Advanced materials development for multi-junction monolithic photovoltaic devices

We report results in three areas of research relevant to the fabrication of monolithic multi-junction photovoltaic devices. (1) The use of compliant intervening layers grown between highly mismatched materials, GaAs and GaP (same lattice constant as Si), is shown to increase the structural quality of the GaAs overgrowth. (2) The use of digital alloys applied to the MBE growth of GaAs{sub x}Sb{sub l-x} (a candidate material for a two junction solar cell) provides increased control of the alloy composition without degrading the optical properties. (3) A nitrogen plasma discharge is shown to be an excellent p-type doping source for CdTe and ZnTe, both of which are candidate materials for a two junction solar cell

Bed material agglomeration during fluidized bed combustion. Technical progress report, April 1, 1995--June 30, 1995

During this quarter, agglomeration tests were conducted in a laboratory-scale fluidized bed combustor using coal and {open_quotes}model{close_quotes} components which allowed controlled amounts of clays and pyrites to be added during the test. These tests permitted a more direct evaluation of the interaction between iron compounds and aluminosilicates. With additional clay and pyrite (under simulated local reducing conditions found at coal feed locations) large agglomerates formed. The agglomerates were many times larger than those formed with a standard coal feed. When only clay was added to the fuel (no additional pyrite), agglomerates formed but they were much smaller and very friable. These tests support the hypothesis that local reducing conditions promote the interaction of iron in a +2 state and aluminosilicate material in the coal which leads to agglomeration during fluidized bed combustion. Also during this quarter, a deposit which formed in a fluidized bed boiler of a Texas-New Mexico Power Company was analyzed to determine the chemical and mineralogic mechanisms responsible for deposit formation. Mineral phases were determined by x-ray diffraction (XRD). Bulk chemical composition was determined by x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF). Polished sections of the deposit were made for optical and scanning electron microscopy

Bed material agglomeration during fluidized bed combustion. Final report

The purpose of this project is to determine the physical and chemical reactions which lead to the undesired agglomeration of bed material during fluidized bed combustion of coal and to relate these reactions to specific causes. A survey of agglomeration and deposit formation in industrial fluidized bed combustors (FBCs) indicate that at least five boilers were experiencing some form of bed material agglomeration. Deposit formation was reported at nine sites with deposits most commonly at coal feed locations and in cyclones. Other deposit locations included side walls and return loops. Three general types of mineralogic reactions were observed to occur in the agglomerates and deposits. Although alkalies may play a role with some {open_quotes}high alkali{close_quotes} lignites, we found agglomeration was initiated due to fluxing reactions between iron (II) from pyrites and aluminosilicates from clays. This is indicated by the high amounts of iron, silica, and alumina in the agglomerates and the mineralogy of the agglomerates. Agglomeration likely originated in the dense phase of the FBC bed within the volatile plume which forms when coal is introduced to the boiler. Secondary mineral reactions appear to occur after the agglomerates have formed and tend to strengthen the agglomerates. When calcium is present in high amounts, most of the minerals in the resulting deposits are in the melilite group (gehlenite, melilite, and akermanite) and pyroxene group (diopside and augite). During these solid-phase reactions, the temperature of formation of the melilite minerals can be lowered by a reduction of the partial pressure of CO{sub 2} (Diopside + Calcite {r_arrow}Akermanite)

Confirmation of Anomalous Dynamical Arrest in attractive colloids: a molecular dynamics study

Previous theoretical, along with early simulation and experimental, studies have indicated that particles with a short-ranged attraction exhibit a range of new dynamical arrest phenomena. These include very pronounced reentrance in the dynamical arrest curve, a logarithmic singularity in the density correlation functions, and the existence of `attractive' and `repulsive' glasses. Here we carry out extensive molecular dynamics calculations on dense systems interacting via a square-well potential. This is one of the simplest systems with the required properties, and may be regarded as canonical for interpreting the phase diagram, and now also the dynamical arrest. We confirm the theoretical predictions for re-entrance, logarithmic singularity, and give the first direct evidence of the coexistence, independent of theory, of the two coexisting glasses. We now regard the previous predictions of these phenomena as having been established.Comment: 15 pages,15 figures; submitted to Phys. Rev.

Tests of Higgs and Top Effective Interactions

We study the possibility to detect heavy physics effects in the interactions of Higgs bosons and the top quark at future colliders using the effective Lagrangian approach. The modification of the interactions may enhance the production of Higgs bosons at hadron colliders through the mechanisms of gluon fusion and associated production with a W boson or $t\bar{t}$ pairs. The most promising signature is through the decay of the Higgs boson into two photons, whose branching ratio is also enhanced in this approach. As a consequence of our analysis we get a bound on the chromomagnetic dipole moment of the top quark.Comment: 14 pages, Latex, two figures available by fax under request. To be published in Phys. Lett

Scalar Top Quark as the Next-to-Lightest Supersymmetric Particle

We study phenomenologically the scenario in which the scalar top quark is lighter than any other standard supersymmetric partner and also lighter than the top quark, so that it decays to the gravitino via stop -> W^+ b G. In this case, scalar top quark events would seem to be very difficult to separate from top quark pair production. However, we show that, even at a hadron collider, it is possible to distinguish these two reactions. We show also that the longitudinal polarization of the final $W^+$ gives insight into the scalar top and wino/Higgsino mixing parameters.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX, 7 figures, minor typographical correction

An effective lagrangian description of charged Higgs decays H^+ -> Wg, WZ and Wh

Charged Higgs decays are discussed within an effective lagrangian extension of the two-higgs doublet model, assuming new physics appearing in the Higgs sector of this model. Low energy constrains are used to imposse bounds on certain dimension -six operators that describe the modified charged Higgs interactions. These bounds are used then to study the decays H^+ -> Wg, WZ and Wh, which can have branching ratios of order 10^-5, 10^-1 and O(1), respectively; thse modes are thus sensitive probes of the symmetries of the Higgs sector that could be tested at future colliders.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure

Photon and Z induced heavy charged lepton pair production at a hadron supercollider

We investigate the pair production of charged heavy leptons via photon-induced processes at the proposed CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Using effective photon and Z approximations, rates are given for $L^+L^-$ production due to $\gamma \gamma$ fusion and $Z \gamma$ fusion for the cases of inelastic, elastic and semi-elastic $pp$ collisions. These are compared with the corresponding rates for production via the gluon fusion and Drell-Yan mechanisms. Various $\gamma \gamma$ and $Z \gamma$ differential luminosities for $pp$ collisions are also presented.Comment: 22 pages, RevTex 3.0, 6 uuencoded and compressed postscript figures included. Reference to one paper changed from the original preprint number to the published version. Everything else unchange

Flavor changing single top quark production channels at e^+e^- colliders in the effective Lagrangian description

We perform a global analysis of the sensitivity of LEP2 and e^+e^- colliders with a c.m. energy in the range 500 - 2000 GeV to new flavor-changing single top quark production in the effective Lagrangian approach. The processes considered are sensitive to new flavor-changing effective vertices such as Ztc, htc, four-Fermi tcee contact terms as well as a right-handed Wtb coupling. We show that e^+ e^- colliders are most sensitive to the physics responsible for the contact tcee vertices. For example, it is found that the recent data from the 189 GeV LEP2 run can be used to rule out any new flavor physics that can generate these four-Fermi operators up to energy scales of \Lambda > 0.7 - 1.4 TeV, depending on the type of the four-Fermi interaction. We also show that a corresponding limit of \Lambda > 1.3 - 2.5 and \Lambda > 17 - 27 TeV can be reached at the future 200 GeV LEP2 run and a 1000 GeV e^+e^- collider, respectively. We note that these limits are much stronger than the typical limits which can be placed on flavor diagonal four-Fermi couplings. Similar results hold for \mu^+\mu^- colliders and for tu(bar) associated production. Finally we briefly comment on the necessity of measuring all flavor-changing effective vertices as they can be produced by different types of heavy physics.Comment: 34 pages, plain latex, 7 figures embadded in the text using epsfig. Added new references and discussions regarding their relevance to the paper. Added more comments on the comparison between flavor-changing and flavor-diagonal contact terms and on the importance of measuring the Ztc verte

t→bWt \to b W in NonCommutative Standard Model

We study the top quark decay to b quark and W boson in the NonCommutative Standard Model (NCSM). The lowest contribution to the decay comes from the terms quadratic in the matrix describing the noncommutative (NC) effects while the linear term is seen to identically vanish because of symmetry. The NC effects are found to be significant only for low values of the NC characteristic scale.Comment: 11 page Latex file containing 2 eps figures (redrawn). More discussion included. To appear in PR