Analytical expressions used to optimize AR coatings for single junction solar cells are extended for use in monolithic, series interconnected multi-junction solar cell AR coating design. The result is an analytical expression which relates the solar cell performance (through J{sub sc}) directly to the AR coating design through the device reflectance. It is also illustrated how AR coating design be used to provide an additional degree of freedom for current matching multi-junction devices.

Advances in high gain target designs for Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE), and the initiation of construction of large megajoule-class laser facilities in the U.S. (National Ignition Facility) and France (Laser-Megajoule) capable of testing the requirements for inertial fusion ignition and propagating burn, have improved the prospects for IFE. Accordingly, there have recently been modest increases in the US fusion research program related to the feasibility of IFE. These research areas include heavy-ion accelerators, Krypton-Fluoride (KrF) gas lasers, diode-pumped, solid-state (DPSSL) lasers, IFE target designs for higher gains, feasibility of low cost IFE target fabrication and accurate injection, and long-lasting IFE fusion chambers and final optics. Since several studies of conceptual IFE power plant and driver designs were completed in 1992-1996 [1-5], U.S. research in the IFE blanket, chamber, and target technology areas has focused on the critical issues relating to the feasibility of IFE concepts towards the goal of achieving economically-competitive and environmentally-attractive fusion energy. This paper discusses the critical issues in these areas, and the approaches taken to address these issues. The U.S. research in these areas, called IFE Chamber and Target Technologies, is coordinated through the Virtual Laboratory for Technology (VLT) formed by the Department of Energy in …

We present an algorithm for the detection and representation of structures and non-uniformities on the surface of a paper web at the wet end (slurry). This image processing/analysis algorithm is developed as part of a complete on-line web characterization system. Images of the slurry, carried by a fast moving table, are obtained using a stroboscopic light and a CCD camera. The images have very poor contrast and contain noise from a variety of sources. Those sources include the acquisition system itself, the lighting, the vibrations of the moving table being imaged, and the scattering water from the same table's movement. After many steps of enhancement, conventional edge detection methods were still inconclusive and were discarded. The facet model algorithm, is applied to the images and is found successful in detecting the various topographic characteristics of the surface of the slurry. Pertinent topographic elements are retained and a filtered image is computed based on the general appearance and characteristics of the structures in question. Morphological operators are applied to detect and segment regions of interest. Those regions are then filtered according to their size, elongation, and orientation.Their bounding rectangles are computed and superimposed on the original image. Real time implementation of …

The Heavy Ion Fusion Group at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has for several years been developing the world's first circular ion induction accelerator designed to transport space charge dominated beams. Currently, the machine extends to 90 degrees, or 10 half-lattice periods (HLP) with induction cores for acceleration placed on every other HLP. Full current transport with acceptable emittance growth without acceleration has been achieved. Recently, a time stability measurement revealed a 2% energy change with time due to a source heating effect. Correcting for this and conducting steering experiments has ascertained the energy to an accuracy of 0.2%. In addition, the charge centroid is maintained to within 0.6-mm throughout the bend section. Initial studies of matches dependencies on beam quality indicate significant effects.

The Kuwait Institute of Scientific Research (KISR), the USGS and LLNL are collaborating to calibrate seismic wave propagation in Kuwait and surrounding regions of the northwest Arabian Gulf using data from the Kuwait National Seismic Network (KNSN). Our goals are to develop local and regional propagation models for locating and characterizing seismic events in Kuwait and portions of the Zagros mountains close to Kuwait. The KNSN consists of 7 short-period stations and one broadband (STS-2) station. Constraints on the local velocity structure may be derived from joint inversions for hypocenters of local events and the local velocity model, receiver functions from three-component observations of teleseisms, and surface wave phase velocity estimated from differential dispersion measurements made across the network aperture. Data are being collected to calibrate travel-time curves for the principal regional phases for events in the Zagros mountains. The available event observations span the distance range from approximately 2.5 degrees to almost 9 degrees. Additional constraints on structure across the deep sediments of the Arabian Gulf will be obtained from long-period waveform modeling.

The Natural Resources Authority of Jordan (NRA), the USGS and LLNL have a collaborative project to improve the calibration of seismic propagation in Jordan and surrounding regions. This project serves common goals of CTBT calibration and earthquake hazard assessment in the region. These objectives include accurate location of local and regional earthquakes, calibration of magnitude scales, and the development of local and regional propagation models. In the CTBT context, better propagation models and more accurately located events in the Dead Sea rift region can serve as (potentially GT5) calibration events for generating IMS location corrections. The detection and collection of mining explosions underpins discrimination research. The principal activity of this project is the deployment of two broadband stations at Hittiyah (south Jordan) and Ruweishid (east Jordan). These stations provide additional paths in the region to constrain structure with surface wave and body wave tomography. The Ruweishid station is favorably placed to provide constraints on Arabian platform structure. Waveform modeling with long-period observations of larger earthquakes will provide constraints on 1-D velocity models of the crust and upper mantle. Data from these stations combined with phase observations from the 26 short-period stations of the Jordan National Seismic Network (JNSN) may allow …

The compound semiconductor system InGaAsN exhibits many intriguing properties which are particularly useful for the development of innovative high efficiency thin film solar cells and long wavelength lasers. The bandgap in these semiconductors can be varied by controlling the content of N and In and the thin films can yet be lattice-matched to GaAs. In the present work, x-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) and grazing incidence x-ray scattering (GIXS) techniques have been employed to probe the local environment surrounding both N and In atoms as well as the interface morphology of InGaAsN thin films epitaxially grown on GaAs. The soft x-ray XAFS results around nitrogen K-edge reveal that N is in the sp{sup 3} hybridized bonding configuration in InGaAsN and GaAsN, suggesting that N impurities most likely substitute for As sites in these two compounds. The results of In K-edge XAFS suggest a possible trend of a slightly larger coordination number of As nearest neighbors around In atoms in InGaAsN samples with a narrower bandgap whereas the In-As interatomic distance remains practically the same as in InAs within the experimental uncertainties. These results combined suggest that N-substitution of the As sites plays an important role of bandgap-narrowing while in the …

The absorption of cosmic rays by the sun produces a shadow at the earth. The angular offset and broadening of the shadow are determined by the magnitude and structure of the interplanetary magnetic field (IPMF) in the inner solar system. The authors report the first measurement of the solar cosmic ray shadow by detection of deep underground muon flux in observations made during the entire ten-year interval 1989 to 1998. The sun shadow varies significantly during this time, with a 3.3{sigma} shadow observed during the years 1995 to 1998.

The Soudan 2 deep underground tracking calorimeter has recorded cosmic ray muon tracks from the direction of the galactic x-ray binary Cygnus X-3 on most transits during the interval 1989-1998. We analyze these events in the context of previous reports of Cygnus X-3-related muon flux during major radio flares of that source. We find some evidence for excess flux during a small number of transits coincident with major radio flares. We also find an indication that these events maybe distributed around the source with a Gaussian point spread function with {sigma} = 1.3{degree}, larger than the instrumental angular spread of < 0.3{degree}, verified by observation of the shadow of the moon.

Laser desorption mass spectrometry (LDMS) has been developed for DNA sequencing, disease diagnosis, and DNA Fingerprinting for forensic applications. With LDMS, the speed of DNA analysis can be much faster than conventional gel electrophoresis. No dye or radioactive tagging to DNA segments for detection is needed. LDMS is emerging as a new alternative technology for DNA analysis.

The effects of hybridization on heavy-duty vehicles are not well understood. Heavy vehicles represent a broader range of applications than light-duty vehicles, resulting in a wide variety of chassis and engine combinations, as well as diverse driving conditions. Thus, the strategies, incremental costs, and energy/emission benefits associated with hybridizing heavy vehicles could differ significantly from those for passenger cars. Using a modal energy and emissions model, they quantify the potential energy savings of hybridizing commercial Class 3-7 heavy vehicles, analyze hybrid configuration scenarios, and estimate the associated investment cost and payback time. From the analysis, they conclude that (1) hybridization can significantly reduce energy consumption of Class 3-7 heavy vehicles under urban driving conditions; (2) the grid-independent, conventional vehicle (CV)-like hybrid is more cost-effective than the grid-dependent, electric vehicle (EV)-like hybrid, and the parallel configuration is more cost-effective than the series configuration; (3) for CV-like hybridization, the on-board engine can be significantly downsized, with a gasoline or diesel engine used for SUVs perhaps being a good candidate for an on-board engine; (4) over the long term, the incremental cost of a CV-like, parallel-configured Class 3-4 hybrid heavy vehicle is about %5,800 in the year 2005 and $3,000 in 2020, while …

The porosities of three mesoporous silica materials were characterized with {sup 129}Xe NMR spectroscopy. The materials were synthesized by a sol-gel process with r = 0, 25, and 70% methanol by weight in an aqueous cetyltrimethylammonium bromide solution. Temperature dependent chemical shifts and spin lattice relaxation times reveal that xenon does not penetrate the pores of the largely disordered (r= 70%) silica. For both r = 0 and 25%, temperature dependent resonances corresponding to physisorbed xenon were observed. An additional resonance for the r = 25% sample was attributed to xenon between the disordered cylindrical pores. 2D NMR exchange experiments corroborate the spin lattice relaxation data which show that xenon is in rapid exchange between the adsorbed and the gas phase.

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A new pre-injector for the MAX-Laboratory is under design and construction. A thermionic rf gun, designed to operate at medium currents with low back bombardment power, is under construction. The gun will, via a magnetic compressor and energy filter, feed a recirculated linac consisting of two SLED-equipped structures giving 125 MeV each. The first will be delivered in 1999. The system is aimed as a pre-injector for the existing storage rings at MAX-Lab, but will also open up possibilities for a SASE FEL in the UV reaching above 100 MW below 100 run.

Identification of the mechanism responsible for primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC) in nickel-base alloys is a controversial topic. Numerous mechanisms, including the film-rupture/oxidation (i.e., slip-oxidation or slip-dissolution) mechanism, have been proposed to explain PWSCC. According to this mechanism, the observed sensitivity of PWSCC to material and environmental factors may be explained by the combined effects of repassivation kinetics, oxide rupture strain, and crack tip strain rate (which includes creep). Previous research has shown that increasing the Cr content of Ni-9%Fe-Cr from 16 to 30 wt% strongly decreases PWSCC susceptibility. Consequently, measurements of these three fundamental parameters (repassivation, oxide rupture, and creep) were performed as a function of Cr content, and SCC crack growth rates were predicted on the basis of the resulting data. This paper illustrates that considering these three parameters concurrently may contribute to the understanding of Cr effects on PWSCC of Ni-base alloys. However, it is not clear whether the film-rupture/oxidation mechanism can adequately predict the observed crack growth rates for Alloy 600 at 338 C.

The authors describe how protons with energies of 800 MeV or greater can be used as radiographic probes for material characterization. A feature which distinguishes protons from x-rays is their charge, which results in multiple Coulomb scattering effects in proton radiographs. Magnetic lensing can ameliorate these effects and even allow mixed substances to be disentangled. They illustrate some of these effects using 800 MeV protons radiographs of a composite step wedge composed of Aluminum, Foam, and Graphite. They discuss how proton radiographs must be manipulated in order to use standard tomographic reconstruction algorithms. They conclude with a brief description of an upcoming experiment, which is performed at Brookhaven National Laboratory at 25 GeV.

One of the crucial predictions of supersymmetric models that reduce to the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) at the weak scale is that the lightest Higgs scalar should have mass m{sub h} {approx_lt} 125-130 GeV[1]. Recent results on the reach of Fermilab Tevatron upgrades for Standard Model (SM) Higgs bosons show that masses of order 120-180 GeV may be probed [2, 3, 4, 5], depending on integrated luminosity, detector performance and signal and background modeling. Thus, the discovery of a Higgs boson (or a new limit of around 120-130 GeV on its mass) will severely constrain supersymmetric models as well. In this report, we update previous calculations made by our group [6] pertaining to the reach of Fermilab Tevatron upgrades for Higgs bosons in supersymmetric models. We present reach results for SUSY Higgs bosons within the MSSM, the minimal Supergravity model (mSUGRA) and in the minimal Gauge Mediated SUSY Breaking model (mGMSB). In this update, 95% CL exclusion contours and 5{sigma} discovery contours are presented for integrated luminosity values of 2, 5 and 20 fb{sup {minus}1}.

The abundantly available natural gas (mostly methane) discovered in remote areas has stimulated considerable research on upgrading this gas to high-value-added clean-burning fuels such as dimethyl ether and alcohols and to pollution-fighting fuel additives. Of the two routes to convert methane to valuable products, direct and indirect, the indirect route involving partial oxidation of methane to syngas (a mixture of CO and H{sub 2}) is preferred. Syngas is used as feedstock to produce a variety of petrochemicals and transportation fuels. A mixed-conducting dense ceramic membrane was developed from Sr-Fe-Co oxide. Extruded and sintered tubes of SrFeCoO{sub 0.5}O{sub x} have been evaluated in a reactor operating at {approx}850 C for conversion of methane into syngas in the presence of a reforming catalyst. Some of the reactor tubes have been run for more than 1000 h, and methane conversion efficiencies of {approx}98% and CO selectivities of >96% were observed.

(Bi,Pb){sub 2}Sr{sub 2}Ca{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub x} (Bi-2223) bars, prepared by sinter forging, exhibited good phase purity and strong textures with the c axes of the Bi-2223 grains parallel to the forging direction. The initial zero-field critical current density (J{sub c}) of the bars was 10{sup 3} A/cm{sup 2}, but because the forged bars were uncoated, this value decreased with repeated thermal cycling. J{sub c} as a function of applied magnetic field magnitude and direction roughly followed the dependencies exhibited by Ag-sheathed Bi-2223 tapes, but the forged bars were more strongly dependent on field strength and less strongly dependent on field angle.

Characterization tools have been developed to study the performance characteristics and reliability of surface micromachined actuators. These tools include (1) the ability to electrically stimulate or stress the actuator, (2) the capability to visually inspect the devices in operation, (3) a method for capturing operational information, and (4) a method to extract performance characteristics from the operational information. Additionally, a novel test structure has been developed to measure electrostatic forces developed by a comb drive actuator.

Heavy ion TOF ERD combined with energy detection (E-TOF-ERD) is a powerful analytical technique taking advantage of the following facts: the scattering cross section is usually very high ({approximately}10{sup {minus}21} cm{sup 2}/sr) compared to regular He RBS ({approximately}10{sup {minus}25} cm{sup 2}/sr), contrary to what happens with the energy resolution in ordinary surface solid barrier detectors, time resolution is almost independent of the atomic mass of the detected element, and the detection in coincidence of time and energy signals allows for the mass separation of overlapping signals with the same energy (or time of flight). Measurements on several oxides have been performed with the E-TOF-ERD set up at Sandia National Laboratories using an incident beam of 10-15 MeV Au. The information on the composition of the sample is obtained from the time domain spectrum, which is converted to energy domain, and then, using existing software codes, the analysis is performed. During the quantification of the results, they have found problems related to the interaction of the beam with the sample and to the tabulated values of the stopping powers for heavy ions.

Ab initio molecular dynamics calculations are adapted to treat dense plasmas for temperatures exceeding the electronic Fermi temperature. Extended electronic states are obtained in a plane wave basis by using pseudopotentials for the ion cores in the local density approximation to density functional theory. The method reduces to conventional first principles molecular dynamics at low temperatures with the expected high level of accuracy. The occurrence of thermally excited ion cores at high temperatures is treated by means of final state pseudopotentials. The method is applied to the shock compression Hugoniot equation of state for aluminum. Good agreement with experiment is found for temperatures ranging from zero through 105K.

The role of hydrogen in enhancing the photoluminescence (PL) yield observed from Si nanocrystals embedded in SiO{sub 2} has been studied. SiO{sub 2} thermal oxides and bulk fused silica samples have been implanted with Si and subsequently annealed in various ambients including hydrogen or deuterium forming gases (Ar+4%H{sub 2} or Ar+4%D{sub 2}) or pure Ar. Results are presented for annealing at temperatures between 200 and 1100 C. Depth and concentration profiles of H and D at various stages of processing have been measured using elastic recoil detection. Hydrogen or deuterium is observed in the bulk after annealing in forming gas but not after high temperature (1100 C) anneals in Ar. The presence of hydrogen dramatically increases the broad PL band centered in the near-infrared after annealing at 1100 C but has almost no effect on the PL spectral distribution. Hydrogen is found to selectively trap in the region where Si nanocrystals are formed, consistent with a model of H passivating surface states at the Si/SiO{sub 2} interface that leads to enhanced PL. The thermal stability of the trapped H and the PL yield observed after a high temperature anneal have been studied. The hydrogen concentration and PL yield are unchanged …

A phase-shifting diffraction interferometer (PSDI) has been integrated into an adaptive optics (AO) system developed by LLNL for use on the three meter Shane telescope at Lick Observatory. The interferometer is an all fiber optic design, which is extremely compact. It is useful for calibrating the control sensors, measuring the aberrations of the entire AO optical train, and measuring the influence functions of the individual actuators on the deformable mirror. The PSDI is particularly well suited for this application because it measures converging, quasi-spherical wavefronts, such as are produced by an AO imaging system. Thus, a PSDI can be used to measure the aberrations of the entire AO system, in-situ and without errors introduced by auxiliary optics. This provides an extremely accurate measurement ({approximately} 5 nm RMS) of the optical properties of the AO system.