Kinetics and thermodynamics of ceramic/metal interface reactions related to high T(sub c) superconducting applications

Superconducting ceramic materials, no matter what their form, size or shape, must eventually make contact with non-superconducting materials in order to accomplish current transfer to other parts of a real operating system, or for testing and measurement of properties. Thus, whether the configuration is a clad wire, a bulk superconducting disc, tape, or a thick or thin superconducting film on a substrate, the physical and mechanical behavior of interface (interconnections, joints, etc.) between superconductors and normal conductor materials of all kinds is of extreme importance to the technological development of these systems. Fabrication heat treatments associated with the particular joining process allow possible reactions between the superconducting ceramic and the contact to occur, and consequently influence properties at the interface region. The nature of these reactions is therefore of great broad interest, as these may be a primary determinant for the real capability of these materials. Research related both to fabrication of composite sheathed wire products, and the joining contacts for physical property measurements, as well as, a review of other related literature in the field are described. Comparison are made between 1-2-3, Bi-, and Tl-based ceramic superconductors joined to a variety of metals including Cu, Ni, Fe, Cr, Ag, Ag-Pd, Au, In, and Ga. The morphology of reaction products and the nature of interface degradation as a function of time will be highlighted

Stacking faults in epitaxial silicon thin films

It is proposed that stacking faults are generated by the collapse of vacancy clusters as a natural consequence of the low stacking fault energy

High resolution microstructural and microchemical analysis of zirconia eutectic interfaces

The goal of the research performed here is to study and understand the nature of fine scale microchemical variation, on the order of the lattice periodicity, in ceramic oxides. To that end, during the past year, emphasis was placed on the selection of appropriate materials systems and their fabrication into samples suitable for study using advanced high resolution analytical electron microscopy (work to be performed in the coming year). The work concentrated on two materials systems

Cosmological Structure Formation and Soliton Phase Transition in Fuzzy Dark Matter with Axion Self-Interactions

We investigate cosmological structure formation in Fuzzy Dark Matter (FDM) with an attractive self-interaction (SI) with numerical simulations. Such a SI would arise if the FDM boson were an ultra-light axion, which has a strong CP symmetry-breaking scale (decay constant). Although weak, the attractive SI may be strong enough to counteract the quantum 'pressure' and alter structure formation. We find in our simulations that the SI can enhance small-scale structure formation, and soliton cores above a critical mass undergo a phase transition, transforming from dilute to dense solitons.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, submitted to mnra

High resolution microstructural and microchemical analysis of zirconia eutectic interfaces

Resolution of microscopic analytical methods has greatly improved over the past decade, and it is now possible to examine periodic variations in structure and chemistry at a scale much finer than the spacing typical of eutectic structures (1-5 [mu]m). During the current year, studies were completed on ZrO[sub 2]-NiO and ZrO[sub 2]-MnO eutectic systems, and study was initiated on microchemical variation in two spinodal systems: Cu-Ni-Sn and SnO[sub 2]-TiO[sub 2]. Work was also initiated on metal/oxide interface microchemistry, in particular the corrosion interface resulting during oxidation of Cu-Sn alloys. 6 figs