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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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A short overview is given on the study of hot matter produced in relativistic nucleusnucleus collisions, with emphasis on recent measurements at the LHC.
Detector grade Cd{sub 0.9}Zn{sub 0.1}Te (CZT) single crystals were grown from zone refined Cd, Zn, and Te ({approx}7 N) precursor materials, using a tellurium solvent method. Detectors with virtual Frisch grid configuration were fabricated using these crystals. I-V measurements revealed low leakage currents at room-temperature, {approx}11 nA for one such detector D1 and {approx}8 nA for another detector D2 at 1100 V. The spectroscopic performances of the two CZT virtual Frisch grid detectors have been evaluated and compared for high energy gamma ray detection. Detector D1 showed a well-resolved pulse-height spectrum with an energy resolution of {approx}1.6% for the 662 keV gamma rays. Detector D2 also showed a distinct 662 keV peak but with a broader pulse-height distribution. A digital biparametric correlation study of the depth of interaction and energy deposited by the 662 keV gamma rays was carried out. A different kind of correlation pattern from that observed normally for hole trapping was noticed in the case of detector D2. Correlation of results from thermally stimulated current measurement studies suggested that the anomalous biparametric correlation pattern was due to the trapping of holes but modified by the virtual Frisch grid effect. The results also suggested that the effect of electron trapping could not be ruled out either. Finally, a digital correction scheme was applied to recover the {sup 137}Cs spectrum from the effect of charge loss.
Particle-induced electron emission (PIE) is modeled in a simplified, well-characterized plasma Test Cell operated at UCLA. In order for PIE to be a useful model in this environment, its governing equations are first reduced to lower-order models which can be implemented in a direct simulation Monte Carlo and Particle-in-Cell framework. These reduced-order models are described in full and presented as semi-empirical models. The models are implemented to analyze the interaction of low- and high-energy ({approx}1-2 keV) xenon ions and atoms with the stainless steel electrodes of the Test Cell in order to gain insight into the emission and transport of secondary electrons. Furthermore, there is a lack of data for xenon-stainless steel atom- and ion-surface interactions for similar environments. Using experimental data as a reference, both total yields and emitted electron energy distribution functions can be deduced by observing sensitivities of current collection results to these numerical models and their parameters.
The obtaining of bound states of heavy and light quarks interacting via a static quark potential is revisited here. We present an approach that both approximate the relativistic wave equation and allows the obtaining of analytical solutions and binding energies (and consequently, the heavy mesons spectra) of the system.
A study of the cross section for chaged-current quasielastic (CCQE) scattering on nuclei has been performed using a description of nuclear dynamics based on the Relativistic Fermi Gas model (RFG). The role played by different parametrizations for the weak nucleon form factors is analyzed taking into account the relevance of the axial mass value. The results obtained are compared with the recent data for neutrinos measured by the MiniBooNE Collaboration.
High Energy Physics explores the most fundamental questions about the nature of the universe, e.g., basic building blocks of matter and energy, existence of the smallest sub-atomic particles, dark matter, dark energy etc. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the most powerful accelerator on earth located near Geneva, Switzerland. It recreates the conditions just after the Big Bang by colliding two proton beams head-on at very high energy every 25-50 nanosecond. With the recent discovery of Higgs boson, the LHC is firmly marching on to explore the TeV energy scale.
We measured, using Petawatt-level pulses, the average ion energy and neutron yield in high-intensity laser interactions with molecular clusters as a function of laser intensity. The interaction volume over which fusion occurred (1–10 mm{sup 3}) was larger than previous investigations, owing to the high laser power. Possible effects of prepulses were examined by implementing a pair of plasma mirrors. Our results show an optimum laser intensity for the production of energetic deuterium ions both with and without the use of the plasma mirrors. We measured deuterium plasmas with 14 keV average ion energies, which produced 7.2 × 10{sup 6} and 1.6 × 10{sup 7} neutrons in a single shot with and without plasma mirrors, respectively. The measured neutron yields qualitatively matched the expected yields calculated using a cylindrical plasma model.
An efficient approach that combines the electrostatically embedded generalized molecular fractionation with conjugate caps (EE-GMFCC) method with conductor-like polarizable continuum model (CPCM), termed EE-GMFCC-CPCM, is developed for ab initio calculation of the electrostatic solvation energy of proteins. Compared with the previous MFCC-CPCM study [Y. Mei, C. G. Ji, and J. Z. H. Zhang, J. Chem. Phys. 125, 094906 (2006)], quantum mechanical (QM) calculation is applied to deal with short-range non-neighboring interactions replacing the classical treatment. Numerical studies are carried out for proteins up to 3837 atoms at the HF/6-31G* level. As compared to standard full system CPCM calculations, EE-GMFCC-CPCM shows clear improvement over the MFCC-CPCM method for both the total electrostatic solvation energy and its components (the polarized solute-solvent reaction field energy and wavefunction distortion energy of the solute). For large proteins with 1000–4000 atoms, where the standard full system ab initio CPCM calculations are not affordable, the EE-GMFCC-CPCM gives larger relative wavefunction distortion energies and weaker relative electrostatic solvation energies for proteins, as compared to the corresponding energies calculated by the Divide-and-Conquer Poisson-Boltzmann (D and C-PB) method. Notwithstanding, a high correlation between EE-GMFCC-CPCM and D and C-PB is observed. This study demonstrates that the linear-scaling EE-GMFCC-CPCM approach is an accurate and also efficient method for the calculation of electrostatic solvation energy of proteins.
In this article, we present the first comprehensive study of metallophilic (aurophilic) interactions using dispersion-corrected density-functional theory. Dispersion interactions (an essential component of metallophilicity) are treated using the exchange-hole dipole moment (XDM) model. By comparing against coupled-cluster benchmark calculations on simple dimers, we show that LC-ωPBE-XDM is a viable functional to study interactions between closed-shell transition metals and that it performs uniformly better than second-order Møller-Plesset theory, the basic computational technique used in previous works. We apply LC-ωPBE-XDM to address several open questions regarding metallophilicity, such as the interplay between dispersion and relativistic effects, the interaction strength along group 11, the additivity of homo- and hetero-metallophilic effects, the stability of [E(AuPH{sub 3}){sub 4}]{sup +} cations (E = N, P, As, Sb), and the role of metallophilic effects in crystal packing. We find that relativistic effects explain the prevalence of aurophilicity not by stabilizing metal-metal contacts, but by preventing gold from forming ionic structures involving bridge anions (which are otherwise common for Ag and Cu) as a result of the increased electron affinity of the metal. Dispersion effects are less important than previously assumed and their stabilization contribution is relatively independent of the metal.
Many molecules exhibit multiple conformers that often easily interconvert under thermal conditions. Therefore, single conformations are difficult to isolate which renders the study of their distinct chemical reactivities challenging. We have recently reported a new experimental method for the characterization of conformer-specific effects in chemical reactions [Y.-P. Chang, K. Długołęcki, J. Küpper, D. Rösch, D. Wild, and S. Willitsch, “Specific chemical reactivities of spatially separated 3-aminophenol conformers with cold Ca{sup +} ions,” Science 342, 98–101 (2013)]. Different conformers are spatially separated using inhomogeneous electric fields and reacted with a Coulomb crystal of cold, spatially localized ions in a trap. As a first application, we studied reactions between the two conformers of 3-aminophenol and Ca{sup +}. We observed a twofold larger rate constant for the cis compared to the trans conformer which was rationalized in terms of the differences in the long-range ion-molecule interactions. The present article provides a detailed description of the new method and a full account of the experimental results as well as the accompanying theoretical calculations.
No abstract prepared.
Explaining the origin of neutrino masses clearly requires new physics beyond the Standard Model. I focus on the Seesaw paradigm and discuss a few simplest extensions of the SM that give Majorana masses to the active neutrinos. If realized at TeV scale, seesaw theories could manifest themselves in lepton number violating signatures at both low-energy processes and high-energy collider experiments. I summarize the constraints on the seesaw scales using the current LHC data. The left-right symmetric model connects the seesaw mechanism with the origin of parity symmetry breaking, and provides a unified framework for the simplest seesaw types. With new right-handed charged-current interactions, a TeV such model offers a plethora of new particles and exotic signatures at the LHC, and also accommodates a dark matter candidate, the lightest right-handed neutrino. A challenging question is the dark matter relic density which is typically over-produced in the early universe. The late decays of two heavier right-handed neutrinos can produce entropy and dilute the dark matter number. The key observation for this picture to work is the interplay between the freeze temperature of TeV right-handed gauge interaction and the QCD phase transition. The resulting dark matter mass is predicted to be around keV which makes the left-right model also a theory of warm dark matter. I will also comment on the fate of cosmic baryon asymmetry in this scenario.
We present a method to separate coherent and incoherent contributions to cathodoluminescence from bulk materials by using angle-resolved cathodoluminescence spectroscopy. Using 5 and 30 keV electrons, we measure the cathodoluminescence spectra for Si, GaAs, Al, Ag, Au, and Cu and determine the angular emission distributions for Al, GaAs, and Si. Aluminium shows a clear dipolar radiation profile due to coherent transition radiation, while GaAs shows incoherent luminescence characterized by a Lambertian angular distribution. Silicon shows both transition radiation and incoherent radiation. From the angular data, we determine the ratio between the two processes and decompose their spectra. This method provides a powerful way to separate different radiative cathodoluminescence processes, which is useful for material characterization and in studies of electron- and light-matter interaction in metals and semiconductors.
Cathodoluminescence (CL) microscopy allows optical characterization of nanostructures at high spatial resolution. At the nanoscale, a main challenge of the technique is related to the background CL generated within the sample substrate. Here, we implement confocal detection of the CL signal to minimize the background contribution to the measurement. Nano-phosphors were used as point sources to evaluate the filtering capabilities of our confocal CL system, obtaining an axial intensity profile with 2.7 μm full width at half maximum for the central peak, in good correspondence with theoretical expectations. Considering the electron interaction volume, we found that the confocal filter becomes effective for electron energies above 20 keV, when using a 25 μm pinhole (0.86 Airy units). To illustrate our approach, we present confocal CL imaging of gold nanowires and triangular shaped plates deposited on an indium-tin oxide covered glass substrate, comparing the images with those obtained in standard unfiltered CL detection. The results show that confocal CL microscopy is a valuable tool for the investigation of nanostructures on highly cathodoluminescent substrates, widely used in biological and optical applications.
Quantum dot arrays have been projected as the material of choice for next generation displays and photodetectors. Extensive ongoing research aims at improving optical and electrical efficiencies of such devices. We report experimental results on non-local long range emission intensity enhancement and anisotropy in quantum dot assemblies induced by isolated and partially aligned gold nanoantennas. Spatially resolved photoluminescence clearly demonstrate that the effect is maximum, when the longitudinal surface plasmon resonance of the nanoantenna is resonant with the emission maxima of the quantum dots. We estimated the decay length of this enhancement to be ∼2.6 μm, which is considerably larger than the range of near field interaction of metal nanoantenna. Numerical simulations qualitatively capture the near field behavior of the nanorods but fail to match the experimentally observed non-local effects. We have suggested how strong interactions of quantum dots in the close packed assemblies, mediated by the nanoantennas, could lead to such observed behavior.
The impact of confinement on self-assembly of particles interacting with short-range attraction and long-range repulsion potential is studied for thermodynamic states corresponding to local ordering of clusters or layers in the bulk. Exact and asymptotic expressions for the local density and for the effective potential between the confining surfaces are obtained for a one-dimensional lattice model introduced by J. Pȩkalski et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 138, 144903 (2013)]. The simple asymptotic formulas are shown to be in good quantitative agreement with exact results for slits containing at least 5 layers. We observe that the incommensurability of the system size and the average distance between the clusters or layers in the bulk leads to structural deformations that are different for different values of the chemical potential μ. The change of the type of defects is reflected in the dependence of density on μ that has a shape characteristic for phase transitions. Our results may help to avoid misinterpretation of the change of the type of defects as a phase transition in simulations of inhomogeneous systems. Finally, we show that a system confined by soft elastic walls may exhibit bistability such that two system sizes that differ approximately by the average distance between the clusters or layers are almost equally probable. This may happen when the equilibrium separation between the soft boundaries of an empty slit corresponds to the largest stress in the confined self-assembling system.
A stable rotational transmission system is designed with a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT)-based motor and double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs)-based bearing. The system response is investigated using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. It is found that the rotating motor can actuate the rotation of the inner tube in bearing because of the attraction between the two adjacent coaxial ends of motor and rotor (the inner tube in bearing). To have a stable nanostructure, each carbon atom on the adjacent ends of motor and rotor is bonded with a hydrogen atom. To obtain a stable high-speed rotational transmission system, both an armchair and a zigzag model are used in MD simulation. In each model, the motor with different diameters and rotational speeds is employed to examine the rotational transmission of corresponding DWCNTs. It is demonstrated that the long range van der Waals interaction between the adjacent ends of motor and rotor leads to a stable configuration of the adjacent ends, and further leads to a stable rotation of rotor when driven by a high-speed motor. As compared with the armchair model, the rotor in the zigzag model could reach a stable rotation mode much easier.
A diode-pumped Yb:KYW planar waveguide laser, single-mode Q-switched by evanescent-field interaction with graphene, is demonstrated for the first time. Few-layer graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition is transferred onto the top of a guiding layer, which initiates stable Q-switched operation in a 2.4-cm-long waveguide laser operating near 1027 nm. Average output powers up to 34 mW and pulse durations as short as 349 ns are achieved. The measured output beam profile, clearly exhibiting a single mode, agrees well with the theoretically calculated mode intensity distribution inside the waveguide. As the pump power is increased, the repetition rate and pulse energy increase from 191 to 607 kHz and from 7.4 to 58.6 nJ, respectively, whereas the pulse duration decreases from 2.09 μs to 349 ns.