Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “photos”

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

Effects of O 2 addition on in-plasma photo-assisted etching of Si with chlorine

Addition of oxygen was used to control the in-plasma photo-assisted etching (PAE) of p-type Si(100) and poly-Si in a high density, inductively coupled, Faraday-shielded, Ar/Cl 2 (225/25 SCCM), 60 mTorr plasma. After etching, samples were transferred under vacuum to an UHV x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy chamber for surface analysis. Samples etched under PAE conditions (ion energies below the ionassisted etching, IAE, threshold) had a thicker surface oxide and lower [Cl] surface concentration, when compared to samples etched under IAE conditions (ion energies above the IAE threshold). PAE was found not to be affected by 0.1 or 0.25 SCCM O 2 addition, while etching stopped with more than 0.5 SCCM O 2 addition. IAE with RF power on the sample stage, resulting in -65 V self-bias, was not affected by up to 2 SCCM of oxygen addition but decreased rapidly when more than 5 SCCM O 2 was added to the plasma. These results imply that PAE may be completely suppressed, while IAE occurs unobstructed. The implications of these findings are discussed in view of applications involving continuous wave and pulsed-plasma processes.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

In-plasma photo-assisted etching of Si with chlorine aided by an external vacuum ultraviolet source

Photo-assisted etching of p-type Si was previously found to occur in a chlorine-containing, Faraday-shielded, inductively coupled plasma (ICP), and this was attributed to the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) light generated by the plasma. Other causes for the very high etching rates were ruled out, including ion bombardment. In the present study, the substrate in the main Cl2/Ar ICP was subjected to extra VUV light that was generated in an independently controlled, auxiliary Ar/He ICP in tandem with the main ICP. The ICPs were separated by a tungsten mesh and a bundle of high-aspect-ratio quartz tubes in a honeycomb configuration. There was no measurable perturbation of the main plasma by the auxiliary plasma. The etching rate was found to be enhanced by 11%–51% with the additional VUV light provided by the auxiliary ICP. With absolute measurements of the auxiliary ICP photon flux at the sample surface, as described elsewhere, incredibly large etching yields of 90–240 Si atoms per photon were obtained. It is argued that etching is not a result of electron–hole pair formation but is instead ascribed to a photocatalytic chain reaction.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Models of $J/\varPsi$ photo-production reactions on the nucleon

The J/Ψ photo-production reactions on the nucleon can provide information on the roles of gluons in determining the J/Ψ-nucleon (J/Ψ-N) interactions and the structure of the nucleon. The information on the J/Ψ-N interactions is needed to test lattice QCD (LQCD) calculations and to understand the nucleon resonances such as N*(P c ) recently reported by the LHCb Collaboration. In addition, it is also needed to investigate the production of nuclei with hidden charms and to extract the gluon distributions in nuclei. The main purpose of this article is to review six models of the γ+p→J/Ψ+p reaction which have been and can be applied to analyze the data from Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab). Here, the formulae for each model are given and used to obtain the results to show the extent to which the available data can be described. The models presented include the Pomeron-exchange model of Donnachie and Landshoff (Pom-DL) and its extensions to include J/Ψ-N potentials extracted from LQCD (Pom-pot) and to also use the constituent quark model (CQM) to account for the quark substructure of J/Ψ (Pom-CQM). The other three models are developed from applying the perturbative QCD approach to calculate the two-gluon exchange using the generalized parton distribution (GPD) of the nucleon (GPD-based), two- and three-gluon exchanges using the parton distribution of the nucleon (2g+3g), and the exchanges of scalar (0 ++ ) and tensor (2 ++ ) glueballs within the holographic formulation (holog). The results of investigating the excitation of the nucleon resonances N*(P c ) in the γ+p→J/Ψ+p reactions are also given. We demonstrate that the differences between these six models can be unambiguously distinguished and the N* can be better studied by using the forthcoming JLab data at large |t| and at energies very near the J/Ψ production threshold. Possible improvements of the considered models are discussed.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Performance of novel VUV-sensitive Silicon Photo-Multipliers for nEXO

Liquid xenon time projection chambers are promising detectors to search for neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ), due to their response uniformity, monolithic sensitive volume, scalability to large target masses, and suitability for extremely low background operations. The nEXO collaboration has designed a tonne-scale time projection chamber that aims to search for 0νββ of 136 Xe with projected half-life sensitivity of 1.35 x 10 28 yr. To reach this sensitivity, the design goal for nEXO is ≤1% energy resolution at the decay Q-value (2458.07 ± 0.31 keV). Reaching this resolution requires the efficient collection of both the ionization and scintillation produced in the detector. The nEXO design employs Silicon Photo-Multipliers (SiPMs) to detect the vacuum ultra-violet, 175 nm scintillation light of liquid xenon. This paper reports on the characterization of the newest vacuum ultra-violet sensitive Fondazione Bruno Kessler VUVHD3 SiPMs specifically designed for nEXO, as well as new measurements on new test samples of previously characterised Hamamatsu VUV4 Multi Pixel Photon Counters (MPPCs). Various SiPM and MPPC parameters, such as dark noise, gain, direct crosstalk, correlated avalanches and photon detection efficiency were measured as a function of the applied over voltage and wavelength at liquid xenon temperature (163 K). The results from this study are used to provide updated estimates of the achievable energy resolution at the decay Q-value for the nEXO design.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Snow Camera Photos at the Teller 27 Field Site from 2022-2023, Seward Peninsula, Alaska

Snow distribution in the Arctic is highly variable and driven by high winds and microtopography, which result in deep snow drifts and shallow scoured areas. To better understand snow drifting and scouring, 4 Reconyx HyperFire 2 game cameras were installed at the Teller 27 Watershed Field Site on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska from September 2022 to September 2023. Game cameras were installed at 4 locations across the watershed to capture pictures of snow in drift and scour areas. Three-meter tall, red PVC poles were used as snow-stakes to measure snow depth from these pictures. One photo was taken at each camera once per hour during daylight. Distances between cameras and snow stakes were measured so that snow depth can later be calculated from the pictures. This dataset contains four folders of *.jpg files from each camera and one *.kml file of camera locations.The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments: Arctic (NGEE Arctic), was a 15-year research effort (2012-2027) to reduce uncertainty in Earth System Models by developing a predictive understanding of carbon-rich Arctic ecosystems and feedbacks to climate. NGEE Arctic was supported by the Department of Energy’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research.The NGEE Arctic project had two field research sites: 1) located within the Arctic polygonal tundra coastal region on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) and the North Slope near Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska and 2) multiple areas on the discontinuous permafrost region of the Seward Peninsula north of Nome, Alaska.Through observations, experiments, and synthesis with existing datasets, NGEE Arctic provided an enhanced knowledge base for multi-scale modeling and contributed to improved process representation at global pan-Arctic scales within the Department of Energy’s Earth system Model (the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, or E3SM), and specifically within the E3SM Land Model component (ELM).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

CHESS 2025: Field-collected vegetation attributes and site photos

This dataset represents field observations of vegetation samples collected as part of the Colorado Headwaters Ecological Spectroscopy Study (CHESS) during June and July of 2025. Samples were collected in the field using tablet computers and digital forms, with target data differing by sample type (individual trees, individual shrubs, or 1-meter square plots of meadow and subshrub vegetation). Field samples were collected within 72 hours of airborne data collection using the National Ecological Observatory Network’s Aerial Observation Platform (NEON AOP). The NEON AOP collected waveform LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) and imaging spectrometer data in 426 spectral bands from the visible to shortwave infrared. Remote sensing data for the project is available on ESS-DIVE (DOI and citation to be added upon publication). Field data collected included canopy height and per-species horizontal proportional cover for meadow plots, species identity and height information for shrubs, as well as species identity, height, diameter at breast height, and health assessment information for trees. Photos of the focal site and surrounding landscape were taken for all sampling sites and are included in this archive. Green leaves or needles were collected for plant trait and foliar chemistry analysis. This data is archived separately (DOI and citation to be added upon publication). High-precision geospatial data for each sample (crown perimeter polygons for trees and shrubs, plot boundaries for meadow plots) is available here (Henderson et al., 2026). Field and remote sensing protocols largely followed those of a previous field and airborne imaging campaign performed in 2018 (described in Chadwick et al. 2020). Field data from the 2018 campaign can be found here (Chadwick et al., 2020 doi:10.15485/1618130). Because different field measurements were taken for meadow, shrub, and tree sites, data from these three sample types are archived as separate tables (chess_meadow_site_cleaned.csv, chess_shrub_site_cleaned.csv, chess_tree_site_cleaned.csv). Meadow proportional cover data is stored in a separate table (chess_meadow_cover_cleaned.csv). Taxonomy was treated identically between sample types, and the dataset shares a common set of voucher specimens (chess_voucher_IDs_cleaned.csv), as well as a single species list (chess_species_list_cleaned.csv). All taxonomic determinations were performed to the species level, and adhere to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) backbone taxonomy as of January 10th, 2026 (GBIF Secretariat 2023). CHESS Project Description: The Colorado Headwaters Ecological Spectroscopy Study (CHESS) comprised a multi-week airborne remote sensing and field observation campaign in the Upper Gunnison Basin, Colorado, conducted in June and July of 2025. Airborne remote sensing was conducted by the National Ecological Observatory Network Airborne Observation Platform (NEON AOP), concurrent with a field campaign run by the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL), the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Watershed Function Science Focus Area (SFA), and NASA-JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) program. Between June 10 and July 18, 2025, the NEON AOP flight team collected high-resolution aerial imaging spectroscopy and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data over three domains: the Upper East River (CRBU), Almont Triangle (ALMO), and the Upper Taylor Basin (UPTA). In coordination with the flights, a field campaign acquired ground-truth observations, including observations of vegetation composition, foliar traits, forest demography, and subsurface properties in 18 core sampling areas within the domains. Additional surface water observations were taken at over 380 point locations. All CHESS campaign datasets can be found within the CHESS ESS-DIVE data portal: https://data.ess-dive.lbl.gov/portals/chess. Funding Acknowledgment: Field and remote-sensing data acquisition was performed under a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NSSC24K1005). This work was also supported by the Watershed Function Science Focus Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.

2018 NEON and 2025 CHESS Campaigns↗

Experimental investigation of longitudinal scraping of H- bunches via photo-detachment

Longitudinal emittance growth is a significant challenge in RF linacs, especially for poorly bunched beams. This stems from particles occupying outer synchrotron oscillation orbits in the LBET, causing unwanted bunch-bunch interactions and degraded beam quality. To address this, we proposed using temporally spaced laser pulses to selectively photo-detach electrons from the longitudinal head and tail regions of H- ion bunches. This approach aims to reduce particle density in extreme orbits, enhancing beam uniformity and limiting emittance growth. Our experiments employed Fermilab's 'LaserNotcher' system at the font end of the linac, delivering 1.6 MW peak power with sub-nanosecond precision. By neutralizing the first and last half-nanosecond of several H- bunches, we measured their propagation injection into the booster. Measurements of pulse width, average height, and temporal spacing over booster cycles were compared between the scraped and unscraped bunches. Statistical analysis evaluated the results’ significance, highlighting the feasibility of laser-based scraping for future linac designs to achieve higher beam energies with improved emittance control.

Landon, Parker [Boston U.]↗

New Results at JLab Describing Operating Lifetime of GaAs Photo-guns

Po­lar­ized elec­trons from GaAs pho­to­cath­odes have been key to some of the high­est-im­pact re­sults of the Jef­fer­son Lab sci­ence pro­gram over the past 30 years. Dur­ing this time, var­i­ous stud­ies have given in­sight into im­prov­ing the op­er­a­tional life­time of these pho­to­cath­odes in DC high-volt­age photo-guns while using lasers with spa­tial Gauss­ian pro­files of typ­i­cally 0.5 mm to 1 mm FWHM, cath­ode volt­ages of 100 kV to 130 kV, and a wide range of beam cur­rents up to mul­ti­ple mA. In this con­tri­bu­tion, we show re­cent ex­per­i­men­tal data from a 100 kV to 180 kV setup and de­scribe our progress at pre­dict­ing the life­time based on the cal­cu­la­ble dy­nam­ics of ion­ized gas mol­e­cules in­side the gun. These new ex­per­i­men­tal stud­ies at Jef­fer­son Lab are specif­i­cally aimed at ex­plor­ing the ion dam­age of higher-volt­age guns being built for in­jec­tors.

Bruker, M. W.↗

Video, photos capture first full-scale H-bomb test 70 years ago

This collection of images was curated by the National Security Research Center in recognition of the 70 th anniversary of the nuclear test codenamed “Mike” of Operation Ivy. The NSRC is the Lab’s classified library, which also houses unclassified artifacts from the Lab’s history. The NSRC has archived photos of nuclear tests from over the years to preserve our history.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Photo-Crosslinkable Naphthalene Diimide Polymer for Solution Processed n-i-p Perovskite Solar cells

Lead-halide perovskite has attracted tremendous attention due to its extraordinary optoelectronic properties.1 Charge transport layers play an important role in both solar cell device efficiency and long-term stability.2 Here we used a photo-crosslinkable polymer for n-i-p perovskite solar cells. Compared to the non-crosslinkable counterpart, we see an overall improved open-circuit voltage and efficiency in mixed-cation mixed-halide perovskite solar cell using the crosslinked naphthalene diimide polymer (NDI-CL) as cathode modification layer.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

New Results at JLab Describing Operating Lifetime of GaAs Photo-guns

Po­lar­ized elec­trons from GaAs pho­to­cath­odes have been key to some of the high­est-im­pact re­sults of the Jef­fer­son Lab sci­ence pro­gram over the past 30 years. Dur­ing this time, var­i­ous stud­ies have given in­sight into im­prov­ing the op­er­a­tional life­time of these pho­to­cath­odes in DC high-volt­age photo-guns while using lasers with spa­tial Gauss­ian pro­files of typ­i­cally 0.5 mm to 1 mm FWHM, cath­ode volt­ages of 100 kV to 130 kV, and a wide range of beam cur­rents up to mul­ti­ple mA. In this con­tri­bu­tion, we show re­cent ex­per­i­men­tal data from a 100 kV to 180 kV setup and de­scribe our progress at pre­dict­ing the life­time based on the cal­cu­la­ble dy­nam­ics of ion­ized gas mol­e­cules in­side the gun. These new ex­per­i­men­tal stud­ies at Jef­fer­son Lab are specif­i­cally aimed at ex­plor­ing the ion dam­age of higher-volt­age guns being built for in­jec­tors.

Bruker, M. W.↗

Gain Stability of Hamamatsu R5912-MOD Photo-Multipliers at Low Temperature

The Photon Detection System is a crucial component of the ICARUS detector in the Short Baseline Neutrino (SBN) Program at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL). It consists of 360 Photo Multiplier Tubes (PMTs) 8” Hamamatsu R5912-MOD and, since June 2020, it has been operated at the liquid Argon cryogenic temperature. During these years, the PMTs have shown gain losses as an aging effect. Using a climatic chamber at the INFN Sezione di Catania, we confirmed a stable gain for a single PMT 8” Hamamatsu 5912-MOD when operated at room temperature, and a persistent gain loss at temperatures around -70°C, although far from the liquid Argon one. No gain recovery was obtained bringing the PMT back to room temperature. We suspect that dynode deterioration due to temperature gradient plays a significant role in this phenomenon. During our test, the PMT was illuminated by a 520 nm laser source and operated in current mode. The laser beam was split into two optical fibers, the first one transmitting light through Neutral Density filters and then diffusing it over the surface of the PMT photocathode. The other optical fiber was used for an independent reference measurement of the injected light via a bolometric photodetector. In this presentation, the main technical characteristics of the measurement system are shown together with preliminary results which need further investigation to elucidate the underlying mechanisms driving the gain loss and to propose new mitigation strategies.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Experimental investigation of longitudinal scraping of $H-$ bunches via photo-detachment

Longitudinal emittance growth is a significant challenge in RF linacs, especially for poorly bunched beams. This stems from particles occupying outer synchrotron oscillation orbits in the LBET, causing unwanted bunch-bunch interactions and degraded beam quality. To address this, we proposed using temporally spaced laser pulses to selectively photo-detach electrons from the longitudinal head and tail regions of H- ion bunches. This approach aims to reduce particle density in extreme orbits, enhancing beam uniformity and limiting emittance growth. Our experiments employed Fermilab's 'LaserNotcher' system at the font end of the linac, delivering 1.6 MW peak power with sub-nanosecond precision. By neutralizing the first and last half-nanosecond of several H- bunches, we measured their propagation injection into the booster. Measurements of pulse width, average height, and temporal spacing over booster cycles were compared between the scraped and unscraped bunches. Statistical analysis evaluated the results’ significance, highlighting the feasibility of laser-based scraping for future linac designs to achieve higher beam energies with improved emittance control.

Landon, P. [Boston U.; Fermilab]↗

Photo-zSNthesis: Converting Type Ia Supernova Lightcurves to Redshift Estimates via Deep Learning

Abstract Upcoming photometric surveys will discover tens of thousands of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), vastly outpacing the capacity of our spectroscopic resources. In order to maximize the scientific return of these observations in the absence of spectroscopic information, we must accurately extract key parameters, such as SN redshifts, with photometric information alone. We present Photo- z SNthesis, a convolutional neural network-based method for predicting full redshift probability distributions from multi-band supernova lightcurves, tested on both simulated Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and Vera C. Rubin Legacy Survey of Space and Time data as well as observed SDSS SNe. We show major improvements over predictions from existing methods on both simulations and real observations as well as minimal redshift-dependent bias, which is a challenge due to selection effects, e.g., Malmquist bias. Specifically, we show a 61× improvement in prediction bias 〈Δ z 〉 on PLAsTiCC simulations and 5× improvement on real SDSS data compared to results from a widely used photometric redshift estimator, LCFIT+Z. The PDFs produced by this method are well constrained and will maximize the cosmological constraining power of photometric SNe Ia samples.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

New requirements in photo interpretation.

Photo interpretation shifting, from image identification to processes of imagery associations, to meet needs of extraterrestrial investigation

PHOTOGRAPH INTERPRETATION↗

Design concept for improved photo-scan tube

Conceptual photo-scan tube avoids complexity of internal beam scanning and beam-current adjustment by optical scan readout. It differs from a conventional image orthicon in its use of an external oscilloscope tube.

Malling, L. R.↗