Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “AMPLIFICATION”

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 163 records · Page 9

MTW-OPAL: a technology development platform for ultra-intense optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification systems

Optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification implemented using multikilojoule Nd:glass pump lasers is a promising approach for producing ultra-intense pulses (>10 23 W/cm 2 ). We report on the MTW-OPAL Laser System, an optical parametric amplifier line (OPAL) pumped by the Nd:doped portion of the multi-terawatt (MTW) laser. This midscale prototype was designed to produce 0.5-PW pulses with technologies scalable to tens of petawatts. Technology choices made for MTW-OPAL were guided by the longer-term goal of two full-scale OPALs pumped by the OMEGA EP to produce 2 × 25-PW beams that would be co-located with kilojoule–nanosecond ultraviolet beams. Several MTW-OPAL campaigns that have been completed since “first light” in March 2020 show that the laser design is fundamentally sound, and optimization continues as we prepare for “first-focus” campaigns later this year.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Warm Arctic, Cold Siberia Pattern: Role of Full Arctic Amplification Versus Sea Ice Loss Alone

The effect of future Arctic amplification (AA) on the extratropical atmospheric circulation remains unclear in modeling studies. Using a collection of coordinated atmospheric and coupled global climate model perturbation experiments, we find an emergent relationship between the high-latitude 1,000–500 hPa thickness response and an enhancement of the Siberian High in winter. This wave number-1-like sea level pressure anomaly pattern is linked to an equatorward shift of the eddy-driven jet and a dynamical cooling response in eastern Asia. Additional simulations, where AA is imposed directly into the model domain by nudging, demonstrate how the sea ice forcing is insufficient by itself to capture the vertical extent of the warming and by extension the amplitude of the response in the Siberian High. Additionally, this study demonstrates the importance of the vertical extent of the tropospheric warming over the polar cap in revealing the “warm Arctic, cold Siberia” anomaly pattern in future projections.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Internal Variability Increased Arctic Amplification During 1980–2022

Abstract Since 1980, the Arctic surface has warmed four times faster than the global mean. Enhanced Arctic warming relative to the global average warming is referred to as Arctic Amplification (AA). While AA is a robust feature in climate change simulations, models rarely reproduce the observed magnitude of AA, leading to concerns that models may not accurately capture the response of the Arctic to greenhouse gas emissions. Here, we use CMIP6 data to train a machine learning algorithm to quantify the influence of internal variability in surface air temperature trends over both the Arctic and global domains. Application of this machine learning algorithm to observations reveals that internal variability increases the Arctic warming but slows global warming in recent decades, inflating AA since 1980 by 38% relative to the externally forced AA. Accounting for the role of internal variability reconciles the discrepancy between simulated and observed AA.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

High Values of the Arctic Amplification in the Early Decades of the 21st Century: Causes of Discrepancy by CMIP6 Models Between Observation and Simulation

Arctic Amplification (AA) in the first decade of the 21st century has reached values between 4 and 5, with a subsequent decrease to current values of about 3.6, while the value was from 2 to 3 during the twentieth century. The ensemble mean of the CMIP6 models has difficulty in reproducing the recently observed high values of the AA. In this report, we identify the main reason for this difficulty to be the CMIP6 models overestimate of the mean global temperature trend since about 1990. The largest values of the AA are observed in winter and spring. A sharp AA peak in 1987 spring was caused by a peak in the Arctic temperature trend occurring at the same time as a dip in the trend of mean global temperature. The winter AA has increased almost monotonically since 1990. Dividing the AA between the Arctic land and ocean areas shows that the ocean area makes a larger contribution to the AA. Our future projection of the AA suggests an increasing AA for about the next decade, followed by a slow decrease to about 3.5 in the 2050s.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Synchronous digitization for high dynamic range lock-in amplification in beam-scanning microscopy

Digital lock-in amplification (LIA) with synchronous digitization (SD) is shown to provide significant signal to noise (S/N) and linear dynamic range advantages in beam-scanning microscopy measurements using pulsed laser sources. Direct comparisons between SD-LIA and conventional LIA in homodyne second harmonic generation measurements resulted in S/N enhancements consistent with theoretical models. SD-LIA provided notably larger S/N enhancements in the limit of low light intensities, through the smooth transition between photon counting and signal averaging developed in previous work. Rapid beam scanning instrumentation with up to video rate acquisition speeds minimized photo-induced sample damage. The corresponding increased allowance for higher laser power without sample damage is advantageous for increasing the observed signal content.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Amplification and generation of terahertz plasmons in gated two-dimensional channels: Modal analysis

A theoretical analysis is presented of plasmons in gated two-dimensional electron channels supporting dc currents. In contrast to previous treatments, the model takes into account complete mode spectra and transverse field distributions. Conditions for plasmon amplification are determined, and asymmetric plasmonic oscillators are analysed. The results are compared with the traditional treatment of the Dyakonov-Shur instability. The limitations of the traditional treatment are thus revealed. The present electrodynamically rigorous model can be used to design and analyse terahertz plasmonic oscillators.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Piezoelectric surface acoustical phonon amplification in graphene on a GaAs substrate

We study the interaction of Dirac Fermions in monolayer graphene on a GaAs substrate in an applied electric field by the combined action of the extrinsic potential of piezoelectric surface acoustical phonons of GaAs (piezoelectric acoustical (PA)) and of the intrinsic deformation potential of acoustical phonons in graphene (deformation acoustical (DA)). We find that provided the dc field exceeds a threshold value, emission of piezoelectric (PA) and deformation (DA) acoustical phonons can be obtained in a wide frequency range up to terahertz at low and high temperatures. We found that the phonon amplification rate R{sup PA,DA} scales with T{sub BG}{sup S−1} (S=PA,DA), T{sub BG}{sup S} being the Block−Gru{sup ¨}neisen temperature. In the high-T Block−Gru{sup ¨}neisen regime, extrinsic PA phonon scattering is suppressed by intrinsic DA phonon scattering, where the ratio R{sup PA}/R{sup DA} scales with ≈1/√(n), n being the carrier concentration. We found that only for carrier concentration n≤10{sup 10}cm{sup −2}, R{sup PA}/R{sup DA}>1. In the low-T Block−Gru{sup ¨}neisen regime, and for n=10{sup 10}cm{sup −2}, the ratio R{sup PA}/R{sup DA} scales with T{sub BG}{sup DA}/T{sub BG}{sup PA}≈7.5 and R{sup PA}/R{sup DA}>1. In this regime, PA phonon dominates the electron scattering and R{sup PA}/R{sup DA}<1 otherwise. This study is relevant to the exploration of the acoustic properties of graphene and to the application of graphene as an acoustical phonon amplifier and a frequency-tunable acoustical phonon device.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Amplification and reversal of Knudsen force by thermoelectric heating

We show that the Knudsen thermal force generated by a thermally-induced flow over a heated beam near a colder wall could be amplified significantly by thermoelectric heating. Bidirectional actuation is achieved by switching the polarity of the thermoelectric device bias voltage. The measurements of the resulting thermal forces at different rarefaction regimes, realized by changing geometry and gas pressure, are done using torsional microbalance. The repulsive or attractive forces between a thermoelectrically heated or cooled plate and a substrate are shown to be up to an order of magnitude larger than for previously studied configurations and heating methods due to favorable coupling of two thermal gradients. The amplification and reversal of the Knudsen force is confirmed by numerical solution of the Boltzmann-ESBGK kinetic model equation. Because of the favorable scaling with decreasing system size, the Knudsen force with thermoelectric heating offers a novel actuation and sensing mechanism for nano/microsystems.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Magnetometry of single ferromagnetic nanoparticles using magneto-optical indicator films with spatial amplification

We present a magneto-optical technique to spatially amplify and image fringe fields from single ferromagnetic nanorods. The fringe fields nucleate magnetic domains in a low-coercivity, perpendicularly magnetized indicator film, which are expanded by an applied out-of-plane field from the nanoscale to the microscale for measurement with polar Kerr microscopy. The nucleation location and therefore magnetic orientation of the sample nanorod are detected as spatially dependent field biases in locally measured hysteresis loops of the indicator film. We first discuss our method to fabricate the high-sensitivity indicator film with low energy argon ion irradiation. We then present a map of the amplified signal produced from a single nanorod as measured by the indicator film and compare it with a simultaneously obtained, unamplified fringe field map. The comparison demonstrates the advantage of the amplification mechanism and the capability of the technique to be performed with single-spot magneto-optical Kerr effect magnetometers. Our signal-to-noise ratio determines a minimum measureable particle diameter of tens of nanometers for typical transition metals. We finally use our method to obtain hysteresis loops from multiple nanorods in parallel. Our technique is unperturbed by applied in-plane fields for magnetic manipulation of nanoparticles, is robust against many common noise sources, and is applicable in a variety of test environments. We conclude with a discussion of the future optimization and application of our indicator film technique.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Optimisation of geometrical ratchets for spin-current amplification

A two-dimensional model is used to study the geometrical effects of a nonmagnetic (NM) nanowire upon a spin-polarised electron current in a lateral spin-valve structure. We found that the implemented ratchet shapes at the centre of the NM have a crucial effect on the diffusive rate for up- and down-spin electrons along the wire, which leads to the amplification of non-local spin-current signals. By using our simple model, the geometries have been optimised. The calculated spin-current signals are in good qualitative agreement with our recent experimental results [Abdullah et al., J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 47, 482001(FTC) (2014)]. Our model may be very useful to evaluate such a geometrical effect on spin-polarised electron transport.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

The efficiency of Raman amplification in the wavebreaking regime

We compare previous analytic predictions, Vlasov-Maxwell simulations, and particle-in-cell results with a new set of comprehensive one and two dimensional particle-in-cell simulations in an effort to clarify apparent discrepancies between the predictions of different models for the efficiency of Raman amplification in the wavebreaking regime. We find reasonable agreement between our particle-in-cell simulations and previous results from Vlasov-Maxwell simulations and analytic work, suggesting a monotonic decrease in conversion efficiency for increased pump intensities past the wavebreaking threshold.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Selection and amplification of a single optical frequency comb mode for laser cooling of the strontium atoms in an optical clock

In this paper, we report on the active filtering and amplification of a single mode from an optical femtosecond laser comb with mode spacing of 250 MHz by optical injection of two external-cavity diode lasers operating in cascade to build a narrow linewidth laser for laser cooling of the strontium atoms in an optical lattice clock. Despite the low injection of individual comb mode of approximately 50 nW, a single comb line at 689 nm could be filtered and amplified to reach as high as 10 mW with 37 dB side mode suppression and a linewidth of 240 Hz. This method could be applied over a broad spectral band to build narrow linewidth lasers for various applications.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Resonant tunneling assisted propagation and amplification of plasmons in high electron mobility transistors

A rigorous theoretical and computational model is developed for the plasma-wave propagation in high electron mobility transistor structures with electron injection from a resonant tunneling diode at the gate. We discuss the conditions in which low-loss and sustainable plasmon modes can be supported in such structures. The developed analytical model is used to derive the dispersion relation for these plasmon-modes. A non-linear full-wave-hydrodynamic numerical solver is also developed using a finite difference time domain algorithm. The developed analytical solutions are validated via the numerical solution. We also verify previous observations that were based on a simplified transmission line model. It is shown that at high levels of negative differential conductance, plasmon amplification is indeed possible. The proposed rigorous models can enable accurate design and optimization of practical resonant tunnel diode-based plasma-wave devices for terahertz sources, mixers, and detectors, by allowing a precise representation of their coupling when integrated with other electromagnetic structures.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Model experiment of magnetic field amplification in laser-produced plasmas via the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability

A model experiment of magnetic field amplification (MFA) via the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability (RMI) in supernova remnants (SNRs) was performed using a high-power laser. In order to account for very-fast acceleration of cosmic rays observed in SNRs, it is considered that the magnetic field has to be amplified by orders of magnitude from its background level. A possible mechanism for the MFA in SNRs is stretching and mixing of the magnetic field via the RMI when shock waves pass through dense molecular clouds in interstellar media. In order to model the astrophysical phenomenon in laboratories, there are three necessary factors for the RMI to be operative: a shock wave, an external magnetic field, and density inhomogeneity. By irradiating a double-foil target with several laser beams with focal spot displacement under influence of an external magnetic field, shock waves were excited and passed through the density inhomogeneity. Radiative hydrodynamic simulations show that the RMI evolves as the density inhomogeneity is shocked, resulting in higher MFA.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Orbit-based analysis of nonlinear energetic ion dynamics in tokamaks. II. Mechanisms for rapid chirping and convective amplification

The nonlinear interactions between shear Alfvén modes and tangentially injected beam ions in the 150–400 keV range are studied numerically in realistic geometry for a JT-60U tokamak scenario. In Paper I, which was reported in the companion paper, the recently developed orbit-based resonance analysis method was used to track the resonant frequency of fast ions during their nonlinear evolution subject to large magnetic and electric drifts. Here, that method is applied to map the wave-particle power transfer from the canonical guiding center phase space into the frequency-radius plane, where it can be directly compared with the evolution of the fluctuation spectra of fast-ion-driven modes. Using this technique, we study the nonlinear dynamics of strongly driven shear Alfvén modes with low toroidal mode numbers n = 1 and n = 3. In the n = 3 case, both chirping and convective amplification can be attributed to the mode following the resonant frequency of the radially displaced particles, i.e., the usual one-dimensional phase locking process. In the n = 1 case, a new chirping mechanism is found, which involves multiple dimensions, namely, wave-particle trapping in the radial direction and phase mixing across velocity coordinates.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Dynamical heat transport amplification in a far-field thermal transistor of VO{sub 2} excited with a laser of modulated intensity

Far-field radiative heat transport in a thermal transistor made up of a vanadium dioxide base excited with a laser of modulated intensity is analytically studied and optimized. This is done by solving the equation of energy conservation for the steady-state and modulated components of the temperature and heat fluxes that the base exchanges with the collector and emitter. The thermal bistability of VO{sub 2} is used to find an explicit condition on the laser intensity required to maximize these heat fluxes to values higher than the incident flux. For a 1 μm-thick base heated with a modulation frequency of 0.5 Hz, it is shown that both the DC and AC components of the heat fluxes are about 4 times the laser intensity, while the AC temperature remains an order of magnitude smaller than the DC one at around 343 K. Higher AC heat fluxes are obtained for thinner bases and/or lower frequencies. Furthermore, we find that out of the bistability temperatures associated with the dielectric-to-metal and metal-to-dielectric transitions of VO{sub 2}, the amplification of the collector-to-base and base-to-emitter heat fluxes is still possible, but at modulation frequencies lower than 0.1 Hz.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Different roles of electron beam in two stream instability in an elliptical waveguide for generation and amplification of THz electromagnetic waves

In this work, two stream instability in a metallic waveguide with elliptical cross-section and with a hollow annular dielectric layer is studied for generation and amplification of THz electromagnetic waves. Dispersion relation of waves and their dependents to geometric dimensions and characteristics of the electron beam are analyzed. In continuation, the diagrams of growth rate for some operating frequencies are presented, so that effective factors on the growth rates, such as geometrical dimensions, dielectric constant of dielectric layer, accelerating voltage, and applied current intensity are analyzed. It is shown that while an electron beam is responsible for instability, another electron beam plays a stabilizing role.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Focusability in the multi-pump Raman amplification of short laser pulses

Spatially combining multiple strong laser beams is a promising concept for achieving ultrahigh laser intensities. Proof-of-principle experiments have been conducted at the National Ignition Facility to report a combination of up to 20 pulses with high energy conversion efficiency. However, the combination process might damage the seed focusability due to mismatch of the seed and pump wavefronts. Here, we investigate the effect of the finite pump beam size on the focusability of the seed pulse. We propose an approach to retain and even improve the seed focusability by specifically arranging multiple pump beams. The results are demonstrated by the numerical solution of coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations. Our findings also apply to seed amplification by filamented pump pulses.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗