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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 1,729 records · Page 96
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

Mechanism of Electron Beam Induced Oxide Layer Thickening on Iron–Iron Oxide Core–Shell Nanoparticles

Materials exposed to radiation show structural changes and damages, especially in the nanoscale range. The characterizing equipment involving electron beam (e-beam) radiation for a nanosize imaging process, such as a transmission electron microscope, is no exception, in which the most prominent behavior of native oxide layer thickening has been widely studied. In this paper, we describe the physics behind the growth mechanism of the oxide layer in a core–shell iron/iron oxide nanoparticle (NP) under the impact of e-beam radiation. The particles studied were synthesized via a cluster deposition system. Due to the impact of the e-beam, these particles were observed to grow inward and outward resulting in a total increase of NP size. The theory is connected with experimental evidence to reveal the oxide layer thickening of the NP, which is favored and enhanced by vacancy formation, surface oxidation, and diffusion/void nucleation under the impact of a 200 keV e-beam.

Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory↗
DOE OSTI2024

Thermal Transport and Mechanical Stress Mapping of a Compression Bonded GaN/Diamond Interface for Vertical Power Devices

Bonding diamond to the back side of gallium nitride (GaN) electronics has been shown to improve thermal management in lateral devices; however, engineering challenges remain with the bonding process and characterizing the bond quality for vertical device architectures. Here, in this study, integration of these two materials is achieved by room-temperature compression bonding centimeter-scale GaN and a diamond die via an intermetallic bonding layer of Ti/Au. Recent attempts at GaN/diamond bonding have utilized a modified surface activation bonding (SAB) method, which requires Ar fast atom bombardment immediately followed by bonding within the same tool under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions. The method presented here does not require a dedicated SAB tool yet still achieves bonding via a room-temperature metal–metal compression process. Imaging of the buried interface and the total bonding area is achieved via transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and confocal acoustic scanning microscopy (C-SAM), respectively. The thermal transport quality of the bond is extracted from spatially resolved frequency-domain thermoreflectance (FDTR) with the bonded areas boasting a thermal boundary conductance of >100 MW/m 2 ·K. Additionally, Raman maps of GaN near the GaN–diamond interface reveal a low level of compressive stress, <80 MPa, in well-bonded regions. FDTR and Raman were coutilized to map these buried interfaces and revealed some poor thermally bonded areas bordered by high-stress regions, highlighting the importance of spatial sampling for a complete picture of bond quality. Overall, this work demonstrates a novel method for thermal management in vertical GaN devices that maintains low intrinsic stresses while boasting high thermal boundary conductances.

Raman↗
DOE OSTI2019

High-Speed Quantification of Pore-Scale Multiphase Flow of Water and Supercritical CO 2 in 2-D Heterogeneous Porous Micromodels: Flow Regimes and Interface Dynamics

The pore-scale flow of CO 2 and water in 2-D heterogeneous porous micromodels over a Ca range of nearly three orders of magnitude was explored experimentally. The porous geometry is a close reprint of real sandstone, and the experiments were performed under reservoir-relevant conditions (i.e., 8 MPa and 21°C), thus ensuring relevance to practical CO 2 operations. High-speed fluorescent microscopy and image processing were employed to achieve temporally and spatially resolved data, providing a unique view of the dynamics underlying this multiphase flow scenario. Under conditions relevant to CO 2 sequestration, final CO 2 saturation was found to decrease and increase logarithmically with Ca within the capillary and viscous-fingering regimes, respectively, with a minimum occurring during regime crossover. Specific interfacial length generally scales linearly with CO 2 saturation, with higher slopes noted at high Ca due to stronger viscous and inertial forces, as supported by direct pore-scale observations. Additionally, statistical analysis of the interfacial movements revealed that pore-scale events are controlled by their intrinsic dynamics at low Ca, but overrun by the bulk flow at high Ca. During postfront flow, while permeability is typically correlated with total CO 2 saturation in the porous domain (regardless of its mobility), the saturation of active CO 2 pathways in the current study correlated very well with permeability. This alternate approach to characterize relative permeability could serve to mitigate hysteresis in relative permeability curves. Taken together, these results provide unique insights that address inconsistent observations in the literature and previously unanswered questions about the underlying flow dynamics of this important multiphase flow scenario.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Capillary Water in 2-D Drying-Cracking Soil Sub-Grain Models: Morphology and Kinematics of Evaporation and Haines Jumps

Morphing of capillary water during the drying of a cluster of three wet grains is imaged and measured. The uniqueness of the tests is in the grains being long cylinders to make the system as close to a 2-D one as possible. In this way, the Laplace pressure depends on the only one curvature of the meniscus, which can easily be followed and is continuously image processed. The motion of liquid/gas interface, and its rate, as well as of contact angle and perimeter, are also monitored. The drying water body has been known to undergo two modes of re-morphing: a slow, evaporation rate-controlled one and a fast, inertia-driven instabilities of the interfaces. Two particular forms of dynamic re-morphing are being followed: one, called classically an “air entry,” which is a meniscus jump before its approaching the throat between the top and a bottom grain and another jump of the bottom contact, with a splitting of the meniscus into two between only two of the three grains. Associated dynamic variables, capillary pressure, and surface tension forces developing prior to and in conjunction with the instabilities of the menisci are presented in a companion paper by Hueckel et al..

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

An atomic model of brome mosaic virus using direct electron detection and real-space optimization

Advances in electron cryo-microscopy have enabled structure determination of macromolecules at near-atomic resolution. However, structure determination, even using de novo methods, remains susceptible to model bias and overfitting. Here we describe a complete workflow for data acquisition, image processing, all-atom modelling and validation of brome mosaic virus, an RNA virus. Data were collected with a direct electron detector in integrating mode and an exposure beyond the traditional radiation damage limit. The final density map has a resolution of 3.8 Å as assessed by two independent data sets and maps. We used the map to derive an all-atom model with a newly implemented real-space optimization protocol. The validity of the model was verified by its match with the density map and a previous model from X-ray crystallography, as well as the internal consistency of models from independent maps. This study demonstrates a practical approach to obtain a rigorously validated atomic resolution electron cryo-microscopy structure.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Interpreting nanovoids in atom probe tomography data for accurate local compositional measurements

Quantifying chemical compositions around nanovoids is a fundamental task for research and development of various materials. Atom probe tomography (APT) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) are currently the most suitable tools because of their ability to probe materials at the nanoscale. Both techniques have limitations, particularly APT, because of insufficient understanding of void imaging. Here, we employ a correlative APT and STEM approach to investigate the APT imaging process and reveal that voids can lead to either an increase or a decrease in local atomic densities in the APT reconstruction. Simulated APT experiments demonstrate the local density variations near voids are controlled by the unique ring structures as voids open and the different evaporation fields of the surrounding atoms. We provide a general approach for quantifying chemical segregations near voids within an APT dataset, in which the composition can be directly determined with a higher accuracy than STEM-based techniques.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Differentiating multi-MeV, multi-ion spectra with CR-39 solid-state nuclear track detectors

The development of high intensity petawatt lasers has created new possibilities for ion acceleration and nuclear fusion using solid targets. In such laser-matter interaction, multiple ion species are accelerated with broad spectra up to hundreds of MeV. To measure ion yields and for species identification, CR-39 solid-state nuclear track detectors are frequently used. However, these detectors are limited in their applicability for multi-ion spectra differentiation as standard image recognition algorithms can lead to a misinterpretation of data, there is no unique relation between track diameter and particle energy, and there are overlapping pit diameter relationships for multiple particle species. In this report, we address these issues by first developing an algorithm to overcome user bias during image processing. Second, we use calibration of the detector response for protons, carbon and helium ions (alpha particles) from 0.1 to above 10 MeV and measurements of statistical energy loss fluctuations in a forward-fitting procedure utilizing multiple, differently filtered CR-39, altogether enabling high-sensitivity, multi-species particle spectroscopy. To validate this capability, we show that inferred CR-39 spectra match Thomson parabola ion spectrometer data from the same experiment. Filtered CR-39 spectrometers were used to detect, within a background of ~ 2 × 10 11 sr -1 J -1 protons and carbons, (1.3 ± 0.7) × 10 8 sr -1 J -1 alpha particles from laser-driven proton-boron fusion reactions.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2021

Global field reconstruction from sparse sensors with Veronoi tessellation-assisted deep learning

Achieving accurate and robust global situational awareness of a complex time-evolving field from a limited number of sensors has been a longstanding challenge. This reconstruction problem is especially difficult when sensors are sparsely positioned in a seemingly random or unorganized manner, which is often encountered in a range of scientific and engineering problems. Moreover, these sensors can be in motion and can become online or offline over time. The key leverage in addressing this scientific issue is the wealth of data accumulated from the sensors. As a solution to this problem, we propose a data-driven spatial field recovery technique founded on a structured grid-based deep-learning approach for arbitrary positioned sensors of any numbers. It should be noted that the naïve use of machine learning becomes prohibitively expensive for global field reconstruction and is furthermore not adaptable to an arbitrary number of sensors. In the present work, we consider the use of Voronoi tessellation to obtain a structured-grid representation from sensor locations enabling the computationally tractable use of convolutional neural networks. One of the central features of the present method is its compatibility with deep-learning based super-resolution reconstruction techniques for structured sensor data that are established for image processing. The proposed reconstruction technique is demonstrated for unsteady wake flow, geophysical data, and three-dimensional turbulence. The current framework is able to handle an arbitrary number of moving sensors, and thereby overcomes a major limitation with existing reconstruction methods. The presented technique opens a new pathway towards the practical use of neural networks for real-time global field estimation.

Fukami, Kai↗
DOE OSTI2013

Invited Review Article: Methods for imaging weak-phase objects in electron microscopy

Contrast has traditionally been produced in electron-microscopy of weak phase objects by simply defocusing the objective lens. There now is renewed interest, however, in using devices that apply a uniform quarter-wave phase shift to the scattered electrons relative to the unscattered beam, or that generate in-focus image contrast in some other way. Renewed activity in making an electron-optical equivalent of the familiar “phase-contrast” light microscope is based in part on the improved possibilities that are now available for device microfabrication. There is also a better understanding that it is important to take full advantage of contrast that can be had at low spatial frequency when imaging large, macromolecular objects. In addition, a number of conceptually new phase-plate designs have been proposed, thus increasing the number of options that are available for development. The advantages, disadvantages, and current status of each of these options is now compared and contrasted. Experimental results that are, indeed, superior to what can be accomplished with defocus-based phase contrast have been obtained recently with two different designs of phase-contrast aperture. Nevertheless, extensive work also has shown that fabrication of such devices is inconsistent, and that their working lifetime is short. The main limitation, in fact, appears to be electrostatic charging of any device that is placed into the electron diffraction pattern. The challenge in fabricating phase plates that are practical to use for routine work in electron microscopy thus may be more in the area of materials science than in the area of electron optics.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Development of spectrally selective imaging system for negative hydrogen ion source

A spectrally selective imaging system has been developed to obtain a distribution of H{sub α} emissions at the extraction region in a hydrogen negative ion source. The diagnostic system consisted of an aspherical lens, optical filters, a fiber image conduit, and a charge coupled device detector was installed on the 1/3-scaled hydrogen negative ion source in the National Institute for Fusion Science. The center of sight line passes beside the plasma grid (PG) surface with the distance of 11 mm, and the viewing angle has coverage 35 mm from the PG surface. Two dimensional H{sub α} distribution in the range up to 20 mm from the PG surface was clearly observed. The reduction area for H{sub α} emission caused by beam extraction was widely distributed in the extraction region near the PG surface.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2013

Fast and gentle side approach for atomic force microscopy

Atomic force microscopy is one of the most popular imaging tools with atomic resolution in different research fields. Here, a fast and gentle side approach for atomic force microscopy is proposed to image the same surface location and to reduce the time delay between modification and imaging without significant tip degradation. This reproducible approach to image the same surface location using atomic force microscopy shortly after, for example, any biological, chemical, or physical modification on a geometrically separated position has the potential to become widely used.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2014

Analysis of the multigroup model for muon tomography based threat detection

We compare different algorithms for detecting a 5 cm tungsten cube using cosmic ray muon technology. In each case, a simple tomographic technique was used for position reconstruction, but the scattering angles were used differently to obtain a density signal. Receiver operating characteristic curves were used to compare images made using average angle squared, median angle squared, average of the squared angle, and a multi-energy group fit of the angular distributions for scenes with and without a 5 cm tungsten cube. The receiver operating characteristic curves show that the multi-energy group treatment of the scattering angle distributions is the superior method for image reconstruction.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2014

Design and evaluation of a device for fast multispectral time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy and imaging

The application of time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy (TRFS) to in vivo tissue diagnosis requires a method for fast acquisition of fluorescence decay profiles in multiple spectral bands. This study focusses on development of a clinically compatible fiber-optic based multispectral TRFS (ms-TRFS) system together with validation of its accuracy and precision for fluorescence lifetime measurements. It also presents the expansion of this technique into an imaging spectroscopy method. A tandem array of dichroic beamsplitters and filters was used to record TRFS decay profiles at four distinct spectral bands where biological tissue typically presents fluorescence emission maxima, namely, 390, 452, 542, and 629 nm. Each emission channel was temporally separated by using transmission delays through 200 μm diameter multimode optical fibers of 1, 10, 19, and 28 m lengths. A Laguerre-expansion deconvolution algorithm was used to compensate for modal dispersion inherent to large diameter optical fibers and the finite bandwidth of detectors and digitizers. The system was found to be highly efficient and fast requiring a few nano-Joule of laser pulse energy and <1 ms per point measurement, respectively, for the detection of tissue autofluorescent components. Organic and biological chromophores with lifetimes that spanned a 0.8–7 ns range were used for system validation, and the measured lifetimes from the organic fluorophores deviated by less than 10% from values reported in the literature. Multi-spectral lifetime images of organic dye solutions contained in glass capillary tubes were recorded by raster scanning the single fiber probe in a 2D plane to validate the system as an imaging tool. The lifetime measurement variability was measured indicating that the system provides reproducible results with a standard deviation smaller than 50 ps. The ms-TRFS is a compact apparatus that makes possible the fast, accurate, and precise multispectral time-resolved fluorescence lifetime measurements of low quantum efficiency sub-nanosecond fluorophores.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2014

Frequency-modulated atomic force microscopy operation by imaging at the frequency shift minimum: The dip-df mode

In frequency modulated non-contact atomic force microscopy, the change of the cantilever frequency (Δf) is used as the input signal for the topography feedback loop. Around the Δf(z) minimum, however, stable feedback operation is challenging using a standard proportional-integral-derivative (PID) feedback design due to the change of sign in the slope. When operated under liquid conditions, it is furthermore difficult to address the attractive interaction regime due to its often moderate peakedness. Additionally, the Δf signal level changes severely with time in this environment due to drift of the cantilever frequency f{sub 0} and, thus, requires constant adjustment. Here, we present an approach overcoming these obstacles by using the derivative of Δf with respect to z as the input signal for the topography feedback loop. Rather than regulating the absolute value to a preset setpoint, the slope of the Δf with respect to z is regulated to zero. This new measurement mode not only makes the minimum of the Δf(z) curve directly accessible, but it also benefits from greatly increased operation stability due to its immunity against f{sub 0} drift. We present isosurfaces of the Δf minimum acquired on the calcite CaCO{sub 3}(101{sup ¯}4) surface in liquid environment, demonstrating the capability of our method to image in the attractive tip-sample interaction regime.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2014

Four dimensional hybrid ultrasound and optoacoustic imaging via passive element optical excitation in a hand-held probe

Ultrasonography and optoacoustic imaging share powerful advantages related to the natural aptitude for real-time image rendering with high resolution, the hand-held operation, and lack of ionizing radiation. The two methods also possess very different yet highly complementary advantages of the mechanical and optical contrast in living tissues. Nonetheless, efficient integration of these modalities remains challenging owing to the fundamental differences in the underlying physical contrast, optimal signal acquisition, and image reconstruction approaches. We report on a method for hybrid acquisition and reconstruction of three-dimensional pulse-echo ultrasound and optoacoustic images in real time based on passive ultrasound generation with an optical absorber, thus avoiding the hardware complexity of active ultrasound generation. In this way, complete hybrid datasets are generated with a single laser interrogation pulse, resulting in simultaneous rendering of ultrasound and optoacoustic images at an unprecedented rate of 10 volumetric frames per second. Performance is subsequently showcased in phantom experiments and in-vivo measurements from a healthy human volunteer, confirming general clinical applicability of the method.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2014

The use of wavelet filters for reducing noise in posterior fossa Computed Tomography images

Wavelet transform based de-noising like wavelet shrinkage, gives the good results in CT. This procedure affects very little the spatial resolution. Some applications are reconstruction methods, while others are a posteriori de-noising methods. De-noising after reconstruction is very difficult because the noise is non-stationary and has unknown distribution. Therefore, methods which work on the sinogram-space don’t have this problem, because they always work over a known noise distribution at this point. On the other hand, the posterior fossa in a head CT is a very complex region for physicians, because it is commonly affected by artifacts and noise which are not eliminated during the reconstruction procedure. This can leads to some false positive evaluations. The purpose of our present work is to compare different wavelet shrinkage de-noising filters to reduce noise, particularly in images of the posterior fossa within CT scans in the sinogram-space. This work describes an experimental search for the best wavelets, to reduce Poisson noise in Computed Tomography (CT) scans. Results showed that de-noising with wavelet filters improved the quality of posterior fossa region in terms of an increased CNR, without noticeable structural distortions.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Manufacturing techniques studies of ceramics by neutron and γ-ray radiography

In this study, the aim was to evaluate capabilities and constraints of radiographic imagery using thermal neutrons and gamma-rays as tools to identify the type of technique employed in ceramics manufacturing especially that used in prehistoric Brazilian pottery from Acre state. For this purpose, radiographic images of test objects made with clay of this region using both techniques - palette and rollers - have been acquired with a system comprised of a source of gamma-rays or thermal neutrons and a corresponding X-ray or neutron-sensitive Imaging Plate as detector. For the neutrongraphy samples were exposed to a thermal neutron flux of order of 10{sup 5}n.cm{sup −2}.s{sup −1} for 3 minutes at main port of Argonauta research reactor of the Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear - IEN/CNEN. The radiographic images using γ-rays from {sup 165}Dy (95 keV) and {sup 198}Au (412 keV) both produced at this reactor, have been acquired under an exposure time of a couple of hours. After acquisition, images have undergone a treatment to improve their quality through enhancement of their contrast, a procedure involving corrections of the beam divergence, sample shape and averaging of the attenuation map profile. Preliminary results show that difference between manufacturing techniques is better identified by radiography using low energy γ-rays from {sup 165}Dy rather than neutrongraphy or γ-rays from {sup 198}Au. Nevertheless, disregarding the kind of employed radiation, it should be stressed that feasibility to apply the technique is tightly tied to homogeneity of the clay itself and tempers due to their different attenuation.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2015

Bayesian 3D X-ray computed tomography image reconstruction with a scaled Gaussian mixture prior model

In order to improve quality of 3D X-ray tomography reconstruction for Non Destructive Testing (NDT), we investigate in this paper hierarchical Bayesian methods. In NDT, useful prior information on the volume like the limited number of materials or the presence of homogeneous area can be included in the iterative reconstruction algorithms. In hierarchical Bayesian methods, not only the volume is estimated thanks to the prior model of the volume but also the hyper parameters of this prior. This additional complexity in the reconstruction methods when applied to large volumes (from 512{sup 3} to 8192{sup 3} voxels) results in an increasing computational cost. To reduce it, the hierarchical Bayesian methods investigated in this paper lead to an algorithm acceleration by Variational Bayesian Approximation (VBA) [1] and hardware acceleration thanks to projection and back-projection operators paralleled on many core processors like GPU [2]. In this paper, we will consider a Student-t prior on the gradient of the image implemented in a hierarchical way [3, 4, 1]. Operators H (forward or projection) and H{sup t} (adjoint or back-projection) implanted in multi-GPU [2] have been used in this study. Different methods will be evalued on synthetic volume 'Shepp and Logan' in terms of quality and time of reconstruction. We used several simple regularizations of order 1 and order 2. Other prior models also exists [5]. Sometimes for a discrete image, we can do the segmentation and reconstruction at the same time, then the reconstruction can be done with less projections.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗