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CdZnTe (CZT) has been traditionally used as substrate for HgCdTe (MCT) epitaxy. The constraint of good lattice matching plays a fundamental role in the use of this substrate. In, fact, despite the difficulties in growing large area of affordable high-quality substrates, CZT wafers remain the best choice for high yield infrared devices. Nevertheless, material quality of the substrate and epilayer play a limiting role in IR focal plane array (FPA) detector technology. Furthermore, data suggest that the quality of the epilayer is affected by imperfections in the CZT substrate. In addition the pixel size for the current generation of FPAs (less than 20 {micro}m) suggests a need for detailed microscale characterization and an understanding of the substrates and epilayers on at least the spatial scale of the pixel dimensions. In an effort to understand the correlation between material quality and device performances, we have begun to study CZT substrates to investigate bulk and surface properties. The National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS, BNL) permits a wide variety of material investigations that take advantage of the highly collimated photon radiation emitted from the X-ray and VUV-IR rings. Synchrotron radiation offers the capability to combine good resolution and shorter exposure times than conventional …

In the Nd-Fe-A1 system, compositions in the range of Nd{sub 60}Fe{sub 30}Al{sub 10} have been reported to be ferromagnetic bulk metallic glasses with high coercivities. Careful examination of both the microstructure and magnetic properties of these materials shows this to be true only in the most general sense. The materials are shown to be nanocomposites, in the strictest sense, with characteristic structural length scales on the order of 1.2 nm. Magnetically, the materials are also composites exhibiting a number of magnetic transitions as a function of temperature. The temperature dependence of the magnetic properties will be discussed in terms of strongly-interacting superparamagnetic clusters residing in a paramagnetic matrix. The clusters exhibit a frequency-dependent blocking temperature as determined from AC susceptibility, that is inconsistent with simple superparamagnetic behavior but is consistent with a spin glass-type ordering of the clusters to form a cluster glass. For a temperature region extending approximately 100 K below the cluster glass ordering temperature, the materials exhibit low coercivity. Below this temperature regime significant coercivities develop. The energy barrier to magnetic reversal provided by the product of the cluster volume multiplied by the anisotropy energy is inconsistent with the values required to fit the superparamagnetic behavior above …

As adaptive optics (AO) matures, it becomes possible to envision AO systems oriented towards specific important scientific goals rather than general-purpose systems. One such goal for the next decade is the direct imaging detection of extrasolar planets. An 'extreme' adaptive optics (ExAO) system optimized for extrasolar planet detection will have very high actuator counts and rapid update rates - designed for observations of bright stars - and will require exquisite internal calibration at the nanometer level. In addition to extrasolar planet detection, such a system will be capable of characterizing dust disks around young or mature stars, outflows from evolved stars, and high Strehl ratio imaging even at visible wavelengths. The NSF Center for Adaptive Optics has carried out a detailed conceptual design study for such an instrument, dubbed the eXtreme Adaptive Optics Planet Imager or XAOPI. XAOPI is a 4096-actuator AO system, notionally for the Keck telescope, capable of achieving contrast ratios >10{sup 7} at angular separations of 0.2-1'. ExAO system performance analysis is quite different than conventional AO systems - the spatial and temporal frequency content of wavefront error sources is as critical as their magnitude. We present here an overview of the XAOPI project, and an error …

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) established an area monitoring dosimeter program in accordance with Article 514 of the Department of Energy (DOE) Radiological Control Manual (RCM) in January 1993. This program is to minimize the number of areas requiring issuance of personnel dosimeters and to demonstrate that doses outside Radiological Buffer Areas are negligible. In accordance with 10 CFR Part 835.402 (a)(1)-(4) and Article 511.1 of the PNNL Radiological Control Program Description, personnel dosimetry shall be provided to (1) radiological workers who are likely to receive at least 100 mrem annually, and (2) declared pregnant workers, minors, and members of the public who are likely to receive at least 50 mrem annually. Program results for calendar years 1993-2003 confirm that personnel dosimetry is not needed for individuals located in areas monitored by the program.

We report on large-scale applications of the ab initio, no-core shell model with the primary goal of achieving an accurate description of nuclear structure from the fundamental inter-nucleon interactions. In particular, we show that realistic two-nucleon interactions are inadequate to describe the low-lying structure of {sup 10}B, and that realistic three-nucleon interactions are essential.

A micro-mechanistic understanding of bone fracture that encompasses how cracks interact with the underlying microstructure and defines their local failure mode is lacking, despite extensive research on the response of bone to a variety of factors like aging, loading, and/or disease. Micro-mechanical models for fracture incorporating such local failure criteria have been widely developed for metallic and ceramic materials systems; however, few such deliberations have been undertaken for the fracture of bone. In fact, although the fracture event in mineralized tissues such as bone is commonly believed to be locally strain controlled, until recently there has been little experimental evidence to support this widely held belief. In the present study, a series of in vitro experiments involving a double-notch bend test geometry are performed in order to shed further light on the nature of the local cracking events that precede catastrophic fracture in bone and to define their relationship to the microstructure. Specifically, crack-microstructure interactions are examined to determine the salient toughening mechanisms in human cortical bone and to characterize how these may affect the anisotropy in fracture properties. Based on preliminary micro-mechanical models of these processes, in particular crack deflection and uncracked ligament bridging, the relative importance of these …

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A technique for creating renewable reflective optics suitable for focusing of pulsed laser beams is proposed. It is based on the heating of the surface of a planar reflecting slab by an auxiliary heating source that causes thermal expansion of the slab material and creates a desired surface relief. The presence of this relief is a transient phenomenon, but, for short-enough main pulse, this does not cause any problems. If the surface is damaged by the main pulse, the shifting of the slab and repeating the whole cycle allows recreating the transient mirror. Favorable features of this approach include controlling the optics ''at a distance'', without any direct mechanical contact. Detailed discussion of the possibilities provided by this technique for the focusing of x-ray beams at the planned LCLS facility at Stanford is presented. It is concluded that 10-fold increase of intensity of 8-keV beam and 100-fold increase of intensity of 0.8 keV beam is possible. A set of design equations and constraint is formulated. The analysis presented can be used as a template for analyses of similar transient optical systems for the UV and optical range.

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Using the LLNL EBIT/RETRAP system non-neutral plasmas of highly charged ions were produced and cooled to temperatures around one Kelvin. These strongly coupled plasmas can model white dwarf astrophysical plasmas in the laboratory. These systems may also have potential application to quantum computation. The experimental results from the last operations of the trap at Livermore are discussed. Molecular dynamics simulation results are discussed as a guide to past and future experiments. The status and future plans for RETRAP at LBNL's 88 inch Cyclotron are discussed.

The performance of two large NaI(Tl) scintillation detectors has been determined as a function of detector type and as a function of temperature. One detector had dimensions of 4?4?16 in.3 with a stainless steel shell while the other detector was 2?4?16 in.3 with an aluminum shell. Absolute counting efficiencies for photopeaks and total counts were measured at 0.46 m and 2.0 m for gamma sources ranging in energy from 25 keV to 2500 keV. Photopeak resolutions were measured over the same energy range. The changes in pulse height and photopeak resolution were measured as a function of temperature over the range -50 C to +60 C. As expected from prior literature data, the scintillator light output decreases at both higher and lower temperatures compared to room temperature. However, the maximum peak height in this work occurred at 0 C whereas the literature gives the maximum light output at about 40 C. This difference is attributed to the fact that in this work, the phototubes and preamplifiers were heated and cooled along with the scintillator. Both detectors continued to function successfully over the entire temperature range studied in this work. The pulse height decreased by about 33% at -50 C and …

The authors observed dynamically driven phase transitions in isentropically compressed bismuth. By changing the stress loading conditions they explored two distinct cases one in which the experimental signature of the phase transformation corresponds to phase-boundary crossings initiated at both sample interfaces, and another in which the experimental trace is due to a single advancing transformation front in the bulk of the material. They introduce a coupled kinetics-hydrodynamics model that for this second case enables them, under suitable simplifying assumptions, to directly extract characteristic transition times from the experimental measurements.

The aim of this project has been to develop a spectral analysis tool with a level of quality and completeness commensurate to that expected in data from the current generation of X-ray observatories. The code is called LXSS (Livermore X-Ray Spectral Synthesizer). X-ray-emitting astrophysical plasmas are rarely, if ever, in LTE, so they have adopted the detailed level accounting approach, in which rates for processes that populate or depopulate atomic energy levels are treated explicitly. This entails the generation of a large quantity of atomic data, most of which is calculated using ''in-house'' computer codes. Calculations are benchmarked against laboratory data, and spectral models have been used to provide first-time interpretations of astrophysical X-ray spectra. The design of a versatile graphical user interface that allows access to and manipulation of the atomic database comprises the second major part of the project.

Phase 1 of the Tank-Farm Vadose Zone Program (TFVZP) developed information on the nature and extent of vadose zone contamination in the tank farms through field studies, laboratory analyses and experiments, and historical data searches; assembled data and performed tank-farm risk analysis; and initiated interim corrective actions to lessen the impacts of tank leak contaminants. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientists and external collaborators at universities and U.S. Department of Energy user facilities sampled and analyzed contaminant plumes. These types of activities will continue during Phase 2 of the TFVZP to refine and expand scientific understanding of the subsurface beneath tank farms, especially of water movement, residual waste leaching, and contaminant transport.

We investigate the effects of non-equilibrium particle distributions resulting from rapid deuterium-tritium burning in plasmas using a Fokker-Planck code that incorporates small-angle Coulomb scattering, Brehmsstrahlung, Compton scattering, and thermal-nuclear burning. We find that in inertial confinement fusion environments, deviations away from Maxwellian distributions for either deuterium or tritium ions are small and result in 1% changes in the energy production rates. The deuterium and tritium effective temperatures are not equal, but differ by only about 2.5% near the time of peak burn rate. Simulations with high Z (Xe) dopants show that the dopant temperature closely tracks that of the fuel. On the other hand, fusion product ion distributions are highly non-Maxwellian, and careful treatments of energy-exchange between these ions and other particles is important for determining burn rates.

Herein we demonstrate a novel electroless etching synthesis of monolithic, single-crystalline, mesoporous silicon nanowire arrays with a high surface area and luminescent properties consistent with conventional porous silicon materials. The photoluminescence of these nanowires suggest they are composed of crystalline silicon with small enough dimensions such that these arrays may be useful as photocatalytic substrates or active components of nanoscale optoelectronic devices. A better understanding of this electroless route to mesoporous silicon could lead to facile and general syntheses of different narrow bandgap semiconductor nanostructures for various applications.

Rev 1 of this report provides corrections and clarifications in response to reviewer comments arising during a project review meeting held June 7-8, 2007.

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This report (Rev 1) incorporates corrections and clarifications regarding the interpretation of solutions in BNL (1995) per reviewer comments from a June 7-8, 2007 review meeting. The review comments affect Appendixes C and D of this report - the body of the report is unchanged.

The overall goal of the program is to advance the current state of crystalline silicon solar cell technology to make photovoltaics more competitive with conventional energy sources. This program emphasizes fundamental and applied research that results in low-cost, high-efficiency cells on commercial silicon substrates with strong involvement of the PV industry, and support a very strong photovoltaics education program in the US based on classroom education and hands-on training in the laboratory.

Bayesian networks (BN) are an excellent tool for modeling uncertainties in systems with several interdependent variables. A BN is a directed acyclic graph, and consists of a structure, or the set of directional links between variables that depend on other variables, and conditional probabilities (CP) for each variable. In this project, we apply BN's to understand uncertainties in NIF ignition experiments. One can represent various physical properties of National Ignition Facility (NIF) capsule implosions as variables in a BN. A dataset containing simulations of NIF capsule implosions was provided. The dataset was generated from a radiation hydrodynamics code, and it contained 120 simulations of 16 variables. Relevant knowledge about the physics of NIF capsule implosions and greedy search algorithms were used to search for hypothetical structures for a BN. Our preliminary results found 6 links between variables in the dataset. However, we thought there should have been more links between the dataset variables based on the physics of NIF capsule implosions. Important reasons for the paucity of links are the relatively small size of the dataset, and the sampling of the values for dataset variables. Another factor that might have caused the paucity of links is the fact that in …

We have probed the nature of magnetism at the surface of (001), (110) and (111)-oriented La{sub 0.7}Sr{sub 0.3}MnO{sub 3} thin films. The spin polarization of La{sub 0.7}Sr{sub 0.3}MnO{sub 3} thin films is not intrinsically suppressed at all surfaces and interfaces but is highly sensitive to both the epitaxial strain state as well as the substrate orientation. Through the use of soft x-ray spectroscopy, the magnetic properties of (001), (110) and (111)-oriented La{sub 0.7}Sr{sub 0.3}MnO{sub 3}/SrTiO{sub 3} interfaces have been investigated and compared to bulk magnetometry and resistivity measurements. The magnetization of (110) and (111)-oriented La{sub 0.7}Sr{sub 0.3}MnO{sub 3}/SrTiO{sub 3} interfaces are more bulk-like as a function of thickness whereas the magnetization at the (001)-oriented La{sub 0.7}Sr{sub 0.3}MnO{sub 3}/SrTiO{sub 3} interface is suppressed significantly below a layer thickness of 20 nm. Such findings are correlated with the biaxial strain state of the La{sub 0.7}Sr{sub 0.3}MnO{sub 3} films; for a given film thickness it is the tetragonal distortion of (001) La{sub 0.7}Sr{sub 0.3}MnO{sub 3} that severely impacts the magnetization, whereas the trigonal distortion for (111)-oriented films and monoclinic distortion for (110)-oriented films have less of an impact. These observations provide evidence that surface magnetization and thus spin polarization depends strongly on the …

This project was developed to conduct research to improve the efficacy of captive broodstock programs and advance hatchery reform throughout the Columbia River Basin. The project has three objectives: (1) maintain adaptive life history characteristics in Chinook salmon, (2) improve imprinting in juvenile sockeye salmon, and (3) match wild phenotypes in Chinook and sockeye salmon reared in hatcheries. A summary of the results are as follows: Objective 1: The ratio of jack to adult male Chinook salmon were varied in experimental breeding populations to test the hypothesis that reproductive success of the two male phenotypes would vary with their relative frequency in the population. Adult Chinook salmon males nearly always obtained primary access to nesting females and were first to enter the nest at the time of spawning. Jack male spawning occurred primarily by establishing satellite positions downstream of the courting pair, and 'sneaking' into the nest at the time of spawning. Male dominance hierarchies were fairly stable and strongly correlated with the order of nest entry at the time of spawning. Observed participation in spawning events and adult-to-fry reproductive success of jack and adult males was consistent with a negative frequency-dependent selection model. Overall, jack males sired an average …