Rocket exhaust plume computer program improvement. Volume 1: Summary: Method of characteristics nozzle and plume programs

A summary is presented of the various documents that discuss and describe the computer programs and analysis techniques which are available for rocket nozzle and exhaust plume calculations. The basic method of characteristics program is discussed, along with such auxiliary programs as the plume impingement program, the plot program and the thermochemical properties program

Simulations of stable compact proton beam acceleration from a two-ion-species ultrathin foil

We report stable laser-driven proton beam acceleration from ultrathin foils consisting of two ion species: heavier carbon ions and lighter protons. Multi-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations show that the radiation pressure leads to very fast and complete spatial separation of the species. The laser pulse does not penetrate the carbon ion layer, avoiding the proton Rayleigh-Taylor-like (RT) instability. Ultimately, the carbon ions are heated and spread extensively in space. In contrast, protons always ride on the front of the carbon ion cloud, forming a compact high quality bunch. We introduce a simple three-interface model to interpret the instability suppression in the proton layer. The model is backed by simulations of various compound foils such as carbon-deuterium (C-D) and carbon-tritium (C-T) foils. The effects of the carbon ions' charge state on proton acceleration are also investigated. It is shown that with the decrease of the carbon ion charge state, both the RT-like instability and the Coulomb explosion degrade the energy spectrum of the protons. Finally, full 3D simulations are performed to demonstrate the robustness of the stable two-ion-species regime.Comment: 14 pages, 10figures, to be published in PO

The ion environment near Europa and its role in surface energetics

This paper gives the composition, energy spectra, and time variability of energetic ions measured just upstream of Europa. From 100 keV to 100 MeV, ion intensities vary by less than a factor of ∼5 among Europa passes considered between 1997 and 2000. We use the data to estimate the radiation dose rate into Europa's surface for depths 0.01 mm – 1 m. We find that in a critical fraction of the upper layer on Europa's trailing hemisphere, energetic electrons are the principal agent for radiolysis, and their bremsstrahlung photon products, not included in previous studies, dominate the dose below about 1 m. Because ion bombardment is more uniform across Europa's surface, the radiation dose on the leading hemisphere is dominated by the proton flux. Differences exist between this calculation and published doses based on the E4 wake pass. For instance, proton doses presented here are much greater below 1 mm

Photograph of Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight Statue

The black and white photograph depicts the statue Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight, located in front of the West Virginia State Capitol.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/fvw-photographs/1588/thumbnail.jp

Photograph of Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight Statue

The black and white photograph depicts the statue Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight, located in front of the West Virginia State Capitol.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/fvw-artifacts/2214/thumbnail.jp

Potential energy sputtering of EUVL materials

Of the many candidates employed for understanding the erosion of critical Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUVL) components, potential energy damage remains relatively uninvestigated. Unlike the familiar kinetic energy sputtering, which is a consequence of the momentum transferred by an ion to atoms in the target, potential energy sputtering occurs when an ion rapidly collects charge from the target as it neutralizes. Since the neutralization energy of a singly charged ion is typically on the order of 10 eV, potential energy effects are generally neglected for low charge state ions, and hence the bulk of the sputtering literature. As an ion's charge state is increased, the potential energy (PE) increases rapidly, e.g. PE(Xe{sup 1+})= 11 eV, PE(Xe{sup 10+}) = 810 eV, PE(Xe{sup 20+}) = 4.6 keV, etc. By comparison, the binding energy of a single atom on a surface is typically about 5 eV, so even relatively inefficient energy transfer mechanisms can lead to large quantities of material being removed, e.g. 25% efficiency for Xe{sup 10+} corresponds to {approx} 40 atoms/ion. By comparison, singly charged xenon ions with {approx} 20 keV of kinetic energy sputter only about 5 atoms/ion at normal incidence, and less than 1 atom/ion at typical EUV source energies. EUV light sources are optimized for producing approximately 10{sup 16} xenon ions per shot with an average charge state of q=10 in the core plasma. At operational rates of {approx}10 kHz, the number of ions produced per second becomes a whopping 10{sup 20}. Even if only one in a billion ions reaches the collector, erosion rates could reach {approx}10{sup 12} atoms per second, severely reducing the collector lifetime (for an average yield of 10 atoms/ion). In addition, efforts to reduce contamination effects may contribute to reduced neutralization and even larger potential energy damages rates (discussed further below). In order to provide accurate estimates for collector lifetimes and to develop mitigation schemes, NIST is working to understand and quantify potential energy damage mechanisms on materials relevant to EUVL. Accurate potential energy damage rates can then be used for projecting component lifetimes as source plasma conditions are modified and characterized. This chapter will serve to provide an introduction and some background to the physics of highly charged ions and some of the relevant experimental work in the literature. This chapter will first provide a brief background and an overview of the interaction of highly charged ions (HCIs) with solids as it is currently understood. Secondly, it will present current data from screen test measurements performed to isolate and evaluate the effects of potential energy damage on critical EUVL materials. We will then speculate on the implications of work to date and the outlook for EUVL development and, finally, summarize

Fast, scalable, Bayesian spike identification for multi-electrode arrays

We present an algorithm to identify individual neural spikes observed on high-density multi-electrode arrays (MEAs). Our method can distinguish large numbers of distinct neural units, even when spikes overlap, and accounts for intrinsic variability of spikes from each unit. As MEAs grow larger, it is important to find spike-identification methods that are scalable, that is, the computational cost of spike fitting should scale well with the number of units observed. Our algorithm accomplishes this goal, and is fast, because it exploits the spatial locality of each unit and the basic biophysics of extracellular signal propagation. Human intervention is minimized and streamlined via a graphical interface. We illustrate our method on data from a mammalian retina preparation and document its performance on simulated data consisting of spikes added to experimentally measured background noise. The algorithm is highly accurate

Most vital segment barriers

We study continuous analogues of "vitality" for discrete network flows/paths, and consider problems related to placing segment barriers that have highest impact on a flow/path in a polygonal domain. This extends the graph-theoretic notion of "most vital arcs" for flows/paths to geometric environments. We give hardness results and efficient algorithms for various versions of the problem, (almost) completely separating hard and polynomially-solvable cases