Nano-electromechanical oscillators (NEMOs), capacitively-coupled radio frequency (RF) MEMS switches incorporating dissipative dielectrics, new processing technologies for tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) films, and scientific understanding of dissipation mechanisms in small mechanical structures were developed in this project. NEMOs are defined as mechanical oscillators with critical dimensions of 50 nm or less and resonance frequencies approaching 1 GHz. Target applications for these devices include simple, inexpensive clocks in electrical circuits, passive RF electrical filters, or platforms for sensor arrays. Ta-C NEMO arrays were used to demonstrate a novel optomechanical structure that shows remarkable sensitivity to small displacements (better than 160 fm/Hz {sup 1/2}) and suitability as an extremely sensitive accelerometer. The RF MEMS capacitively-coupled switches used ta-C as a dissipative dielectric. The devices showed a unipolar switching response to a unipolar stimulus, indicating the absence of significant dielectric charging, which has historically been the major reliability issue with these switches. This technology is promising for the development of reliable, low-power RF switches. An excimer laser annealing process was developed that permits full in-plane stress relaxation in ta-C films in air under ambient conditions, permitting the application of stress-reduced ta-C films in areas where low thermal budget is required, e.g. MEMS integration with …

We report sharp spin-dependent energy loss features in electron scattering from bcc Fe(100) thin films grown on Ag(100). Majority spin features are observed at {approx}1.8 and 2.5 eV energy loss, and a minority spin feature is observed at {approx}2.0 eV energy loss. The majority spin peaks are attributed to spin-flip exchange scattering from the Fe films, with the lowest energy feature corresponding to the exchange splitting for the Fe. The minority spin peak is attributed to non-flip exchange scattering with an energy corresponding to the separation between occupied and unoccupied minority spin bands.

This paper describes the development of a set of software tools useful for analyzing ultra-wideband (UWB) antennas and structures. These tools are used to perform finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulation of a conical antenna with continuous wave (CW) and UWB pulsed excitations. The antenna is analyzed using spherical coordinate-based FDTD equations that are derived from first principles. The simulation results for CW excitation are compared to simulation and measured results from published sources; the results for UWB excitation are new.

Light propagating through a subwavelength aperture can be dramatically increased by etching a grating in the metal around the hole. Moreover, light that would typically broadly diverge when passing through an unpatterned subwavelength hole can be directed into a narrow beam by utilizing a specific pattern around the aperture. While the increased transmission and narrowed angular emission appear to defy far-field diffraction theory, they are consistent with a fortuitous plasmon/photon coupling. In addition, the coupling between photons and surface plasmons affects the emissivity of a surface comprised of such structures. These properties are useful across several strategic areas of interest to Sandia. A controllable emission spectrum could benefit satellite and military application areas. Photolithography and near-field microscopy are natural applications for a system that controls light beyond the diffraction limit in a manner that is easily parallelizable. Over the one year of this LDRD, we have built or modified the numerical tools necessary to model such structures. These numerical codes and the knowledge base for using them appropriately will be available in the future for modeling work on surface plasmons or other optical modeling at Sandia. Using these tools, we have designed and optimized structures for various transmission or emission …

Description. Individual raw data streams from instrumentation at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program Climate Research Facility (ACRF) fixed and mobile sites are collected and sent to the Data Management Facility (DMF) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for processing in near real time. Raw and processed data are then sent daily to the ACRF Archive, where they are made available to users. For each instrument, we calculate the ratio of the actual number of data records received daily at the Archive to the expected number of data records. The results are tabulated by (1) individual data stream, site, and month for the current year and (2) site and fiscal year dating back to 1998. The United States Department of Energy requires national user facilities to report time-based operating data. The requirements concern the actual hours of operation (ACTUAL); the estimated maximum operation or uptime goal (OPSMAX), which accounts for planned downtime; and the VARIANCE [1 – (ACTUAL/OPSMAX)], which accounts for unplanned downtime. The annual OPSMAX time for the Southern Great Plains (SGP) site is 8,322 hours per year (0.95 × 8,760, the number hours in a year, not including leap year). The annual OPSMAX for the North Slope Alaska (NSA) …

Severe plastic deformation is observed within adiabatic shear bands in iron-carbon steels. These shear bands form under high strain rate conditions, in excess of 1000 s{sup -1}, and strains in the order 5 or greater are commonly observed. Studies on shear band formation in a ultrahigh carbon steel (1.3%C) are described in the pearlitic condition. A hardness of 11.5 GPa (4600 MPa) is obtained within the band. A mechanism is described to explain the high strength based on phase transformation to austenite from adiabatic heating resulting from severe deformation. Rapid re-transformation leads to an ultra-fine ferrite grain size containing carbon principally in the form of nanosize carbides. It is proposed that the same mechanism explains the ultrahigh strength of iron-carbon steels observed in ball-milling, ball drop tests and in severely deformed wires.

Recent world events have underscored the need for a satellite based persistent global surveillance capability. To be useful, the satellite must be able to continuously monitor objects the size of a person anywhere on the globe and do so at a low cost. One way to satisfy these requirements involves a constellation of satellites in low earth orbit capable of resolving a spot on the order of 20 cm. To reduce cost of deployment, such a system must be dramatically lighter than a traditional satellite surveillance system with a high spatial resolution. The key to meeting this requirement is a lightweight optics system with a deformable primary and secondary mirrors and an adaptive optic subsystem correction of wavefront distortion. This proposal is concerned with development of MEMS micromirrors for correction of aberrations in the primary mirror and improvement of image quality, thus reducing the optical requirements on the deployable mirrors. To meet this challenge, MEMS micromirrors must meet stringent criteria on their performance in terms of flatness, roughness and resolution of position. Using Sandia's SUMMIT foundry which provides the world's most sophisticated surface MEMS technology as well as novel designs optimized by finite element analysis will meet severe requirements on …

The nano electrode arrays for in-situ identification and quantification of chemicals in water progress in four major directions. (1) We developed and engineering three nanoelectrode array designs which operate in a portable field mode or as distributed sensor network for water systems. (2) To replace the fragile glass electrochemical cells using in the lab, we design and engineered field-ready sampling heads that combine the nanoelectrode arrays with a high-speed potentiostat. (3) To utilize these arrays in a portable system we design and engineered a light weight high-speed potentiostat with pulse widths from 2 psec. to 100 msec. or greater. (4) Finally, we developed the parameters for an analytical method in low-conductivity solutions for Pb(II) detection, with initial studies for the analysis of As(III) and As(V) analysis in natural water sources.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of the intake of stable isotopes of carbon and iodine on the committed doses due to the ingestion of {sup 14}C and {sup 129}I. This was accomplished through the application of two different computational approaches. The first was based on the assumption that ground (drinking) water was the only source of intake of both {sup 14}C and {sup 129}I and stable carbon and stable iodine. For purposes of the second approach, the intake of {sup 14}C and {sup 129}I was still assumed to be only that in the ground (drinking) water, but the intake of stable carbon and stable iodine was assumed to be that in the drinking water plus other components of the diet. The doses were estimated using either a conversion formula or the applicable dose coefficients in Federal Guidance Reports No. 11 and No. 13. Serving as input for the analyses was the estimated maximum concentration of {sup 14}C or {sup 129}I that would be present in the ground water due to potential releases from the proposed Yucca Mountain high-level radioactive waste repository during the first 10,000 years after closure. The estimated concentrations of stable carbon and …

This newsletter provides a brief overview of the Field Verification Project for Small Wind Turbines conducted at the NWTC, along with a description of activities and case studies of projects.

Annually laminated sediments (varves) offer an effective means of acquiring high-quality paleoenvironmental records. However, the strength of a varve chronology can be compromised by a number of factors, such as missing varves, ambiguous laminations, and human counting error. We assess the quality of a varve chronology for the last three millennia from Steel Lake, Minnesota, through comparisons with nine AMS {sup 14}C dates on terrestrial plant macrofossils from the same core. These comparisons revealed an overall 8.4% discrepancy, primarily because of missing/uncountable varves within two stratigraphic intervals characterized by low carbonate concentrations and obscure laminations. Application of appropriate correction factors to these two intervals results in excellent agreement between the varve and {sup 14}C chronologies. These results, together with other varve studies, demonstrate that an independent age-determination method, such as {sup 14}C dating, is usually necessary to verify, and potentially correct, varve chronologies.

A survey of the technical literature was performed to summarize the mechanical properties of inorganic components in K Basins sludge. The components included gibbsite, ferrihydrite, lepidocrocite and goethite, hematite, quartz, anorthite, calcite, basalt, Zircaloy, aluminum, and, in particular, irradiated uranium metal and uranium dioxide. Review of the technical literature showed that information on the hardness of uranium metal at irradiation exposures similar to those experienced by the N Reactor fuel present in the K Basins (typically up to 3000 MWd/t) were not available. Measurements therefore were performed to determine the hardness of coupons taken from three irradiated N Reactor uranium metal fuel elements taken from K Basins. Hardness values averaged 30 {+-} 8 Rockwell C units, similar to values previously reported for uranium irradiated to {approx}1200 MWd/t. The physical properties of candidate uranium metal and uranium dioxide surrogates were gathered and compared. Surrogates having properties closest to those of irradiated uranium metal appear to be alloys of tungsten. The surrogate for uranium dioxide, present both as particles and agglomerates in actual K Basin sludge, likely requires two materials. Cerium oxide, CeO2, was identified as a surrogate of the smaller UO2 particles while steel grit was identified for the UO2 agglomerates.

Annihilation of extremely energetic cosmic neutrinos on the relic-neutrino background can give rise to absorption lines at energies corresponding to formation of the electroweak gauge boson Z{sup 0}. The positions of the absorption dips are set by the masses of the relic neutrinos. Suitably intense sources of extremely energetic (10{sup 21} - 10{sup 25}-eV) cosmic neutrinos might therefore enable the determination of the absolute neutrino masses and the flavor composition of the mass eigenstates. Several factors--other than neutrino mass and composition--distort the absorption lines, however. We analyze the influence of the time-evolution of the relic-neutrino density and the consequences of neutrino decay. We consider the sensitivity of the lineshape to the age and character of extremely energetic neutrino sources, and to the thermal history of the Universe, reflected in the expansion rate. We take into account Fermi motion arising from the thermal distribution of the relic-neutrino gas. We also note the implications of Dirac vs. Majorana relics, and briefly consider unconventional neutrino histories. We ask what kinds of external information would enhance the potential of cosmic-neutrino absorption spectroscopy, and estimate the sensitivity required to make the technique a reality.

The SAMGrid team is in the process of implementing a monitoring and information service, which fulfills several important roles in the operation of the SAMGrid system, and will replace the first generation of monitoring tools in the current deployments. The first generation tools are in general based on text log-files and represent solutions which are not scalable or maintainable. The roles of the monitoring and information service are: (1) providing diagnostics for troubleshooting the operation of SAMGrid services; (2) providing support for monitoring at the level of user jobs; (3) providing runtime support for local configuration and other information which currently must be stored centrally (thus moving the system toward greater autonomy for the SAMGrid station services, which include cache management and job management services); (4) providing intelligent collection of statistics in order to enable performance monitoring and tuning. The architecture of this service is quite flexible, permitting input from any instrumented SAMGrid application or service. It will allow multiple backend storage for archiving of (possibly) filtered monitoring events, as well as real time information displays and active notification service for alarm conditions. This service will be able to export, in a configurable manner, information to higher level Grid monitoring …

This brochure describes The New American Home, an annual project that is focused on the future of homebuilding. Industry experts team to design, build, and monitor a demonstration home that has been equipped with the latest marketable technologies and projects.

How long does a PV system have to operate to recover the energy--and the associated generation of pollution and CO{sub 2}--that went into making the system? Energy paybacks for rooftop systems range from 1 to 4 years, depending on the system. Based on models and real data, the idea that PV cannot pay back its energy investment is simply a myth.

Results of the first measurement of {sup 3}P orbitally excited neutral D-meson states, D*{sub 2}{sup 0} and D{sub 1}{sup 0}, produced in hadron collisions at the Tevatron are presented. Using data from the displaced track trigger, CDF II collects a large sample of these states in decay modes D*{sup +} {pi}{sup -}, D{sup +} {pi}{sup -}. Masses and widths of both states have been measured with precision better than or comparable to that of the world average.

Integrated approaches for the heating and cooling requirements of both the fuel cell (FC) stack and cabin environment are critical to fuel cell vehicle performance in terms of stack efficiency, fuel economy, and cost. An integrated FC system and cabin thermal management system would address the cabin cooling and heating requirements, control the temperature of the stack by mitigating the waste heat, and ideally capture the waste heat and use it for useful purposes. Current work at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) details a conceptual design of a metal hydride heat pump (MHHP) for the fuel cell system and cabin thermal management.

Fermilab's hadron physics research continues in all its accelerator-based programs. These efforts will be identified, and the optimization of the Fermilab schedules for physics will be described. In addition to the immediate plans, the Fermilab Long Range Plan will be cited, and the status and potential role of a new proton source, the Proton Driver, is described.

Although healthy dentin is invariably hydrated in vivo, from a perspective of examining the mechanisms of fracture in dentin, it is interesting to consider the role of water hydration. Furthermore, it is feasible that exposure to certain polar solvents, e.g., those found in clinical adhesives, can induce dehydration. In the present study, in vitro deformation and fracture experiments, the latter involving a resistance-curve (R-curve) approach (i.e., toughness evolution with crack extension), were conducted in order to assess changes in the constitutive and fracture behavior induced by three common solvents - acetone, ethanol and methanol. In addition, nanoindentation-based experiments to evaluate the deformation behavior at the level of individual collagen fibers and ultraviolet Raman spectroscopy to evaluate changes in bonding were performed. The results indicate a reversible effect of chemical dehydration, with increased fracture resistance, strength, and stiffness associated with lower hydrogen bonding ability of the solvent. These results are analyzed both in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic toughening phenomena to further understand the micromechanisms of fracture in dentin and the specific role of water hydration.

Results from simulated experiments in several laboratories show that host sediments influence hydrate formation in accord with known heterogeneity of host sediments at sites of gas hydrate occurrence (1). For example, in Mackenzie Delta, NWT Canada (Mallik 2L-38 well), coarser-grained units (pore-filling model) are found whereas in the Gulf of Mexico, the found hydrate samples do not appear to be lithologically controlled. We have initiated a systematic study of sediments, initially focusing on samples from various depths at a specific site, to establish a correlation with hydrate occurrence (or variations thereof) to establish differences in their microstructure, porosity, and other associated properties. The synchrotron computed microtomography (CMT) set-up at the X-27A tomography beam line at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS), Brookhaven National Laboratory was used as a tool to study sediments from Blake Ridge at three sub bottom depths of 0.2, 50, and 667 meters. Results from the tomographic analysis of the deepest sample (667 m) are presented here to illustrate how tomography can be used to obtain new insights into the structures of methane hydrate host sediments. The investigation shows the internal grain/pore space resolution in the microstructure and a 3-D visualization of the connecting pathways obtained following …

Habitat for Humanity's goal is to supply quality housing to poor families while reducing their energy cost burden, especially in light of ever-increasing energy prices. Habitat Metro Denver partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy's Building America Project and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to improve their construction and design process to create an affordable home that is not only cost-effective and volunteer friendly to build but highly energy efficient and a comfortable place to live.

Reliable quantitative prediction of contaminant transport in subsurface environments is critical to evaluating the risks associated with radionuclide migration. As part of the Underground Test Area (UGTA) project, radionuclide transport away from various underground nuclear tests conducted in the saturated zone at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) is being examined. In the near-field environment, reactive transport simulations must account for changes in water chemistry and mineralogy as a function of time and their effect on radionuclide migration. Unlike the K{sub d} approach, surface complexation (SC) reactions, in conjunction with ion exchange and precipitation, can be used to describe radionuclide reactive transport as a function of changing environmental conditions. They provide a more robust basis for describing radionuclide retardation in geochemically dynamic environments. The interaction between several radionuclides considered relevant to the UGTA project and iron oxides and calcite are examined in this report. The interaction between these same radionuclides and aluminosilicate minerals is examined in a companion report (Zavarin and Bruton, 2004). Selection criteria for radionuclides were based on abundance, half-life, toxicity to human and environmental health, and potential mobility at NTS (Tompson et al., 1999). Both iron oxide and calcite minerals are known to be present at NTS in …

Use of carbon in tokamaks leads to a major tritium retention issue due to co-deposition. To investigate this process a low power (no beams) L-mode experiment was performed on DIII-D in which {sup 13}CH{sub 4} was puffed into the main vessel through the toroidally-symmetric pumping plenum at the top of lower single-null discharges. Subsequently, the {sup 13}C content of tiles taken from the vessel wall was measured. The interpretive OEDGE code was used to model the results. It was found that the {sup 13}C deposition pattern is controlled by: (a) source strength of {sup 13}C{sup +}, (b) radial location of the {sup 13}C{sup +} source, (c) D{sub {perpendicular}}, (d) M{sub {parallel}}, the scrape-off layer parallel Mach number. Best agreement was found for (a) {approx}50% conversion efficiency {sup 13}CH{sub 4} {yields} {sup 13}C{sup +}, (b) {sup 13}C{sup +} source {approx}3.5 cm outboard of separatrix near {sup 13}CH{sub 4} injection location, (c)D{sub {perpendicular}} {approx} 0.3 m{sup 2}s{sup -1}, (d) M{sub {parallel}} {approx} 0.4 toward inside.