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    Magnetocaloric effect in Gd/W thin film heterostructures

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    In an effort to understand the impact of nanostructuring on the magnetocaloric effect, we have grown and studied gadolinium in MgO/W(50 AĖš\textrm{\AA})/[Gd(400 AĖš\textrm{\AA})/W(50 AĖš\textrm{\AA})]8_8 heterostructures. The entropy change associated with the second order magnetic phase transition was determined from the isothermal magnetization for numerous temperatures and the appropriate Maxwell relation. The entropy change peaks at a temperature of 284 K with a value of approximately 3.4 J/kg-K for a 0-30 kOe field change; the full width at half max of the entropy change peak is about 70 K, which is significantly wider than that of bulk Gd under similar conditions. The relative cooling power of this nanoscale system is about 240 J/kg, somewhat lower than that of bulk Gd (410 J/kg). An iterative Kovel-Fisher method was used to determine the critical exponents governing the phase transition to be Ī²=0.51\beta=0.51, and Ī³=1.75\gamma=1.75. Along with a suppressed Curie temperature relative to the bulk, the fact that the convergent value of Ī³\gamma is that predicted by the 2-D Ising model may suggest that finite size effects play an important role in this system. Together, these observations suggest that nanostructuring may be a promising route to tailoring the magnetocaloric response of materials

    Hall Current Plasma Source Having a Center-Mounted or a Surface-Mounted Cathode

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    A miniature Hall current plasma source apparatus having magnetic shielding of the walls from ionized plasma, an integrated discharge channel and gas distributor, an instant-start hollow cathode mounted to the plasma source, and an externally mounted keeper, is described. The apparatus offers advantages over other Hall current plasma sources having similar power levels, including: lower mass, longer lifetime, lower part count including fewer power supplies, and the ability to be continuously adjustable to lower average power levels using pulsed operation and adjustment of the pulse duty cycle. The Hall current plasma source can provide propulsion for small spacecraft that either do not have sufficient power to accommodate a propulsion system or do not have available volume to incorporate the larger propulsion systems currently available. The present low-power Hall current plasma source can be used to provide energetic ions to assist the deposition of thin films in plasma processing applications

    Non-Invasive Hall Current Distribution Measurement in a Hall Effect Thruster

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    A means is presented to determine the Hall current density distribution in a closed drift thruster by remotely measuring the magnetic field and solving the inverse problem for the current density. The magnetic field was measured by employing an array of eight tunneling magnetoresistive (TMR) sensors capable of milligauss sensitivity when placed in a high background field. The array was positioned just outside the thruster channel on a 1.5 kW Hall thruster equipped with a center-mounted hollow cathode. In the sensor array location, the static magnetic field is approximately 30 G, which is within the linear operating range of the TMR sensors. Furthermore, the induced field at this distance is approximately tens of milligauss, which is within the sensitivity range of the TMR sensors. Because of the nature of the inverse problem, the induced-field measurements do not provide the Hall current density by a simple inversion; however, a Tikhonov regularization of the induced field does provide the current density distributions. These distributions are shown as a function of time in contour plots. The measured ratios between the average Hall current and the average discharge current ranged from 6.1 to 7.3 over a range of operating conditions from 1.3 kW to 2.2 kW. The temporal inverse solution at 1.5 kW exhibited a breathing mode frequency of 24 kHz, which was in agreement with temporal measurements of the discharge current

    No-Boundary Thinking in Bioinformatics

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    The following sections are included:Bioinformatics is a Mature DisciplineThe Golden Era of Bioinformatics Has BegunNo-Boundary Thinking in BioinformaticsReference
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