Real-time Atomistic Observation of Structural Phase Transformations in Individual Hafnia Nanorods

High-temperature phases of hafnium dioxide have exceptionally high dielectric constants and large bandgaps, but quenching them to room temperature remains a challenge. Scaling the bulk form to nanocrystals, while successful in stabilizing the tetragonal phase of isomorphous ZrO2, has produced nanorods with a twinned version of the room temperature monoclinic phase in HfO2. Here we use in situ heating in a scanning transmission electron microscope to observe the transformation of an HfO2 nanorod from monoclinic to tetragonal, with a transformation temperature suppressed by over 1000°C from bulk. When the nanorod is annealed, we observe with atomic-scale resolution the transformation from twinned-monoclinic to tetragonal, starting at a twin boundary and propagating via coherent transformation dislocation; the nanorod is reduced to hafnium on cooling. Unlike the bulk displacive transition, nanoscale size-confinement enables us to manipulate the transformation mechanism, and we observe discrete nucleation events and sigmoidal nucleation and growth kinetics

Thermodynamic properties of binary HCP solution phases from special quasirandom structures

Three different special quasirandom structures (SQS) of the substitutional hcp $A_{1-x}B_x$ binary random solutions ($x=0.25$, 0.5, and 0.75) are presented. These structures are able to mimic the most important pair and multi-site correlation functions corresponding to perfectly random hcp solutions at those compositions. Due to the relatively small size of the generated structures, they can be used to calculate the properties of random hcp alloys via first-principles methods. The structures are relaxed in order to find their lowest energy configurations at each composition. In some cases, it was found that full relaxation resulted in complete loss of their parental symmetry as hcp so geometry optimizations in which no local relaxations are allowed were also performed. In general, the first-principles results for the seven binary systems (Cd-Mg, Mg-Zr, Al-Mg, Mo-Ru, Hf-Ti, Hf-Zr, and Ti-Zr) show good agreement with both formation enthalpy and lattice parameters measurements from experiments. It is concluded that the SQS's presented in this work can be widely used to study the behavior of random hcp solutions.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure

Measurement of the J/ Photoproduction Cross Section Over the Full Near-Threshold Kinematic Region

We report the total and differential cross sections for J/ψ photoproduction with the large acceptance GlueX spectrometer for photon beam energies from the threshold at 8.2 GeV up to 11.44 GeV and over the full kinematic range of momentum transfer squared, t. Such coverage facilitates the extrapolation of the differential cross sections to the forward (t=0) point beyond the physical region. The forward cross section is used by many theoretical models and plays an important role in understanding J/ψ photoproduction and its relation to the J/ψ-proton interaction. These measurements of J/ψ photoproduction near threshold are also crucial inputs to theoretical models that are used to study important aspects of the gluon structure of the proton, such as the gluon generalized parton distribution of the proton, the mass radius of the proton, and the trace anomaly contribution to the proton mass. We observe possible structures in the total cross section energy dependence and find evidence for contributions beyond gluon exchange in the differential cross section close to threshold, both of which are consistent with contributions from open-charm intermediate states

Measurement of Spin-Density Matrix Elements in p(770) Production with a Linearly Polarized Photon Beam at E = 8.2-8.8 GeV

The GlueX experiment at Jefferson Lab studies photoproduction of mesons using linearly polarized 8.5 GeV photons impinging on a hydrogen target which is contained within a detector with near-complete coverage for charged and neutral particles. We present measurements of spin-density matrix elements for the photoproduction of the vector meson ρ(770). The statistical precision achieved exceeds that of previous experiments for polarized photoproduction in this energy range by orders of magnitude. We confirm a high degree of s-channel helicity conservation at small squared four-momentum transfer t and are able to extract the t dependence of natural- and unnatural-parity exchange contributions to the production process in detail. We confirm the dominance of natural-parity exchange over the full t range. We also find that helicity amplitudes in which the helicity of the incident photon and the photoproduced ρ(770) differ by two units are negligible for −t \u3c 0.5 GeV2/c2

Oxygen Transport Ceramic Membranes

The present quarterly report describes some of the initial studies on newer compositions and also includes newer approaches to address various materials issues such as in metal-ceramic sealing. The current quarter's research has also focused on developing a comprehensive reliability model for predicting the structural behavior of the membranes in realistic conditions. In parallel to industry provided compositions, models membranes have been evaluated in varying environment. Of importance is the behavior of flaws and generation of new flaws aiding in fracture. Fracture mechanics parameters such as crack tip stresses are generated to characterize the influence of environment. Room temperature slow crack growth studies have also been initiated in industry provided compositions. The electrical conductivity and defect chemistry of an A site deficient compound (La{sub 0.55}Sr{sub 0.35}FeO{sub 3}) was studied. A higher conductivity was observed for La{sub 0.55}Sr{sub 0.35}FeO{sub 3} than that of La{sub 0.60}Sr{sub 0.40}FeO{sub 3} and La{sub 0.80}Sr{sub 0.20}FeO{sub 3}. Defect chemistry analysis showed that it was primarily contributed by a higher carrier concentration in La{sub 0.55}Sr{sub 0.35}FeO{sub 3}. Moreover, the ability for oxygen vacancy generation is much higher in La{sub 0.55}Sr{sub 0.35}FeO{sub 3} as well, which indicates a lower bonding strength between Fe-O and a possible higher catalytic activity for La{sub 0.55}Sr{sub 0.35}FeO{sub 3}. The program continued to investigate the thermodynamic properties (stability and phase separation behavior) and total conductivity of prototype membrane materials. The data are needed together with the kinetic information to develop a complete model for the membrane transport. Previous report listed initial measurements on a sample of La{sub 0.2}Sr{sub 0.8}Fe{sub 0.55}Ti{sub 0.45}O{sub 3-x} prepared in-house by Praxair. Subsequently, a second sample of powder from a larger batch of sample were characterized and compared with the results from the previous batch

Wnt5a Regulates Midbrain Dopaminergic Axon Growth and Guidance

During development, precise temporal and spatial gradients are responsible for guiding axons to their appropriate targets. Within the developing ventral midbrain (VM) the cues that guide dopaminergic (DA) axons to their forebrain targets remain to be fully elucidated. Wnts are morphogens that have been identified as axon guidance molecules. Several Wnts are expressed in the VM where they regulate the birth of DA neurons. Here, we describe that a precise temporo-spatial expression of Wnt5a accompanies the development of nigrostriatal projections by VM DA neurons. In mice at E11.5, Wnt5a is expressed in the VM where it was found to promote DA neurite and axonal growth in VM primary cultures. By E14.5, when DA axons are approaching their striatal target, Wnt5a causes DA neurite retraction in primary cultures. Co-culture of VM explants with Wnt5a-overexpressing cell aggregates revealed that Wnt5a is capable of repelling DA neurites. Antagonism experiments revealed that the effects of Wnt5a are mediated by the Frizzled receptors and by the small GTPase, Rac1 (a component of the non-canonical Wnt planar cell polarity pathway). Moreover, the effects were specific as they could be blocked by Wnt5a antibody, sFRPs and RYK-Fc. The importance of Wnt5a in DA axon morphogenesis was further verified in Wnt5a−/− mice, where fasciculation of the medial forebrain bundle (MFB) as well as the density of DA neurites in the MFB and striatal terminals were disrupted. Thus, our results identify a novel role of Wnt5a in DA axon growth and guidance

A Case of Recurrent Multifocal Central Giant Cell Granulomas

One case of recurrent multifocal central giant cell granulomas (CGCG) is presented. Initially, the lesions presented concurrently in the maxilla and mandible with subsequent recurrence in the mandible. Now, two recurrences are seen in the maxillary sinus and ethmoid region. The literature regarding multifocal CGCG is reviewed

Highly-parallelized simulation of a pixelated LArTPC on a GPU

The rapid development of general-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU) is allowing the implementation of highly-parallelized Monte Carlo simulation chains for particle physics experiments. This technique is particularly suitable for the simulation of a pixelated charge readout for time projection chambers, given the large number of channels that this technology employs. Here we present the first implementation of a full microphysical simulator of a liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) equipped with light readout and pixelated charge readout, developed for the DUNE Near Detector. The software is implemented with an end-to-end set of GPU-optimized algorithms. The algorithms have been written in Python and translated into CUDA kernels using Numba, a just-in-time compiler for a subset of Python and NumPy instructions. The GPU implementation achieves a speed up of four orders of magnitude compared with the equivalent CPU version. The simulation of the current induced on 103 pixels takes around 1 ms on the GPU, compared with approximately 10 s on the CPU. The results of the simulation are compared against data from a pixel-readout LArTPC prototype