Silica in Protoplanetary Disks

Mid-infrared spectra of a few T Tauri stars (TTS) taken with the Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) on board the Spitzer Space Telescope show prominent narrow emission features indicating silica (crystalline silicon dioxide). Silica is not a major constituent of the interstellar medium; therefore, any silica present in the circumstellar protoplanetary disks of TTS must be largely the result of processing of primitive dust material in the disks surrouding these stars. We model the silica emission features in our spectra using the opacities of various polymorphs of silica and their amorphous versions computed from earth-based laboratory measurements. This modeling indicates that the two polymorphs of silica, tridymite and cristobalite, which form at successively higher temperatures and low pressures, are the dominant forms of silica in the TTS of our sample. These high temperature, low pressure polymorphs of silica present in protoplanetary disks are consistent with a grain composed mostly of tridymite named Ada found in the cometary dust samples collected from the STARDUST mission to Comet 81P/Wild 2. The silica in these protoplanetary disks may arise from incongruent melting of enstatite or from incongruent melting of amorphous pyroxene, the latter being analogous to the former. The high temperatures of 1200K-1300K and rapid cooling required to crystallize tridymite or cristobalite set constraints on the mechanisms that could have formed the silica in these protoplanetary disks, suggestive of processing of these grains during the transient heating events hypothesized to create chondrules.Comment: 47 pages, 9 figures, to appear in the 1 January, 2009 issue of the Astrophysical Journa

Structure and energetics of the Si-SiO_2 interface

Silicon has long been synonymous with semiconductor technology. This unique role is due largely to the remarkable properties of the Si-SiO_2 interface, especially the (001)-oriented interface used in most devices. Although Si is crystalline and the oxide is amorphous, the interface is essentially perfect, with an extremely low density of dangling bonds or other electrically active defects. With the continual decrease of device size, the nanoscale structure of the silicon/oxide interface becomes more and more important. Yet despite its essential role, the atomic structure of this interface is still unclear. Using a novel Monte Carlo approach, we identify low-energy structures for the interface. The optimal structure found consists of Si-O-Si "bridges" ordered in a stripe pattern, with very low energy. This structure explains several puzzling experimental observations.Comment: LaTex file with 4 figures in GIF forma

Structural Modification of KAISiO4 Minerals

Kalsilite, a polymorph of KAISiO4 is an end member of nepheline-kalsilite series and the mineral was syn-thesized by hydorhermal methods. The synthetic kalsilite is hexagonal, P63, with a=5.151(5), c=8.690(8) A. The structure was refined by full-matrix least-squares methods to a R-value 0.084, using 373 observed reflections. The obtained structure agrees well with those of the natural and the alkali-exchanged specimens reported in the previous literatures. The oxygen atoms are disordered at two mirror-equivalent sites, constructing the domain structure. The average domain structure shows P63mc symmetry and the strctural relation between the two P63 structure corresponds to the twinning by merohedry. The domain structure was considered to be caused accompanied with the high-low inversion of the kalslite structure. Heating experiments of kalsilite reveal that the X-ray powder pattern changes at 865℃, and that cell dimensions vary discontinuously at this temperature. It was confirmed that kalsilite underwent a displacive transition like those observed in quartz or tridymite. The high-form is refered as 'high-kalsilite', and a possible simulate model is proposed. The structure of the high-kalsilite at 950℃ was refined byfull-matrix least-squares methods to a R-value 0.095, using 115 observed reflections. The high-kalsilite is also hexagonal, P63mc or P63/mmc, with a=5.288(1), c=8.628(5) A at 950℃. The structure almost prefectly coincides with that of the simulated model. Based on the interatomic distances, the distribution of silicon and aluminum atoms is found to be or-dered and the space group is determined to be P63mc. Kaliophilite and the related orthorhombic from, polymorphs of KAISiO4, were synthesized by dry method. The synthetic kaliophilite (kaliophilite-H2) is hexagonal with a=5.17(1), c=8.49(3) A, and the orthorhombic KAISiO4 (kaliophilite-O1) is orthormbic with a=9.01(1), b=15.60(2), c=8.53(4) A. Detailed examina-tion of the obtained powder patterns together with that of simulated model indicates that the kaliophilite-H2 has a disorderd structure of four types of the low-kalsilite. The structure was refined by the X-ray powder pattern-fitting method (Rietvelt method) to a R-value 0.121

Luminescence petrography of the Apollo 12 rocks and comparative features in terrestrial rocks and meteorites Final report

Luminescence petrography of Apollo 12 rocks and comparative features in Apollo 11 rocks, terrestrial rocks, and meteorite

Molecular dynamics study of tridymite

Structural changes in tridymite have been investigated by molecular dynamics simulation. Two thermal processes were carried out, one cooling from the high-temperature hexagonal structure of tridymite (HP-tridymite) and the other heating from the low-temperature monoclinic structure of tridymite (MX1-tridymite). The former process showed that HP, LHP (low-temperature hexagonal structure), OC (orthorhombic structure with C2221 symmetry) and OP (orthorhombic structure with P212121 symmetry)-like structures appeared in sequence. In contrast, the latter process showed that MX1, OP, OC, LHP and HP-like structures appeared in sequence. Detailed analysis of the calculated structures showed that the configuration underwent stepwise changes associated with several characteristic modes. First, the structure of HP-tridymite determined from diffraction experiments was identified as a time-averaged structure in a similar manner to β-cristobalite, thus indicating the important role of floppy modes of oxygen atoms at high temperature – one of the common features observed in silica crystals and glass. Secondly, the main structural changes were ascribed to a combination of distortion of the six-membered rings in the layers and misalignment between layers. We suggest that the slowing down of floppy oxygen movement invokes the multistage emergence of structures with lower symmetry on cooling. This study therefore not only reproduces the sequence of the main polymorphic transitions in tridymite, except for the appearance of the monoclinic phase, but also explains the microscopic dynamic structural changes in detail

Influence of substrate annealing on inducing Ti3+ and oxygen vacancy in TiO2 thin films deposited via RF magnetron sputtering

Nano-crystalline TiO2 has been prepared by RF magnetron sputtering at varied substrate temperatures ranging from 200 to 500 °C. The alteration of oxygen and titanium atom in TiO2 at uppermost surface is clearly observed on the effect of annealing temperature by Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES) technique. The measurement of peak to peak value of Ti and O transition line at 400 °C indicates the surface chemical state of O2 in TiO2 thin films defect at surface and Fermi level was analyzed using the X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). The Ti 2p observation of pre and post surface treatment shows the concentration of Ti3+ is seven times higher after post sputtered for sample 200 °C. Ti3+ decrease by increasing temperature. The Ti3+-oxygen vacancy which also assigned as Ti2O3 occurred in all sample, yet sample deposited at 400 °C gives nearest binding energy for Ti2O3. This observation also supported by The Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) analysis which shows highest total ion count for positive polarity is O+ for sample at 300 °C and Ti ion dominant is Ti2O3 + for sample at 400 °C. Based on the analyses, it is clearly seen that high defect of Ti3+-oxygen vacancy which is located between surface layer and fermi level state, this defect levels was created at surface layer at low annealing temperature. However, increasing temperature leads to defect creation on bellow surface layer which consider as within fermi level laye