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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 1,675 records · Page 93
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DOE OSTI2015

Experimental investigation on plasma parameter profiles on a wafer level with reactor gap lengths in an inductively coupled plasma

The gap length effect on plasma parameters is investigated in a planar type inductively coupled plasma at various conditions. The spatial profiles of ion densities and the electron temperatures on the wafer level are measured with a 2D probe array based on the floating harmonic method. At low pressures, the spatial profiles of the plasma parameters rarely changed by various gap lengths, which indicates that nonlocal kinetics are dominant at low pressures. However, at relatively high pressures, the spatial profiles of the plasma parameter changed dramatically. These plasma distribution profile characteristics should be considered for plasma reactor design and processing setup, and can be explained by the diffusion of charged particles and the local kinetics.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Gas phase synthesis of non-bundled, small diameter single-walled carbon nanotubes with near-armchair chiralities

We present a floating catalyst synthesis route for individual, i.e., non-bundled, small diameter single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) with a narrow chiral angle distribution peaking at high chiralities near the armchair species. An ex situ spark discharge generator was used to form iron particles with geometric number mean diameters of 3–4 nm and fed into a laminar flow chemical vapour deposition reactor for the continuous synthesis of long and high-quality SWCNTs from ambient pressure carbon monoxide. The intensity ratio of G/D peaks in Raman spectra up to 48 and mean tube lengths up to 4 μm were observed. The chiral distributions, as directly determined by electron diffraction in the transmission electron microscope, clustered around the (n,m) indices (7,6), (8,6), (8,7), and (9,6), with up to 70% of tubes having chiral angles over 20°. The mean diameter of SWCNTs was reduced from 1.10 to 1.04 nm by decreasing the growth temperature from 880 to 750 °C, which simultaneously increased the fraction of semiconducting tubes from 67% to 80%. Limiting the nanotube gas phase number concentration to ∼10{sup 5 }cm{sup −3} prevented nanotube bundle formation that is due to collisions induced by Brownian diffusion. Up to 80% of 500 as-deposited tubes observed by atomic force and transmission electron microscopy were individual. Transparent conducting films deposited from these SWCNTs exhibited record low sheet resistances of 63 Ω/□ at 90% transparency for 550 nm light.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

Formation of shallow boron emitters in crystalline silicon using flash lamp annealing: Role of excess silicon interstitials

Shallow, Boron (B)-doped p{sup +} emitters have been realized using spin-on deposition and Flash Lamp Annealing (FLA) to diffuse B into monocrystalline float zone Silicon (Si). The emitters extend between 50 and 140 nm in depth below the surface, have peak concentrations between 9 × 10{sup 19 }cm{sup –3} and 3 × 10{sup 20 }cm{sup –3}, and exhibit sheet resistances between 70 and 3000 Ω/□. An exceptionally large increase in B diffusion occurs for FLA energy densities exceeding ∼93 J/cm{sup 2} irrespective of 10 or 20 ms pulse duration. The effect is attributed to enhanced diffusion of B caused by Si interstitial injection following a thermally activated reaction between the spin-on diffusant film and the silicon wafer.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Probing the structural and dynamical properties of liquid water with models including non-local electron correlation

Water is a ubiquitous liquid that displays a wide range of anomalous properties and has a delicate structure that challenges experiment and simulation alike. The various intermolecular interactions that play an important role, such as repulsion, polarization, hydrogen bonding, and van der Waals interactions, are often difficult to reproduce faithfully in atomistic models. Here, electronic structure theories including all these interactions at equal footing, which requires the inclusion of non-local electron correlation, are used to describe structure and dynamics of bulk liquid water. Isobaric-isothermal (NpT) ensemble simulations based on the Random Phase Approximation (RPA) yield excellent density (0.994 g/ml) and fair radial distribution functions, while various other density functional approximations produce scattered results (0.8-1.2 g/ml). Molecular dynamics simulation in the microcanonical (NVE) ensemble based on Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) yields dynamical properties in the condensed phase, namely, the infrared spectrum and diffusion constant. At the MP2 and RPA levels of theory, ice is correctly predicted to float on water, resolving one of the anomalies as resulting from a delicate balance between van der Waals and hydrogen bonding interactions. For several properties, obtaining quantitative agreement with experiment requires correction for nuclear quantum effects (NQEs), highlighting their importance, for structure, dynamics, and electronic properties. A computed NQE shift of 0.6 eV for the band gap and absorption spectrum illustrates the latter. Giving access to both structure and dynamics of condensed phase systems, non-local electron correlation will increasingly be used to study systems where weak interactions are of paramount importance.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2015

Non-invasive probe diagnostic method for electron temperature and ion current density in atmospheric pressure plasma jet source

The electrical probe diagnostics are very hard to be applied to atmospheric plasmas due to severe perturbation by the electrical probes. To overcome this, the probe for measuring electron temperature and ion current density is indirectly contacted with an atmospheric jet source. The plasma parameters are obtained by using floating harmonic analysis. The probe is mounted on the quartz tube that surrounds plasma. When a sinusoidal voltage is applied to a probe contacting on a quartz tube, the electrons near the sheath at dielectric tube are collected and the probe current has harmonic components due to probe sheath nonlinearity. From the relation of the harmonic currents and amplitude of the sheath voltage, the electron temperature near the wall can be obtained with collisional sheath model. The electron temperatures and ion current densities measured at the discharge region are in the ranges of 2.7–3.4 eV and 1.7–5.2 mA/cm{sup 2} at various flow rates and input powers.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Experimental investigation of quasiperiodic-chaotic-quasiperiodic-chaotic transition in a direct current magnetron sputtering plasma

Floating potential fluctuations from a direct current magnetron sputtering plasma have been analysed using time series analysis techniques like phase space plots, power spectra, frequency bifurcation plot, etc. The system exhibits quasiperiodic-chaotic-quasiperiodic-chaotic transitions as the discharge voltage was increased. The transitions of the fluctuations, quantified using the largest Lyapunov exponent, have been corroborated by Hurst exponent and the Shannon entropy. The Shannon entropy is high for quasiperiodic and low for chaotic oscillations.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Effect of electron reflection on magnetized plasma sheath in an oblique magnetic field

Magnetized plasma sheaths in an oblique magnetic field were extensively investigated by conventionally assuming Boltzmann relation for electron density. This article presents the study of the magnetized sheath without using the Boltzmann relation but by considering the electron reflection along the magnetic field lines caused by the negative sheath potential. A generalized Bohm criterion is analytically derived, and sheath profiles are numerically obtained, which are compared with the results of the conventional model. The results show that the ion Mach number at the sheath edge normal to the wall has a strong dependence on the wall potential, which differs significantly from the conventional model in which the Mach number is independent of the wall potential. The floating wall potential is lower in the present model than that in the conventional model. Furthermore, the sheath profiles are appreciably narrower in the present model when the wall bias is low, but approach the result of the conventional model when the wall bias is high. The sheath thickness decreases with the increase of ion-to-electron temperature ratio and magnetic field strength but has a complex relationship with the angle of the magnetic field.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

A triple quantum dot based nano-electromechanical memory device

Colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) are free-standing nano-structures with chemically tunable electronic properties. This tunability offers intriguing possibilities for nano-electromechanical devices. In this work, we consider a nano-electromechanical nonvolatile memory (NVM) device incorporating a triple quantum dot (TQD) cluster. The device operation is based on a bias induced motion of a floating quantum dot (FQD) located between two bound quantum dots (BQDs). The mechanical motion is used for switching between two stable states, “ON” and “OFF” states, where ligand-mediated effective interdot forces between the BQDs and the FQD serve to hold the FQD in each stable position under zero bias. Considering realistic microscopic parameters, our quantum-classical theoretical treatment of the TQD reveals the characteristics of the NVM.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Dust particle diffusion in ion beam transport region

Dust particles of μm size produced by a monoplasmatron ion source are observed by a laser light scattering. The scattered light signal from an incident laser at 532 nm wavelength indicates when and where a particle passes through the ion beam transport region. As the result, dusts with the size more than 10 μm are found to be distributed in the center of the ion beam, while dusts with the size less than 10 μm size are distributed along the edge of the ion beam. Floating potential and electron temperature at beam transport region are measured by an electrostatic probe. This observation can be explained by a charge up model of the dust in the plasma boundary region.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2015

Two-color detection with charge sensitive infrared phototransistors

Highly sensitive two-color detection is demonstrated at wavelengths of 9 μm and 14.5 μm by using a charge sensitive infrared phototransistor fabricated in a triple GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well (QW) crystal. Two differently thick QWs (7 nm- and 9 nm-thicknesses) serve as photosensitive floating gates for the respective wavelengths via intersubband excitation: The excitation in the QWs is sensed by a third QW, which works as a conducting source-drain channel in the photosensitive transistor. The two spectral bands of detection are shown to be controlled by front-gate biasing, providing a hint for implementing voltage tunable ultra-highly sensitive detectors.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Multidirectional plasma flow measurement by Gundestrup Probe in scrape-off layer of ADITYA tokamak

Multidirectional plasma flow measurements by using Gundestrup Probe in the scrape-off layer of ADITYA tokamak are presented. The ADITYA Gundestrup Probe-head consists of eight plates arranged around the ceramic rod and three pins normal to side plates. Plates are used to measure both parallel and perpendicular flows simultaneously and pins are used to measure plasma density and floating potential. A comparison of direct perpendicular flow measurement and by two other plates of Gundestrup Probe is presented. Possible causes of perpendicular flows are identified and compared with the measured flows. It is observed that the mechanism of the parallel flow and the perpendicular flow is different only at high parallel Mach number. A puff of the working gas is used to study its effect on the perpendicular flows and its reversal with the gas puff is observed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Direct measurements of classical and enhanced gradient-aligned cross-field ion flows in a helicon plasma source using laser-induced fluorescence

Direct laser induced fluorescence measurements are shown of cross-field ion flows normal to an absorbing boundary that is aligned parallel to the axial magnetic field in a helicon plasma. We show Langmuir and emissive probe measurements of local density and plasma potential in the same region, as well as floating probe spectra near the boundary. With these measurements, we investigate the influence of ion-neutral collisionality on radial ion transport by varying the ratio of the ion gyro-radius, ρ{sub i}, to the ion-neutral collision length, λ, over the range 0.34 ≤ ρ{sub i}λ{sup −1} ≤ 1.60. Classical drift-diffusion transport along density and potential gradients is sufficient to describe flow profiles for most cases. For two parameter regimes (ρ{sub i}λ{sup −1} = 0.65 and 0.44), low-frequency electrostatic fluctuations (f < 10 kHz) and enhanced cross-field bulk ion flow to the boundary are observed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

A method for data handling numerical results in parallel OpenFOAM simulations

Parallel computational fluid dynamics simulations produce vast amount of numerical result data. This paper introduces a method for reducing the size of the data by replaying the interprocessor traffic. The results are recovered only in certain regions of interest configured by the user. A known test case is used for several mesh partitioning scenarios using the OpenFOAM toolkit{sup ®}[1]. The space savings obtained with classic algorithms remain constant for more than 60 Gb of floating point data. Our method is most efficient on large simulation meshes and is much better suited for compressing large scale simulation results than the regular algorithms.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2016

Existence of a virtual cathode close to a strongly electron emissive wall in low density plasmas

The interaction between an electron emissive wall, electrically biased in a plasma, is revisited through a simple fluid model. We search for realistic conditions of the existence of a non-monotonic plasma potential profile with a virtual cathode as it is observed in several experiments. We mainly focus our attention on thermionic emission related to the operation of emissive probes for plasma diagnostics, although most conclusions also apply to other electron emission processes. An extended Bohm criterion is derived involving the ratio between the two different electron densities at the potential minimum and at the background plasma. The model allows a phase-diagram analysis, which confirms the existence of the non-monotonic potential profiles with a virtual cathode. This analysis shows that the formation of the potential well critically depends on the emitted electron current and on the velocity at the sheath edge of cold ions flowing from the bulk plasma. As a consequence, a threshold value of the governing parameter is required, in accordance to the physical nature of the electron emission process. The latter is a threshold wall temperature in the case of thermionic electrons. Experimental evidence supports our numerical calculations of this threshold temperature. Besides this, the potential well becomes deeper with increasing electron emission, retaining a fraction of the released current which limits the extent of the bulk plasma perturbation. This noninvasive property would explain the reliable measurements of plasma potential by using the floating potential method of emissive probes operating in the so-called strong emission regime.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Spin reorientation transition in Sm{sub 0.5}Tb{sub 0.5}FeO{sub 3} orthoferrite single crystal

Single crystal of Sm{sub 0.5}Tb{sub 0.5}FeO{sub 3} was grown by an optical floating zone method. The spin reorientation transition behavior (Γ{sub 2} → Γ{sub 24} → Γ{sub 4}) is observed in the temperature range from 150 to 250 K. The dynamics of spin reorientation transition is studied by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS). FM mode was only discovered when temperature is below 55 K. And the FM mode resonant frequency increases from 0.216 THz to 0.268 THz with temperature deceasing from 55 K to 39 K. The AFM mode resonant frequency is fixed at 0.542 THz except in the very low temperature range. Our results demonstrate that THz-TDS is an effective means to study the dynamical iron ions SRT in RFeO{sub 3}.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Upgraded metallurgical-grade silicon solar cells with efficiency above 20%

We present solar cells fabricated with n-type Czochralski–silicon wafers grown with strongly compensated 100% upgraded metallurgical-grade feedstock, with efficiencies above 20%. The cells have a passivated boron-diffused front surface, and a rear locally phosphorus-diffused structure fabricated using an etch-back process. The local heavy phosphorus diffusion on the rear helps to maintain a high bulk lifetime in the substrates via phosphorus gettering, whilst also reducing recombination under the rear-side metal contacts. The independently measured results yield a peak efficiency of 20.9% for the best upgraded metallurgical-grade silicon cell and 21.9% for a control device made with electronic-grade float-zone silicon. The presence of boron-oxygen related defects in the cells is also investigated, and we confirm that these defects can be partially deactivated permanently by annealing under illumination.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

A corpuscular picture of electrons in chemical bond

We introduce a theory of chemical bond with a corpuscular picture of electrons. It employs a minimal set of localized electron wave packets with “floating and breathing” degrees of freedom and the spin-coupling of non-orthogonal valence-bond theory. Its accuracy for describing potential energy curves of chemical bonds in ground and excited states of spin singlet and triplet is examined.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗