Index to 1984 NASA Tech Briefs, volume 9, numbers 1-4

Short announcements of new technology derived from the R&D activities of NASA are presented. These briefs emphasize information considered likely to be transferrable across industrial, regional, or disciplinary lines and are issued to encourage commercial application. This index for 1984 Tech B Briefs contains abstracts and four indexes: subject, personal author, originating center, and Tech Brief Number. The following areas are covered: electronic components and circuits, electronic systems, physical sciences, materials, life sciences, mechanics, machinery, fabrication technology, and mathematics and information sciences

Fabrication of advanced ceramics and selective metallization of non-conductive substrates by inkjet printing

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University, 30/10/2002.Inkjet printing of ceramic components and gold conductive tracks was carried out in this study. A commercial inkjet printer, designed for printing one layer of 2D images on paper, was modified to give adequate resolution, to reverse the substrate for overprinting many layers and to accommodate the increase in thickness of 3D components during printing. Ceramic inks were prepared by wet ball milling and printed to form 3D structures. The powders used were alumina, zirconia, lead zirconate titanate (PZT) and barium titanate. The substrate used for printing the ceramic parts was an overhead transparency. Methods to stop or reduce ink flow were devised and used during printing of the ceramic parts. The alumina and zirconia powders were used for the fabrication of multi-layered laminates. The lead zirconate titanate was used to fabricate components with pillars, walls, vertical channels and x-y-z channel network. During printing of the x-y-z channel network, carbon was used as a support structure and then removed during firing. Barium titanate and carbon powders were used to form the first storey of a capacitor with a multi-storey car park structure. The printed parts were pyrolysed and fired in an oxidising environment and then characterised with scanning electron microscopy. The causes of micro structural defects found were discussed and prevention methods suggested. Organic gold powder was dissolved in methanol and then printed on three different substrates to form conductive gold tracks. The substrates used included alumina, glazed tile and microscope glass slides. The printed tracks were fired in air. The decomposition characteristics of the organic gold compound were studied with TGA and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). Scanning electron microscope was used to examine the fired gold film for defects and conductivity measurement of the tracks was carried out with a programmable multimeter

Patterning and Characterization of Carbon Nanotubes Grown in a Microwave Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition Chamber

This research studies the growth of carbon nanotubes (CNT) from a nickel catalyst to be used on a field emission device. This thesis can be divided into three sections: the construction of a vacuum chamber for field emission testing, the design and fabrication of a triode structure to enable improved electron emission, and the pretreatment and growth of CNTs. To experimentally test the field emission of CNTs, a vacuum chamber must attain a vacuum of at least 10-5 torr. Our vacuum chamber designed and built achieved a maximum, final pressure of 10-8 torr. A triode structure was designed to pattern the CNTs to improve electron emission. A silicon wafer is used to fabricate the cathode and gate of the device while a quartz wafer is used as the anode. Through photolithography patterning of the gate, CNT growth occurs only in the defined locations. To better understand CNT growth, a study was performed using a hydrogen pretreatment on sputtered and electroplated nickel catalyst on silicon at various thickness in a microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition to determine the effects of this pretreatment. Nickel catalyst of 50, 100, and 200 ºA were treated with hydrogen and the formation of nano islands was achieved when using sputtered films. As the nickel catalyst thickness increases, the pretreatment time must also be increased to get favorable granule sizes and densities necessary for CNT growth. The 50 and 100 ºA nickel samples granulated to 25 and 58 nm showed high growth densities while the 200 ºA samples granulated to 180 nm showed marginal CNT growth. We also established the diameter of the multi walled CNTs grown correlated well to the size of the catalyst granules. The CNTs to be used in the triode design needed to be between 1.5 and 1.8 µm to avoid shorts between the gate and the CNTs. To achieve this, CNTs with a length of 1.5 µm were successfully grown by flowing methane for exactly two minutes

Stochastic analysis of guided wave structural health monitoring for aeronautical composites

This thesis presents new methods developed for improvement of the reliability of Guided Wave Structural Health Monitoring (GWSHM) systems for aeronautical composite. Particular attention is devoted to the detection and localisation of barely visible impact damage (BVID) in Carbon-Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) structures. A novel sensor installation method is developed that offers ease of application and replacement as well as excellent durability. Electromechanical Impedance (EMI) is used to assess the durability of the sensor installation methods in simulated aircraft operational conditions, including thermal cycles, fatigue loading and hot-wet conditions. The superiority of the developed method over existing installation methods is demonstrated through extensive tests. Damage characterisation using GWSHM is investigated in different CFRP structures. Key issues in guided wave based damage identification are addressed, including wave mode /frequency selection, the influence of dynamic load, the validity of simulated damage, sensitivity of guided wave to impact damage in different CFRP materials. Identification of barely visible impact damage (BVID) are investigated on three simple CFRP panels and two stiffened CFRP panels. BVID is detected using three different damage index and located using RAPID, Delay-and-sum, Rayleigh maximum likelihood estimation (RMLE) and Bayesian inference (BI). The influence of temperature on guided wave propagation in anisotropic CFRP structures is addressed and a novel baseline reconstruction approach for temperature compensation is proposed. The proposed temperature compensation method accommodates various sensor placement and can be established using coupon level structures for the application in larger scale structures. Finally, a multi-level hierarchical approach is proposed for the quantification of ultrasonic guided wave based structural health monitoring (GWSHM) system. The hierarchical approach provides a systemic and practical way of establishing GWSHM systems for different structures under uncertainties and assessing system performance. The proposed approach is demonstrated in aircraft CFRP structures from coupon level to sub-component level.Open Acces

Bottom-Up Multiferroic Nanostructures

Multiferroic and especially magnetoelectric (ME) nanocomposites have received extensive attention due to their potential applications in spintronics, information storage and logic devices. The extrinsic ME coupling in composites is strain mediated via the interface between the piezoelectric and magnetostrictive components. However, the design and synthesis of controlled nanostructures with engineering enhanced coupling remain a significant challenge. The purpose of this thesis is to create nanostructures with very large interface densities and unique connectivities of the two phases in a controlled manner. Using inorganic solid state phase transformations and organic block copolymer self assembly methodologies, we present novel self assembly "bottom-up" techniques as a general protocol for the nanofabrication of multifunctional devices. First, Lead-Zirconium-Titanate/Nickel-Ferrite (PZT/NFO) vertical multilamellar nanostructures have been produced by crystallizing and decomposing a gel in a magnetic field below the Curie temperature of NFO. The ensuing microstructure is nanoscopically periodic and anisotropic. The wavelength of the PZT/NFO alternation, 25 nm, agrees within a factor of two with the theoretically estimated value. The macroscopic ferromagnetic and magnetoelectric responses correspond qualitatively and semi-quantitatively to the features of the nanostructure. The maximum of the field dependent magnetoelectric susceptibility equals 1.8 V/cm Oe. Second, a magnetoelectric composite with controlled nanostructures is synthesized using co-assembly of two inorganic precursors with a block copolymer. This solution processed material consists of hexagonally arranged ferromagnetic cobalt ferrite (CFO) nano-cylinders within a matrix of ferroelectric Lead-Zirconium-Titanate (PZT). The initial magnetic permeability of the self-assembled CFO/PZT nanocomposite changes by a factor of 5 through the application of 2.5 V. This work may have significant impact on the development of novel memory or logic devices through self assembly techniques. It also demonstrates a universal two-phase hard template application. Last, solid-state self assembly had been used recently to form pseudoperiodic chessboard-like nanoscale morphologies in a series of chemically homogeneous complex oxide systems. We improved on this approach by synthesizing a spontaneously phase separated nanolamellar BaTiO3-CoFe2O4 bi-crystal. The superlattice is magnetoelectric with a frequency dependent coupling. The BaTiO3 component is a ferroelectric relaxor with a Vogel-Fulcher temperature of 311 K. Since the material can be produced by standard ceramic processing methods, the discovery represents great potential for magnetoelectric devices

Electron dynamics in surface acoustic wave devices

Gallium arsenide is piezoelectric, so it is possible to generate coupled mechanical and electrical surface acoustic waves (SAWs) by applying a high-frequency voltage to a transducer on the surface of GaAs. By combining SAWs with existing low-dimensional nanostructures one can create a series of dynamic quantum dots corresponding to the minima of the travelling electric wave, and each dot carries a single electron at the SAW velocity (∼ 2800 m/s). These devices may be of use in developing future quantum information processors, and also offer an ideal environment for probing the quantum mechanical behaviour of single electrons. This thesis describes a numerical and theoretical study of the dynamics of an electron in a range of geometries. The numerical techniques for solving the time-dependent Schr ̈dinger equation with an arbitrary time-dependent potential will be described in Chapter 2, and then applied in Chapter 3 to calculate the transmission of an electron through an Aharonov-Bohm (AB) ring. It will be seen that an important property of the techniques used in this thesis is that they can be easily adapted to study realistic geometries, and we will see features in the AB oscillations which do not arise in simplified analytic descriptions. In Chapter 4, we will then study a device consisting of two parallel SAW channels separated by a controllable tunnelling barrier. We will use numerical simulations to investigate the effect of electric and magnetic fields upon the electron dynamics, and develop an analytic model to explain the simulation results. From the model, it will be apparent that it is possible to use this device to rotate the state of the electron to an arbitrary superposition of the first two eigenstates. We then introduce coherent and squeezed states in Chapter 5, which are ex- cited states of the quantum harmonic oscillator. Coherent and squeezed electronic states may be of use in quantum information processing, and could also arise due to unwanted perturbations in a SAW device. We will discuss how these states can be controllably generated in a SAW device, and also discuss how they could then be detected. In Chapter 6 we describe how to use the motion of a SAW to create a rapidly- changing potential in the frame of the electron, leading to a nonadiabatic excita- tion. The nonadiabatically-excited state oscillates from side to side within a 1D channel on a few-picosecond timescale, and this motion can be probed by placing a tunnelling barrier at one side of the channel. Numerical simulations will be performed to show how this motion can be controlled, and the simulation results will be seen to be in good agreement with recent experimental work performed by colleagues. Finally, we will show that this device can be used to measure the initial state of an electron which is an arbitrary superposition of the first two eigenstates.This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC

Determination of the Viscoelastic Properties of General Anisotropic Materials

Elastic properties are rarely sufficient in order to evaluate the condition of a composite material. Knowledge of the viscoelastic properties is very critical for design purposes, for they directly characterize damping. Damping related measurements in the material provides information about the degree of cross-linking and crystallinity of the polymer. For metals, damping may be related to dislocation motion among other characteristics. For composite materials, in general the interphase and the matrix dominate the damping of the material. Ultrasonic measurement of damping gives a non- destructive measure of strength of composite materials. This thesis considers damping characteristics of polymer matrix composites as well as reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC). These characteristics represent perhaps the best hope of developing a true index of state or damage tensor for composite materials. For polymer matrix composites the damping and elastic properties can be combined with either temperature or pressure to characterize the interatomic potentials in the matrix. This is the closest to a non- destructive measure of strength that is likely. By describing cross linkage and crystallinity this measure also provides insight into many of the most important degradation mechanisms. Part of this research looks into the recovery of stiffness tensor, material symmetry and principal axis. Damping is measured along this principal axis. It is also interesting to note that the damping is affected by oxidation, second part of this thesis looks into the oxidation effects of damping in RCC. Optimization routine is developed to solve Christoffel\u27s equation to recover the material stiffness tensor. Method to determine the initial guesses for the optimization routine is also developed in this thesis. An ultrasonic microscope with immersion transducers is used to extract data from samples. Oxidation is carried out in a tube furnace run at 700°C. Stiffness tensors for the samples are recovered from the measured data using a routine applying the solution to the Christoffel\u27s equation. Recovered stiffness tensors show satisfactory results. The orientation of the recovered stiffness tensors is very close to the material axis. Damping is measured with this variability. The variability in repeatability of damping measurements is less than 10%. Oxidation data obtained followed the initial assumptions and can be used for designing if damping accuracy can be improved

NASA Tech Briefs, October 2010

Topics covered include: Hybrid Architecture Active Wavefront Sensing and Control; Carbon-Nanotube-Based Chemical Gas Sensor; Aerogel-Positronium Technology for the Detection of Small Quantities of Organic and/or Toxic Materials; Graphene-Based Reversible Nano-Switch/Sensor Schottky Diode; Inductive Non-Contact Position Sensor; High-Temperature Surface-Acoustic-Wave Transducer; Grid-Sphere Electrodes for Contact with Ionospheric Plasma; Enabling IP Header Compression in COTS Routers via Frame Relay on a Simplex Link; Ka-Band SiGe Receiver Front-End MMIC for Transponder Applications; Robust Optimization Design Algorithm for High-Frequency TWTs; Optimal and Local Connectivity Between Neuron and Synapse Array in the Quantum Dot/Silicon Brain; Method and Circuit for In-Situ Health Monitoring of Solar Cells in Space; BGen: A UML Behavior Network Generator Tool; Platform for Post-Processing Waveform-Based NDE; Electrochemical Hydrogen Peroxide Generator; Fabrication of Single, Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotubes in 3D Nanoscale Architectures; Process to Create High-Fidelity Lunar Dust Simulants; Lithium-Ion Electrolytes Containing Phosphorous-Based, Flame-Retardant Additives; InGaP Heterojunction Barrier Solar Cells; Straight-Pore Microfilter with Efficient Regeneration; Determining Shear Stress Distribution in a Laminate; Self-Adjusting Liquid Injectors for Combustors; Handling Qualities Prediction of an F-16XL-Based Reduced Sonic Boom Aircraft; Tele-Robotic ATHLETE Controller for Kinematics - TRACK; Three-Wheel Brush-Wheel Sampler; Heterodyne Interferometer Angle Metrology; Aligning Astronomical Telescopes via Identification of Stars; Generation of Optical Combs in a WGM Resonator from a Bichromatic Pump; Large-Format AlGaN PIN Photodiode Arrays for UV Images; Fiber-Coupled Planar Light-Wave Circuit for Seed Laser Control in High Spectral Resolution Lidar Systems; On Calculating the Zero-Gravity Surface Figure of a Mirror; Optical Modification of Casimir Forces for Improved Function of Micro- and Nano-Scale Devices; Analysis, Simulation, and Verification of Knowledge-Based, Rule-Based, and Expert Systems; Core and Off-Core Processes in Systems Engineering; Digital Reconstruction Supporting Investigation of Mishaps; and Template Matching Approach to Signal Prediction

Cumulative Index to NASA Tech Briefs, 1963 - 1966

Cumulative index of NASA Tech Briefs dealing with electrical and electronic, physical science and energy sources, materials and chemistry, life science, and mechanical innovation