Interest in the critical dynamics of superfluid <SUP>4</SUP> He in microgravity conditions has motivated the development of new high resolution thermometry technol- ogy for use in space experiments near 2K. The current material commonly used as the temperature sensing element for high resolution thermometers (HRTs) is copper ammonium bromide [Cu(NH<SUB>4</SUB>)<SUB>2</SUB>Br<SUB>4</SUB>2H<SUB>2</SUB>0) or "CAB", which undergoes a ferromagnetic phase transition at 1.8K1. HRTs made from CAB have demonstrated low drift (< 10fK/s) and a temperature resolu- tion of O.lnK. Unfortunately, paramagnetic salts such as CAB are difficult to prepare and handle, corrosive to most metals, and become dehydrated if kept, under vacuum conditions at room temperature. We have developed a magnetic thermometer using dilute magnetic alloys of Mn or Fe dissolved in a pure Pd matrix. These metallic thermometers are easy to fabricate, chemically inert, and mechanically robust. Unlike salts, they may be directly soldered to the stage to be measured. Also, the Curie temperature can be varied by changing the concentration of Fe or Mn, making them available for use in a wide temperature range. Susceptibility measurements, as well as preliminary noise and drifl measurements, show them, to have sub-nK resolution, with a drift of less than 10<SUP>-13</SUP> K/s.

Single crystals of magnesium-aluminate spinel were implanted with 170 keV He{sup +} ions to fluences ranging from 1 x 10{sup 16}--1 x 10{sup 21} ions/m{sup 2} at 120 K. The effects of ion implantation were studied using optical absorption spectroscopy, Rutherford Backscattering Spectroscopy and Ion Channeling (RBS/C) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). In absorption spectra obtained from the implanted samples, growth of an F-center band at 5.3 eV was observed. At the fluence of 3 x 10{sup 20} ions/m{sup 2}, the growth of this band not only ceases but the intensity suddenly decreases. This may be due to formation of a new phase at this fluence. This is partially confirmed by the fact that beginning at this dose, a modulated absorbance becomes apparent in the absorption spectrum of spinel. This effect is caused by formation of a buried layer with refraction index lower than that of an unimplanted sample. RBS/C and TEM measurements show that spinel is not amorphized over the fluence range examined in this study. TEM microdiffraction observations show that in the damaged region the intensities of superlattice spots decrease significantly, suggesting that ion beam irradiation induces either an order-disorder phase transition or a transformation into the so-called …

As part of the Soviet-Designed Reactor Safety (SDRS) element of the International Nuclear Safety Program (INSP), the US Department of Energy (US DOE) is funding a plant safety evaluation (PSE) project for the Novovoronezh Nuclear Power Plant (NvNPP). The Novovoronezh PSE Project is a multi-faceted project with participants from sixteen different international organizations from five different countries scattered across eleven time zones. The purpose of this project is to provide a thorough Probabilistic Risk Analysis (PRA) and Deterministic Safety Analysis (DSA) for Units 3 and 4 of the NvNPP. In addition, this project provides assistance to the operation organizations in meeting their international commitments in support of safety upgrades, and their regulatory requirements for the conduct of safety analyses. Managing this project is a complex process requiring numerous management tools, constant monitoring, and effective communication skills. Employing management tools to resolve unanticipated problems one of the keys to project success. The overall scope, programmatic context, objectives, project interactions, communications, practical hindrances, and lessons learned from the challenging performance of the PSE project are summarized in this paper.

SANS experiments on blends of linear, high density (HD) and long chain branched, low density (LD) polyethylenes indicate that these systems form a one-phase mixture in the melt. However, the maximum spatial resolution of pinhole cameras is approximately equal to 10³Å and it has therefore been suggested that data might also be interpreted as arising from a bi-phasic melt with large a particle size (~ 1 µm), because most of the scattering from the different phases would not be resolved. We have addressed this hypothesis by means of USANS experiments, which confirm that HDPEILDPE blends are homogenous in the melt on length scales up to 20 µm. We have also studied blends of HDPE and short-chain branched linear low density polyethylenes (LLDPEs), which phase separate when the branch content is sufficiently high. LLDPEs prepared with Ziegler-Natta catalysts exhibit a wide distribution of compositions, and may therefore be thought of as a �blend� of different species. When the composition distribution is broad enough, a fraction of highly branched chains may phase separate on µm-length scales, and USANS has also been used to quantify this phenomenon.

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In the early 1990s, in collaboration with the School of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory developed dynamic underground stripping (DUS), a method for treating subsurface contaminants with heat that is much faster and more effective than traditional treatment methods. more recently, Livermore scientists developed hydrous pyrolysis/oxidation (HPO), which introduces both heat and oxygen to the subsurface to convert contaminants in the ground to such benign products as carbon dioxide, chloride ion, and water. This process has effectively destroyed all contaminants it encountered in laboratory tests. With dynamic underground stripping, the contaminants are vaporized and vacuumed out of the ground, leaving them still to be destroyed elsewhere. Hydrous pyrolysis/oxidation technology takes the cleanup process one step further by eliminating the treatment, handling, and disposal requirements and destroying the contamination in the ground. When used in combination, HPO is especially useful in the final polishing of a site containing significant free-product contaminant, once the majority of the contaminant has been removed.

A major problem with cavitation in pumps and other hydraulic devices is that there is no effective method for detecting or predicting its inception. The traditional approach is to declare the pump in cavitation when the total head pressure drops by some arbitrary value (typically 3o/0) in response to a reduction in pump inlet pressure. However, the pump is already cavitating at this point. A method is needed in which cavitation events are captured as they occur and characterized by their process dynamics. The object of this research was to identify specific features of cavitation that could be used as a model-based descriptor in a context-dependent condition-based maintenance (CD-CBM) anticipatory prognostic and health assessment model. This descriptor was based on the physics of the phenomena, capturing the salient features of the process dynamics. An important element of this concept is the development and formulation of the extended process feature vector @) or model vector. Thk model-based descriptor encodes the specific information that describes the phenomena and its dynamics and is formulated as a data structure consisting of several elements. The first is a descriptive model abstracting the phenomena. The second is the parameter list associated with the functional model. The …

On May 30, 1998 scrap metal containing radioactive Cesium-137 (Cs-137) was accidentally melted in a furnace at the Acerinox steel mill in Algeciras, Spain. Cs-137 was released from the mill's smokestack, and spread across the western Mediterranean Sea to France and Italy and beyond. The first indication of the release was radiation levels up to 1000 times background reported by Swiss, French, and Italian authorities during the following two weeks. Initially no elevated radiation levels were detected over Spain. A release of hazardous material to the atmosphere is the type of situation the Atmospheric Release Advisory Capability (ARAC) emergency response organization was designed to address. The amount and exact time of the release were unknown, though the incident was thought to have taken place during the last week in May. Using air concentration measurements supplied by colleagues of ARAC in Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Sweden, Russia and the European Union, ARAC meteorologists estimated the magnitude and timing of the release (Vogt, 1999). Correctly locating the downwind footprint is the most important goal of emergency response modeling. In this study, we compare predicted results for the Algeciras event based on four wind data sources: (1) US Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction …

Hard diffraction in events with dijets and rapidity gaps has been studied by D0 and CDF for three processes: hard color singlet exchange, hard single diffraction, and hard double pomeron exchange, using Tevatron {anti p}p data at {radical}s = 630 GeV and 1.8 TeV. Measurements of rates, {eta}, E{sub T} and {radical}s dependencies are presented and comparisons made with predictions of several models.

A better understanding of the fraction of contaminants irreversibly sorbed by minerals is necessary to effectively quantify bioavailability. Ferrihydrite, a poorly crystalline iron oxide, is a natural sink for sorbed contaminants. Contaminants may be sorbed/occluded as ferrihydrite precipitates in natural waters or as it ages and transforms to more crystalline iron oxides such as goethite or hematite. Laboratory studies indicate that Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Np, Pb, Sr, U, and Zn are irreversibly sorbed to some extent during the aging and transformation of synthetic ferrihydrite. Barium, Ra and Sr are known to sorb on ferrihydrite in the pH range of 6 to 10 and sorb more strongly at pH values above its zero point of charge (pH> 8). We will review recent literature on metal retardation, including our laboratory and modeling investigation of Ba (as an analogue for Ra) and Sr adsorption/resorption, during ferrihydrite transformation to more crystalline iron oxides. Four ferrihydrite suspensions were aged at pH 12 and 50 °C with or without Ba in 0.01 M KN03 for 68 h or in 0.17 M KN03 for 3424 h. Two ferrihydrite suspensions were aged with and without Sr at pH 8 in 0.1 M KN03 at 70°C. Barium …

The Department of Energy (DOE) has as two of its strategic objectives to safely accomplish the world's largest environmental clean-up of contaminated sites and the adoption of the best management practices of the private sector to achieve business-like results efficiently and effectively. An integral part of the strategic response to the challenges facing the Department has been the use of benchmarking and best practice management to facilitate identifying and implementing leading-edge thinking, practices, approaches, and solutions.

Paper presented at the International Conference on Ultra-Relativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (1999) reporting on the progress of the STAR experiment, a complex system of many detector sub-systems which have been installed in a large solenoidal magnet at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC).

Wet oxidation of high-Al-content AIGaAs semiconductor layers in vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELS) has produced devices with record low threshold currents and voltages and with wall-plug efficiencies greater than 50%. Wet oxidation of buried AlGaAs layers has been employed to reduce the problems associated with substrate current leakage in GaAs-on- insulator (GOI) MESFETS. Wet oxidation of high-Al-content AlGaAs semiconductor layers in vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELS) has produced devices with record low threshold currents and voltages and with wall-plug efficiencies greater than 50%. Wet oxidation of buried AlGaAs layers has been employed to reduce the problems associated with substrate current leakage in GaAs-on- insulator (GOI) MESFETS. Wet oxidation has also been considered as a route to the long-sought goal of a IH-V MIS technology. To continue improving device designs for even higher performance and to establish a truly manufacturable technology based on wet oxidation, the effect of oxidation of a given layer on the properties of the entire device structure must be understood. The oxidation of a given layer can strongly affect the electrical and chemical properties of adjacent layers. Many of these effects are derived from the production of large amounts of elemental As during the oxidation …

We created three models to represent a comprehensive knowledge model: · Stages of Knowledge Management Model (Forrester) · Expanded Life-Cycle Information Management Model · Organizational Knowledge Management Model. In building a series of models, we started with an attempt to create a graphical model that illustrates the ideas outlined in the Forrester article (Leadership Strategies, Vol. 3, No. 2, November/December 1997). We then expanded and detailed a life-cycle model. Neither of these effectively reflected how to manage the complexities involved in weaving local, enterprise, and global information into an easily navigated resource for end users. We finally began to synthesize these ideas into an Organizational Knowledge Management Model. This model acknowledges the relevance of life-cycle management for different granularities of information collections and places it in the context of the integrating infrastructure needed to assist end users.

Siiica aerogels have 1/3 the thermal conductivity of the best commercial composite insulations, or ~13 mW/m-K at 25&deg;C. However, aerogels are transparent in the near IR region of 4-7 &micro;m, which is where the radiation peak from a thermal-battery stack occurs. Titania and carbon- black powders were examined as thermal opacifiers, to reduce radiation at temperatures between 300&deg;C and 600&deg;C, which spans the range of operating temperature for most thermal batteries. The effectiveness of the various opacifiers depended on the loading, with the best overall results being obtained using aerogels filled with carbon black. Fabrication and strength issues still remain, however.

Magnetic semiconductors offer a unique possibility for strongly tuning the intrinsic alloy disorder potential with applied magnetic field. We report the direct observation of a series of step-like reductions in the magnetic alloy disorder potential in single ZnSe/Zn(Cd,Mn)Se quantum wells between O and 60 Tesla. This disorder, measured through the linewidth of low temperature photoluminescence spectra drops abruptly at -19, 36, and 53 Tesla, in concert with observed magnetization steps. Conventional models of alloy disorder (developed for nonmagnetic semiconductors) reproduce the general shape of the data, but markedly underestimate the size of the linewidth reduction.

We report the first experimental observation of non-classical morphological equilibration of a corrugated crystalline surface. Periodic rippled structures with wavelengths of 290-550 nm were made on Si(OO1) by sputter rippling and then annealed at 650 - 750 &deg;C. In contrast to the classical exponential decay with time, the ripple amplitude, A_{lambda}(t), followed an inverse linear decay, A_{lambda}(t)= A_{lambda}(0)/(1 +k_{lambda}t), agreeing with a prediction of Ozdemir and Zangwill. We measure the activation energy for surface relaxation to be 1.6&plusmn;0.2 eV, consistent with an interpretation that dimers mediate transport.

Effect of aluminum on the decomposition of 5 ferrite to austenite was investigated in a low-alloy steel weld. In addition, the effect of inclusion composition on the transition from bainite to acicular ferrite during austenite decomposition was analyzed. Stress relaxation during decomposition of austenite to allotriomorphic and acicular ferrite was also characterized. Results from the above experiments illustrate the importance of thermomechanical effects on weld microstructure evolution.

Junction field effect transistors (JFET) are fabricated on a GaN epitaxial structure grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The DC and microwave characteristics of the device are presented. A junction breakdown voltage of 56 V is obtained corresponding to the theoretical limit of the breakdown field in GaN for the doping levels used. A maximum extrinsic transconductance (g_m) of 48 mS/mm and a maximum source-drain current of 270 mA/mm are achieved on a 0.8 &micro; m gate JFET device at V_GS= 1 V and V_DS=15 V. The intrinsic transconductance, calculated from the measured g_m and the source series resistance, is 81 mS/mm. The f_T and f_max for these devices are 6 GHz and 12 GHz, respectively. These JFETs exhibit a significant current reduction after a high drain bias is applied, which is attributed to a partially depleted channel caused by trapped hot-electrons in the semi-insulating GaN buffer layer. A theoretical model describing the current collapse is described, and an estimate for the length of the trapped electron region is given.

Analysis of directed flow observable for protons and pions from Au+Au collisions at 10.8 GeV/nucleon from experiment E917 at the AGS is presented. Using a Fourier series expansion, the first Fourier component, {nu}{sub 1},was extracted as a function of rapidity for mid-central collisions (17-24%). Clear evidence for positive directed flow is found in the proton data, and a weak, possibly negative directed flow signal is observed for {pi}{sup +} and {pi}{sup {minus}}.

Heating of nuclear matter with 8 GeV/c {bar p} and {pi}{sup {minus}} beams has been investigated in an experiment conducted at BNL AGS accelerator. All charged particles from protons to Z {approx_equal} 16 were detected using the Indiana Silicon Sphere 4{pi} array. Significant enhancement of energy deposition in high multiplicity events is observed for antiprotons compared to other hadron beams. The experimental trends are qualitatively consistent with predictions from an intranuclear cascade code.

This contribution stresses results recently obtained from experiment E900 performed at the Brookhaven AGS accelerator with 8 GeV/c antiproton and negative pion beams using the Indiana Silicon Sphere detector array. An investigation of the reaction mechanism is presented, along with source characteristics deduced from a two-component fit to the spectra. An enhancement of deposition energy with the antiproton beam with respect to the pion beam is observed. The results are qualitatively consistent with predictions of an intranuclear cascade code.

Multifragmentation studies induced by GeV light-ion beams permit investigation of the influence of intrinsic thermal properties of hot nuclear matter, with minimal interference from the compression/decompression cycle and rotational instabilities. We summarize recent results obtained with {sup 3}He, proton and pion beams up to 15 GeV/c and present the initial results from a recent experiment with 8 GeV/c antiproton and pion beams. The results are compared with INC simulations coupled to EES and SMM models and the caloric curve for the {sup 3}He data will also be discussed.

ULSI technology requires low resistance, stable silicides formed on small geometry lines. Titanium disilicide (TiSiz), which is the most widely used silicide for ULSI applications, exists in two crystallographic phases: the high resistance, metastable C49 phase and the low resistance, stable C54 phase. The major issue with TiSiz is the increasing thermal budget required to transform the C49 phase into the low resistance C54 phase as linewiths decrease below 0.25 pm. Annealing above 900"C to obtain this transformation often results in thermal degradation, so it is desirable to reduce the transformation temperature. The transformation temperature has been shown to be a fi.mction of many factors including microstructure, grain size, and impurities. In this paper we report an investig+ion of rapid thermal silicidation of titanium films (250, 400, and 600 A) on single crystalline silicon at temperatures from 300 to 1000"C. The ramp rates for these experiments are 5, 30, 70, and 200oC/s. The transformation temperature decreases as the ramp rate increases and as the initial film thickness increases. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is used to analyze the resultant film microstructure. The ramp rate influence on Ti silicidation is also investigated on polycrystalline Si lines with widths ranging from 0.27 to …