67,718 research outputs found
Measurement of XeI and XeII velocity in the near exit plane of a low-power Hall effect thruster by light induced fluorescence spectroscopy
Near exit plane non-resonant light induced fluorescence spectroscopy is
performed in a Hall effect low-power Xenon thruster at discharge voltage of
250V and anode flow rate of 0.7mg/sec. Measurement of the axial and radial
velocity components are performed, exciting the 6s[3/2]_2-->6p[3/2]_2
transition at 823.16nm in XeI and the 5d[4]_(7/2)-->6p[3]_(5/2) transition at
834.724nm in XeII. No significant deviation from the thermal velocity is
observed for XeI. Two most probable ion velocities are registered at a given
position with respect to the thruster axis, which are mainly attributed to
different areas of creation of ions inside the acceleration channel. The
spatial resolution of the set-up is limited by the laser beam size (radius of
the order of 0.5mm) and the fluorescence collection optics, which have a view
spot diameter of 8mm.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figure
Electrostatic tuning of magnetism at the conducting (111) (LaSr)(AlTa)/SrTiO interface
We present measurements of the low temperature electrical transport
properties of the two dimensional carrier gas that forms at the interface of
(LaSr)(AlTa)/SrTiO (LSAT/STO) as
a function of applied back gate voltage, . As is found in (111)
LaAlO/SrTiO interfaces, the low-field Hall coefficient is
electron-like, but shows a sharp reduction in magnitude below 20 V,
indicating the presence of hole-like carriers in the system. This same value of
correlates approximately with the gate voltage below which the
magnetoresistance evolves from nonhysteretic to hysteretic behavior at
millikelvin temperatures, signaling the onset of magnetic order in the system.
We believe our results can provide insight into the mechanism of magnetism in
SrTiO based systems.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Evidence of Counter-Streaming Ions near the Inner Pole of the HERMeS Hall Thruster
NASA is continuing the development of a 12.5-kW Hall thruster system to support a phased exploration concept to expand human presence to cis-lunar space and eventually to Mars. The development team is transitioning knowledge gained from the testing of the government-built Technology Development Unit (TDU) to the contractor-built Engineering Test Unit (ETU). A new laser-induced fluorescence diagnostic was developed to obtain data for validating the Hall thruster models and for comparing the behavior of the ETU and TDU. Analysis of TDU LIF data obtained during initial deployment of the diagnostics revealed evidence of two streams of ions moving in opposite directions near the inner front pole. These two streams of ions were found to intersect the downstream surface of the front pole at large oblique angles. This data points to a possible explanation for why the erosion rate of polished pole covers were observed to decrease over the course of several hundred hours of thruster operation
Geo-neutrinos and Earth Models
We present the current status of geo-neutrino measurements and their
implications for radiogenic heating in the mantle. Earth models predict
different levels of radiogenic heating and, therefore, different geo-neutrino
fluxes from the mantle. Seismic tomography reveals features in the deep mantle
possibly correlated with radiogenic heating and causing spatial variations in
the mantle geo-neutrino flux at the Earth surface. An ocean-based observatory
offers the greatest sensitivity to the mantle flux and potential for resolving
Earth models and mantle features. Refinements to estimates of the geo-neutrino
flux from continental crust reduce uncertainty in measurements of the mantle
flux, especially measurements from land-based observatories. These refinements
enable the resolution of Earth models using the combined measurements from
multiple continental observatories.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures; Contributed paper TAUP 201
Uncorrelated and correlated nanoscale lattice distortions in the paramagnetic phase of magnetoresistive manganites
Neutron scattering measurements on a magnetoresistive manganite
La(CaSr)MnO show that uncorrelated
dynamic polaronic lattice distortions are present in both the orthorhombic (O)
and rhombohedral (R) paramagnetic phases. The uncorrelated distortions do not
exhibit any significant anomaly at the O-to-R transition. Thus, both the
paramagnetic phases are inhomogeneous on the nanometer scale, as confirmed
further by strong damping of the acoustic phonons and by the anomalous
Debye-Waller factors in these phases. In contrast, recent x-ray measurements
and our neutron data show that polaronic correlations are present only in the O
phase. In optimally doped manganites, the R phase is metallic, while the O
paramagnetic state is insulating (or semiconducting). These measurements
therefore strongly suggest that the {\it correlated} lattice distortions are
primarily responsible for the insulating character of the paramagnetic state in
magnetoresistive manganites.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures embedde
Fatigue of notched fiber composite laminates. Part 1: Analytical model
A description is given of a semi-empirical, deterministic analysis for prediction and correlation of fatigue crack growth, residual strength, and fatigue lifetime for fiber composite laminates containing notches (holes). The failure model used for the analysis is based upon composite heterogeneous behavior and experimentally observed failure modes under both static and fatigue loading. The analysis is consistent with the wearout philosophy. Axial cracking and transverse cracking failure modes are treated together in the analysis. Cracking off-axis is handled by making a modification to the axial cracking analysis. The analysis predicts notched laminate failure from unidirectional material fatique properties using constant strain laminate analysis techniques. For multidirectional laminates, it is necessary to know lamina fatique behavior under axial normal stress, transverse normal stress and axial shear stress. Examples of the analysis method are given
Joint Reconstruction of Absorbed Optical Energy Density and Sound Speed Distribution in Photoacoustic Computed Tomography: A numerical Investigation
Photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT) is a rapidly emerging bioimaging
modality that seeks to reconstruct an estimate of the absorbed optical energy
density within an object. Conventional PACT image reconstruction methods assume
a constant speed-of-sound (SOS), which can result in image artifacts when
acoustic aberrations are significant. It has been demonstrated that
incorporating knowledge of an object's SOS distribution into a PACT image
reconstruction method can improve image quality. However, in many cases, the
SOS distribution cannot be accurately and/or conveniently estimated prior to
the PACT experiment. Because variations in the SOS distribution induce
aberrations in the measured photoacoustic wavefields, certain information
regarding an object's SOS distribution is encoded in the PACT measurement data.
Based on this observation, a joint reconstruction (JR) problem has been
proposed in which the SOS distribution is concurrently estimated along with the
sought-after absorbed optical energy density from the photoacoustic measurement
data. A broad understanding of the extent to which the JR problem can be
accurately and reliably solved has not been reported. In this work, a series of
numerical experiments is described that elucidate some important properties of
the JR problem that pertain to its practical feasibility. To accomplish this,
an optimization-based formulation of the JR problem is developed that yields a
non-linear iterative algorithm that alternatingly updates the two image
estimates. Heuristic analytic insights into the reconstruction problem are also
provided. These results confirm the ill-conditioned nature of the joint
reconstruction problem that will present significant challenges for practical
applications.Comment: 13 pages, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Computational Imagin
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