7,986 research outputs found
Atomic oxygen effects on candidate coatings for long-term spacecraft in low earth orbit
Candidate atomic oxygen protective coatings for long-term low Earth orbit (LEO) spacecraft were evaluated using the Los Alamos National Laboratory O-atom exposure facility. The coatings studied include Teflon, Al2O3, SiO2, and SWS-V-10, a silicon material. Preliminary results indicate that sputtered PTFE Teflon (0.1 micrometers) has a fluence lifetime of 10 to the 19th power O-atoms/cm (2), and sputtered silicon dioxide (0.1 micrometers), aluminum oxide (0.1 micrometers), and SWS-V-10, a silicone, (4 micrometers) have fluence lifetimes of 10 to the 20th power to 10 to the 21st power O-atoms/cm (2). There are large variations in fluence lifetime data for these coatings
Atomic oxygen effects on boron nitride and silicon nitride: A comparison of ground based and space flight data
The effects of atomic oxygen on boron nitride (BN) and silicon nitride (Si3N4) were evaluated in a low Earth orbit (LEO) flight experiment and in a ground based simulation facility. In both the inflight and ground based experiments, these materials were coated on thin (approx. 250A) silver films, and the electrical resistance of the silver was measured in situ to detect any penetration of atomic oxygen through the BN and Si3N4 materials. In the presence of atomic oxygen, silver oxidizes to form silver oxide, which has a much higher electrical resistance than pure silver. Permeation of atomic oxygen through BN, as indicated by an increase in the electrical resistance of the silver underneath, was observed in both the inflight and ground based experiments. In contrast, no permeation of atomic oxygen through Si3N4 was observed in either the inflight or ground based experiments. The ground based results show good qualitative correlation with the LEO flight results, indicating that ground based facilities such as the one at Los Alamos National Lab can reproduce space flight data from LEO
Influence of surface passivation on ultrafast carrier dynamics and terahertz radiation generation in GaAs
The carrier dynamics of photoexcited electrons in the vicinity of the surface
of (NH4)2S-passivated GaAs were studied via terahertz (THz) emission
spectroscopy and optical-pump THz-probe spectroscopy. THz emission spectroscopy
measurements, coupled with Monte Carlo simulations of THz emission, revealed
that the surface electric field of GaAs reverses after passivation. The
conductivity of photoexcited electrons was determined via optical-pump
THz-probe spectroscopy, and was found to double after passivation. These
experiments demonstrate that passivation significantly reduces the surface
state density and surface recombination velocity of GaAs. Finally, we have
demonstrated that passivation leads to an enhancement in the power radiated by
photoconductive switch THz emitters, thereby showing the important influence of
surface chemistry on the performance of ultrafast THz photonic devices.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Applied Physics Letter
A comparison of ground-based and space flight data: Atomic oxygen reactions with boron nitride and silicon nitride
The effects of atomic oxygen on boron nitride (BN) and silicon nitride (Si3N4) have been studied in low Earth orbit (LEO) flight experiments and in a ground-based simulation facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Both the in-flight and ground-based experiments employed the materials coated over thin (approx 250 Angstrom) silver films whose electrical resistance was measured in situ to detect penetration of atomic oxygen through the BN and Si3N4 materials. In the presence of atomic oxygen, silver oxidizes to form silver oxide, which has a much higher electrical resistance than pure silver. Permeation of atomic oxygen through BN, as indicated by an increase in the electrical resistance of the silver underneath, was observed in both the in-flight and ground-based experiments. In contrast, no permeation of atomic oxygen through Si3N4 was observed in either the in-flight or ground-based experiments. The ground-based results show good qualitative correlation with the LEO flight results, thus validating the simulation fidelity of the ground-based facility in terms of reproducing LEO flight results
Blunt-end vectors generated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for direct cloning of blunt-end DNA fragments
Blunt-end cloning is a convenient way to clone polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products generated by proof-reading DNA polymerase. However, it is a time consuming procedure to prepare the linearized blunt-end vector, which usually involves plasmid extraction and restriction enzyme digestion. Moreover, 5’ dephosporylation of the vector is usually required to avoid vector self-ligation. Here, we reported a method for generating linearized blunt-end vector pBSK-blunt by PCR. Vector generated in this way has no 5’-phosphate groups, hence completely avoiding vector self-ligation and yielding almost 100% positive clones.Key words: Blunt-end cloning, phosphorylated DNA fragment, dephosphorylated blunt-end vector
Phonon quarticity induced by changes in phonon-tracked hybridization during lattice expansion and its stabilization of rutile TiO
Although the rutile structure of TiO is stable at high temperatures, the
conventional quasiharmonic approximation predicts that several acoustic phonons
decrease anomalously to zero frequency with thermal expansion, incorrectly
predicting a structural collapse at temperatures well below 1000\,K. Inelastic
neutron scattering was used to measure the temperature dependence of the phonon
density of states (DOS) of rutile TiO from 300 to 1373\,K. Surprisingly,
these anomalous acoustic phonons were found to increase in frequency with
temperature. First-principles calculations showed that with lattice expansion,
the potentials for the anomalous acoustic phonons transform from quadratic to
quartic, stabilizing the rutile phase at high temperatures. In these modes, the
vibrational displacements of adjacent Ti and O atoms cause variations in
hybridization of electrons of Ti and electrons of O atoms. With
thermal expansion, the energy variation in this "phonon-tracked hybridization"
flattens the bottom of the interatomic potential well between Ti and O atoms,
and induces a quarticity in the phonon potential.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, supplemental material (3 figures
Self-interacting dark matter and Higgs bosons in the SU(3)_C x SU(3)_L x U(1)_N model with right-handed neutrinos
We investigate the possibility that dark matter could be made from CP-even
and CP- odd Higgs bosons in the SU(3)_C X SU(3)_L X U(1)_N (3-3-1) model with
right-handed neutrinos. This self-interacting dark matters are stable without
imposing of new symmetry and should be weak-interacting.Comment: 7 pages, Latex, To appear in Europhys. Let
Mode Shape Description and Model Updating of Axisymmetric Structures Using Radial Tchebichef Moment Descriptors
A novel approach for mode shape feature extraction and model updating of axisymmetric structures based on radial Tchebichef moment (RTM) descriptors is proposed in this study. The mode shape features extracted by RTM descriptors can effectively compress the full-field modal vibration data and retain the most important information. The reconstruction of mode shapes using RTM descriptors can accurately describe the mode shapes, and the simulation shows that the RTM function is superior to Zernike moment function in terms of its mathematical properties and its shape reconstruction ability. In addition, the proposed modal correlation coefficient of the RTM amplitude can overcome the main disadvantage of using the modal assurance criterion (MAC), which has difficulty in identifying double or close modes of symmetric structures. Furthermore, the model updating of axisymmetric structures based on RTM descriptors appears to be more efficient and effective than the normal model updating method directly using modal vibration data, avoids manipulating large amounts of mode shape data, and speeds up the convergence of updating parameters. The RTM descriptors used in correlation analysis and model updating are demonstrated with a cover of an aeroengine rig. The frequency deviation between the test and the FE model was reduced from 17.13% to 1.23% for the first 13 modes via the model updating process. It verified the potential to industrial application with the proposed method
A variational approach to the stochastic aspects of cellular signal transduction
Cellular signaling networks have evolved to cope with intrinsic fluctuations,
coming from the small numbers of constituents, and the environmental noise.
Stochastic chemical kinetics equations govern the way biochemical networks
process noisy signals. The essential difficulty associated with the master
equation approach to solving the stochastic chemical kinetics problem is the
enormous number of ordinary differential equations involved. In this work, we
show how to achieve tremendous reduction in the dimensionality of specific
reaction cascade dynamics by solving variationally an equivalent quantum field
theoretic formulation of stochastic chemical kinetics. The present formulation
avoids cumbersome commutator computations in the derivation of evolution
equations, making more transparent the physical significance of the variational
method. We propose novel time-dependent basis functions which work well over a
wide range of rate parameters. We apply the new basis functions to describe
stochastic signaling in several enzymatic cascades and compare the results so
obtained with those from alternative solution techniques. The variational
ansatz gives probability distributions that agree well with the exact ones,
even when fluctuations are large and discreteness and nonlinearity are
important. A numerical implementation of our technique is many orders of
magnitude more efficient computationally compared with the traditional Monte
Carlo simulation algorithms or the Langevin simulations.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figure
Efficient electronic entanglement concentration assisted with single mobile electron
We present an efficient entanglement concentration protocol (ECP) for mobile
electrons with charge detection. This protocol is quite different from other
ECPs for one can obtain a maximally entangled pair from a pair of
less-entangled state and a single mobile electron with a certain probability.
With the help of charge detection, it can be repeated to reach a higher success
probability. It also does not need to know the coefficient of the original
less-entangled states. All these advantages may make this protocol useful in
current distributed quantum information processing.Comment: 6pages, 3figure
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