The authors demonstrated a functional PnP double heterojunction bipolar transistor (DHBT) using AlGaAs, InGaAsN, and GaAs. The band alignment between InGaAsN and GaAs has a large {triangle}E{sub c} and negligible {triangle}E{sub v}, this unique characteristic is very suitable for PnP DHBT applications. The metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOCVD) grown Al{sub 0.3}Ga{sub 0.7}As/In{sub 0.03}Ga{sub 0.97}As{sub 0.99}N{sub 0.01}/GaAs PnP DHBT is lattice matched to GaAs and has a peak current gain of 25. Because of the smaller bandgap (E{sub g}=1.20eV) of In{sub 0.03}Ga{sub 0.97}As{sub 0.99}N{sub 0.01} used for the base layer, this device has a low V{sub ON} of 0.79 V, which is 0.25 V lower than in a comparable Pnp AlGaAs/GaAs HBT. And because GaAs is used for the collector, its BV{sub CEO} is 12 V, consistent with BV{sub CEO} of AlGaAs/GaAs HBTs.

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The goal of this CRADA was to combine the powder coating material and application techniques and laboratory testing capabilities of FM and T with the manufacturing, real-world testing, and practical knowledge available to BHI in a limited study to determine if coated stainless steel would provide the durability needed to justify additional work in this area. The coating materials chosen had to have low reflectivity and be easily sanitized, non-toxic, pleasant in appearance, and durable for the lifetime of the stainless steel product. The materials also had to be capable of withstanding the daily abuse of animal contact, impact with walls or other hard surfaces, and exposure to a variety of lighting and climatic conditions. FM and T and BHI worked together to investigate coating materials that under normal conditions would be exposed, at least weekly, to 180 F to 260 F washing and sanitization procedures that include strong detergents and phosphoric acid. After a proper cleaning method for the bare panels was established, six different powder coatings were selected and tested. The coatings were selected for their known resistance to harsh chemicals. Sample panels of each coating passed 1000 hours of continuous salt fog exposure and 24-hour constant submersion …

The past several years rendered a resurgence of interest in phosphors for low-voltage flat panel displays utilizing cathodoluminescence (CL). A major selection criterion for these phosphors is CL efficiency. The objective is to maximize the efficiency at low voltages. This work focuses on understanding the materials properties that influence CL efficiency below 1 kV. Existing high-voltage CL efficiency models take into account intrinsic materials properties such as band-gap energy. Experimental data reveals that the CL efficiency also depends on physical properties such as particle and crystallite size. An update, predictive model of CL efficiency that includes the effects of crystallite size, radiative recombination probability, and electron accelerating potential was developed. The predicted efficiencies agree very well with experimental results. The experimental data were collected using a hot filament electron gun in a demountable high-vacuum chamber. To obtain measurement accuracy, secondary electrons were collected and the phosphor excited with a uniform beam profile. A CL characterization protocol for display phosphors was established at Sandia National Laboratories and made available to phosphor researchers.

Fine particle porous {alpha}-alumina has been prepared by a wet chemical method of combustion synthesis using an aqueous precursor containing aluminum nitrate (oxidizer) and carbohydrazide, an organic fuel as starting materials. The aluminum nitrate and carbohydrazide were reacted exothermically at 400--600 C. The synthesis of {alpha}-alumina ({alpha}-Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}) was used as a model for understanding the effects of processing parameters on physical properties such as surface area, average pore size, and residual carbon content. The porous powders were characterized using x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), BET surface area analysis and elemental analysis. The decomposition of the starting materials was investigated using differential thermal and thermogravimetric analyses (DTA/TGA). It has been shown that the furnace temperature, fuel/oxidizer ratio, and precursor water content can be tailored to produce powders with different physical properties.

In late 1997, the In-Tank Precipitation (ITP), facility was shut down and an evaluation of alternative methods to process the liquid high-level waste stored in the Savannah River Site High-Level Waste storage tanks was begun. The objective was to determine whether another process might avoid the operational difficulties encountered with ITP for a lower cost than modifying the existing structured approach to evaluating proposed alternatives on a common basis to identify the best one. Results from the computational analysis were a key part of the input used to select a primary and a secondary salt disposition alternative. This paper describes the process by which the computation needs were identified, addressed, and accomplished with a limited staff under stringent schedule constraints.

Measurements using {sup 252}Cf as a timed source of neutrons and gammas have in recent years undergone significant maturation. These methods use {sup 252}Cf as an observable source of spontaneous fission neutrons and gammas in conjunction with one or more neutron- and/or gamma-sensitive detectors to measure the time-distribution of correlated detector counts following (a) an observed {sup 252}Cf-fission event and/or (b) a counting event in another detector. Detection of {sup 252}Cf spontaneous fission is frequently achieved via use of a small ionization chamber in which the {sup 252}Cf is contained--in this case the timing of source emission events is random. However, one application subsequently described uses a neutron-absorbent ''shutter'' to modulate {sup 252}Cf emissions to produce a neutron source with deterministic timing. Other applications, frequently termed noise-analysis measurements, transform the time-distributions to the frequency domain. Collectively, these correlation methods use {sup 252}Cf to ''excite'' the fissile material and the response of the material is measured by an array of detectors and analyzed using standard time-correlation and/or frequency-analysis techniques. In recent years numerous advances have been made in the application of these methods to in-situ, or field measurements directed at characterizing various configurations of fissile material in operational facilities.

The authors demonstrate, for the first time, a functional N-p-n heterojunction bipolar transistor using a novel material, InGaAsN, with a bandgap energy of 1.2eV as the p-type base layer. A 300{angstrom}-thick In{sub x}Ga{sub 1-x}As graded layer was introduced to reduce the conduction band offset at the p-type InGaAsN base and n-type GaAs collector junction. For an emitter size of 500 {mu}m{sup 2}, a peak current gain of 5.3 has been achieved.

Nitrogen is a major limiting nutrient in crop production. Chemical fertilizers, which are used extensively to meet crop nitrogen requirements, contribute to the high energy inputs of modern agriculture and cause human health and environmental problems. Legumes and their bacterial associates have long been used in crop rotations to replenish soil nitrogen, but effective and reliable biological nitrogen fixation for beans is prevented by the lack of nodulation competitiveness of many Rhizobium strains used as inoculants. The result is that the inoculant strains will not occupy the host's nodules and no benefit will be derived from inoculation. Many indigenous soil strains of Rhizobium etli bv. phaseoli, the symbiont of bean, nodulate but fix little or no nitrogen, and therefore the nodulation competitiveness problem is significant for achieving maximum nitrogen benefit from bean crops. This project was directed toward developing an understanding of the basis of nodulation competitiveness.

Low-temperature, co-fired ceramics (LTCC) are the substrate material-of-choice for a growing number of multi-chip module (MCM) applications. Unlike the longer-standing hybrid microcircuit technology based upon alumina substrates, the manufacturability and reliability of thick film solder joints on LTCC substrates have not been widely studied. An investigation was undertaken to fully characterize solder joints on these substrates. A surface mount test vehicle with Daisy chain electrical connections was designed and built with Dupont{trademark} 951 tape. The Dupont{trademark} 4569 thick film ink (Au76-Pt21-Pd3 wt.%) was used to establish the surface conductor pattern. The conductor pattern was fired onto the LTCC substrate in a matrix of processing conditions that included: (1) double versus triple prints, (2) dielectric window versus no window, and (3) three firing temperatures (800 C, 875 C and 950 C). Sn63-Pb37 solder paste with an RMA flux was screen printed onto the circuit boards. The appropriate packages, which included five sizes of chip capacitors and four sizes of leadless ceramic chip carriers, were placed on the circuit boards. The test vehicles were oven reflowed under a N{sub 2} atmosphere. Nonsoldered pads were removed from the test vehicles and the porosity of their thick film layers was measured using quantitative image …

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Most large parallel computers now built use a hybrid architecture called a shared memory cluster. In this design, a computer consists of several nodes connected by an interconnection network. Each node contains a pool of memory and multiple processors that share direct access to it. Because shared memory clusters combine architectural features of shared memory computers and distributed memory computers, they support several different styles of parallel programming or programming models. (Further information on the design of these systems and their programming models appears in Section 2.) The purpose of this project was to investigate the programming models available on these systems and to answer three questions: (1) How easy to use are the different programming models in real applications? (2) How do the hardware and system software on different computers affect the performance of these programming models? (3) What are the performance characteristics of different programming models for typical LLNL applications on various shared memory clusters?

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This report describes work done by the University of Toledo during the first year of this subcontract. During this time, the CdTe group constructed a second dual magnetron sputter deposition facility; optimized reactive sputtering for ZnTe:N films to achieve 10 ohm-cm resistivity and {approximately}9% efficiency cells with a copper-free ZnTe:N/Ni contact; identified Cu-related photoluminescence features and studied their correlation with cell performance including their dependence on temperature and E-fields; studied band-tail absorption in CdS{sub x}Te{sub 1{minus}x} films at 10 K and 300 K; collaborated with the National CdTe PV Team on (1) studies of high-resistivity tin oxide (HRT) layers from ITN Energy Systems, (2) fabrication of cells on the HRT layers with 0, 300, and 800-nm CdS, and (3) preparation of ZnTe:N-based contacts on First Solar materials for stress testing; and collaborated with Brooklyn College for ellipsometry studies of CdS{sub x}Te{sub 1{minus}x} alloy films, and with the University of Buffalo/Brookhaven NSLS for synchrotron X-ray fluorescence studies of interdiffusion in CdS/CdTe bilayers. The a-Si group established a baseline for fabricating a-Si-based solar cells with single, tandem, and triple-junction structures; fabricated a-Si/a-SiGe/a-SiGe triple-junction solar cells with an initial efficiency of 9.7% during the second quarter, and 10.6% during the fourth quarter (after …

The Programme to be carried out by the Contracting Parties within the framework of this Agreement shall consist of co-operative research, development, demonstrations and exchanges of information regarding inertial fusion energy (IFE). This shall include: (1) Nuclear Technology, (2) Fusion Materials, (3) Environment, Safety and Economics, (4) Laser Drivers, (5) Ion Beam Drivers and Beam/Plasma Interactions, (6) Target Production, Injection and Tracking, (7) Fusion Diagnostics, (8) Driver/Plasma Interactions, (9) Fast Ignition and (10) Power Plant Design Studies. Annexes to this agreement will describe specific tasks in each area.

We examine correlations in a time series of electric power system blackout sizes using scaled window variance analysis and R/S statistics. The data shows some evidence of long time correlations and has Hurst exponent near 0.7. Large blackouts tend to correlate with further large blackouts after a long time interval. Similar effects are also observed in many other complex systems exhibiting self-organized criticality. We discuss this initial evidence and possible explanations for self-organized criticality in power systems blackouts. Self-organized criticality, if fully confirmed in power systems, would suggest new approaches to understanding and possibly controlling blackouts.

A new mode of operation for an ion mobility spectrometer (IMS) has been demonstrated that uses potential wells to trap and separate ions by their mobility. This mode of operation has been made feasible by the improvements in personal computers that now allow real-time control of the potentials on ring electrodes in the IMS drift tube. This mode of operation does not require a shutter grid and allows the accumulation of ions in the potential well to enhance the ion signal. Loss of ions from the potential well is controlled by the radial electric fields required by Gauss's law.

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Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) material has been evaluated for use as a cost-effective substitute for conventional cellulose-based disposal materials (decontamination mops and wipes), plastic bags, and disposable personal protection clothing, that are currently used at Savannah River Site. This study also provides process design criteria for ultraviolet/ultrasonic/hydrogen peroxide PVA reactor system.

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The Plutonium Immobilization Program (PIP) is a joint venture between the Savannah River Site (SRS), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). When operational in 2008, the PIP will fulfill the nation's nonproliferation commitment by placing surplus weapons-grade plutonium in a permanently stable ceramic form and making it unattractive for reuse. Since there are significant radiation and security concerns, the program team is developing novel and unique technology to remotely perform plutonium immobilization tasks. The remote task covered in this paper employs a jointed arm robot to load seven 3.5 inch diameter, 135-pound cylinders (magazines) through the 4 inch diameter neck of a stainless steel canister. Working through the narrow canister neck, the robot secures the magazines into a specially designed rack pre-installed in the canister. To provide the deterrent effect, the canisters are filled with a mixture of high-level waste and glass at the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF).