A transmission electron microscopy study of quasi-isentropic high-pressure loading (peak pressures between 18 GPa and 52 GPa) of polycrystalline and monocrystalline copper was carried out. Deformation mechanisms and defect substructures at different pressures were analyzed. Current evidence suggests a deformation substructure consisting of twinning at the higher pressures and heavily dislocated laths and dislocation cells at the intermediate and lower pressures, respectively. Evidence of stacking faults at the intermediate pressures was also found. Dislocation cell sizes decreased with increasing pressure and increased with distance away from the surface of impact.

Ergonomics risk factors apply to everybody. Numerous adults have experienced disabling injuries related to use of computers and other forms of technology. Now children are using technology even more than adults. Increasingly ergonomics risk factors are being recognized as present in the world of children. Outreach to schools and the surrounding community by employers may help protect the future work force. A growing body of researchers believe that children can benefit from the early introduction of ergonomics awareness and preventative measures. While individual representatives of the educational system may embrace the concept of introducing ergonomics into the classroom, a number of barriers can prevent implementation of integrated programs. Some of the barriers to introducing ergonomics in schools have been absence of a tie to educational standards, the existing demands on teaching hours, and the absence of easily executable lesson plans. Ergonomics is rarely included in teacher training and professional ergonomics expertise is needed for the development of a class-based program. As part of Strategic Vision plan for 2025, a National Laboratory identified community outreach and the future workforces as key areas for initiatives. A series of hands-on interactive modules have been developed by professional ergonomics specialists. They are being tested …

An important step in the quest for low-cost fusion power is the ability to perform and analyze experiments in prototype fusion reactors. One of the tasks in the analysis of experimental data is the classification of orbits in Poincare plots. These plots are generated by the particles in a fusion reactor as they move within the toroidal device. In this paper, we describe the use of graph-based methods to extract features from orbits. These features are then used to classify the orbits into several categories. Our results show that existing machine learning algorithms are successful in classifying orbits with few points, a situation which can arise in data from experiments.

Waveguides were written in fused silica using both a femtosecond fiber laser with a 1 MHz pulse repetition rate and a femtosecond amplified Ti:sapphire laser with a 1 kHz repetition rate. Confocal Raman and fluorescence microscopy were used to study structural changes in the waveguides written with both systems. A broad fluorescence band, centered at 650 nm, associated with non-bridging oxygen hole center (NBOHC) defects was observed after waveguide fabrication with the MHz laser. With the kHz laser system these defects were only observed for pulse energies above 1 {mu}J. Far fewer NBOHC defects were formed with the MHz laser than with kHz writing, possibly due to thermal annealing driven by heat accumulation effects at 1 MHz. When the kHz laser was used with pulse energies below 1 {mu}J, the predominant fluorescence was centered at 550 nm, a band assigned to the presence of silicon clusters (E{prime}{sub {delta}}). We also observed an increase in the intensity of the 605 cm{sup -1} Raman peak relative to the total Raman intensity, corresponding to an increase in the concentration of 3-membered rings in the lines fabricated with both laser systems.

We consider a monodispersed Rayleigh droplet beam of water droplets doped with proteins. An intense infrared laser is used to align these droplets. The arrangement has been proposed for electron and X-ray diffraction studies of proteins which are difficult to crystallize. This paper considers the effect of thermal fluctuations on the angular spread of alignment in thermal equilibrium, and relaxation phenomena, particularly the damping of oscillations excited as the molecules enter the field. The possibility of adiabatic alignment is also considered. We find that damping times in high pressure gas cell as used in X-ray diffraction experiments are short compared to the time taken for molecules to traverse the beam, and that a suitably shaped field might be used for electron diffraction experiments in vacuum to provide adiabatic alignment, thus obviating the need for a damping gas cell.

In coherent X-ray diffraction microscopy the diffraction pattern generated by a sample illuminated with coherent x-rays is recorded, and a computer algorithm recovers the unmeasured phases to synthesize an image. By avoiding the use of a lens the resolution is limited, in principle, only by the largest scattering angles recorded. However, the imaging task is shifted from the experiment to the computer, and the algorithm's ability to recover meaningful images in the presence of noise and limited prior knowledge may produce aberrations in the reconstructed image. We analyze the low order aberrations produced by our phase retrieval algorithms. We present two methods to improve the accuracy and stability of reconstructions.

In a variety of materials superconductivity is associated with the existence of a quantum critical point (QCP). In the case of the hole doped cuprates there is evidence which suggests that the important quantum degrees of freedom near the superconducting critical point are localized charge and spin density fluctuations. We argue that if these degrees of freedom are strongly coupled by spin-orbit interactions, a new type of quantum criticality arises with monopole-like quasi-particles as the important quantum degrees of freedom,. In layered material this type of quantum criticality can be modeled using a 2-dimensional non-linear Schrodinger equation with an SU(N) gauge field. We exhibit a pairing wave function for quasi-particles that has topological order and anisotropic properties. The superconducting transition would in some respects resemble a KT transition.

Multimaterial Eulerian and Arbitrary Lagragian-Eulerian (ALE) codes usually use volume fractions of materials to track individual components in mixed cells. Material advection usually is calculated either by interface capturing, where a high-order van Leer-like slope reconstruction technique is applied, or interface tracking, where a normal reconstruction technique is applied. The former approach is more appropriate for gas-like substances, and the latter is ideal for solids and liquids, since it does not smear out material interfaces. A wide range of problems involves both diffuse and sharp interfaces between substances and demands a combination of these techniques. It is possible to treat all substances that can diffuse into each other as a single material and only keep mass fractions of the individual components of the mixture. The material response can be determined based on the assumption of pressure and temperature equilibrium between components of the mixture. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to solve the corresponding system of equations. In order to avoid these problems one can introduce an effective gamma and employ the ideal gas approximation to calculate mixture response. This method provides reliable results, is able to compute strong shock waves, and deals with complex equations of state. Results from a …

The fast ignition (FI) concept requires the generation of a compact, dense, pure fuel mass accessible to an external ignition source. The current baseline FI target is a shell fitted with a re-entrant cone extending to near its center. Conventional direct or indirect drive collapses the shell near the tip of the cone and then an ultra-intense laser pulse focused to the inside cone tip generates high-energy electrons to ignite the dense fuel. Theoretical investigations of this concept with a modest 2-D calculational scheme have sparsely explored the large design space and the tradeoffs available to optimize compaction of the fuel and maintain the integrity of the cone. Experiments have generally validated the modeling while revealing additional complexities. Away from the cone, the shell collapses much as does a conventional implosion, generating a hot, low-density inner core plasma which exhausts out toward the tip of the cone. The hot, low-density inner core can impede the compaction of the cold fuel, lowering the implosion/burn efficiency and the gain, and jetting toward the cone tip can affect the cone integrity. Thicker initial fuel layers, lower velocity implosions, and drive asymmetries can lead to decreased efficiency in converting implosion kinetic energy into compression. …

Syntheses are reported for ionic liquids containing 1-methyl-3octylimidazolium and 4-methyl-N-butylpyridinium cations, and trifluoromethansulfonate, dicyanamide, bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, and nonafluorobutanesulfonate anions. Densities, melting points and glass transition points, solubility in water as well as polarities have been measured. Ionic liquids based on pyridinium cations exhibit higher melting points, lower solubility in water, and higher polarity than those based on imidazolium cations.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a 192-beam laser facility presently under construction at LLNL. When completed, NIF will be a 1.8-MJ, 500-TW ultraviolet laser system. Its missions are to obtain fusion ignition and to perform high energy density experiments in support of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. Four of the NIF beams have been commissioned to demonstrate laser performance including target and beam alignment. During this time, NIF demonstrated on a single-beam basis that it will meet its performance goals and demonstrated its precision and flexibility for pulse shaping, pointing, timing and beam conditioning. It also performed four important experiments for Inertial Confinement Fusion and High Energy Density Science. Presently, the project is installing production hardware to complete the project in 2009 with the goal to begin ignition experiments in 2010. An integrated plan has been developed including the NIF operations, user equipment such as diagnostics and cryogenic target capability, and experiments and calculations to meet this goal.

Yield functions and plastic potentials are expressed in terms of the invariants of the stress tensor for polycrystalline metals and other isotropic materials. The plastic volume change data of Richmond is used to evaluate the embedded materials properties for some bcc metals and one polymer. A general form for the plastic potential is found that is intended to represent and cover a wide range of materials types.

We present data on the soft (E{sub {gamma}} < 3-4 MeV) radiative strength function (RSF) for electromagnetic transitions between warm states (i.e. states several MeV above the yrast line) from two different types of experiments. The Oslo method provides data on the total level density and the sum (over all multipolarities) of all RSFs by sequential extraction from primary-{gamma} spectra. Measurements of two-step-decay spectra following neutron capture yields two-step-cascade (TSC) intensities which are roughly proportional to the product of two RSFs. Investigations on {sup 172}Yb and {sup 57}Fe have produced unexpected results. In the first case, a strong (B(M1 {up_arrow}) = 6.5 {mu}{sub N}{sup 2}) resonance at E = 3.3 MeV was identified. In the second case, a large (more than a factor of 10) enhancement compared to theoretical estimates of the very soft (E{sub {gamma}} {le} 3 MeV), summed RSF for transitions between warm states was observed. A somewhat weaker (factor {approx} 3) enhancement of the RSF in Mo isotopes observed within the Oslo method still awaits confirmation from TSC experiments.

Soft x-ray absorption spectroscopy and magnetic circular dichroism at the Co L{sub 2,3} edge have been applied to explore the near-interfacial magnetism of Co electrodes in Co/alumina based magnetic tunnel junctions. By taking into account the formation of CoO at the FM/barrier interface, the change in the total magnetic moment on metallic Co atoms as a function of barrier oxidation has been determined. The results demonstrate a strong correlation between the Co moments and measured TMR values, and an enhancement in the Co moments for moderate oxidation times.