskites Sr{sub 2}CrXO{sub 6} (X = La and Y) have been studied by using the full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave method (FP-LAPW), based on the density functional theory (DFT) as implemented in the Wien2k code, within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA), GGA + U, and GGA plus Trans-Blaha-modified Becke–Johnson (TB-mBJ) as the exchange correlation. Our results show a similar half-metallic ferromagnetic ground state for both materials. From the electronic properties, it is found that Sr{sub 2}CrYO{sub 6} has a direct band gap at (Γ-Γ) direction and Sr{sub 2}CrLaO{sub 6} has an indirect band gap at (Γ-W) direction. Furthermore, we have computed the optic and thermodynamic properties which are investigated for the first time. Consequently, the magnetic, optoelectronic, and thermodynamic properties show these compounds are promising for high technological applications, namely spintronic materials.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2025

Effects of Landau quantization on neutrino emission and absorption

Some neutron stars known as magnetars possess very strong magnetic fields, with surface fields as large as 10 15 G and internal fields that are possibly stronger. Recent observations of the radio pulsar GLEAM-X J1627 suggest it may have a surface field as strong as 10 16 G. In the presence of a strong magnetic field, Leinson and Perez showed and Baiko and Yakovlev confirmed that the energy levels of electrons and protons are quantized and the direct Urca process allows neutron stars to cool rapidly, even at low density. For the case of magnetic fields 𝐵 ≳ 10 16 G, we find features in the emissivity due to energy quantization that are not captured by the frequently employed quasiclassical approximation where energy levels are treated as nearly continuous. Resonances can result in amplification of the neutrino emissivity at specific densities compared to a calculation that neglects quantization, particularly at low temperature. These effects are not important for the thermal evolution of an entire neutron star, but may be relevant for phenomena that depend on behavior at specific densities. Here, we present a fully relativistic calculation of the direct Urca rate in a strong magnetic field using the standard V-A weak Lagrangian incorporating mean field nuclear effects and discuss approaches to the numerical challenge the modified wave functions present and a new semianalytic approximation. These tools are also applicable to calculating neutrino opacities in strong magnetic fields in the ejecta of binary neutron star mergers. We calculate the opacities for neutrinos capturing on free nucleons at subsaturation densities and temperatures exceeding an MeV. We find an enhancement to capture processes of the lowest energy neutrinos by an order of magnitude or more due to suppression of electron Pauli blocking in the case of capture on neutrons, and from the effect of the nucleon magnetic moments in the case of capture on protons.

astrophysical electromagnetic fields↗
DOE OSTI2023

Right band gaps for the right reason at low computational cost with a meta-GGA

In density functional theory, traditional explicit density functionals such as the local density approximation and generalized gradient approximations cannot accurately predict the band gap of solids for a fundamental reason: They lack the exchange-correlation derivative discontinuity. By comparing Kohn-Sham and generalized Kohn-Sham calculations, we here show that the nonempirical meta-generalized-gradient-approximation (meta-GGA) TASK from Aschebrock and Kümmel [Phys. Rev. Res. 1, 033082 (2019)] predicts the right gaps for the right reason, i.e., as a combination of a proper Kohn-Sham gap and a substantial derivative discontinuity contribution. For many materials from small-gap semiconductors to large-gap insulators, the proper band gap is thus obtained. Here we further study a group of metal-halide perovskites for which the band gap is notoriously hard to predict. For these materials, TASK yields band gaps very similar to the nonlocal screened hybrid Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof functional, yet at a fraction of the hybrid functional’s computational cost. We discuss the influence of correlation functionals, and open questions in the comparison of calculated band gaps with experimental ones.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2013

Vectors of a given Diophantine type. II

We prove the existence of a family of vectors with continuum many elements v element of R{sup s} admitting infinitely many simultaneous ({phi}(p)/p{sup 1/s})(1+B{center_dot}{phi}{sup 1+1/s}(p))-approximations and admitting no simultaneous ({phi}(p)/p{sup 1/s})(1-B{center_dot}{phi}{sup 1+1/s}(p))-approximation. We prove that for 0<t{<=}T the closed interval [t,t(1+16B{center_dot}t{sup 1+1/s})] contains an element of the s-dimensional Lagrange spectrum. Here A, B and T stand for some positive constants depending on the dimension s only and {phi} is a positive nonincreasing function of positive integer argument such that {phi}(1){<=}A. Bibliography: 5 titles.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2015

Variational Dirichlet Blur Kernel Estimation

Blind image deconvolution involves two key objectives: 1) latent image and 2) blur estimation. For latent image estimation, we propose a fast deconvolution algorithm, which uses an image prior of nondimensional Gaussianity measure to enforce sparsity and an undetermined boundary condition methodology to reduce boundary artifacts. For blur estimation, a linear inverse problem with normalization and nonnegative constraints must be solved. However, the normalization constraint is ignored in many blind image deblurring methods, mainly because it makes the problem less tractable. In this paper, we show that the normalization constraint can be very naturally incorporated into the estimation process by using a Dirichlet distribution to approximate the posterior distribution of the blur. Making use of variational Dirichlet approximation, we provide a blur posterior approximation that considers the uncertainty of the estimate and removes noise in the estimated kernel. Furthermore, experiments with synthetic and real data demonstrate that the proposed method is very competitive to the state-of-the-art blind image restoration methods.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2018

Pion and Kaon Valence-quark Parton Quasidistributions

Algebraic Ansatze for the Poincare-covariant Bethe-Salpeter wave functions of the pion and kaon arc used to calculate their light-front wave functions, parton distribution amplitudes, parton quasidistribution amplitudes, valence parton distribution functions, and parton quasidistribution functions (PqDFs). The light-front wave functions arc broad, concave functions, and the scale of flavor-symmetry violation in the kaon is roughly 15%, being set by the ratio of emergent masses in the s- and u-quark sectors. Parton quasidistribution amplitudes computed with longitudinal momentum P z = 1.75 GeV provide a semiquantitatively accurate representation of the objective parton distribution amplitude, but even with P z = 3 GeV, they cannot provide information about this amplitude's end point behavior. On the valence-quark domain, similar outcomes characterize PqDFs. Lastly, in this connection, however, the ratio of kaon-to-pion u-quark PqDFs is found to provide a good approximation to the true parton distribution function ratio on 0.4 ≲ x ≲ 0.8, suggesting that with existing resources computations of ratios of parton quasidistributions can yield results that support empirical comparison.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Convex Relaxations of the Network Flow Problem Under Cycle Constraints

In this paper, we consider the problem of optimizing the flows in a lossless flow network with additional nonconvex cycle constraints on nodal variables; such constraints appear in several applications, including electric power, water distribution, and natural gas networks. This problem is a nonconvex version of the minimum-cost network flow problem (NFP), and to solve it, we propose three different approaches. One approach is based on solving a convex approximation of the problem, obtained by augmenting the cost function with an entropy-like term to relax the nonconvex constraints. We show that the approximation error, for which we give an upper bound, can be made small enough for practical use. An alternative approach is to solve the classical NFP, that is, without the cycle constraints, and solve a separate optimization problem afterwards in order to recover the actual flows satisfying the cycle constraints; the solution of this separate problem maximizes the individual entropies of the cycles. The third approach is based on replacing the nonconvex constraint set with a convex inner approximation, which yields a suboptimal solution for the cyclic networks with each edge belonging to at most two cycles. We validate the practical usefulness of the theoretical results through numerical examples, in which we study the standard test systems for water and electric power distribution networks.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2016

CO adsorption on small Au{sub n} (n = 1–4) structures supported on hematite. II. Adsorption on the O-rich termination of α-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3}(0001) surface

The adsorption of small Au{sub n} (n = 1–4) nanostructures on oxygen terminated α-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3}(0001) surface was investigated using density functional theory in the generalized gradient approximation of Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) form with Hubbard correction U, accounting for strong electron correlations (PBE+U). The structural, energetic, and electronic properties were examined for two classes of the adsorbed Au{sub n} nanostructures with vertical and flattened configurations. Similarly to the Fe-terminated α-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3}(0001) surface considered in Part I, the flattened configurations were found energetically more favored than vertical ones. The binding of Au{sub n} to the O-terminated surface is much stronger than to the Fe-termination. The adsorption bonding energy of Au{sub n} and the work function of the Au{sub n}/α-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3}(0001) systems decrease with the increased number of Au atoms in a structure. All of the adsorbed Au{sub n} structures are positively charged. The bonding of CO molecules to the Au{sub n} structures is distinctly stronger than on the Fe-terminated surface; however, it is weaker than the binding to the bare O-terminated surface. The CO molecule binds to the Au{sub n}/α-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3}(0001) system through a peripheral Au atom partly detached from the Au{sub n} structure. The results of this work indicate that the most energetically favored sites for adsorption of a CO molecule on the Au{sub n}/α-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3}(0001) systems are atoms in the Au{sup 0.5+} oxidation state.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2011

Structure functions of quasi-two-dimensional turbulence in a laboratory experiment

The results of experiments for turbulent flows in a thin layer of conducting fluid above a solid surface generated by the Ampere force when passing a current and under the action of a spatially periodic magnetic field are considered. The statistical characteristics of the flows are shown to exhibit three-dimensional (3D) dynamics even on horizontal scales exceeding the layer thickness by an order of magnitude. In this case, the third-order longitudinal structure functions of the velocity field are approximately linear in spatial displacement and negative, as in 3D turbulence, due to the dominant contribution of energy dissipation when the boundary condition for adhesion on the lower surface is met. The dissipation and basic energy production terms are estimated for the energy balance equation.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

CO adsorption on small Au{sub n} (n = 1–4) structures supported on hematite. I. Adsorption on iron terminated α-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} (0001) surface

This is the first of two papers dealing with the adsorption of Au and formation of Au{sub n} nanostructures (n = 1–4) on hematite (0001) surface and adsorption of CO thereon. The stoichiometric Fe-terminated (0001) surface of hematite was investigated using density functional theory in the generalized gradient approximation of Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) form with Hubbard correction U, accounting for strong electron correlations (PBE+U). The structural, energetic, and electronic properties of the systems studied were examined for vertical and flattened configurations of Au{sub n} nanostructures adsorbed on the hematite surfaces. The flattened ones, which can be viewed as bilayer-like structures, were found energetically more favored than vertical ones. For both classes of structures the adsorption binding energy increases with the number of Au atoms in a structure. The adsorption of Au{sub n} induces charge rearrangement at the Au{sub n}/oxide contact which is reflected in work function changes. In most considered cases Au{sub n} adsorption increases the work function. A detailed analysis of the bonding electron charge is presented and the corresponding electron charge rearrangements at the contacts were quantified by a Bader charge analyses. The interaction of a CO molecule with the Au{sub n} nanostructures supported on α-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} (0001) and the oxide support was studied. It is found that the CO adsorption binding to the hematite supported Au{sub n} structures is more than twice as strong as to the bare hematite surface. Analysis of the Bader charges on the atoms showed that in each case CO binds to the most positively charged (cationic) atom of the Au{sub n} structure. Changes in the electronic structure of the Au{sub n} species and of the oxide support, and their consequences for the interactions with CO, are discussed.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2013

Electronic properties of III-nitride semiconductors: A first-principles investigation using the Tran-Blaha modified Becke-Johnson potential

In this work, we use density functional theory to investigate the influence of semilocal exchange and correlation effects on the electronic properties of III-nitride semiconductors considering zinc-blende and wurtzite crystal structures. We find that the inclusion of such effects through the use of the Tran-Blaha modified Becke-Johnson potential yields an excellent description of the electronic structures of these materials giving energy band gaps which are systematically larger than the ones obtained with standard functionals such as the generalized gradient approximation. The discrepancy between the experimental and theoretical band gaps is then significantly reduced with semilocal exchange and correlation effects. However, the effective masses are overestimated in the zinc-blende nitrides, but no systematic trend is found in the wurtzite compounds. New results for energy band gaps and effective masses of zinc-blende and wurtzite indium nitrides are presented.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy of localized exciton magnetic polarons in Cd{sub 0.70}Mn{sub 0.30}Te spin glass compound

We have investigated dynamics of different localized exciton magnetic polarons (LEMPs) in Cd{sub 0.70}Mn{sub 0.30}Te spin glass (SG) compound below the freezing temperature T{sub f} in the crystal regions, where various microscopic magnetic spin states (MMSSs), namely, “loose” spins, finite, and infinite clusters, are formed. It was shown that there is a broad distribution of the LEMPs lifetimes. The presence of the long-lived LEMPs is caused by the admixture of the optically active bright exciton states to the dark exciton states, i.e., the “brightening” of the dark LEMPs which exist along with the bright LEMPs. The lifetimes of the dark LEMPs correspond to hundreds of nanoseconds. It was found that the time decay of photoluminescence band intensity is approximated by the sum of two functions: a single exponential function and the Kohlrausch–Williams–Watts stretched exponential function. The stretched exponential function describes the recombination processes of the LEMPs formed in the crystal regions of the finite clusters as well as the infinite cluster. This reflects the appearance of spatially heterogeneous dynamics in Cd{sub 0.70}Mn{sub 0.30}Te SG compound below T{sub f} which is due to the disorder in the spin distribution caused by the formation of different MMSSs.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2017

Properties of real metallic surfaces: Effects of density functional semilocality and van der Waals nonlocality

Significance It is primarily at their surfaces that solids interact with their environments. What is the physics behind the measurable properties of clean metallic surfaces? To answer this question, we calculate surface energies, work functions, and surface interlayer relaxations for aluminum and seven d -electron metals, using a sequence of exchange-correlation density functionals of increasing sophistication. While the simplest one, the local density approximation, works well through error cancellation, the usually more realistic Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof functional underestimates both surface energies and work functions. The more advanced functionals, including the new strongly constrained and appropriately normed (SCAN) and SCAN+rVV10, demonstrate the unexpected importance of intermediate and long-range van der Waals attraction (seamlessly included in the random phase approximation).

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Deep Learning–Assisted Multiobjective Optimization of Geological CO 2 Storage Performance under Geomechanical Risks

In geological CO 2 storage, designing the optimal well control strategy for CO 2 injection to maximize CO 2 storage while minimizing the associated geomechanical risks is not trivial. This challenge arises due to pressure buildup, CO 2 plume migration, the highly nonlinear nature of geomechanical responses to rock-fluid interaction, and the high computational cost associated with coupled flow and geomechanics simulations. In this paper, we introduce a novel optimization framework to address these challenges. The optimization problem is formulated as follows: maximize total CO 2 storage while minimizing geomechanical risks by adjusting the injection schedules within bounded constraints. The geomechanical risks are primarily driven by injection-induced pressure build-up, which is characterized by ground displacement and the induced microseismicity. We used the Fourier neural operator (FNO)-based deep learning model to construct surrogate models, replacing the time-consuming coupled flow and geomechanics simulations for evaluating the aforementioned objective functions. The developed surrogate models have been incorporated into a multiobjective optimization framework through a genetic algorithm to reduce the computational burden. The proposed optimization framework reduces the computational cost from approximately 2,400 hours, when using objective function evaluations based on physics-based simulations, to around 20 minutes. A set of Pareto-optimal solutions of the proposed workflow yields nontrivial optimal decisions, reducing the microseismicity potential and the vertical displacement. This Pareto front highlights the optimal trade-offs between CO 2 storage amount, safety, and ground displacement, emphasizing the need for careful optimization and management of injection strategies to achieve a balanced outcome. The novelty of this work is twofold. First, we demonstrate the importance of incorporating the minimization of the geomechanical risks as objective functions into the CO 2 storage optimization workflow to mitigate the potential risk of induced microseismicity and ground displacement. Second, we leverage the FNO-based surrogate models to optimize a real-field CO 2 storage operation.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2014

Influence of electron–phonon interactions in single dopant nanowire transistors

Single dopant nanowire transistors can be viewed as the ultimate miniaturization of nano electronic devices. In this work, we theoretically investigate the influence of the electron-phonon coupling on their transport properties using a non-equilibrium Green's function approach in the self-consistent Born approximation. For an impurity located at the center of the wire we find that, at room temperature, acoustic phonons broaden the impurity level so that the bistability predicted in the ballistic regime is suppressed. Optical phonons are found to have a beneficial impact on carrier transport via a phonon-assisted tunneling effect. We discuss the position and temperature dependence of these effects, showing that such systems might be very promising for engineering of ultimate devices.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

TURBOMOLE: Modular program suite for ab initio quantum-chemical and condensed-matter simulations

TURBOMOLE is a collaborative, multi-national software development project aiming to provide highly efficient and stable computational tools for quantum chemical simulations of molecules, clusters, periodic systems, and solutions. The TURBOMOLE software suite is optimized for widely available, inexpensive, and resource-efficient hardware such as multi-core workstations and small computer clusters. TURBOMOLE specializes in electronic structure methods with outstanding accuracy–cost ratio, such as density functional theory including local hybrids and the random phase approximation (RPA), GW-Bethe–Salpeter methods, second-order Møller–Plesset theory, and explicitly correlated coupled-cluster methods. TURBOMOLE is based on Gaussian basis sets and has been pivotal for the development of many fast and low-scaling algorithms in the past three decades, such as integral-direct methods, fast multipole methods, the resolution-of-the-identity approximation, imaginary frequency integration, Laplace transform, and pair natural orbital methods. This review focuses on recent additions to TURBOMOLE’s functionality, including excited-state methods, RPA and Green’s function methods, relativistic approaches, high-order molecular properties, solvation effects, and periodic systems. A variety of illustrative applications along with accuracy and timing data are discussed. Moreover, available interfaces to users as well as other software are summarized. TURBOMOLE’s current licensing, distribution, and support model are discussed, and an overview of TURBOMOLE’s development workflow is provided. Challenges such as communication and outreach, software infrastructure, and funding are highlighted.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗