Collaborative Research: A Model of Partially Ionized Plasma Flows with Kinetic Treatment of Neutral Atoms and Nonthermal Ions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pogorelov, Nikolai; Zhang, Ming; Borovikov, Sergey

Interactions of flows of partially ionized, magnetized plasma are frequently accompanied by the presence of both thermal and non-thermal (pickup) ion components. Such interactions cannot be modeled using traditional MHD equations and require more advanced approaches to treat them. If a nonthermal component of ions is formed due to charge exchange and collisions between the thermal (core) ions and neutrals, it experiences the action of magnetic field, its distribution function is isotropized, and it soon acquires the velocity of the ambient plasma without being thermodynamically equilibrated. This situation, e. g., takes place in the outer heliosphere - the part ofmore » interstellar space beyond the solar system whose properties are determined by the solar wind interaction with the local interstellar medium. This is also possible in laboratory, at million degrees and above, when plasma is conducting electricity far too well, which makes Ohmic heating ineffective. To attain the target temperatures one needs additional heating eventually playing a dominant role. Among such sources is a so-called neutral particle beam heating. This is a wide-spread technique (Joint European Torus and International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor experiments) based on the injection of powerful beams of neutral atoms into ohmically preheated plasma. In this project we have investigated the energy and density separation between the thermal and nonthermal components in the solar wind and interstellar plasmas. A new model has been developed in which we solve the ideal MHD equations for mixture of all ions and the kinetic Boltzmann equation to describe the transport of neutral atoms. As a separate capability, we can treat the flow of neutral atoms in a multi-component fashion, where neutral atoms born in each thermodynamically distinct regions are governed by the Euler gas dynamic equations. We also describe the behavior of pickup ions either kinetically, using the Fokker–Planck equation, or as a separate fluid. Our numerical simulations have demonstrated that pickup ions play a major role in the interaction of the solar wind and (partially ionized) interstellar medium plasmas. Our teams have investigated the stability of the surface (the heliopause) that separates the solar wind from the local interstellar medium, the transport of galactic cosmic rays, the properties of the heliotail flow, and modifications to the bow wave in front of the heliopause due to charge exchange between the neutral H atoms born in the solar wind and interstellar ions. Modeling results have been validated against observational data, such as obtained by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), and made it possible to shed light on the structure of energetic neutral atom maps created by this spacecraft.. We have also demonstrated that charge-exchange modulated heliosphere is a source of anisotropy of the multi-TeV cosmic ray flux observed in a number of Earth-bound air shower experiments. Newly developed codes are implemented within a Multi-Scale Fluid-Kinetic Simulation Suite (MS-FLUKSS), a publicly available code being developed by our team for over 12 years. MS-FLUKSS scales well up to 160,000 computing cores and has been ported on major supercomputers in the country. Efficient parallelization and data choreography in the continuum simulation modules are provided by Chombo, an adaptive mesh refinement framework managed by Phillip Colella’s team at LBNL. We have implemented in-house, hybrid (MPI+OpenMP) parallelization of the kinetic modules that solve the Boltzmann equation with a Monte Carlo method. Currently, the kinetic modules are being rewritten to take advantage of the modern CPU-GPU supercomputer architecture. The scope of the project allowed us to enhance plasma research and education in such broad, multidis- ciplinary field as physics of partially ionized plasma and its application to space physics and fusion science. Besides the impact on the modeling of complex physical systems, our approach to computational resource management for complex codes utilizing multiple algorithm technologies appears to be a major advance on current approaches. The development of sophisticated resource management will be essential for all future modeling efforts that incorporate a diversity of scales and physical processes. Our effort provided leadership in promoting computational science and plasma physics within the UAH and FIT campuses and, through the training of a broad spectrum of scientists and engineers, foster new technologies across the country.« less

Collaborative Research: A Model of Partially Ionized Plasma Flows with Kinetic Treatment of Neutral Atoms and Nonthermal Ions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pogorelov, Nikolai; Zhang, Ming

Interactions of flows of partially ionized, magnetized plasma are frequently accompanied by the presence of both thermal and non-thermal (pickup) ion components. Such interactions cannot be modeled using traditional MHD equations and require more advanced approaches to treat them. If a nonthermal component of ions is formed due to charge exchange and collisions between the thermal (core) ions and neutrals, it experiences the action of magnetic field, its distribution function is isotropized, and it soon acquires the velocity of the ambient plasma without being thermodynamically equilibrated. This situation, e. g., takes place in the outer heliosphere –- the part ofmore » interstellar space beyond the solar system whose properties are determined by the solar wind interaction with the local interstellar medium. This is also possible in laboratory, at million degrees and above, when plasma is conducting electricity far too well, which makes Ohmic heating ineffective. To attain the target temperatures one needs additional heating eventually playing a dominant role. Among such sources is a so-called neutral particle beam heating. This is a wide-spread technique (Joint European Torus and International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor experiments) based on the injection of powerful beams of neutral atoms into ohmically preheated plasma. In this project we have investigated the energy and density separation between the thermal and nonthermal components in the solar wind and interstellar plasmas. A new model has been developed in which we solve the ideal MHD equations for mixture of all ions and the kinetic Boltzmann equation to describe the transport of neutral atoms. As a separate capability, we can treat the flow of neutral atoms in a multi-component fashion, where neutral atoms born in each thermodynamically distinct region are governed by the Euler gas dynamic equations. We also describe the behavior of pickup ions either kinetically, using the Fokker--Planck equation, or as a separate fluid. Our numerical simulations have demonstrated that pickup ions play a major role in the interaction of the solar wind and (partially ionized) interstellar medium plasmas. Our teams have investigated the stability of the surface (the heliopause) that separates the solar wind from the local interstellar medium, the transport of galactic cosmic rays, the properties of the heliotail flow, and modifications to the bow wave in front of the heliopause due to charge exchange between the neutral H atoms born in the solar wind and interstellar ions. Modeling results have been validated against observational data, such as obtained by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), and made it possible to shed light on the structure of energetic neutral atom maps created by this spacecraft.. We have also demonstrated that charge-exchange modulated heliosphere is a source of anisotropy of the multi-TeV cosmic ray flux observed in a number of Earth-bound air shower experiments. Newly developed codes are implemented within a Multi-Scale Fluid-Kinetic Simulation Suite (MS-FLUKSS), a publicly available code being developed by our team for over 12 years. MS-FLUKSS scales well up to 160,000 computing cores and has been ported on major supercomputers in the country. Efficient parallelization and data choreography in the continuum simulation modules are provided by Chombo, an adaptive mesh refinement framework managed by Phillip Colella's team at LBNL. We have implemented in-house, hybrid (MPI+OpenMP) parallelization of the kinetic modules that solve the Boltzmann equation with a Monte Carlo method. Currently, the kinetic modules are being rewritten to take advantage of the modern CPU-GPU supercomputer architecture. The scope of the project allowed us to enhance plasma research and education in such broad, multidisciplinary field as physics of partially ionized plasma and its application to space physics and fusion science. Besides the impact on the modeling of complex physical systems, our approach to computational resource management for complex codes utilizing multiple algorithm technologies appears to be a major advance on current approaches. The development of sophisticated resource management will be essential for all future modeling efforts that incorporate a diversity of scales and physical processes. Our effort provided leadership in promoting computational science and plasma physics within the UAH and FIT campuses and, through the training of a broad spectrum of scientists and engineers, fostering new technologies across the country.« less

Charge-exchange coupling between pickup ions across the heliopause and its effect on energetic neutral hydrogen flux

DOE PAGES

Zirnstein, Eric J.; Heerikhuisen, J.; Zank, G. P.; ...

2014-02-24

Pickup ions (PUIs) appear to play an integral role in the multi-component nature of the plasma in the interaction between the solar wind (SW) and local interstellar medium (LISM). Three-dimensional (3D) MHD simulations with a kinetic treatment for neutrals and PUIs are currently still not viable. In light of recent energetic neutral atom (ENA) observations by the Interstellar Boundary EXplorer, the purpose of this paper is to illustrate the complex coupling between PUIs across the heliopause (HP) as facilitated by ENAs using estimates of PUI properties extracted from a 3D MHD simulation of the SW-LISM interaction with kinetic neutrals. First,more » we improve upon the multi-component treatment of the inner heliosheath (IHS) plasma from Zank et al. by including the extinction of PUIs through charge-exchange. We find a significant amount of energy is transferred away from hot, termination shock-processed PUIs into a colder, "freshly injected" PUI population. Second, we extend the multi-component approach to estimate ENA flux from the outer heliosheath (OHS), formed from charge-exchange between interstellar hydrogen atoms and energetic PUIs. These PUIs are formed from ENAs in the IHS that crossed the HP and experienced charge-exchange. Lastly, our estimates, based on plasma-neutral simulations of the SW-LISM interaction and a post-processing analysis of ENAs and PUIs, suggest the majority of flux visible at 1 AU from the front of the heliosphere, between ~0.02 and 10 keV, originates from OHS PUIs, indicating strong coupling between the IHS and OHS plasmas through charge-exchange.« less

IBEX-Lo Observations of Secondary Interstellar Helium and Oxygen Distributions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, J.; Kucharek, H.; Moebius, E.; Kubiak, M. A.; Bzowski, M.; Galli, A.; McComas, D. J.

2015-12-01

Observations of the Interstellar Boundary EXplorer (IBEX) show, among other features, the pristine interstellar neutral gas flow and additional populations associated with neutral helium and oxygen. Kubiak et al. (2014, ApJS, 213, 29) discovered the "Warm Breeze", or additional He component, which is slower and warmer than the primary interstellar He population and its flow direction differs by about 19° from the interstellar neutral (ISN) flow. Park et al. (2015, ApJS, In Press) studied the combined count rate maps of heavy neutral atoms with three statistical analysis methods and found an extended tail of the ISN O flow, centered around 190° in ecliptic longitude and +15° in ecliptic latitude, or approximately 38° from the ISN O and Ne flow peak. The most likely sources for the Warm Breeze and the extended O tail may be secondary populations of interstellar He and O, created by charge exchange between ISN atoms and interstellar ions in the outer heliosheath. The charge exchange between interstellar He atoms and He+ ions is the most important reaction to generate the secondary neutral He in the outer heliosheath, with a reaction rate of 1.7×10-10 s-1 and a mean free path of ~950 AU. For O+, the charge exchange with interstellar H atoms with a rate ~1.0×10-9 s-1 and a mean free path of ~100 AU is most important. Because the differences in the reaction rates and atomic masses for He and O result in different velocity distributions in the outer heliosheath, the directional distributions of these populations at Earth orbit are not identical. In this study, we use the IBEX flux maps of the observed helium and oxygen atoms to compare their directional distributions. These observed distributions may provide constraints and information to improve our current understanding of the interactions in the outer heliosheath.

Neutral gas rotation in magnetron discharge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pal, A. F.; Ryabinkin, A. N.; Serov, A. O.; Filippov, A. V.

2014-12-01

We have experimentally established the existence and determined the velocity of motion of the neutral component of plasma in a planar magnetron discharge, which takes place in the direction of drift of the charged plasma component in crossed electric and magnetic ( E × B) fields. For this purpose, we have studied the propagation of a small gaseous additive over the plasma ring of dc magnetron discharge in the diffusion regime. The obtained temporal dependences of the intensity of atomic emission spectra of the additive in various regions of the plasma ring are compared to the results of numerical solution of the diffusion equation for the experimental conditions studied.

Efficient acceleration of neutral atoms in laser produced plasma

DOE PAGES

Dalui, M.; Trivikram, T. M.; Colgan, James Patrick; ...

2017-06-20

Recent advances in high-intensity laser-produced plasmas have demonstrated their potential as compact charge particle accelerators. Unlike conventional accelerators, transient quasi-static charge separation acceleration fields in laser produced plasmas are highly localized and orders of magnitude larger. Manipulating these ion accelerators, to convert the fast ions to neutral atoms with little change in momentum, transform these to a bright source of MeV atoms. The emittance of the neutral atom beam would be similar to that expected for an ion beam. Since intense laser-produced plasmas have been demonstrated to produce high-brightness-low-emittance beams, it is possible to envisage generation of high-flux, low-emittance, highmore » energy neutral atom beams in length scales of less than a millimeter. Here, we show a scheme where more than 80% of the fast ions are reduced to energetic neutral atoms and demonstrate the feasibility of a high energy neutral atom accelerator that could significantly impact applications in neutral atom lithography and diagnostics.« less

Implementation of a 3D halo neutral model in the TRANSP code and application to projected NSTX-U plasmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Medley, S. S.; Liu, D.; Gorelenkova, M. V.; Heidbrink, W. W.; Stagner, L.

2016-02-01

A 3D halo neutral code developed at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and implemented for analysis using the TRANSP code is applied to projected National Spherical Torus eXperiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U plasmas). The legacy TRANSP code did not handle halo neutrals properly since they were distributed over the plasma volume rather than remaining in the vicinity of the neutral beam footprint as is actually the case. The 3D halo neutral code uses a ‘beam-in-a-box’ model that encompasses both injected beam neutrals and resulting halo neutrals. Upon deposition by charge exchange, a subset of the full, one-half and one-third beam energy components produce first generation halo neutrals that are tracked through successive generations until an ionization event occurs or the descendant halos exit the box. The 3D halo neutral model and neutral particle analyzer (NPA) simulator in the TRANSP code have been benchmarked with the Fast-Ion D-Alpha simulation (FIDAsim) code, which provides Monte Carlo simulations of beam neutral injection, attenuation, halo generation, halo spatial diffusion, and photoemission processes. When using the same atomic physics database, TRANSP and FIDAsim simulations achieve excellent agreement on the spatial profile and magnitude of beam and halo neutral densities and the NPA energy spectrum. The simulations show that the halo neutral density can be comparable to the beam neutral density. These halo neutrals can double the NPA flux, but they have minor effects on the NPA energy spectrum shape. The TRANSP and FIDAsim simulations also suggest that the magnitudes of beam and halo neutral densities are relatively sensitive to the choice of the atomic physics databases.

Implementation of a 3D halo neutral model in the TRANSP code and application to projected NSTX-U plasmas

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Medley, S. S.; Liu, D.; Gorelenkova, M. V.

2016-01-12

A 3D halo neutral code developed at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and implemented for analysis using the TRANSP code is applied to projected National Spherical Torus eXperiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U plasmas). The legacy TRANSP code did not handle halo neutrals properly since they were distributed over the plasma volume rather than remaining in the vicinity of the neutral beam footprint as is actually the case. The 3D halo neutral code uses a 'beam-in-a-box' model that encompasses both injected beam neutrals and resulting halo neutrals. Upon deposition by charge exchange, a subset of the full, one-half and one-third beam energy components producemore » first generation halo neutrals that are tracked through successive generations until an ionization event occurs or the descendant halos exit the box. The 3D halo neutral model and neutral particle analyzer (NPA) simulator in the TRANSP code have been benchmarked with the Fast-Ion D-Alpha simulation (FIDAsim) code, which provides Monte Carlo simulations of beam neutral injection, attenuation, halo generation, halo spatial diffusion, and photoemission processes. When using the same atomic physics database, TRANSP and FIDAsim simulations achieve excellent agreement on the spatial profile and magnitude of beam and halo neutral densities and the NPA energy spectrum. The simulations show that the halo neutral density can be comparable to the beam neutral density. These halo neutrals can double the NPA flux, but they have minor effects on the NPA energy spectrum shape. The TRANSP and FIDAsim simulations also suggest that the magnitudes of beam and halo neutral densities are relatively sensitive to the choice of the atomic physics databases.« less

Resonance ionization for analytical spectroscopy

DOEpatents

Hurst, George S.; Payne, Marvin G.; Wagner, Edward B.

1976-01-01

This invention relates to a method for the sensitive and selective analysis of an atomic or molecular component of a gas. According to this method, the desired neutral component is ionized by one or more resonance photon absorptions, and the resultant ions are measured in a sensitive counter. Numerous energy pathways are described for accomplishing the ionization including the use of one or two tunable pulsed dye lasers.

Quantum delayed-choice experiment with a single neutral atom.

PubMed

Li, Gang; Zhang, Pengfei; Zhang, Tiancai

2017-10-01

We present a proposal to implement a quantum delayed-choice (QDC) experiment with a single neutral atom, such as a rubidium or cesium atom. In our proposal, a Ramsey interferometer is adopted to observe the wave-like or particle-like behaviors of a single atom depending on the existence or absence of the second π/2-rotation. A quantum-controlled π/2-rotation on target atom is realized through a Rydberg-Rydberg interaction by another ancilla atom. It shows that a heavy neutral atom can also have a morphing behavior between the particle and the wave. The realization of the QDC experiment with such heavy neutral atoms not only is significant to understand the Bohr's complementarity principle in matter-wave and matter-particle domains but also has great potential on the quantum information process with neutral atoms.

Generation and acceleration of neutral atoms in intense laser plasma experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tata, Sheroy; Mondal, Angana; Sarkar, Shobhik; Ved, Yash; Lad, Amit D.; Pasley, John; Colgan, James; Krishnamurthy, M.

2017-10-01

The interaction of a high intensity (>=1018 W/cm2), high contrast (>=109), ultra-short (30fs) laser with solid targets generates a highly dense hot plasma. The quasi-static electric fields in such plasmas are well known for ion acceleration via the target normal sheath acceleration process. Under such conditions charge reduction to generate fast neutral atoms is almost inhibited. Improvised Thomson parabola spectrometry with improved signal to noise ratio has enabled us to measure the signals of fast neutral atoms and negative ions having energies in excess of tens of keV. A study on the neutralization of accelerated protons in plasma shows that the neutral atom to all particle ratio rises sharply from a few percent at the highest detectable energy to 50 % at 15 keV. Using usual charge transfer reactions the generation of neutral atoms can not be explained, thus we conjecture that the neutralization of the accelerated ions is not from the hot dense region of the plasma but neutral atom formation takes place by co-propagating ions with low energy electrons enhancing the effective neutral ratio.

Ionospheric E-region electron density and neutral atmosphere variations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stick, T. L.

1976-01-01

Electron density deviations from a basic variation with the solar zenith angle were investigated. A model study was conducted in which the effects of changes in neutral and relative densities of atomic and molecular oxygen on calculated electron densities were compared with incoherent scatter measurements in the height range 100-117 km at Arecibo, Puerto Rico. The feasibility of determining tides in the neutral atmosphere from electron density profiles was studied. It was determined that variations in phase between the density and temperature variation and the comparable magnitudes of their components make it appear improbable that the useful information on tidal modes can be obtained in this way.

Ground Levels and Ionization Energies for the Neutral Atoms

National Institute of Standards and Technology Data Gateway

SRD 111 Ground Levels and Ionization Energies for the Neutral Atoms (Web, free access)   Data for ground state electron configurations and ionization energies for the neutral atoms (Z = 1-104) including references.

Laser Cooled Atomic Clocks in Space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thompson, R. J.; Kohel, J.; Klipstein, W. M.; Seidel, D. J.; Maleki, L.

2000-01-01

The goals of the Glovebox Laser-cooled Atomic Clock Experiment (GLACE) are: (1) first utilization of tunable, frequency-stabilized lasers in space, (2) demonstrate laser cooling and trapping in microgravity, (3) demonstrate longest 'perturbation-free' interaction time for a precision measurement on neutral atoms, (4) Resolve Ramsey fringes 2-10 times narrower than achievable on Earth. The approach taken is: the use of COTS components, and the utilization of prototype hardware from LCAP flight definition experiments. The launch date is scheduled for Oct. 2002. The Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) specifications are reviewed, and a picture of the MSG is shown.

Accelerated procedure to solve kinetic equation for neutral atoms in a hot plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tokar, Mikhail Z.

2017-12-01

The recombination of plasma charged components, electrons and ions of hydrogen isotopes, on the wall of a fusion reactor is a source of neutral molecules and atoms, recycling back into the plasma volume. Here neutral species participate, in particular, in charge-exchange (c-x) collisions with the plasma ions and, as a result, atoms of high energies with chaotically directed velocities are generated. Some fraction of these hot atoms hit the wall. Statistical Monte Carlo methods normally used to model c-x atoms are too time consuming for reasonably small level of accident errors and extensive parameter studies are problematic. By applying pass method to evaluate integrals from functions, including the ion velocity distribution, an iteration approach to solve one-dimensional kinetic equation [1], being alternative to Monte Carlo procedure, has been tremendously accelerated, at least by a factor of 30-50 [2]. Here this approach is developed further to solve the 2-D kinetic equation, applied to model the transport of c-x atoms in the vicinity of an opening in the wall, e.g., the entrance of the duct guiding to a diagnostic installation. This is necessary to determine firmly the energy spectrum of c-x atoms penetrating into the duct and to assess the erosion of the installation there. The results of kinetic modeling are compared with those obtained with the diffusion description for c-x atoms, being strictly relevant under plasma conditions of low temperature and high density, where the mean free path length between c-x collisions is much smaller than that till the atom ionization by electrons. It is demonstrated that the previous calculations [3], done with the diffusion approximation for c-x atoms, overestimate the erosion rate of Mo mirrors in a reactor by a factor of 3 compared to the result of the present kinetic study.

Interatomic scattering in energy dependent photoelectron spectra of Ar clusters

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Patanen, M.; Benkoula, S.; Nicolas, C.

2015-09-28

Soft X-ray photoelectron spectra of Ar 2p levels of atomic argon and argon clusters are recorded over an extended range of photon energies. The Ar 2p intensity ratios between atomic argon and clusters’ surface and bulk components reveal oscillations similar to photoelectron extended X-ray absorption fine structure signal (PEXAFS). We demonstrate here that this technique allows us to analyze separately the PEXAFS signals from surface and bulk sites of free-standing, neutral clusters, revealing a bond contraction at the surface.

Neutral atom imaging at Mercury

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mura, A.; Orsini, S.; Milillo, A.; Di Lellis, A. M.; De Angelis, E.

2006-02-01

The feasibility of neutral atom detection and imaging in the Hermean environment is discussed in this study. In particular, we consider those energetic neutral atoms (ENA) whose emission is directly related to solar wind entrance into Mercury's magnetosphere. In fact, this environment is characterised by a weak magnetic field; thus, cusp regions are extremely large if compared to the Earth's ones, and intense proton fluxes are expected there. Our study includes a model of H + distribution in space, energy and pitch angle, simulated by means of a single-particle, Monte-Carlo simulation. Among processes that could generate neutral atom emission, we focus our attention on charge-exchange and ion sputtering, which, in principle, are able to produce directional ENA fluxes. Simulated neutral atom images are investigated in the frame of the neutral particle analyser-ion spectrometer (NPA-IS) SERENA experiment, proposed to fly on board the ESA mission BepiColombo/MPO. The ELENA (emitted low-energy neutral atoms) unit, which is part of this experiment, will be able to detect such fluxes; instrumental details and predicted count rates are given.

A Multiwavelength Study of the Nature of Diffuse Atomic and Molecular Gas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Federman, Steven

2015-10-01

Our proposed observations under the UV Initiative form a key component of a multiwavelength study of diffuse atomic and molecular clouds. The Herschel GOT C+ survey associated [C II] emission at 158 microns with emission from H I at 21 cm and CO at 2.6 mm, revealing the presence of warm neutral gas, cold neutral gas, CO-dark H2 gas, and molecular clouds. Ground-based measurements of Ca II, CH+, CH, and CN at visible wavelengths show absorption at the same velocities as the components seen in the GOT C+ survey. A main focus of our project is a detailed investigation of the nature of CO-dark H2 gas, interstellar material not associated with H I and CO emission. The presence of this additional material alters our view of molecular gas in galaxies and its connection to star formation rates. We propose ultraviolet observations of three targets with STIS that probe two of the pointings in the GOT C+ survey. Absorption from CO, at much greater sensitivies than is possible from surveying CO emission, will be sought. Analysis of CO, C I, and C2 absorption will yield the physical conditions (gas density and temperature) along the sight lines. The results will be compared with those inferred from CN chemistry based on the observations at visible wavelengths. Other probes seen at UV wavelengths, such as O I, Cu II, and Cl I, will provide a more complete picture of the environment seen in the atomic components of the GOT C+ survey. The outcome of the project will be the most detailed study of diffuse atomic and molecular gas from spectral measurements spanning nearly seven orders of magnitude in wavelength.

Observing heliospheric neutral atoms at 1 AU

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heerikhuisen, Jacob; Pogorelov, Nikolai; Florinski, Vladimir; Zank, Gary

2006-09-01

Although in situ observations of distant heliospheric plasma by the Voyagers has proven to be extremely enlightening, such point observations need to be complemented with global measurements taken remotely to obtain a complete picture of the heliosphere and local interstellar environment. Neutral atoms, with their contempt for magnetic fields, provide useful probes of the plasma that generated them. However, there will be a number of ambiguities in neutral atom readings that require a deeper understanding of the plasma processes generating neutral atoms, as well as the loss mechanisms on their flight to the observation point. We introduce a procedure for generating all-sky maps of energetic H-atoms, calculated directly in our Monte-Carlo neutral atom code. Results obtained for a self-consistent axisymmetric MHD-Boltzmann calculation, as well as several non-selfconsistent 3D sky maps, will be presented.

Surface conversion techniques for low energy neutral atom imagers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Quinn, J. M.

1995-01-01

This investigation has focused on development of key technology elements for low energy neutral atom imaging. More specifically, we have investigated the conversion of low energy neutral atoms to negatively charged ions upon reflection from specially prepared surfaces. This 'surface conversion' technique appears to offer a unique capability of detecting, and thus imaging, neutral atoms at energies of 0.01 - 1 keV with high enough efficiencies to make practical its application to low energy neutral atom imaging in space. Such imaging offers the opportunity to obtain the first instantaneous global maps of macroscopic plasma features and their temporal variation. Through previous in situ plasma measurements, we have a statistical picture of large scale morphology and local measurements of dynamic processes. However, with in situ techniques it is impossible to characterize or understand many of the global plasma transport and energization processes. A series of global plasma images would greatly advance our understanding of these processes and would provide the context for interpreting previous and future in situ measurements. Fast neutral atoms, created from ions that are neutralized in collisions with exospheric neutrals, offer the means for remotely imaging plasma populations. Energy and mass analysis of these neutrals provides critical information about the source plasma distribution. The flux of neutral atoms available for imaging depends upon a convolution of the ambient plasma distribution with the charge exchange cross section for the background neutral population. Some of the highest signals are at relatively low energies (well below 1 keV). This energy range also includes some of the most important plasma populations to be imaged, for example the base of the cleft ion fountain.

Solar Wind Prediction at Pluto During the New Horizons Flyby: Results From a Two-Dimensional Multi-fluid MHD Model of the Outer Heliosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zieger, B.; Toth, G.; Opher, M.; Gombosi, T. I.

2015-12-01

We adapted the outer heliosphere (OH) component of the Space Weather Modeling Framework, which is a 3-D global multi-fluid MHD model of the outer heliosphere with one ion fluid and four neutral populations, for time-dependent 2-D multi-fluid MHD simulations of solar wind propagation from a heliocentric distance of 1 AU up to 50 AU. We used this model to predict the solar wind plasma parameters as well as the interplanetary magnetic field components at Pluto and along the New Horizons trajectory during the whole calendar year of 2015 including the closest approach on July 14. The simulation is run in the solar equatorial plane in the heliographic inertial frame (HGI). The inner boundary conditions along a circle of 1 AU radius are set by near-Earth solar wind observations (hourly OMNI data), assuming that the global solar wind distribution does not change much during a Carrington rotation (27.2753 days). Our 2-D multi-fluid MHD code evolves one ion fluid and two neutral fluids, which are the primary interstellar neutral atoms and the interstellar neutral atoms deflected in the outer heliosheath between the slow bow shock and the heliopause. Spherical expansion effects are properly taken into account for the ions and the solar magnetic field. The inflow parameters of the two neutral fluids (density, temperature, and velocity components) are set at the negative X (HGI) boundary at 50 AU distance, which are taken from previous 3-D global multi-fluid MHD simulations of the heliospheric interface in a much larger simulation box (1500x1500x1500 AU). The inflow velocity vectors of the two neutral fluids define the so-called hydrogen deflection plane. The solar wind ions and the interstellar neutrals interact through charge exchange source terms included in the multi-fluid MHD equations, so the two neutral populations are evolved self-consistently. We validate our model with the available plasma data from New Horizons as well as with Voyager 2 plasma and magnetic field observations within the heliocentric distance of 50 AU. Our new time-dependent 2-D multi-fluid MHD model is generally applicable for solar wind predictions at any outer planet (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) or spacecraft in the outer heliosphere where charge exchange between solar wind ions and interstellar neutrals play an important role.

Quantum State Transmission in a Superconducting Charge Qubit-Atom Hybrid

PubMed Central

Yu, Deshui; Valado, María Martínez; Hufnagel, Christoph; Kwek, Leong Chuan; Amico, Luigi; Dumke, Rainer

2016-01-01

Hybrids consisting of macroscopic superconducting circuits and microscopic components, such as atoms and spins, have the potential of transmitting an arbitrary state between different quantum species, leading to the prospective of high-speed operation and long-time storage of quantum information. Here we propose a novel hybrid structure, where a neutral-atom qubit directly interfaces with a superconducting charge qubit, to implement the qubit-state transmission. The highly-excited Rydberg atom located inside the gate capacitor strongly affects the behavior of Cooper pairs in the box while the atom in the ground state hardly interferes with the superconducting device. In addition, the DC Stark shift of the atomic states significantly depends on the charge-qubit states. By means of the standard spectroscopic techniques and sweeping the gate voltage bias, we show how to transfer an arbitrary quantum state from the superconducting device to the atom and vice versa. PMID:27922087

Retrieval of ion distributions in RC from TWINS ENA images by CT technique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, S.; Yan, W.; Xu, L.; Goldstein, J.; McComas, D. J.

2010-12-01

The Two Wide-angle Imaging Neutral-atom Spectrometers (TWINS) mission is the first constellation to employ imagers on two separate spacecraft to measure energetic neutral atoms (ENA) produced by charge exchange between ring current energetic ions and cold exospheric neutral atoms. By applying the 3-D volumetric pixel (voxel) computed tomography (CT) inversion method to TWINS images, parent ion populations in the ring current (RC) and auroral regions are retrieved from their ENA signals. This methodology is implemented for data obtained during the main phase of a moderate geomagnetic storm on 11 October 2008. For this storm the two TWINS satellites were located in nearly the same meridian plane at vantage points widely separated in magnetic local time, and both more than 5 RE geocentric distance from the Earth. In the retrieval process, the energetic ion fluxes to be retrieved are assumed being isotropic with respect to pitch angle. The ENA data used in this study are differential fluxes averaged over 12 sweeps (corresponding to an interval of 16 min.) at different energy levels ranging throughout the full 1--100 keV energy range of TWINS. The ENA signals have two main components: (1) a low-latitude/ high-altitude signal from trapped RC ions and (2) a low-altitude signal from precipitating ions in the auroral/subauroral ionosphere. In the retrieved ion distributions, the main part of the RC component is located around midnight toward dawn sector with L from 3 to 7 or farther, while the subauroral low-altitude component is mainly at pre-midnight. It seems that the dominant energy of the RC ions for this storm is at the lowest energy level of 1-2 keV, with another important energy band centered about 44 keV. The low-altitude component is consistent with in situ observations by DMSP/SSJ4. The result of this study demonstrates that with satellite constellations such as TWINS, using all-sky ENA imagers deployed at multiple vantage points, 3-D distribution of RC ion intensity may be reconstructed via the CT technique. Acknowledgement: This work is supported by NSFC (Grant No. 40674078).

Coherent Addressing of Individual Neutral Atoms in a 3D Optical Lattice.

PubMed

Wang, Yang; Zhang, Xianli; Corcovilos, Theodore A; Kumar, Aishwarya; Weiss, David S

2015-07-24

We demonstrate arbitrary coherent addressing of individual neutral atoms in a 5×5×5 array formed by an optical lattice. Addressing is accomplished using rapidly reconfigurable crossed laser beams to selectively ac Stark shift target atoms, so that only target atoms are resonant with state-changing microwaves. The effect of these targeted single qubit gates on the quantum information stored in nontargeted atoms is smaller than 3×10^{-3} in state fidelity. This is an important step along the path of converting the scalability promise of neutral atoms into reality.

Understanding Molecular Ion-Neutral Atom Collisions for the Production of Ultracold Molecular Ions

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-06-06

Understanding Molecular Ion-Neutral Atom Collisions for the Production of Utracold Molecular Ions In the last five years, the study of ultracold...U.S. Army Research Office P.O. Box 12211 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2211 molecular ion, quantum chemistry, atom ion interaction...Molecular Ion-Neutral Atom Collisions for the Production of Utracold Molecular Ions Report Title In the last five years, the study of ultracold molecular

Overview of the negative ion based neutral beam injectors for ITER.

PubMed

Schunke, B; Boilson, D; Chareyre, J; Choi, C-H; Decamps, H; El-Ouazzani, A; Geli, F; Graceffa, J; Hemsworth, R; Kushwah, M; Roux, K; Shah, D; Singh, M; Svensson, L; Urbani, M

2016-02-01

The ITER baseline foresees 2 Heating Neutral Beams (HNB's) based on 1 MeV 40 A D(-) negative ion accelerators, each capable of delivering 16.7 MW of deuterium atoms to the DT plasma, with an optional 3rd HNB injector foreseen as a possible upgrade. In addition, a dedicated diagnostic neutral beam will be injecting ≈22 A of H(0) at 100 keV as the probe beam for charge exchange recombination spectroscopy. The integration of the injectors into the ITER plant is nearly finished necessitating only refinements. A large number of components have passed the final design stage, manufacturing has started, and the essential test beds-for the prototype route chosen-will soon be ready to start.

On ionizing shock waves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaniel, A.; Igra, O.; Ben-Dor, G.; Mond, M.

The flow field in the ionizing relaxation zone developed behind a normal shock wave in an electrically neutral, homogeneous, two temperature mixture of thermally ideal gases (molecules, atoms, ions, electrons) was numerically solved. The heat transfer between the electron gas and the other components was taken into account while all the other transport phenomena (molecular, turbulent and radiative) were neglected in the relaxation zone, since it is dominated by inelastic collisions. The threshold cross sections measured by Specht (1981), for excitation of argon by electron collisions, were used. The calculated results show good agreement with the results of the shock tube experiments presented by Glass and Liu (1978), especially in the electron avalanche region. A critical examination was made of the common assumptions regarding the average energy with which electrons are produced by atom-atom collisions and the relative effectiveness of atom-atom collisions (versus electron-atom collisions) in ionizing excited argon.

FIBER AND INTEGRATED OPTICS. OTHER TOPICS IN QUANTUM ELECTRONICS: Monokinetization of atomic beams by the method of laser photodetachment of electrons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rivlin, Lev A.

1990-05-01

A method is suggested for the generation of atomic beams with a high degree of monokinetization from beams of negative ions accelerated in an electric field up to a threshold moment at which, subject to the Doppler effect, the longitudinal component of the ion velocity becomes sufficient for the photodetachment of an electron from an ion by photons in a laser beam collinear with the ion beam. The resultant neutral atoms continue to move without acceleration and at the same longitudinal velocities equal to the threshold value. An analysis of a number of factors limiting this effect is given below.

Progress Towards Laser Cooling of an Ultracold Neutral Plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Langin, Thomas; Gorman, Grant; Chen, Zhitao; Chow, Kyle; Killian, Thomas

2017-04-01

We report on progress towards laser-cooling of the ion component of an ultracold neutral plasma (UNP) consisting of 88Sr+. The goal of the experiment is to increase the value of the ion Coulomb Coupling Parameter, Γi, which is the ratio of the average nearest neighbor Coulomb interaction energy to the ion kinetic energy. Currently, Γi is limited to 3 in most UNP systems. We have developed a new photoionization pathway for plasma creation that starts with atoms in a magnetic trap. This allows us to create much larger plasmas (upwards of 109 atoms with a width of 4 mm). This greatly reduces the plasma expansion rate, giving more time for laser cooling. We have also installed lasers for optically pumping atoms out of dark states that are populated during laser cooling. We will discuss these new systems, along with the results of our first attempts at laser-cooling. Supported by NSF and DoE (PHY-0714603), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-12-1-0267), and the Shell Foundation.

Results from the OH-PT model: a Kinetic-MHD Model of the Outer Heliosphere within SWMF

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Michael, A.; Opher, M.; Tenishev, V.; Borovikov, D.; Toth, G.

2017-12-01

We present an update of the OH-PT model, a kinetic-MHD model of the outer heliosphere. The OH-PT model couples the Outer Heliosphere (OH) and Particle Tracker (PT) components within the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF). The OH component utilizes the Block-Adaptive Tree Solarwind Roe-type Upwind Scheme (BATS-R-US) MHD code, a highly parallel, 3D, and block-adaptive solver. As a stand-alone model, the OH component solves the ideal MHD equations for the plasma and a separate set of Euler's equations for the different populations of neutral atoms. The neutrals and plasma in the outer heliosphere are coupled through charge-exchange. While this provides an accurate solution for the plasma, it is an inaccurate description of the neutrals. The charge-exchange mean free path is on the order of the size of the heliosphere; therefore the neutrals cannot be described as a fluid. The PT component is based on the Adaptive Mesh Particle Simulator (AMPS) model, a 3D, direct simulation Monte Carlo model that solves the Boltzmann equation for the motion and interaction of multi-species plasma and is used to model the neutral distribution functions throughout the domain. The charge-exchange process occurs within AMPS, which handles each event on a particle-by-particle basis and calculates the resulting source terms to the MHD equations. The OH-PT model combines the MHD solution for the plasma with the kinetic solution for the neutrals to form a self-consistent model of the heliosphere. In this work, we present verification and validation of the model as well as demonstrate the codes capabilities. Furthermore we provide a comparison of the OH-PT model to our multi-fluid approximation and detail the differences between the models in both the plasma solution and neutral distribution functions.

VISIONS: Remote Observations of a Spatially-Structured Filamentary Source of Energetic Neutral Atoms near the Polar Cap Boundary During an Auroral Substorm

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Collier, Michael R.; Chornay, D.; Clemmons, J.; Keller, J. W.; Klenzing, J.; Kujawski, J.; McLain, J.; Pfaff, R.; Rowland, D.; Zettergren, M.

2015-01-01

We report initial results from the VISualizing Ion Outflow via Neutral atom imaging during a Substorm (VISIONS) rocket that flew through and near several regions of enhanced auroral activity and also sensed regions of ion outflow both remotely and directly. The observed neutral atom fluxes were largest at the lower energies and generally higher in the auroral zone than in the polar cap. In this paper, we focus on data from the latter half of the VISIONS trajectory when the rocket traversed the polar cap region. During this period, many of the energetic neutral atom spectra show a peak at 100 electronvolts. Spectra with peaks around 100 electronvolts are also observed in the Electrostatic Ion Analyzer (EIA) data consistent with these ions comprising the source population for the energetic neutral atoms. The EIA observations of this low energy population extend only over a few tens of kilometers. Furthermore, the directionality of the arriving energetic neutral atoms is consistent with either this spatially localized source of energetic ions extending from as low as about 300 kilometers up to above 600 kilometers or a larger source of energetic ions to the southwest.

The Helium Warm Breeze in IBEX Observations As a Result of Charge-exchange Collisions in the Outer Heliosheath

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bzowski, Maciej; Kubiak, Marzena A.; Czechowski, Andrzej

2017-08-10

We simulated the signal due to neutral He atoms, observed by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer ( IBEX ), assuming that charge-exchange collisions between neutral He atoms and He{sup +} ions operate everywhere between the heliopause and a distant source region in the local interstellar cloud, where the neutral and charged components are in thermal equilibrium. We simulated several test cases of the plasma flow within the outer heliosheath (OHS) and investigated the signal generation for plasma flows both in the absence and in the presence of the interstellar magnetic field (ISMF). We found that a signal in the portion ofmore » IBEX data identified as being due to the Warm Breeze (WB) does not arise when a homogeneous plasma flow in front of the heliopause is assumed, but it appears immediately when any reasonable disturbance in its flow due to the presence of the heliosphere is assumed. We obtained a good qualitative agreement between the data selected for comparison and the simulations for a model flow with the velocity vector of the unperturbed gas and the direction and intensity of magnetic field adopted from recent determinations. We conclude that direct-sampling observations of neutral He atoms at 1 au from the Sun are a sensitive tool for investigating the flow of interstellar matter in the OHS, that the WB is indeed the secondary population of interstellar helium, which was hypothesized earlier, and that the WB signal is consistent with the heliosphere distorted from axial symmetry by the ISMF.« less

Plasma/Neutral-Beam Etching Apparatus

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Langer, William; Cohen, Samuel; Cuthbertson, John; Manos, Dennis; Motley, Robert

1989-01-01

Energies of neutral particles controllable. Apparatus developed to produce intense beams of reactant atoms for simulating low-Earth-orbit oxygen erosion, for studying beam-gas collisions, and for etching semiconductor substrates. Neutral beam formed by neutralization and reflection of accelerated plasma on metal plate. Plasma ejected from coaxial plasma gun toward neutralizing plate, where turned into beam of atoms or molecules and aimed at substrate to be etched.

The Materials Chemistry of Atomic Oxygen with Applications to Anisotropic Etching of Submicron Structures in Microelectronics and the Surface Chemistry Engineering of Porous Solids

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Koontz, Steve L.; Leger, Lubert J.; Wu, Corina; Cross, Jon B.; Jurgensen, Charles W.

1994-01-01

Neutral atomic oxygen is the most abundant component of the ionospheric plasma in the low Earth orbit environment (LEO; 200 to 700 kilometers altitude) and can produce significant degradation of some spacecraft materials. In order to produce a more complete understanding of the materials chemistry of atomic oxygen, the chemistry and physics of O-atom interactions with materials were determined in three radically different environments: (1) The Space Shuttle cargo bay in low Earth orbit (the EOIM-3 space flight experiment), (2) a high-velocity neutral atom beam system (HVAB) at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), and (3) a microwave-plasma flowing-discharge system at JSC. The Space Shuttle and the high velocity atom beam systems produce atom-surface collision energies ranging from 0.1 to 7 eV (hyperthermal atoms) under high-vacuum conditions, while the flowing discharge system produces a 0.065 eV surface collision energy at a total pressure of 2 Torr. Data obtained in the three different O-atom environments referred to above show that the rate of O-atom reaction with polymeric materials is strongly dependent on atom kinetic energy, obeying a reactive scattering law which suggests that atom kinetic energy is directly available for overcoming activation barriers in the reaction. General relationships between polymer reactivity with O atoms and polymer composition and molecular structure have been determined. In addition, vacuum ultraviolet photochemical effects have been shown to dominate the reaction of O atoms with fluorocarbon polymers. Finally, studies of the materials chemistry of O atoms have produced results which may be of interest to technologists outside the aerospace industry. Atomic oxygen 'spin-off' or 'dual use' technologies in the areas of anisotropic etching in microelectronic materials and device processing, as well as surface chemistry engineering of porous solid materials are described.

A new technique for in situ measurement of the composition of neutral gas in interplanetary space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gruntman, Michael A.

1993-01-01

Neutral atoms in interplanetary space play an important role in many processes relevant to the formation and evolution of the Solar System. An experimental approach is proposed for in situ atom detection based on the conversion of neutral atoms to negative ions at a specially prepared sensitive surface. Negative ions are subsequently analyzed and detected in an essentially noise-free mode. The use of the technique for in situ study of the composition of neutral interstellar atoms is considered. It is shown that interstellar H, D, and O atoms and possibly H2 molecules can be measured by the proposed technique. The experiment can be performed from a high-apogee Earth-orbiting satellite or from a deep space probe. Possible applications of the technique are discussed.

Optimization of a constrained linear monochromator design for neutral atom beams.

PubMed

Kaltenbacher, Thomas

2016-04-01

A focused ground state, neutral atom beam, exploiting its de Broglie wavelength by means of atom optics, is used for neutral atom microscopy imaging. Employing Fresnel zone plates as a lens for these beams is a well established microscopy technique. To date, even for favorable beam source conditions a minimal focus spot size of slightly below 1μm was reached. This limitation is essentially given by the intrinsic spectral purity of the beam in combination with the chromatic aberration of the diffraction based zone plate. Therefore, it is important to enhance the monochromaticity of the beam, enabling a higher spatial resolution, preferably below 100nm. We propose to increase the monochromaticity of a neutral atom beam by means of a so-called linear monochromator set-up - a Fresnel zone plate in combination with a pinhole aperture - in order to gain more than one order of magnitude in spatial resolution. This configuration is known in X-ray microscopy and has proven to be useful, but has not been applied to neutral atom beams. The main result of this work is optimal design parameters based on models for this linear monochromator set-up followed by a second zone plate for focusing. The optimization was performed for minimizing the focal spot size and maximizing the centre line intensity at the detector position for an atom beam simultaneously. The results presented in this work are for, but not limited to, a neutral helium atom beam. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

REVIEWS OF TOPICAL PROBLEMS: Instabilities of a multicomponent plasma with accelerated particles and magnetic field generation in astrophysical objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bykov, Andrei M.; Toptygin, Igor'N.

2007-02-01

A system of MHD equations for the description of a magnetized nonequilibrium astrophysical plasma with neutral atoms and suprathermal (in particular, relativistic) particles is formulated. The instabilities of such a plasma, which arise from the presence of neutral and relativistic components, are considered. It is shown that the presence of nonthermal particles interacting with the thermal plasma component via regular and fluctuating electromagnetic fields is responsible for the emergence of specific mechanisms of MHD wave generation. The main generation mechanisms of static and turbulent magnetic fields near shock wave fronts in the Galaxy and interplanetary space are analyzed. We discuss the application of the generation effects of long-wave magnetic fluctuations to the problems of magnetic field origin and relativistic particle acceleration in astrophysical objects of various natures.

Overview of the negative ion based neutral beam injectors for ITER

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schunke, B., E-mail: email@none.edu; Boilson, D.; Chareyre, J.

2016-02-15

The ITER baseline foresees 2 Heating Neutral Beams (HNB’s) based on 1 MeV 40 A D{sup −} negative ion accelerators, each capable of delivering 16.7 MW of deuterium atoms to the DT plasma, with an optional 3rd HNB injector foreseen as a possible upgrade. In addition, a dedicated diagnostic neutral beam will be injecting ≈22 A of H{sup 0} at 100 keV as the probe beam for charge exchange recombination spectroscopy. The integration of the injectors into the ITER plant is nearly finished necessitating only refinements. A large number of components have passed the final design stage, manufacturing has started,more » and the essential test beds—for the prototype route chosen—will soon be ready to start.« less

Heliospheric Neutral Atom Spectra Between 0.01 and 6 keV fom IBEX

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fuselier, S. A.; Allegrini, F.; Bzowski, M.; Funsten, H. O.; Ghielmetti, A. G.; Gloeckler, G.; Heirtzler, D.; Janzen, P.; Kubiak, M.; Kucharek, H.;

Artificial electromagnetism for neutral atoms: Escher staircase and Laughlin liquids

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mueller, Erich J.

2004-10-01

We present a method for creating fields that couple to neutral atoms in the same way that electromagnetic fields couple to charged particles. We show that this technique opens the door for a range of neutral atom experiments, including probing the interplay between periodic potentials and quantum Hall effects. Furthermore, we propose, and analyze, seemingly paradoxical geometries which can be engineered through these techniques. For example, we show how to create a ring of sites where an atom continuously reduces its potential energy by moving in a clockwise direction.

An atomic and molecular fluid model for efficient edge-plasma transport simulations at high densities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rognlien, Thomas; Rensink, Marvin

2016-10-01

Transport simulations for the edge plasma of tokamaks and other magnetic fusion devices requires the coupling of plasma and recycling or injected neutral gas. There are various neutral models used for this purpose, e.g., atomic fluid model, a Monte Carlo particle models, transition/escape probability methods, and semi-analytic models. While the Monte Carlo method is generally viewed as the most accurate, it is time consuming, which becomes even more demanding for device simulations of high densities and size typical of fusion power plants because the neutral collisional mean-free path becomes very small. Here we examine the behavior of an extended fluid neutral model for hydrogen that includes both atoms and molecules, which easily includes nonlinear neutral-neutral collision effects. In addition to the strong charge-exchange between hydrogen atoms and ions, elastic scattering is included among all species. Comparisons are made with the DEGAS 2 Monte Carlo code. Work performed for U.S. DoE by LLNL under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.

Warm Breeze due to Charge Exchange Collisions Between Neutral He Atoms and He+ Ions in the Outer Heliosheath.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kubiak, M. A.; Bzowski, M.; Czechowski, A.; Grygorczuk, J.

2017-12-01

We simulated the signal due to neutral He atoms, observed by Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), assuming that charge exchange collisions between neutral He atoms and He+ ions operate everywhere between the heliopause and a distant source region in the local interstellar cloud (LIC). We chose the limiting distance of calculations at 5000 AU, where the neutral and charged components are in thermal equilibrium. From that distance we integrated the signal for test particles that we know they reach the IBEX detector, calculating for each particle the balance of losses and gains in the LIC, the ionization losses inside the HP, and the distribution function at 5000 AU. The resulting statistical weights were integrated over speed, inflow direction, collimator transmission, observation times, and IBEX spin angle bins to simulate the count rate actually observed by IBEX. We simulated several test cases of the plasma flow within the outer heliosheath and investigated the signal generation for plasma flows both in the presence and in the absence of the interstellar magnetic field. We found that a signal in the portion of IBEX data identified as due to the Warm Breeze does not arise when a homogeneous plasma flow in front of the heliopause is assumed. However, it appears immediately when any reasonable disturbance in the plasma flow due to the presence of the heliosphere is assumed. We obtained a good qualitative agreement between the data and the simulations for a model flow with the velocity vector of the unperturbed gas and the direction and intensity of magnetic field adopted from recent determinations. We conclude that direct-sampling observations of neutral He atoms at 1 AU from the Sun are a sensitive tool for investigating the flow of interstellar matter in the outer heliosheath; the Warm Breeze is indeed the secondary population of interstellar helium, as it was hypothesized earlier; the WB signal is consistent with that predicted by comet-like models of the heliosphere with a distortion from axial symmetry by the interstellar magnetic field of 3 microgauss, directed close to the Ribbon direction.

Modeling of Elastic Collisions between High Energy and Slow Neutral Atoms

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-07-01

cylindrical test cell, and the currents on the four different electrodes-Inner Cylinder , Exit Plate, Back Aperture, and Collector Plat~were measured...Inner Cylinder electrode. Nevertheless, the neutral atom current to the Inner Cylinder electrode predicted by the VHS model is comparable to the...Figure 9. Normalized curre nt at the Inner Cylinder e lectrode. the point of collision. T he discrepancy in the Exit Plate neutral atom current is due to

VUV absorption spectroscopy measurements of the role of fast neutral atoms in a high-power gap breakdown

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Filuk, A. B.; Bailey, J. E.; Cuneo, M. E.; Lake, P. W.; Nash, T. J.; Noack, D. D.; Maron, Y.

2000-12-01

The maximum power achieved in a wide variety of high-power devices, including electron and ion diodes, z pinches, and microwave generators, is presently limited by anode-cathode gap breakdown. A frequently discussed hypothesis for this effect is ionization of fast neutral atoms injected throughout the anode-cathode gap during the power pulse. We describe a newly developed diagnostic tool that provides a direct test of this hypothesis. Time-resolved vacuum-ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy is used to directly probe fast neutral atoms with 1-mm spatial resolution in the 10-mm anode-cathode gap of the SABRE 5 MV, 1 TW applied-B ion diode. Absorption spectra collected during Ar RF glow discharges and with CO2 gas fills confirm the reliability of the diagnostic technique. Throughout the 50-100 ns ion diode pulses no measurable neutral absorption was seen, setting upper limits of (0.12-1.5)×1014 cm-3 for ground-state fast neutral atom densities of H, C, N, O, and F. The absence of molecular absorption bands also sets upper limits of (0.16-1.2)×1015 cm-3 for common simple molecules. These limits are low enough to rule out ionization of fast neutral atoms as a breakdown mechanism. Breakdown due to ionization of molecules is also found to be unlikely. This technique can now be applied to quantify the role of neutral atoms in other high-power devices.

Neutral atoms facility for space sensors characterization and BepiColombo/ELENA development instrument's progresses.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Angelis, E.; di Lellis, A. M.; Orsini, S.; Zanza, V.; Maggi, M.; Vertolli, N.; D'Amicis, R.; Tilia, B.; Sibio, A.

2003-04-01

An Energetic Neutral Atoms facility to test and calibrate Neutral Atoms Analyzers has been developed in the Scientific Technical Unit of Fusion at the ENEA Research Center in Frascati (Rome-Italy). In the last years a collaboration with IFSI (Interplanetary Space and Physics Institute, CNR-Rome-Italy) has allowed to use this facility for space sensors and for characterization of crucial instruments elements. The ENA beam is realized with an ion source and a neutralization cell, and allows to test any instrument in the energy range 300eV-110keV with the available masses of Hydrogen, Deuterium or Helium. At the moment, the critical elements of ELENA (Emitted Low Energy Neutral Atoms) instrument proposed for BepiColombo ESA cornerstone mission to Mercury is under development testing. The facility, its potentiality and the instrument characterization progresses are presented.

Neutral atom analyzers for diagnosing hot plasmas: A review of research at the ioffe physicotechnical institute

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kislyakov, A. I.; Petrov, M. P.

2009-07-15

Research on neutral particle diagnostics of thermonuclear plasmas that has been carried out in recent years at the Ioffe Physicotechnical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg, Russia) is reviewed. Work on the creation and improvement of neutral atom analyzers was done in two directions: for potential applications (in particular, on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, which is now under construction at Cadarache in France) and for investigation of the ion plasma component in various devices (in particular, in the largest tokamaks, such as JET, TFTR, and JT-60). Neutral atom analyzers are the main tool for studying themore » behavior of hydrogen ions and isotopes in magnetic confinement systems. They make it possible to determine energy spectra, to perform the isotope analysis of atom fluxes from the plasma, to measure the absolute intensity of the fluxes, and to record how these parameters vary with time. A comparative description of the analyzers developed in recent years at the Ioffe Institute is given. These are ACORD-12/24 analyzers for recording 0.2-100-keV hydrogen and deuterium atoms with a tunable range of simultaneously measured energies, CNPA compact analyzers for a fixed energy gain in the ranges 80-1000 eV and 0.8-100 keV, an ISEP analyzer for simultaneously recording the atoms of all the three hydrogen isotopes (H, D, and T) in the energy range 5-700 keV, and GEMMA analyzers for recording atom fluxes of hydrogen and helium isotopes in the range 0.1-4 MeV. The scintillating detectors of the ISEP and GEMMA analyzers have a lowered sensitivity to neutrons and thus can operate without additional shielding in neutron fields of up to 10{sup 9} n/(cm{sup 2} s). These two types of analyzers, intended to operate under deuterium-tritium plasma conditions, are prototypes of atom analyzers created at the Ioffe Institute for use in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. With these analyzers, a number of new results have been obtained in recent years in various devices. Some results are presented from investigation of ions in the Globus-M spherical tokamak, the W7-AS stellarator, and the JET tokamak by means of the analyzers developed at the Ioffe Institute. Challenges and opportunities for applying these diagnostics in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project are discussed.« less

Adiabatic Quantum Computing with Neutral Atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hankin, Aaron; Biedermann, Grant; Burns, George; Jau, Yuan-Yu; Johnson, Cort; Kemme, Shanalyn; Landahl, Andrew; Mangan, Michael; Parazzoli, L. Paul; Schwindt, Peter; Armstrong, Darrell

2012-06-01

We are developing, both theoretically and experimentally, a neutral atom qubit approach to adiabatic quantum computation. Using our microfabricated diffractive optical elements, we plan to implement an array of optical traps for cesium atoms and use Rydberg-dressed ground states to provide a controlled atom-atom interaction. We will develop this experimental capability to generate a two-qubit adiabatic evolution aimed specifically toward demonstrating the two-qubit quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) routine.

Cosmic Ray Flux in the Presence of a Neutral Background

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilson, Thomas L.; Lodhi, Arfin; Diaz, Abel

2007-01-01

The study of cosmic rays (CRs) is a very mature subject developed around the concept of radiative particle flux phi as a mono-variant function of energy E, that is phi = phi(E). This is based on the notion of the cosmos as being filled with cosmic radiation in the form of a collisionless exosphere of plasma. Neutrals, however, are likewise ubiquitous in space and planetary trapped-radiation belts. It will be shown that in the presence of a neutral background of density rho, flux phi is actually bivariant in energy E and rho, creating a surface phi(E,rho). This is an intrinsic property of charged-particle flux, that flux is not merely a function of E but is dependent upon density rho when a background of neutrals is present. The effect is produced by multiple scattering of charged particles off neutral and ionized atoms along with ionization loss where charged and neutral populations interact. For the harder portion of CR spectra, flux is mono-variant but at nonrelativistic energies (below approx, 350 MeV) it becomes sensitive to the presence of neutral backgrounds. The dependence of phi(E,rho) upon background neutrals is helpful in discussing the anomalous CR (ACR) flux made up of ionized components of the heliospheric neutral atmosphere.

Charge-free method of forming nanostructures on a substrate

DOEpatents

Hoffbauer; Mark , Akhadov; Elshan

2010-07-20

A charge-free method of forming a nanostructure at low temperatures on a substrate. A substrate that is reactive with one of atomic oxygen and nitrogen is provided. A flux of neutral atoms of least one of oxygen and nitrogen is generated within a laser-sustained-discharge plasma source and a collimated beam of energetic neutral atoms and molecules is directed from the plasma source onto a surface of the substrate to form the nanostructure. The energetic neutral atoms and molecules in the beam have an average kinetic energy in a range from about 1 eV to about 5 eV.

Monte Carlo simulation of neutral-beam injection for mirror fusion reactors

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Miller, Ronald Lee

1979-01-01

Computer simulation techniques using the Monte Carlo method have been developed for application to the modeling of neutral-beam intection into mirror-confined plasmas of interest to controlled thermonuclear research. The energetic (10 to 300 keV) neutral-beam particles interact with the target plasma (T i ~ 10 to 100 keV) through electron-atom and ion-atom collisional ionization as well as ion-atom charge-transfer (charge-exchange) collisions to give a fractional trapping of the neutral beam and a loss of charge-transfer-produced neutrals which escape to bombard the reactor first wall. Appropriate interaction cross sections for these processes are calculated for the assumed anisotropic, non-Maxwellian plasma ionmore » phase-space distributions.« less

An atomic model for neutral and singly ionized uranium

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Maceda, E. L.; Miley, G. H.

1979-01-01

A model for the atomic levels above ground state in neutral, U(0), and singly ionized, U(+), uranium is described based on identified atomic transitions. Some 168 states in U(0) and 95 in U(+) are found. A total of 1581 atomic transitions are used to complete this process. Also discussed are the atomic inverse lifetimes and line widths for the radiative transitions as well as the electron collisional cross sections.

A Century of Progress in Molecular Mass Spectrometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McLafferty, Fred W.

2011-07-01

The first mass spectrum of a molecule was measured by J.J. Thomson in 1910. Mass spectrometry (MS) soon became crucial to the study of isotopes and atomic weights and to the development of atomic weapons for World War II. Its notable applications to molecules began with the quantitative analysis of light hydrocarbons during World War II. When I joined the Dow Chemical Company in 1950, MS was not favored by organic chemists. This situation improved only with an increased understanding of gaseous ion chemistry, which was obtained through the use of extensive reference data. Gas chromatography-MS was developed in 1956, and tandem MS was first used a decade later. In neutralization-reionization MS, an unusual, unstable species is prepared by ion-beam neutralization and characterized by reionization. Electrospray ionization of a protein mixture produces its corresponding ionized molecules. In top-down proteomics, ions from an individual component can be mass separated and subjected to collision-activated and electron-capture dissociation to provide extensive sequence information.

VUV absorption spectroscopy measurements of the role of fast neutral atoms in a high-power gap breakdown

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Filuk, A. B.; Bailey, J. E.; Cuneo, M. E.

The maximum power achieved in a wide variety of high-power devices, including electron and ion diodes, z pinches, and microwave generators, is presently limited by anode-cathode gap breakdown. A frequently discussed hypothesis for this effect is ionization of fast neutral atoms injected throughout the anode-cathode gap during the power pulse. We describe a newly developed diagnostic tool that provides a direct test of this hypothesis. Time-resolved vacuum-ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy is used to directly probe fast neutral atoms with 1-mm spatial resolution in the 10-mm anode-cathode gap of the SABRE 5 MV, 1 TW applied-B ion diode. Absorption spectra collected duringmore » Ar RF glow discharges and with CO{sub 2} gas fills confirm the reliability of the diagnostic technique. Throughout the 50--100 ns ion diode pulses no measurable neutral absorption was seen, setting upper limits of (0.12--1.5)x10{sup 14}cm{sup -3} for ground-state fast neutral atom densities of H, C, N, O, and F. The absence of molecular absorption bands also sets upper limits of (0.16--1.2)x10{sup 15}cm{sup -3} for common simple molecules. These limits are low enough to rule out ionization of fast neutral atoms as a breakdown mechanism. Breakdown due to ionization of molecules is also found to be unlikely. This technique can now be applied to quantify the role of neutral atoms in other high-power devices.« less

Behavior of the Position-Spread Tensor in Diatomic Systems.

PubMed

Brea, Oriana; El Khatib, Muammar; Angeli, Celestino; Bendazzoli, Gian Luigi; Evangelisti, Stefano; Leininger, Thierry

2013-12-10

The behavior of the Position-Spread Tensor (Λ) in a series of light diatomic molecules (either neutral or negative ions) is investigated at a Full Configuration Interaction level. This tensor, which is the second moment cumulant of the total position operator, is invariant with respect to molecular translations, while its trace is also rotationally invariant. Moreover, the tensor is additive in the case of noninteracting subsystems and can be seen as an intrinsic property of a molecule. In the present work, it is shown that the longitudinal component of the tensor, Λ∥, which is small for internuclear distances close to the equilibrium, tends to grow if the bond is stretched. A maximum is reached in the region of the bond breaking, then Λ∥ decreases and converges toward the isolated-atom value. The degenerate transversal components, Λ⊥, on the other hand, usually have a monotonic growth toward the atomic value. The Position Spread is extremely sensitive to reorganization of the molecular wave function, and it becomes larger in the case of an increase of the electron mobility, as illustrated by the neutral-ionic avoided crossing in LiF. For these reasons, the Position Spread can be an extremely useful property that characterizes the nature of the wave function in a molecular system.

Copernicus studies of interstellar material in the Perseus II complex. III - The line of sight to Zeta Persei

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Snow, T. P., Jr.

1977-01-01

Ultraviolet spectrophotometric data obtained with Copernicus are used to analyze the distribution, composition, density, temperature, and kinematics of the interstellar material along the line of sight to Zeta Persei. The far-UV extinction curve for the star is evaluated along with the kinematics of the interstellar gas, observations of atomic and molecular hydrogen, curves of growth for neutral and ionized species, atomic abundances and depletions, ionization equilibria, and observations of CO and OH lines. The results show that there are apparently three clouds along the line of sight to Zeta Persei: a main cloud at approximately +13 km/s which contains most of the material and forms all the neutral and molecular lines as well as most of the ionic lines, a second component at +22 km/s which must contribute to the strong UV lines of most ions, and a third component at roughly +2 km/s which gives rise to a strong Si III line at 1206 A. It is also found that the UV extinction curve has a somewhat steep far-UV rise, indicating the presence of a substantial number of small grains, and that about 30% of the hydrogen nuclei over the entire line of sight are in molecular form.

Negative ion productions in high velocity collision between small carbon clusters and Helium atom target

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

M, Chabot; K, Béroff; T, Pino; G, Féraud; N, Dothi; Padellec A, Le; G, Martinet; S, Bouneau; Y, Carpentier

2012-11-01

We measured absolute double capture cross section of Cn+ ions (n=1,5) colliding, at 2.3 and 2.6 a.u velocities, with an Helium target atom and the branching ratios of fragmentation of the so formed electronically excited anions Cn-*. We also measured absolute cross section for the electronic attachment on neutral Cn clusters colliding at same velocities with He atom. This is to our knowledge the first measurement of neutral-neutral charge exchange in high velocity collision.

Comparative surface dynamics of amorphous and semicrystalline polymer films

PubMed Central

Becker, James S.; Brown, Ryan D.; Killelea, Daniel R.; Yuan, Hanqiu; Sibener, S. J.

2011-01-01

The surface dynamics of amorphous and semicrystalline polymer films have been measured using helium atom scattering. Time-of-flight data were collected to resolve the elastic and inelastic scattering components in the diffuse scattering of neutral helium atoms from the surface of a thin poly(ethylene terephthalate) film. Debye–Waller attenuation was observed for both the amorphous and semicrystalline phases of the polymer by recording the decay of elastically scattered helium atoms with increasing surface temperature. Thermal attenuation measurements in the specular scattering geometry yielded perpendicular mean-square displacements of 2.7•10-4 Å2 K-1 and 3.1•10-4 Å2 K-1 for the amorphous and semicrystalline surfaces, respectively. The semicrystalline surface was consistently ∼15% softer than the amorphous across a variety of perpendicular momentum transfers. The Debye–Waller factors were also measured at off-specular angles to characterize the parallel mean-square displacements, which were found to increase by an order of magnitude over the perpendicular mean-square displacements for both surfaces. In contrast to the perpendicular motion, the semicrystalline state was ∼25% stiffer than the amorphous phase in the surface plane. These results were uniquely accessed through low-energy neutral helium atom scattering due to the highly surface-sensitive and nonperturbative nature of these interactions. The goal of tailoring the chemical and physical properties of complex advanced materials requires an improved understanding of interfacial dynamics, information that is obtainable through atomic beam scattering methods. PMID:20713734

Ablation plume structure and dynamics in ambient gas observed by laser-induced fluorescence imaging spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miyabe, M.; Oba, M.; Iimura, H.; Akaoka, K.; Khumaeni, A.; Kato, M.; Wakaida, I.

2015-08-01

The dynamic behavior of an ablation plume in ambient gas has been investigated by laser-induced fluorescence imaging spectroscopy. The second harmonic beam from an Nd:YAG laser (0.5-6 J/cm2) was focused on a sintered oxide pellet or a metal chip of gadolinium. The produced plume was subsequently intersected with a sheet-shaped UV beam from a dye laser so that time-resolved fluorescence images were acquired with an intensified CCD camera at various delay times. The obtained cross-sectional images of the plume indicate that the ablated ground state atoms and ions of gadolinium accumulate in a hemispherical contact layer between the plume and the ambient gas, and a cavity containing a smaller density of ablated species is formed near the center of the plume. At earlier expansion stage, another luminous component also expands in the cavity so that it coalesces into the hemispherical layer. The splitting and coalescence for atomic plume occur later than those for ionic plume. Furthermore, the hemispherical layer of neutral atoms appears later than that of ions; however, the locations of the layers are nearly identical. This coincidence of the appearance locations of the layers strongly suggests that the neutral atoms in the hemispherical layer are produced as a consequence of three-body recombination of ions through collisions with gas atoms. The obtained knowledge regarding plume expansion dynamics and detailed plume structure is useful for optimizing the experimental conditions for ablation-based spectroscopic analysis.

Remote Sensing of Icy Galilean Moon Surface and Atmospheric Composition Using Low Energy (1 eV-4 keV) Neutral Atom Imaging

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Collier, M. R.; Sittler, E.; Chornay, D.; Cooper, J. F.; Coplan, M.; Johnson, R. E.

2004-01-01

We describe a low energy neutral atom imager suitable for composition measurements Europa and other icy Galilean moons in the Jovian magnetosphere. This instrument employs conversion surface technology and is sensitive to either neutrals converted to negative ions, neutrals converted to positive ions and the positive ions themselves depending on the power supply. On a mission such as the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO), two back-to-back sensors would be flown with separate power supplies fitted to the neutral atom and iodneutral atom sides. This will allow both remote imaging of 1 eV < E < 4 keV neutrals from icy moon surfaces and atmospheres, and in situ measurements of ions at similar energies in the moon ionospheres and Jovian magnetospheric plasma. The instrument provides composition measurements of the neutrals and ions that enter the spectrometer with a mass resolution dependent on the time-of-flight subsystem and capable of resolving molecules. The lower energy neutrals, up to tens of eV, arise from atoms and molecules sputtered off the moon surfaces and out of the moon atmospheres by impacts of more energetic (keV to MeV) ions from the magnetosphere. Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) models are used to convert measured neutral abundances to compositional distributions of primary and trace species in the sputtered surfaces and atmospheres. The escaping neutrals can also be detected as ions after photo- or plasma-ionization and pickup. Higher energy, keV neutrals come from charge exchange of magnetospheric ions in the moon atmospheres and provide information on atmospheric structure. At the jovicentric orbits of the icy moons the presence of toroidal gas clouds, as detected at Europa's orbit, provide M e r opportunities to analyze both the composition of neutrals and ions originating from the moon surfaces, and the characteristics of magnetospheric ions interacting with neutral cloud material. Charge exchange of low energy ions near the moons, and directional distributions of the resultant neutrals, allow indirect global mapping of magnetic field structures around the moons. Temporal variation of the magnetic structures can be linked to induced magnetic fields associated with subsurface oceans.

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRAPPING IONS IN A MAGNETIC FIELD

DOEpatents

Luce, J.S.

1962-04-17

A method and apparatus are described for trapping ions within an evacuated container and within a magnetic field utilizing dissociation and/or ionization of molecular ions to form atomic ions and energetic neutral particles. The atomic ions are magnetically trapped as a result of a change of charge-to- mass ratio. The molecular ions are injected into the container and into the path of an energetic carbon arc discharge which dissociates and/or ionizes a portion of the molecular ions into atomic ions and energetic neutrals. The resulting atomic ions are trapped by the magnetic field to form a circulating beam of atomic ions, and the energetic neutrals pass out of the system and may be utilized in a particle accelerator. (AEC)

Charge-free low-temperature method of forming thin film-based nanoscale materials and structures on a substrate

DOEpatents

Hoffbauer, Mark [Los Alamos, NM; Mueller, Alex [Santa Fe, NM

2008-07-01

A method of forming a nanostructure at low temperatures. A substrate that is reactive with one of atomic oxygen and nitrogen is provided. A flux of neutral atoms of at least one of nitrogen and oxygen is generated within a laser-sustained-discharge plasma source and a collimated beam of energetic neutral atoms and molecules is directed from the plasma source onto a surface of the substrate to form the nanostructure. The energetic neutral atoms and molecules in the plasma have an average kinetic energy in a range from about 1 eV to about 5 eV.

Efficient Means of Detecting Neutral Atoms in Space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zinicola, W. N.

2006-12-01

This summer, The Society of Physics Students granted me the opportunity to participate in an internship for The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and The University of Maryland. Our chief interest was analyzing low energy neutral atoms that were created from random interactions of ions in space plasma. From detecting these neutrals one can project a image of what the plasma's composition is, and how this plasma changes through interactions with the solar wind. Presently, low energy neutral atom detectors have poor efficiency, typically in the range of 1%. Our goal was to increase this efficiency. To detect low energy neutrals we must first convert them from neutral molecules to negatively charged ions. Once converted, these "new" negatively charged ions can be easily detected and completely analyzed giving us information about their energy, mass, and instantaneous direction. The efficiency of the detector is drastically affected by the surface used for converting these neutrals. My job was first to create thin metal conversion surfaces. Then, using an X-ray photoelectron spectrometer, analyze atomic surface composition and gather work function values. Once the work function values were known we placed the surfaces in our neutral detector and measured their conversion efficiencies. Finally, a relation between the work function of the metal surface an its conversion efficiency was generated. With this relationship accurately measured one could use this information to help give suggestions on what surface would be the best to increase our detection efficiency. If we could increase the efficiency of these low energy neutral atom detectors by even 1% we would be able to decrease the size of the detector therefore making it cheaper and more applicable for space exploration.* * A special thanks to Dr. Michael Coplan of the University of Maryland for his support and guidance through all my research.

On the Lamb shift in neutral muonic helium

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amusia, Miron; Karshenboim, Savely; Ivanov, Vladimir

2015-05-01

The neutral muonic helium is an exotic atomic system consisting of an electron, muon and a nucleus. We consider it as a hydrogen-like atom with a compound nucleus that is also hydrogen-like system. There are a number of corrections to the Bohr energy levels, which all can be treated as contributions of generic hydrogen-like theory. While the form of those contributions is the same for all hydrogen-like atoms, their relative numerical importance differs from an atom to an atom. Here, the leading contribution to the electronic Lamb shift in the neutral muonic helium is found in a close analytic form together with the most important corrections. We believe that the Lamb shift in the neutral muonic hydrogen is measurable, at least through a measurement of the electronic 1 s - 2 s transition. We present a theoretical prediction for the 1 s - 2 s transitions with the uncertainty of 2 ppm (4 GHz), as well as for the 2 s - 2 p Lamb shift with the uncertainty of 0.6 GHz.

Comparing the Atmospheric Losses at Io and Europa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dols, V. J.; Bagenal, F.; Crary, F. J.; Cassidy, T.

2017-12-01

At Io and Europa, the interaction of the Jovian plasma with the moon atmosphere leads to a significant loss of atomic/molecular neutrals and ions to space. The processes that lead to atmospheric escape are diverse: atmospheric sputtering, molecular dissociation, molecular ion recombination, Jeans escape etc. Each process leads to neutrals escaping at different velocities (i.e. electron impact dissociation leads to very slow atomic neutrals, sputtering might eject faster molecular neutrals). Some neutrals will be ejected out of the Jovian system; others will form extended neutral clouds along the orbit of the moons. These atomic/molecular extended neutral clouds are probably the main source of plasma for the Jovian magnetosphere. They are difficult to observe directly thus their composition and density are still poorly constrained. A future modeling of the formation of these extended clouds requires an estimate of their atmospheric sources. We estimate the atmospheric losses at Io and Europa for each loss process with a multi-species chemistry model, using a prescribed atmospheric distribution consistent with the observations. We compare the neutral losses at Io and Europa.

Synthetic NPA diagnostic for energetic particles in JET plasmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Varje, J.; Sirén, P.; Weisen, H.; Kurki-Suonio, T.; Äkäslompolo, S.; contributors, JET

2017-11-01

Neutral particle analysis (NPA) is one of the few methods for diagnosing fast ions inside a plasma by measuring neutral atom fluxes emitted due to charge exchange reactions. The JET tokamak features an NPA diagnostic which measures neutral atom fluxes and energy spectra simultaneously for hydrogen, deuterium and tritium species. A synthetic NPA diagnostic has been developed and used to interpret these measurements to diagnose energetic particles in JET plasmas with neutral beam injection (NBI) heating. The synthetic NPA diagnostic performs a Monte Carlo calculation of the neutral atom fluxes in a realistic geometry. The 4D fast ion distributions, representing NBI ions, were simulated using the Monte Carlo orbit-following code ASCOT. Neutral atom density profiles were calculated using the FRANTIC neutral code in the JINTRAC modelling suite. Additionally, for rapid analysis, a scan of neutral profiles was precalculated with FRANTIC for a range of typical plasma parameters. These were taken from the JETPEAK database, which includes a comprehensive set of data from the flat-top phases of nearly all discharges in recent JET campaigns. The synthetic diagnostic was applied to various JET plasmas in the recent hydrogen campaign where different hydrogen/deuterium mixtures and NBI configurations were used. The simulated neutral fluxes from the fast ion distributions were found to agree with the measured fluxes, reproducing the slowing-down profiles for different beam isotopes and energies and quantitatively estimating the fraction of hydrogen and deuterium fast ions.

A Penning discharge as a dc source for multiply ionized atoms.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rainer, Kling; Manfred, Kock

1997-10-01

We report upon a specially designed Penning discharge which has been further developed from a source published by Finley et al.(Finley, D. S., Bowyer, S., Paresce, F., Malina, R. F.: Appl. Opt. 18) (1979) 649 towards a radiation standard for the XUV.(Heise, C., Hollandt, J., Kling, R., Kock, M., Kuehne, M.: Appl. Opt. 33) (1994) 5111 The discharge stands out for low buffer gas pressure, high electric power input and a strong superimposed magnetic field. That leads to intense sputtering of the cathodes which can be made of nearly any material. The efficient excitation and ionization of the sputtered atoms permit spectroscopy on multiply ionized spezies. W III and Fe III spectra will be given as examples. We also will present kinetic temperatures of the nonthermal plasma showing that the ionic component is decoupled from the cold neutral gas component.

Drug Distribution. Part 1. Models to Predict Membrane Partitioning.

PubMed

Nagar, Swati; Korzekwa, Ken

2017-03-01

Tissue partitioning is an important component of drug distribution and half-life. Protein binding and lipid partitioning together determine drug distribution. Two structure-based models to predict partitioning into microsomal membranes are presented. An orientation-based model was developed using a membrane template and atom-based relative free energy functions to select drug conformations and orientations for neutral and basic drugs. The resulting model predicts the correct membrane positions for nine compounds tested, and predicts the membrane partitioning for n = 67 drugs with an average fold-error of 2.4. Next, a more facile descriptor-based model was developed for acids, neutrals and bases. This model considers the partitioning of neutral and ionized species at equilibrium, and can predict membrane partitioning with an average fold-error of 2.0 (n = 92 drugs). Together these models suggest that drug orientation is important for membrane partitioning and that membrane partitioning can be well predicted from physicochemical properties.

A new way to measure the composition of the interstellar gas surrounding the heliosphere

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gruntman, Michael A.

1993-01-01

The composition of neutral gas in the Local Interstellar Medium can be studied by direct, in situ measuring of interstellar neutral atoms penetrating into interplanetary space. A novel experimental approach for in situ atom detection, which has never been used earlier in space, is proposed. The technique is based on the conversion of neutral atoms to negative ions at a specially prepared sensitive surface. Negative ions are subsequently analyzed and detected in an essentially noise-free, multicoincidence mode. It is shown that interstellar hydrogen, deuterium, and oxygen atoms can be measured by the proposed technique. The experiment can be performed from a high-apogee Earth-orbiting satellite or from a deep space probe.

A new approach to entangling neutral atoms.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lee, Jongmin; Martin, Michael J.; Jau, Yuan-Yu

2016-11-01

Our team has developed a new approach to entangling neutral atoms with a Rydberg-dressed interaction. Entangling neutral atoms is an essential key of quantum technologies such as quantum computation, many-body quantum simulation, and high-precision atomic sensors . The demonstrated Rydberg-dressed protocol involves adiabatically imposing a light shift on the ground state by coupling an excited Rydberg state with a tuned laser field. Using this technique, we have demonstrated a strong and tunable dipole - dipole interaction between two individually trapped atoms with energy shifts of order 1 MHz, which has been challenging to achieve in other protocols . During thismore » program, we experimentally demonstrated Bell-state entanglement and the isomorphism to the Jaynes - Cumming model of a Rydberg-dressed two-atom system. Our theoretical calculations of a CPHASE quantum logic gate and arbitrary Dicke state quantum control in this system encourage further work.« less

Energetic Neutral Atom (ENA) Imaging of Mercury's Magnetosphere Onboard BepiColombo

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barabash, S.; Wieser, M.; Futaana, Y.; Holmström, M.; Asamura, K.; Saito, Y.; Wurz, P.

2018-05-01

We describe how energetic neutral atoms (ENA) are produced in Mercury’s magnetosphere, how they can be used to image the magnetosphere and surface, and how they are measured onboard the BepiColombo mission.

Optical beams with embedded vortices: building blocks for atom optics and quantum information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chattrapiban, N.; Arakelyan, I.; Mitra, S.; Hill, W. T., III

2006-05-01

Laser beams with embedded vortices, Bessel or Laguerre-Gaussian modes, provide a unique opportunity for creating elements for atom optics, entangling photons and, potentially, mediating novel quantum interconnects between photons and matter. High-order Bessel modes, for example, contain intensity voids and propagate nearly diffraction-free for tens of meters. These vortices can be exploited to produce dark channels oriented longitudinally (hollow beams) or transversely to the laser propagation direction. Such channels are ideal for generating networks or circuits to guide and manipulate cold neutral atoms, an essential requirement for realizing future applications associated with atom interferometry, atom lithography and even some neutral atom-based quantum computing architectures. Recently, we divided a thermal cloud of neutral atoms moving within a blue-detuned beam into two clouds with two different momenta by crossing two hollow beams. In this presentation, we will describe these results and discuss the prospects for extending the process to coherent ensembles of matter.

Photoionization of the valence shells of the neutral tungsten atom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ballance, C. P.; McLaughlin, B. M.

2015-04-01

Results from large-scale theoretical cross section calculations for the total photoionization (PI) of the 4f, 5s, 5p and 6s orbitals of the neutral tungsten atom using the Dirac Coulomb R-matrix approximation (DARC: Dirac-atomic R-matrix codes) are presented. Comparisons are made with previous theoretical methods and prior experimental measurements. In previous experiments a time-resolved dual laser approach was employed for the photo-absorption of metal vapours and photo-absorption measurements on tungsten in a solid, using synchrotron radiation. The lowest ground state level of neutral tungsten is 5{{p}6}5{{d}4}6{{s}2}{{ }5}{{D}J}, with J = 0, and requires only a single dipole matrix for PI. To make a meaningful comparison with existing experimental measurements, we statistically average the large-scale theoretical PI cross sections from the levels associated with the ground state 5{{p}6}5{{d}4}6{{s}2}{{ }5}{{D}J} (J = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4) levels and the 5{{d}5}6{{s} 7}{{S}3} excited metastable level. As the experiments have a self-evident metastable component in their ground state measurement, averaging over the initial levels allows for a more consistent and realistic comparison to be made. In the wider context, the absence of many detailed electron-impact excitation (EIE) experiments for tungsten and its multi-charged ion stages allows current PI measurements and theory to provide a road-map for future EIE, ionization and di-electronic cross section calculations by identifying the dominant resonance structure and features across an energy range of hundreds of eV.

Studies for the Loss of Atomic and Molecular Species from Io

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smyth, William H.

1998-01-01

Updated neutral emission rates for electron impact excitation of atomic oxygen and sulfur based upon the Collisional Radiative Equilibrium (COREQ) model have been incorporated in the neutral cloud models. An empirical model for the Io plasma torus wake has also been added in the neutral cloud model to describe important enhancements in the neutral emission rates and lifetime rates in this spatial region. New insights into Io's atmosphere and its interaction with the plasma torus are discussed. These insights are based upon an initial comparison of simultaneous lo observations on October 14, 1997, for [0I] 6300 Angstrom emissions acquired by groundbased facilities and several ultraviolet emissions acquired by HST/STIS in the form of high-spatial- resolution images for atomic oxygen and sulfur.

Atomic and Molecular Spectroscopic Studies of the DIII-D Neutral Beam Ion Source and Neutralizer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crowley, B.; Rauch, J.; Scoville, J. T.; Sharma, S. K.; Choksi, B.

2015-11-01

The neutral beam system is interesting in that it comprises two distinct low temperature plasmas. Firstly, the ion source is typically a filament or RF driven plasma from which ions are extracted by a high voltage accelerator grid system. Secondly the neutralizer is essentially a low temperature plasma system with the beam serving as the primary ionization source and the neutralizer walls serving as conducting boundaries. Atomic spectroscopy of Doppler shifted D-alpha light emanating from the fast atoms is studied to determine the composition of the source and the divergence of the beam. Molecular spectroscopy involves measuring fine structure in electron-vibrational rotational bands. The technique has applications in low temperature plasmas and here it is used to determine gas temperature in the neutralizer. We describe the experimental set-up and the physics model used to relate the spectroscopic data to the plasma parameters and we present results of recent experiments exploring how to increase neutralization efficiency. Supported by the US DOE under DE-FC02-04ER54698.

Anisotropic solvent model of the lipid bilayer. 1. Parameterization of long-range electrostatics and first solvation shell effects.

PubMed

Lomize, Andrei L; Pogozheva, Irina D; Mosberg, Henry I

2011-04-25

A new implicit solvation model was developed for calculating free energies of transfer of molecules from water to any solvent with defined bulk properties. The transfer energy was calculated as a sum of the first solvation shell energy and the long-range electrostatic contribution. The first term was proportional to solvent accessible surface area and solvation parameters (σ(i)) for different atom types. The electrostatic term was computed as a product of group dipole moments and dipolar solvation parameter (η) for neutral molecules or using a modified Born equation for ions. The regression coefficients in linear dependencies of solvation parameters σ(i) and η on dielectric constant, solvatochromic polarizability parameter π*, and hydrogen-bonding donor and acceptor capacities of solvents were optimized using 1269 experimental transfer energies from 19 organic solvents to water. The root-mean-square errors for neutral compounds and ions were 0.82 and 1.61 kcal/mol, respectively. Quantification of energy components demonstrates the dominant roles of hydrophobic effect for nonpolar atoms and of hydrogen-bonding for polar atoms. The estimated first solvation shell energy outweighs the long-range electrostatics for most compounds including ions. The simplicity and computational efficiency of the model allows its application for modeling of macromolecules in anisotropic environments, such as biological membranes.

Lamb shift of electronic states in neutral muonic helium, an electron-muon-nucleus system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karshenboim, Savely G.; Ivanov, Vladimir G.; Amusia, Miron

2015-03-01

Neutral muonic helium is an exotic atomic system consisting of an electron, a muon, and a nucleus. Being a three-body system, it possesses a clear hierarchy. This allows us to consider it as a hydrogenlike atom with a compound nucleus, which is, in turn, another hydrogenlike system. There are a number of corrections to the Bohr energy levels, all of which can be treated as contributions of generic hydrogenlike theory. While the form of those contributions is the same for all hydrogenlike atoms, their relative numerical importance differs from atom to atom. Here, the leading contribution to the (electronic) Lamb shift in neutral muonic helium is found in a closed analytic form together with the most important corrections. We believe that the Lamb shift in neutral muonic hydrogen is measurable, at least through a measurement of the (electronic) 1 s -2 s transition. We present a theoretical prediction for the 1 s -2 s transitions with an uncertainty of 3 ppm (9 GHz ), as well as for the 2 s -2 p Lamb shift with an uncertainty of 1.3 GHz .

Density functional study of structural and electronic properties of bimetallic silver-gold clusters: Comparison with pure gold and silver clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bonacic-Koutecky, Vlasta; Burda, Jaroslav; Mitric, Roland; Ge, Maofa; Zampella, Giuseppe; Fantucci, Piercarlo

2002-08-01

Bimetallic silver-gold clusters offer an excellent opportunity to study changes in metallic versus "ionic" properties involving charge transfer as a function of the size and the composition, particularly when compared to pure silver and gold clusters. We have determined structures, ionization potentials, and vertical detachment energies for neutral and charged bimetallic AgmAun 3[less-than-or-equal](m+n)[less-than-or-equal]5 clusters. Calculated VDE values compare well with available experimental data. In the stable structures of these clusters Au atoms assume positions which favor the charge transfer from Ag atoms. Heteronuclear bonding is usually preferred to homonuclear bonding in clusters with equal numbers of hetero atoms. In fact, stable structures of neutral Ag2Au2, Ag3Au3, and Ag4Au4 clusters are characterized by the maximum number of hetero bonds and peripheral positions of Au atoms. Bimetallic tetramer as well as hexamer are planar and have common structural properties with corresponding one-component systems, while Ag4Au4 and Ag8 have 3D forms in contrast to Au8 which assumes planar structure. At the density functional level of theory we have shown that this is due to participation of d electrons in bonding of pure Aun clusters while s electrons dominate bonding in pure Agm as well as in bimetallic clusters. In fact, Aun clusters remain planar for larger sizes than Agm and AgnAun clusters. Segregation between two components in bimetallic systems is not favorable, as shown in the example of Ag5Au5 cluster. We have found that the structures of bimetallic clusters with 20 atoms Ag10Au10 and Ag12Au8 are characterized by negatively charged Au subunits embedded in Ag environment. In the latter case, the shape of Au8 is related to a pentagonal bipyramid capped by one atom and contains three exposed negatively charged Au atoms. They might be suitable for activating reactions relevant to catalysis. According to our findings the charge transfer in bimetallic clusters is responsible for formation of negatively charged gold subunits which are expected to be reactive, a situation similar to that of gold clusters supported on metal oxides.

VUV absorption spectroscopy measurements of the role of fast neutral atoms in high-power gap breakdown

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

FILUK,A.B.; BAILEY,JAMES E.; CUNEO,MICHAEL E.

The maximum power achieved in a wide variety of high-power devices, including electron and ion diodes, z pinches, and microwave generators, is presently limited by anode-cathode gap breakdown. A frequently-discussed hypothesis for this effect is ionization of fast neutral atoms injected throughout the anode-cathode gap during the power pulse. The authors describe a newly-developed diagnostic tool that provides the first direct test of this hypothesis. Time-resolved vacuum-ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy is used to directly probe fast neutral atoms with 1 mm spatial resolution in the 10 mm anode-cathode gap of the SABRE 5 MV, 1 TW applied-B ion diode. Absorption spectramore » collected during Ar RF glow discharges and with CO{sub 2} gas fills confirm the reliability of the diagnostic technique. Throughout the 50--100 ns ion diode pulses no measurable neutral absorption is seen, setting upper limits of 0.12--1.5 x 10{sup 14} cm{sup {minus}3} for ground state fast neutral atom densities of H, C, N, O, F. The absence of molecular absorption bands also sets upper limits of 0.16--1.2 x 10{sup 15} cm{sup {minus}3} for common simple molecules. These limits are low enough to rule out ionization throughout the gap as a breakdown mechanism. This technique can now be applied to quantify the role of neutral atoms in other high-power devices.« less

Investigation of diamond-like carbon samples as a charge state conversion surface for neutral atom imaging detectors in space applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brigitte Neuland, Maike; Riedo, Andreas; Scheer, Jürgen; Wurz, Peter

2014-05-01

The detection of energetic neutral atoms is a substantial requirement on every space mission mapping particle populations of a planetary magnetosphere or plasma of the interstellar medium. For imaging neutrals, these first have to be ionized. Regarding the constraints of weight, volume and power consumption, the technique of surface ionization complies with all specifications of a space mission. Particularly low energy neutral atoms, which cannot be ionized by passing through a foil, are ionized by scattering on a charge state conversion surface. Since more than 30 years intense research work is done to find suitable materials for use as charge state conversion surfaces. Crucial parameters are the ionisation efficiency of the surface material and the scattering properties. Against all expectations, insulators showed very promising characteristics for serving as conversion surfaces. Particularly diamond-like carbon was proven advantageously: While efficiently ionising incoming neutral atoms, diamond stands out by its durability and chemical inertness. In the IBEX-Lo sensor, a diamond-like carbon surface is used for ionisation of neutral atoms. Energy resolved maps of neutral atoms from the IBEX mission revealed phenomena of the interaction between heliosphere and local interstellar medium (LISM) that demand for new theory and explanations [McComas et al., 2011]. Building on the successes of the IBEX mission, a follow up mission concept to further explore the boundaries of the heliosphere already exists. The Interstellar MApping Probe (IMAP) is planned to map neutral atoms in a larger energy range and with a distinct better angular resolution and sensitivity than IBEX [McComas et al.]. The aspired performance of the IMAP sensors implies also for charge state conversion surfaces with improved characteristics. We investigated samples of diamond-like carbon, manufactured by the chemical vapour and pulsed laser deposition method, regarding their ionisation efficiency, scattering and reflexion properties. Experiments were carried out at the ILENA facility [Wahlström et al., 2013] with hydrogen and oxygen atoms, which are the species of main interest in magnetospheric research [Wurz et al., 1997]. Results of very narrow scattering cones and sufficient ionisation efficiency show that diamond-like carbon still is the preferred material for charge state conversion surfaces. But our measurements show that new surface technologies offer improved diamond conversion surfaces with different properties and hence the possibility for improvement of the performance of neutral atom imaging instruments. References: [McComas et al., 2011] D.J. McComas, H.O. Funsten, S.A. Fuselier, W.S. Lewis, E. Möbius and N.A. Schwadron, IBEX observations of Heliospheric energetic neutral atoms: Current understanding and future directions, Geophys. Res. Lett. 38, L18101, 2011 [McComas et al.] Interstellar Mapping Probe (IMAP) mission concept: Illuminating the dark boundaries at the edge of our solar system, decadal survey white paper [Wahlström et al., 2013] P. Wahlström, J.A. Scheer, A. Riedo, P. Wurz and M. Wieser, J. Spacecr. Rockets 50 (2), 402-410 [Wurz et al., 1997] P. Wurz, R. Schletti, M.R. Aellig, Hydrogen and oxygen negative ion production by surface ionization using diamond surfaces, Surf. Sci. 373, 56-66, 1997.

Hyperfine structure measurements of neutral iodine atom (127I) using Fourier Transform Spectrometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ashok, Chilukoti; Vishwakarma, S. R.; Bhatt, Himal; Ankush, B. K.; Deo, M. N.

2018-01-01

We report the hyperfine Structure (hfs) splitting observations of neutral iodine atom (II) in the 6000 - 10,000 cm-1 near infrared spectral region. The measurements were carried out using a high-resolution Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS), where an electrodeless discharge lamp (EDL), excited using microwaves, was employed as the light source and InGaAs as the light detector. A specially designed setup was used to lower the plasma temperature of the medium so as to reduce the Doppler width and consequently to increase the spectral resolution of hfs components. A total of 183 lines with hfs splitting have been observed, out of which hfs in 53 spectral lines are reported for the first time. On the basis of hfs analysis, we derived the magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole coupling constants, A and B respectively for 30 even and 30 odd energy levels and are compared with the values available in the literature. New hfs values for 5 even and 4 odd levels are also reported here for the first time.

The eXtra Small Analyzer for Neutrals (XSAN) instrument on-board of the Lunar-Glob lander

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wieser, Martin; Barabash, Stas

A large fraction of up to 20 precent of the solar wind impinging onto the lunar surface is reflected back to space as energetic neutral atoms. The SARA instrument on the Chandrayaan-1 mission provided a comprehensive coverage of the lunar surface of this interaction by mapping it from a 100 - 200 km orbit. The micro-physics of this reflection process is unexplored however. With the eXtra Small Analyzer for Neutrals instrument (XSAN) placed on the Lunar-Glob lander, we will directly investigate the production process of energetic neutral atoms from a vantage point of only meters from the surface for the first time. The XSAN design is based on the Solar Wind Monitor (SWIM) family of instruments originally flown on the Indian Chandrayaan-1 mission and with derivatives built e.g. for ESA's BepiColombo Mission to Mercury or for Phobos-Grunt. XSAN extends the functionality of this instrument family by adding a neutral atom to ion conversion surface in its entrance system. This will make it possible to measure detailed energy spectra and mass composition of the energetic neutral atoms originating from the lunar surface. We present an overview of the XSAN instrument and its science and report on latest developments.

Characterization of a 5-eV neutral atomic oxygen beam facility

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vaughn, J. A.; Linton, R. C.; Carruth, M. R., Jr.; Whitaker, A. F.; Cuthbertson, J. W.; Langer, W. D.; Motley, R. W.

1991-01-01

An experimental effort to characterize an existing 5-eV neutral atomic oxygen beam facility being developed at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory is described. This characterization effort includes atomic oxygen flux and flux distribution measurements using a catalytic probe, energy determination using a commercially designed quadrupole mass spectrometer (QMS), and the exposure of oxygen-sensitive materials in this beam facility. Also, comparisons were drawn between the reaction efficiencies of materials exposed in plasma ashers, and the reaction efficiencies previously estimated from space flight experiments. The results of this study show that the beam facility is capable of producing a directional beam of neutral atomic oxygen atoms with the needed flux and energy to simulate low Earth orbit (LEO) conditions for real time accelerated testing. The flux distribution in this facility is uniform to +/- 6 percent of the peak flux over a beam diameter of 6 cm.

Turbomolecular Pumps for Holding Gases in Open Containers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Keller, John W.; Lorenz, John E.

2010-01-01

Proposed special-purpose turbomolecular pumps denoted turbotraps would be designed, along with mating open containers, to prevent the escape of relatively slowly (thermal) moving gas molecules from the containers while allowing atoms moving at much greater speeds to pass through. In the original intended applications, the containers would be electron-attachment cells, and the contained gases would be vapors of alkali metal atoms moving at thermal speeds that would be of the order of a fraction of 300 meters per second. These cells would be parts of apparatuses used to measure fluxes of neutral atoms incident at kinetic energies in the approximate range of 10 eV to 10 keV (corresponding to typical speeds of the order of 40,000 m/s and higher). The incident energetic neutral atoms would pass through the cells, wherein charge-exchange reactions with the alkali metal atoms would convert the neutral atoms to negative ions, which, in turn, could then be analyzed by use of conventional charged-particle optics.

Characterizations of SiN and AlN microfabricated waveguides for evanescent-field atom-trap applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Jongmin; Eichenfield, Matt; Douglas, Erica; Mudrick, John; Biedermann, Grant; Jau, Yuan-Yu

2017-04-01

Trapping neutral atoms in the evanescent fields generated by microfabricated nano-waveguides will provide a new platform for neutral atom quantum controls via strong atom-photon interactions. At Sandia National Labs, we are aiming at developing the related technology that can enable the efficient optical coupling to the waveguide at multiple wavelengths, fabrication nano-waveguides to handle required optical power, more robust waveguide structure, and the new fabrication geometry to facilitate the cold-atom experiments. We will report our latest results on the related subjects. Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185, USA.

Universal solvation model based on solute electron density and on a continuum model of the solvent defined by the bulk dielectric constant and atomic surface tensions.

PubMed

Marenich, Aleksandr V; Cramer, Christopher J; Truhlar, Donald G

2009-05-07

We present a new continuum solvation model based on the quantum mechanical charge density of a solute molecule interacting with a continuum description of the solvent. The model is called SMD, where the "D" stands for "density" to denote that the full solute electron density is used without defining partial atomic charges. "Continuum" denotes that the solvent is not represented explicitly but rather as a dielectric medium with surface tension at the solute-solvent boundary. SMD is a universal solvation model, where "universal" denotes its applicability to any charged or uncharged solute in any solvent or liquid medium for which a few key descriptors are known (in particular, dielectric constant, refractive index, bulk surface tension, and acidity and basicity parameters). The model separates the observable solvation free energy into two main components. The first component is the bulk electrostatic contribution arising from a self-consistent reaction field treatment that involves the solution of the nonhomogeneous Poisson equation for electrostatics in terms of the integral-equation-formalism polarizable continuum model (IEF-PCM). The cavities for the bulk electrostatic calculation are defined by superpositions of nuclear-centered spheres. The second component is called the cavity-dispersion-solvent-structure term and is the contribution arising from short-range interactions between the solute and solvent molecules in the first solvation shell. This contribution is a sum of terms that are proportional (with geometry-dependent proportionality constants called atomic surface tensions) to the solvent-accessible surface areas of the individual atoms of the solute. The SMD model has been parametrized with a training set of 2821 solvation data including 112 aqueous ionic solvation free energies, 220 solvation free energies for 166 ions in acetonitrile, methanol, and dimethyl sulfoxide, 2346 solvation free energies for 318 neutral solutes in 91 solvents (90 nonaqueous organic solvents and water), and 143 transfer free energies for 93 neutral solutes between water and 15 organic solvents. The elements present in the solutes are H, C, N, O, F, Si, P, S, Cl, and Br. The SMD model employs a single set of parameters (intrinsic atomic Coulomb radii and atomic surface tension coefficients) optimized over six electronic structure methods: M05-2X/MIDI!6D, M05-2X/6-31G, M05-2X/6-31+G, M05-2X/cc-pVTZ, B3LYP/6-31G, and HF/6-31G. Although the SMD model has been parametrized using the IEF-PCM protocol for bulk electrostatics, it may also be employed with other algorithms for solving the nonhomogeneous Poisson equation for continuum solvation calculations in which the solute is represented by its electron density in real space. This includes, for example, the conductor-like screening algorithm. With the 6-31G basis set, the SMD model achieves mean unsigned errors of 0.6-1.0 kcal/mol in the solvation free energies of tested neutrals and mean unsigned errors of 4 kcal/mol on average for ions with either Gaussian03 or GAMESS.

Universal Solvation Model Based on Solute Electron Density and on a Continuum Model of the Solvent Defined by the Bulk Dielectric Constant and Atomic Surface Tensions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Marenich, Aleksandr; Cramer, Christopher J; Truhlar, Donald G

2009-04-30

We present a new continuum solvation model based on the quantum mechanical charge density of a solute molecule interacting with a continuum description of the solvent. The model is called SMD, where the “D” stands for “density” to denote that the full solute electron density is used without defining partial atomic charges. “Continuum” denotes that the solvent is not represented explicitly but rather as a dielectric medium with surface tension at the solute-solvent boundary. SMD is a universal solvation model, where “universal” denotes its applicability to any charged or uncharged solute in any solvent or liquid medium for which amore » few key descriptors are known (in particular, dielectric constant, refractive index, bulk surface tension, and acidity and basicity parameters). The model separates the observable solvation free energy into two main components. The first component is the bulk electrostatic contribution arising from a self-consistent reaction field treatment that involves the solution of the nonhomogeneous Poisson equation for electrostatics in terms of the integral-equation-formalism polarizable continuum model (IEF-PCM). The cavities for the bulk electrostatic calculation are defined by superpositions of nuclear-centered spheres. The second component is called the cavity-dispersion-solvent-structure term and is the contribution arising from short-range interactions between the solute and solvent molecules in the first solvation shell. This contribution is a sum of terms that are proportional (with geometry-dependent proportionality constants called atomic surface tensions) to the solvent-accessible surface areas of the individual atoms of the solute. The SMD model has been parametrized with a training set of 2821 solvation data including 112 aqueous ionic solvation free energies, 220 solvation free energies for 166 ions in acetonitrile, methanol, and dimethyl sulfoxide, 2346 solvation free energies for 318 neutral solutes in 91 solvents (90 nonaqueous organic solvents and water), and 143 transfer free energies for 93 neutral solutes between water and 15 organic solvents. The elements present in the solutes are H, C, N, O, F, Si, P, S, Cl, and Br. The SMD model employs a single set of parameters (intrinsic atomic Coulomb radii and atomic surface tension coefficients) optimized over six electronic structure methods: M05-2X/MIDI!6D, M05-2X/6-31G*, M05-2X/6-31+G**, M05-2X/cc-pVTZ, B3LYP/6-31G*, and HF/6-31G*. Although the SMD model has been parametrized using the IEF-PCM protocol for bulk electrostatics, it may also be employed with other algorithms for solving the nonhomogeneous Poisson equation for continuum solvation calculations in which the solute is represented by its electron density in real space. This includes, for example, the conductor-like screening algorithm. With the 6-31G* basis set, the SMD model achieves mean unsigned errors of 0.6-1.0 kcal/mol in the solvation free energies of tested neutrals and mean unsigned errors of 4 kcal/mol on average for ions with either Gaussian03 or GAMESS.« less

Ion optical design of a collinear laser-negative ion beam apparatus.

PubMed

Diehl, C; Wendt, K; Lindahl, A O; Andersson, P; Hanstorp, D

2011-05-01

An apparatus for photodetachment studies on atomic and molecular negative ions of medium up to heavy mass (M ≃ 500) has been designed and constructed. Laser and ion beams are merged in the apparatus in a collinear geometry and atoms, neutral molecules and negative ions are detected in the forward direction. The ion optical design and the components used to optimize the mass resolution and the transmission through the extended field-free interaction region are described. A 90° sector field magnet with 50 cm bending radius in combination with two slits is used for mass dispersion providing a resolution of M∕ΔM≅800 for molecular ions and M∕ΔM≅400 for atomic ions. The difference in mass resolution for atomic and molecular ions is attributed to different energy distributions of the sputtered ions. With 1 mm slits, transmission from the source through the interaction region to the final ion detector was determined to be about 0.14%.

ExoCube INMS with Neutral Hydrogen Mode

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jones, S.; Paschalidis, N.; Rodriguez, M.; Sittler, E. C., Jr.; Chornay, D. J.; Cameron, T.; Uribe, P.; Nanan, G.; Noto, J.; Waldrop, L.; Mierkiewicz, E. J.; Gardner, D.; Nossal, S. M.; Puig-Suari, J.; Bellardo, J.

2015-12-01

The ExoCube mission launched on Jan 31 2015 into a polar orbit to acquire global knowledge of in situ densities of neutral and ionized H, He, and O in the upper ionosphere and lower exosphere. The CubeSat platform is used in combination with incoherent scatter radar and optical ground stations distributed throughout the Americas. ExoCube seeks to obtain the first in situ measurement of neutral exospheric hydrogen and will measure in situ atomic oxygen for the first time in decades. The compact Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) developed by GSFC uses the gated Time of Flight technique for in situ measurements of ions and neutrals (H, He, N, O, N2, O2) with M/dM of approximately 10. The compact sensor has a dual symmetric configuration with ion and neutral sensor heads. Neutral particles are ionized by electron impact using a thermionic emitter. In situ measurements of neutral hydrogen are notoriously difficult as historically the signal has been contaminated by hydrogen outgassing which persists even years after commissioning. In order to obtain neutral atmospheric hydrogen fluxes, either the atmospheric peak and outgassing peak must be well resolved, or the outgassing component subtracted off. The ExoCube INMS employs a separate mode, specifically for measuring neutral Hydrogen. The details of this mode and lessons learned will be presented as well as in flight instrument validation data for the neutral channel and preliminary flight ion spectra. At the time of abstract submission, the ExoCube spacecraft is currently undergoing attitude control maneuvers to orient INMS in the ram direction for science operations.

Non-thermal distribution of O(1D) atoms in the night-time thermosphere

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yee, Jeng-Hwa

1988-01-01

The 6300 A O(1D-3P) emission has been used for many years to remotely monitor the thermospheric temperature from the Doppler width of its line profile. The O(1D) atoms in the nighttime thermosphere are initially produced by the dissociative recombination of O2(+) ions with kinetic energy much greater than the thermal energy of the ambient neutrals. The validity of the technique to monitor neutral ambient temperature by measuring O(1D) 6300 A emission depends on the degree of thermalization of the O(1D) atoms. The object of this study is to calculate the velocity distribution of the O(1D) atoms and to examine the effect of nonthermal distribution on the nighttime thermospheric neutral temperature determined.

A nebula of gases from Io surrounding Jupiter.

PubMed

Krimigis, Stamatios M; Mitchell, Donald G; Hamilton, Douglas C; Dandouras, Jannis; Armstrong, Thomas P; Bolton, Scott J; Cheng, Andrew F; Gloeckler, George; Hsieh, K C; Keath, Edwin P; Krupp, Norbert; Lagg, Andreas; Lanzerotti, Louis J; Livi, Stefano; Mauk, Barry H; McEntire, Richard W; Roelof, Edmond C; Wilken, Berend; Williams, Donald J

2002-02-28

Several planetary missions have reported the presence of substantial numbers of energetic ions and electrons surrounding Jupiter; relativistic electrons are observable up to several astronomical units (au) from the planet. A population of energetic (>30[?]keV) neutral particles also has been reported, but the instrumentation was not able to determine the mass or charge state of the particles, which were subsequently labelled energetic neutral atoms. Although images showing the presence of the trace element sodium were obtained, the source and identity of the neutral atoms---and their overall significance relative to the loss of charged particles from Jupiter's magnetosphere---were unknown. Here we report the discovery by the Cassini spacecraft of a fast (>103[?]km[?]s-1) and hot magnetospheric neutral wind extending more than 0.5[?]au from Jupiter, and the presence of energetic neutral atoms (both hot and cold) that have been accelerated by the electric field in the solar wind. We suggest that these atoms originate in volcanic gases from Io, undergo significant evolution through various electromagnetic interactions, escape Jupiter's magnetosphere and then populate the environment around the planet. Thus a 'nebula' is created that extends outwards over hundreds of jovian radii.

Observing Planets and Small Bodies in Sputtered High Energy Atom (SHEA) Fluxes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Milillo, A.; Orsini, S.; Hsieh, K. C.; Baragiola, R.; Fama, M.; Johnson, R.; Mura, A.; Plainaki, Ch.; Sarantos, M.; Cassidy, T. A.;

Low energy high angular resolution neutral atom detection by means of micro-shuttering techniques: the BepiColombo SERENA/ELENA sensor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Orsini, S.; di Lellis, A. M.; Milillo, A.; de Angelis, E.; Mura, A.; Selci, S.; Dandouras, I.; Cerulli-Irelli, P.; Leoni, R.; Mangano, V.; Massetti, S.; Mattioli, F.; Orfei, R.; Austin, C.; Medale, J.-L.; Vertolli, N.; di Giulio, D.

2009-06-01

The neutral sensor ELENA (Emitted Low-Energy Neutral Atoms) for the ESA cornerstone BepiColombo mission to Mercury (in the SERENA instrument package) is a new kind of low energetic neutral atoms instrument, mostly devoted to sputtering emission from planetary surfaces, from E~20 eV up to E~5 keV, within 1-D (2°×76°). ELENA is a Time-of-Flight (TOF) system, based on oscillating shutter (operated at frequencies up to a 100 kHz) and mechanical gratings: the incoming neutral particles directly impinge upon the entrance with a definite timing (START) and arrive to a STOP detector after a flight path. After a brief dissertation on the achievable scientific objectives, this paper describes the instrument, with the new design techniques approached for the neutral particles identification and the nano-techniques used for designing and manufacturing the nano-structure shuttering core of the ELENA sensor. The expected count-rates, based on the Hermean environment features, are shortly presented and discussed. Such design technologies could be fruitfully exported to different applications for planetary exploration.

Helium Energetic Neutral Atoms from the Heliosphere: Perspectives for Future Observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Swaczyna, Paweł; Grzedzielski, Stan; Bzowski, Maciej

2017-05-01

Observations of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) allow for remote sensing of plasma properties in distant regions of the heliosphere. So far, most of the observations have concerned only hydrogen atoms. In this paper, we present perspectives for observations of helium energetic neutral atoms (He ENAs). We calculated the expected intensities of He ENAs created by the neutralization of helium ions in the inner heliosheath and through the secondary ENA mechanism in the outer heliosheath. We found that the dominant source region for He ENAs is the inner heliosheath. The obtained magnitudes of intensity spectra suggest that He ENAs can be observed with future ENA detectors, as those planned on Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe. Observing He ENAs is most likely for energies from a few to a few tens of keV/nuc. Estimates of the expected count rates show that the ratio of helium to hydrogen atoms registered in the detectors can be as low as 1:104. Consequently, the detectors need to be equipped with an appropriate mass spectrometer capability, allowing for recognition of chemical elements. Due to the long mean free paths of helium ions in the inner heliosheath, He ENAs are produced also in the distant heliospheric tail. This implies that observations of He ENAs can resolve its structure, which seems challenging from observations of hydrogen ENAs since energetic protons are neutralized before they progress deeper in the heliospheric tail.

Experiments with bosonic atoms for quantum gas assembly

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brown, Mark; Lin, Yiheng; Lester, Brian; Kaufman, Adam; Ball, Randall; Brossard, Ludovic; Isaev, Leonid; Thiele, Tobias; Lewis-Swan, Robert; Schymik, Kai-Niklas; Rey, Ana Maria; Regal, Cindy

2017-04-01

Quantum gas assembly is a promising platform for preparing and observing neutral atom systems on the single-atom level. We have developed a toolbox that includes ground-state laser cooling, high-fidelity loading techniques, addressable spin control, and dynamic spatial control and coupling of atoms. Already, this platform has enabled us to pursue a number of experiments studying entanglement and interference of pairs of bosonic atoms. We discuss our recent work in probabilistically entangling neutral atoms via interference, measurement, and post-selection as well as our future pursuits of interesting spin-motion dynamics of larger arrays of atoms. This work was supported by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, National Science Foundation Physics Frontier Centers, and the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowships program.

Measurement-Based Entanglement of Noninteracting Bosonic Atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lester, Brian J.; Lin, Yiheng; Brown, Mark O.; Kaufman, Adam M.; Ball, Randall J.; Knill, Emanuel; Rey, Ana M.; Regal, Cindy A.

2018-05-01

We demonstrate the ability to extract a spin-entangled state of two neutral atoms via postselection based on a measurement of their spatial configuration. Typically, entangled states of neutral atoms are engineered via atom-atom interactions. In contrast, in our Letter, we use Hong-Ou-Mandel interference to postselect a spin-singlet state after overlapping two atoms in distinct spin states on an effective beam splitter. We verify the presence of entanglement and determine a bound on the postselected fidelity of a spin-singlet state of (0.62 ±0.03 ). The experiment has direct analogy to creating polarization entanglement with single photons and hence demonstrates the potential to use protocols developed for photons to create complex quantum states with noninteracting atoms.

Measurement-Based Entanglement of Noninteracting Bosonic Atoms.

PubMed

Lester, Brian J; Lin, Yiheng; Brown, Mark O; Kaufman, Adam M; Ball, Randall J; Knill, Emanuel; Rey, Ana M; Regal, Cindy A

2018-05-11

We demonstrate the ability to extract a spin-entangled state of two neutral atoms via postselection based on a measurement of their spatial configuration. Typically, entangled states of neutral atoms are engineered via atom-atom interactions. In contrast, in our Letter, we use Hong-Ou-Mandel interference to postselect a spin-singlet state after overlapping two atoms in distinct spin states on an effective beam splitter. We verify the presence of entanglement and determine a bound on the postselected fidelity of a spin-singlet state of (0.62±0.03). The experiment has direct analogy to creating polarization entanglement with single photons and hence demonstrates the potential to use protocols developed for photons to create complex quantum states with noninteracting atoms.

Auroral zone effects on hydrogen geocorona structure and variability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moore, T. E.; Biddle, A. P.; Waite, J. H., Jr.; Killeen, T. L.

1985-01-01

The effect of diurnal and magnetospheric modulations on the structure of the hydrogen geocorona is analyzed on the basis of recent observations. Particular attention is given to the enhancement of neutral escape by plasma effects, including the recently observed phenomenon of low-altitude ion acceleration. It is found that, while significant fluxes of neutral H should be produced by transverse ion acceleration in the auroral zone, the process is probably insufficient to account for the observed polar depletion of hydrogen atoms. Analysis of recent exospheric temperature measurements from the Dynamics Explorer-2 satellite suggest that neutral heating in and near the high latitude cusp may be the major contributor to depleted atomic hydrogen densities at high latitudes. Altitude profiles of the production rates for escaping neutral hydrogen atoms during periods of maximum, minimum, and typical solar activity are provided.

Neutral recycling effects on ITG turbulence

DOE PAGES

Stotler, D. P.; Lang, J.; Chang, C. S.; ...

2017-07-04

Here, the effects of recycled neutral atoms on tokamak ion temperature gradient (ITG) driven turbulence have been investigated in a steep edge pedestal, magnetic separatrix configuration, with the full-f edge gryokinetic code XGC1. An adiabatic electron model has been used; hence, the impacts of neutral particles and turbulence on the density gradient are not considered, nor are electromagnetic turbulence effects. The neutral atoms enhance the ITG turbulence, first, by increasing the ion temperature gradient in the pedestal via the cooling effects of charge exchange and, second, by a relative reduction in themore » $$E\\times B$$ shearing rate.« less

Neutral recycling effects on ITG turbulence

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Stotler, D. P.; Lang, J.; Chang, C. S.

Here, the effects of recycled neutral atoms on tokamak ion temperature gradient (ITG) driven turbulence have been investigated in a steep edge pedestal, magnetic separatrix configuration, with the full-f edge gryokinetic code XGC1. An adiabatic electron model has been used; hence, the impacts of neutral particles and turbulence on the density gradient are not considered, nor are electromagnetic turbulence effects. The neutral atoms enhance the ITG turbulence, first, by increasing the ion temperature gradient in the pedestal via the cooling effects of charge exchange and, second, by a relative reduction in themore » $$E\\times B$$ shearing rate.« less

Collisional Cooling of Light Ions by Cotrapped Heavy Atoms.

PubMed

Dutta, Sourav; Sawant, Rahul; Rangwala, S A

2017-03-17

We experimentally demonstrate cooling of trapped ions by collisions with cotrapped, higher-mass neutral atoms. It is shown that the lighter ^{39}K^{+} ions, created by ionizing ^{39}K atoms in a magneto-optical trap (MOT), when trapped in an ion trap and subsequently allowed to cool by collisions with ultracold, heavier ^{85}Rb atoms in a MOT, exhibit a longer trap lifetime than without the localized ^{85}Rb MOT atoms. A similar cooling of trapped ^{85}Rb^{+} ions by ultracold ^{133}Cs atoms in a MOT is also demonstrated in a different experimental configuration to validate this mechanism of ion cooling by localized and centered ultracold neutral atoms. Our results suggest that the cooling of ions by localized cold atoms holds for any mass ratio, thereby enabling studies on a wider class of atom-ion systems irrespective of their masses.

Two-Dimensional Arrays of Neutral Atom Quantum Gates

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-10-20

Box 12211 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2211 15. SUBJECT TERMS quantum computing , Rydberg atoms, entanglement Mark Saffman University of...Nature Physics, (01 2009): 0. doi: 10.1038/nphys1178 10/19/2012 9.00 K. Mølmer, M. Saffman. Scaling the neutral-atom Rydberg gate quantum computer by...Saffman, E. Brion, K. Mølmer. Error Correction in Ensemble Registers for Quantum Repeaters and Quantum Computers , Physical Review Letters, (3 2008): 0

STELLARATOR INJECTOR

DOEpatents

Post, R.F.

1962-09-01

A method and means are described for injecting energetic neutral atoms or molecular ions into dense magnetically collimated plasma columns of stellarators and the like in such a manner that the atoms or ions are able to significantly penetrate the column before being ionized by collision with the plasma constituent particles. Penetration of the plasma column by the neutral atoms or molecular ions is facilitated by superposition of two closely spaced magnetic mirrors on the plasma confinement field. The mirrors are moved apart to magnetically sweep plasma from a region between the mirrors and establish a relatively low plasma density therein. By virture of the low density, neutral atoms or molecular ions injected into the region significantly penetrate the plasma column before being ionized. Thereafter, the mirrors are diminished to permit the injected material to admix with the plasma in the remainder of the column. (AEC)

Connection of the solar wind with the interstellar medium through numerical modeling

DOE PAGES

Heerikhuisen, J.; Zirnstein, E.; Kawamura, A. D.; ...

2013-06-13

In this article we investigate the interaction between the solar wind (SW) and the local interstellar medium (LISM) using spacecraft data and numerical simulations. In particular, we focus on neutral atom results from NASA's Interstellar Boundary EXplorer (IBEX) mission, and compare these with implementations of our neutral atom models that look at both the energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) which are created as hydrogen of LISM origin interacts with the heliosphere, as well as the transmission of interstellar Oxygen through the heliospheric interface. Lastly, the goal of this work is to better understand the global structure of the heliosphere and itsmore » interaction with the galaxy.« less

Interstellar abundances and depletions inferred from observations of neutral atoms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Snow, T. P.

1984-01-01

Data on neutral atomic species are analyzed for the purpose of inferring relative elemental abundances and depletions in diffuse cloud cores, where it is assumed that densities are enhanced in comparison with mean densities over integrated lines of sight. Column densities of neutral atoms are compared to yield relative column densities of singly ionized species, which are assumed dominant in cloud cores. This paper incorporates a survey of literature data on neutral atomic abundances with the result that no systematic enhancement in the depletions of calcium or iron in cloud cores is found, except for zeta Ophiuchi. This may imply that depletions are not influenced by density, but other data argue against this interpretation. It is concluded either that in general all elements are depleted together in dense regions so that their relative abundances remain constant, or that typical diffuse clouds do not have significant cores, but instead are reasonably homogeneous. The data show a probable correlation between cloud-core depletion and hydrogen-molecular fraction, supporting the assumption that overall depletions are a function of density.

Dirac R -matrix calculations for the electron-impact excitation of neutral tungsten providing noninvasive diagnostics for magnetic confinement fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smyth, R. T.; Ballance, C. P.; Ramsbottom, C. A.; Johnson, C. A.; Ennis, D. A.; Loch, S. D.

2018-05-01

Neutral tungsten is the primary candidate as a wall material in the divertor region of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The efficient operation of ITER depends heavily on precise atomic physics calculations for the determination of reliable erosion diagnostics, helping to characterize the influx of tungsten impurities into the core plasma. The following paper presents detailed calculations of the atomic structure of neutral tungsten using the multiconfigurational Dirac-Fock method, drawing comparisons with experimental measurements where available, and includes a critical assessment of existing atomic structure data. We investigate the electron-impact excitation of neutral tungsten using the Dirac R -matrix method, and by employing collisional-radiative models, we benchmark our results with recent Compact Toroidal Hybrid measurements. The resulting comparisons highlight alternative diagnostic lines to the widely used 400.88-nm line.

A solenoidal synthetic field and the non-Abelian Aharonov-Bohm effects in neutral atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huo, Ming-Xia; Nie, Wei; Hutchinson, David A. W.; Kwek, Leong Chuan

2014-08-01

Cold neutral atoms provide a versatile and controllable platform for emulating various quantum systems. Despite efforts to develop artificial gauge fields in these systems, realizing a unique ideal-solenoid-shaped magnetic field within the quantum domain in any real-world physical system remains elusive. Here we propose a scheme to generate a ``hairline'' solenoid with an extremely small size around 1 micrometer which is smaller than the typical coherence length in cold atoms. Correspondingly, interference effects will play a role in transport. Despite the small size, the magnetic flux imposed on the atoms is very large thanks to the very strong field generated inside the solenoid. By arranging different sets of Laguerre-Gauss (LG) lasers, the generation of Abelian and non-Abelian SU(2) lattice gauge fields is proposed for neutral atoms in ring- and square-shaped optical lattices. As an application, interference patterns of the magnetic type-I Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect are obtained by evolving atoms along a circle over several tens of lattice cells. During the evolution, the quantum coherence is maintained and the atoms are exposed to a large magnetic flux. The scheme requires only standard optical access, and is robust to weak particle interactions.

A solenoidal synthetic field and the non-Abelian Aharonov-Bohm effects in neutral atoms.

PubMed

Huo, Ming-Xia; Nie, Wei; Hutchinson, David A W; Kwek, Leong Chuan

2014-08-08

Cold neutral atoms provide a versatile and controllable platform for emulating various quantum systems. Despite efforts to develop artificial gauge fields in these systems, realizing a unique ideal-solenoid-shaped magnetic field within the quantum domain in any real-world physical system remains elusive. Here we propose a scheme to generate a "hairline" solenoid with an extremely small size around 1 micrometer which is smaller than the typical coherence length in cold atoms. Correspondingly, interference effects will play a role in transport. Despite the small size, the magnetic flux imposed on the atoms is very large thanks to the very strong field generated inside the solenoid. By arranging different sets of Laguerre-Gauss (LG) lasers, the generation of Abelian and non-Abelian SU(2) lattice gauge fields is proposed for neutral atoms in ring- and square-shaped optical lattices. As an application, interference patterns of the magnetic type-I Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect are obtained by evolving atoms along a circle over several tens of lattice cells. During the evolution, the quantum coherence is maintained and the atoms are exposed to a large magnetic flux. The scheme requires only standard optical access, and is robust to weak particle interactions.

Solving the Excitation and Chemical Abundances in Shocks: The Case of HH 1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giannini, T.; Antoniucci, S.; Nisini, B.; Bacciotti, F.; Podio, L.

2015-11-01

We present deep spectroscopic (3600-24700 Å ) X-shooter observations of the bright Herbig-Haro object HH 1, one of the best laboratories to study the chemical and physical modifications caused by protostellar shocks on the natal cloud. We observe atomic fine structure lines, H i and He i recombination lines and H2 ro-vibrational lines (more than 500 detections in total). Line emission was analyzed by means of Non-local Thermal Equilibiurm codes to derive the electron temperature and density, and for the first time we are able to accurately probe different physical regimes behind a dissociative shock. We find a temperature stratification in the range 4000 K \\div 80,000 K, and a significant correlation between temperature and ionization energy. Two density regimes are identified for the ionized gas, a more tenuous, spatially broad component (density ˜103 cm-3), and a more compact component (density ≥slant 105 cm-3) likely associated with the hottest gas. A further neutral component is also evidenced, having a temperature ≲10,000 K and a density >104 cm-3. The gas fractional ionization was estimated by solving the ionization equilibrium equations of atoms detected in different ionization stages. We find that neutral and fully ionized regions co-exist inside the shock. Also, indications in favor of at least partially dissociative shock as the main mechanism for molecular excitation are derived. Chemical abundances are estimated for the majority of the detected species. On average, abundances of non-refractory/refractory elements are lower than solar of about 0.15/0.5 dex. This indicates the presence of dust inside the medium, with a depletion factor of iron of ˜40%. Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, (92.C-0058).

Optimization of Neutral Atom Imagers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shappirio, M.; Coplan, M.; Balsamo, E.; Chornay, D.; Collier, M.; Hughes, P.; Keller, J.; Ogilvie, K.; Williams, E.

2008-01-01

The interactions between plasma structures and neutral atom populations in interplanetary space can be effectively studied with energetic neutral atom imagers. For neutral atoms with energies less than 1 keV, the most efficient detection method that preserves direction and energy information is conversion to negative ions on surfaces. We have examined a variety of surface materials and conversion geometries in order to identify the factors that determine conversion efficiency. For chemically and physically stable surfaces smoothness is of primary importance while properties such as work function have no obvious correlation to conversion efficiency. For the noble metals, tungsten, silicon, and graphite with comparable smoothness, conversion efficiency varies by a factor of two to three. We have also examined the way in which surface conversion efficiency varies with the angle of incidence of the neutral atom and have found that the highest efficiencies are obtained at angles of incidence greater then 80deg. The conversion efficiency of silicon, tungsten and graphite were examined most closely and the energy dependent variation of conversion efficiency measured over a range of incident angles. We have also developed methods for micromachining silicon in order to reduce the volume to surface area over that of a single flat surface and have been able to reduce volume to surface area ratios by up to a factor of 60. With smooth micro-machined surfaces of the optimum geometry, conversion efficiencies can be increased by an order of magnitude over instruments like LENA on the IMAGE spacecraft without increase the instruments mass or volume.

Helium Energetic Neutral Atoms from the Heliosphere: Perspectives for Future Observations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Swaczyna, Paweł; Grzedzielski, Stan; Bzowski, Maciej, E-mail: pswaczyna@cbk.waw.pl

2017-05-10

Observations of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) allow for remote sensing of plasma properties in distant regions of the heliosphere. So far, most of the observations have concerned only hydrogen atoms. In this paper, we present perspectives for observations of helium energetic neutral atoms (He ENAs). We calculated the expected intensities of He ENAs created by the neutralization of helium ions in the inner heliosheath and through the secondary ENA mechanism in the outer heliosheath. We found that the dominant source region for He ENAs is the inner heliosheath. The obtained magnitudes of intensity spectra suggest that He ENAs can bemore » observed with future ENA detectors, as those planned on Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe . Observing He ENAs is most likely for energies from a few to a few tens of keV/nuc. Estimates of the expected count rates show that the ratio of helium to hydrogen atoms registered in the detectors can be as low as 1:10{sup 4}. Consequently, the detectors need to be equipped with an appropriate mass spectrometer capability, allowing for recognition of chemical elements. Due to the long mean free paths of helium ions in the inner heliosheath, He ENAs are produced also in the distant heliospheric tail. This implies that observations of He ENAs can resolve its structure, which seems challenging from observations of hydrogen ENAs since energetic protons are neutralized before they progress deeper in the heliospheric tail.« less

Search for an explanation for neutralization rates of atomic ion-ion reactions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miller, Thomas M.; Wiens, Justin P.; Shuman, Nicholas S.; Viggiano, Albert A.

2016-09-01

We have measured well over a hundred rate coefficients k for cation-anion mutual neutralization reactions at thermal energies. For molecular ions, the k at 300 K tend not to vary more than a factor of two or three, presumably because a great many neutral states cross the incoming Coulombic potential energy curve. Atomic-atomic systems, for which there are few favorable curve crossings between the neutral and Coulombic curves, show variation of at least a factor of 60 in the measured k values at 300 K. For reactions involving the noble-gas cations, we assume that the final state is the lowest excited state of the neutral, plus the ground state of the neutralized anion, because otherwise the crossing distance R is so small that the curve-crossing probability is nil. We plotted measured k values (in cm3/s) vs the distance R (in bohr) at which the neutral and Coulombic curves cross, the found that the data are fairly well fit by a power law for k, 10-4R - 2 . 8 . The question is, is there a physical explanation for the observed dependence on R? We will discuss the data and the expectations of Landau-Zener theory. Supported by Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR-2303EP).

Texturing effects in molybdenum and aluminum nitride films correlated to energetic bombardment during sputter deposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Drüsedau, T. P.; Koppenhagen, K.; Bläsing, J.; John, T.-M.

Molybdenum films sputter-deposited at low pressure show a (110) to (211) texture turnover with increasing film thickness, which is accompanied by a transition from a fiber texture to a mosaic-like texture. The degree of (002) texturing of sputtered aluminum nitride (AlN) films strongly depends on nitrogen pressure in Ar/N2 or in a pure N2 atmosphere. For the understanding of these phenomena, the power density at the substrate during sputter deposition was measured by a calorimetric method and normalized to the flux of deposited atoms. For the deposition of Mo films and various other elemental films, the results of the calorimetric measurements are well described by a model. This model takes into account the contributions of plasma irradiation, the heat of condensation and the kinetic energy of sputtered atoms and reflected Ar neutrals. The latter two were calculated by TRIM.SP Monte Carlo simulations. An empirical rule is established showing that the total energy input during sputter deposition is proportional to the ratio of target atomic mass to sputtering yield. For the special case of a circular planar magnetron the radial dependence of the Mo and Ar fluxes and related momentum components at the substrate were calculated. It is concluded that mainly the lateral inhomogeneous radial momentum component of the Mo atoms is the cause of the in-plane texturing. For AlN films, maximum (002) texturing appears at about 250 eV per atom energy input.

ELENA MCP detector: absolute detection efficiency for low-energy neutral atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rispoli, R.; De Angelis, E.; Colasanti, L.; Vertolli, N.; Orsini, S.; Scheer, J. A.; Mura, A.; Milillo, A.; Wurz, P.; Selci, S.; Di Lellis, A. M.; Leoni, R.; D'Alessandro, M.; Mattioli, F.; Cibella, S.

2012-09-01

Microchannel Plates (MCP) detectors are frequently used in space instrumentation for detecting a wide range of radiation and particles. In particular, the capability to detect non-thermal low energy neutral species is crucial for the sensor ELENA (Emitted Low-Energy Neutral Atoms), part of the package SERENA (Search for Exospheric Refilling and Emitted Natural Abundances) on board the BepiColombo mission of ESA to Mercury to be launched in 2015. ELENA is a Time of Flight (TOF) sensor, based on a novel concept using an ultra-sonic oscillating shutter (Start section), which is operated at frequencies up to 50 kHz; a MCP detector is used as a Stop detector. The scientific objective of ELENA is to detect energetic neutral atoms in the range 10 eV - 5 keV, within 76° FOV, perpendicular to the S/C orbital plane. ELENA will monitor the emission of neutral atoms from the whole surface of Mercury thanks to the spacecraft motion. The major scientific objectives are the interaction between the plasma environment and the planet’s surface, the global particle loss-rate and the remote sensing of the surface properties. In particular, surface release processes are investigated by identifying particles released from the surface, via solar wind-induced ion sputtering (< 1eV - < 100 eV) as well as Hydrogen back-scattered at hundreds eV. MCP absolute detection efficiency for very low energy neutral atoms (E < 30 eV) is a crucial point for this investigation. At the MEFISTO facility of the Physical Institute of the University of Bern (CH), measurements on three different types of MCP (with and without coating) have been performed providing the detection efficiencies in the energy range 10eV - 1keV. Outcomes from such measurements are discussed here.

ELENA MCP detector: absolute efficiency measurement for low energy neutral atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rispoli, R.; De Angelis, E.; Colasanti, L.; Vertolli, N.; Orsini, S.; Scheer, J.; Mura, A.; Milillo, A.; Wurz, P.; Selci, S.; Di Lellis, A. M.; Leoni, R.; D'Alessandro, M.; Mattioli, F.; Cibella, S.

2012-04-01

MicroChannel plates (MCP) detectors are frequently used in space instrumentation for detecting a wide range of radiation and particles. In particular, the capability to detect non-thermal low energy neutral species is crucial for the sensor ELENA (Emitted Low-Energy Neutral Atoms), part of the package SERENA (Search for Exospheric Refilling and Emitted Natural Abundances) on board the BepiColombo mission to Mercury to be launched in 2014. ELENA is a TOF sensor, based on a novel concept ultra-sonic oscillating shutter (Start section)which is operated at frequencies up to 50 kHz; a MCP detector is used as a Stop section. It is aimed to detect neutral atoms in the range 10 eV - 5 keV, within 70° FOV, perpendicular to the S/C orbital plane. ELENA will monitor the emission of neutral atoms from the whole surface of Mercury thanks to the spacecraft motion. The major scientific objectives are the interaction between the environment and the planet, the global particle loss-rate and the remote sensing of the surface properties. In particular, surface release processes are investigated by identifying particles release from the surface, via solar wind-induced ion sputtering (<1eV and >100 eV) as well as Hydrogen back-scattered at hundreds eV. MCP absolute detection efficiency for very low energy neutral atoms (E< 30eV) is a crucial point not yet investigated. At the MEFISTO facility of the Physical Institute of University of Bern (CH), measurements on three different type of MCPs coating have been performed providing the behaviors of MCP detection efficiency in the range 10eV-1keV. Outcomes from such measurements are here discussed.

EFFECTS OF LASER RADIATION ON MATTER. LASER PLASMA: Characteristics of the scattering of neutral atoms by two counterpropagating pulsed optical fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grinchuk, V. A.; Grishina, I. A.; Kuzin, E. F.; Nagaeva, M. L.; Ryabenko, G. A.; Yakovlev, V. P.

1994-04-01

The scattering of neutral sodium atoms by a strong field of two counterpropagating (incident on and reflected from a mirror) short laser pulses was used in an experimental investigation of a stimulated radiation pressure. The reasons for the anomalous frequency structure in the scattering of atoms were identified. The oscillatory nature of the dependence of the scattering on the detuning from resonance was found to be significant in strong laser radiation fields. The oscillation period depended on the distance between the reflecting mirror and the atomic beam.

Performance evaluation of different diamond-like carbon samples as charge state conversion surfaces for neutral atom imaging detectors in space applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brigitte Neuland, Maike; Allenbach, Marc; Föhn, Martina; Wurz, Peter

2017-04-01

The detection of energetic neutral atoms is a substantial requirement on every space mission mapping particle populations of a planetary magnetosphere or plasma of the interstellar medium. For imaging neutrals, these first have to be ionised. Regarding the constraints of weight, volume and power consumption, the technique of surface ionisation complies with all specifications of a space mission. Particularly low energy neutral atoms, which cannot be ionised by passing through a foil, are ionised by scattering on a charge state conversion surface [1]. Since more than 30 years intense research work is done to find and optimise suitable materials for use as charge state conversion surfaces for space application. Crucial parameters are the ionisation efficiency of the surface material and the scattering properties. Regarding these parameters, diamond-like carbon was proven advantageously: While efficiently ionising incoming neutral atoms, diamond stands out by its durability and chemical inertness [2]. In the IBEX-Lo sensor, a diamond-like carbon surface is used for ionisation of neutral atoms. Building on the successes of the IBEX mission [3], the follow up mission IMAP (InterstellarMApping Probe) will take up to further explore the boundaries of the heliosphere. The IMAP mission is planned to map neutral atoms in a larger energy range and with a distinct better angular resolution and sensitivity than IBEX [4]. The aspired performance of the IMAP sensors implies also for charge state conversion surfaces with improved characteristics. We investigated samples of diamond-like carbon, manufactured by the chemical vapour deposition (CVD) method, regarding their ionisation efficiency, scattering and reflexion properties. Experiments were carried out at the ILENA facility at the University of Bern [5] with hydrogen and oxygen atoms, which are the species of main interest in magnetospheric research [1]. We compare the results of earlier investigations of a metallised CVD sample [6] to our latest measurements of a Boron-doped CVD diamond sample. We additionally measured the B-concentration in the sample to prove our predictions of the B-concentration needed to reach sufficient conductibility for the sample not getting electrostatically charged during instrument operation. The results of narrower scattering cones and higher ionisation efficiency show that diamond-like carbon still is the preferred material for charge state conversion surfaces and that new surface technologies offer improved diamond conversion surfaces with different properties and hence the possibility for improvement of the performance of neutral atom imaging instruments. References: [1] P. Wurz, Detection of Energetic Neutral Atoms, in The Outer Heliosphere: Beyond the Planets, Copernicus Gesellschaft e.V., Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, 2000, p. 251-288. [2] P. Wurz, R. Schletti, M.R. Aellig, Surf. Sci. 373(1997), 56-66. [3] D.J. McComas et al., Geophys. Res. Lett. 38(2011), L18101. [4] N.A. Schwadron et al., J. of Phys.. Conf. Series 767(2016): 012025 [5] P. Wahlström, J.A. Scheer, A. Riedo, P. Wurz and M. Wieser, J. Spacecr. Rockets 50 (2013): 402-410. [6] M.B. Neuland, J.A. Scheer, A. Riedo and P. Wurz, Appl. Surf. Sci. 313(2014):293-303.

Simulation of field-induced molecular dissociation in atom-probe tomography: Identification of a neutral emission channel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zanuttini, David; Blum, Ivan; Rigutti, Lorenzo; Vurpillot, François; Douady, Julie; Jacquet, Emmanuelle; Anglade, Pierre-Matthieu; Gervais, Benoit

2017-06-01

We investigate the dynamics of dicationic metal-oxide molecules under large electric-field conditions, on the basis of ab initio calculations coupled to molecular dynamics. Applied to the case of ZnO2 + in the field of atom probe tomography (APT), our simulation reveals the dissociation into three distinct exit channels. The proportions of these channels depend critically on the field strength and on the initial molecular orientation with respect to the field. For typical field strength used in APT experiments, an efficient dissociation channel leads to emission of neutral oxygen atoms, which escape detection. The calculated composition biases and their dependence on the field strength show remarkable consistency with recent APT experiments on ZnO crystals. Our work shows that bond breaking in strong static fields may lead to significant neutral atom production, and therefore to severe elemental composition biases in measurements.

Gas-Grain Models for Interstellar Anion Chemistry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cordiner, M. A.; Charnely, S. B.

2012-01-01

Long-chain hydrocarbon anions C(sub n) H(-) (n = 4, 6, 8) have recently been found to be abundant in a variety of interstellar clouds. In order to explain their large abundances in the denser (prestellar/protostellar) environments, new chemical models are constructed that include gas-grain interactions. Models including accretion of gas-phase species onto dust grains and cosmic-ray-induced desorption of atoms are able to reproduce the observed anion-to-neutral ratios, as well as the absolute abundances of anionic and neutral carbon chains, with a reasonable degree of accuracy. Due to their destructive effects, the depletion of oxygen atoms onto dust results in substantially greater polyyne and anion abundances in high-density gas (with n(sub H2) approx > / cubic cm). The large abundances of carbon-chain-bearing species observed in the envelopes of protostars such as L1527 can thus be explained without the need for warm carbon-chain chemistry. The C6H(-) anion-to-neutral ratio is found to be most sensitive to the atomic O and H abundances and the electron density. Therefore, as a core evolves, falling atomic abundances and rising electron densities are found to result in increasing anion-to-neutral ratios. Inclusion of cosmic-ray desorption of atoms in high-density models delays freeze-out, which results in a more temporally stable anion-to-neutral ratio, in better agreement with observations. Our models include reactions between oxygen atoms and carbon-chain anions to produce carbon-chain-oxide species C6O, C7O, HC6O, and HC7O, the abundances of which depend on the assumed branching ratios for associative electron detachment

Semiclassical neutral atom as a reference system in density functional theory.

PubMed

Constantin, Lucian A; Fabiano, E; Laricchia, S; Della Sala, F

2011-05-06

We use the asymptotic expansions of the semiclassical neutral atom as a reference system in density functional theory to construct accurate generalized gradient approximations (GGAs) for the exchange-correlation and kinetic energies without any empiricism. These asymptotic functionals are among the most accurate GGAs for molecular systems, perform well for solid state, and overcome current GGA state of the art in frozen density embedding calculations. Our results also provide evidence for the conjointness conjecture between exchange and kinetic energies of atomic systems.

Probing the structural evolution and bonding properties of PtnC2-/0 (n = 1-7) clusters by density functional calculations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Sheng-Jie

2018-05-01

We present a theoretical investigation on the structural evolution and bonding properties of PtnC2-/0 (n = 1-7) clusters using density functional theoretical calculations. The results showed that both anionic and neutral PtnC2 (n = 1-7) clusters primarily adopt 2D planar chain-shaped or ring-based structures. The two C atoms directly interact with each other to form a Csbnd C bond for n = 1-3, while the two C atoms are separated by the Pt atoms for n = 4-7, except for neutral Pt5C2. Pt4C2- anion and Pt4C2 neutral both show σ plus π double delocalized bonding patterns.

A facility to study the particles released by ion sputtering process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Angelis, E.; di Lellis, A. M.; Vannaroni, G.; Orsini, S.; Mangano, V.; Milillo, A.; Massetti, S.; Mura, A.; Vertolli, N.

2007-08-01

Research on the planetary surface erosion and planetary evolution could be enriched with the detection of the escaping material, in terms of energy and direction, caused by ions sputtering. A complete study of emitted neutral distribution from which infers the processes occurring on the impacted surface requires dedicated instrumentation, tailored on the peculiarity on the low energy profile of the sputtered signal. We propose a comprehensive facility at INAF/IFSI in Rome intended to provide the opportunity to investigate the interaction of selectable ion beam with planetary analogues through the detection of sputtered neutral atoms. The laboratory is equipped with a high volume UHV chamber, ion selectable sources in the range 0 to 10 keV, a set of 3D sample/sensor orientation motion actuation motors down to 1/100 deg resolution. The laboratory will support a set of neutral sensor heads sets derived from the Emitted for Low Energetic Neutral Atoms (ELENA) instrument under development for the ESA BepiColombo Mercury mission able to detect neutral atoms (few eV-up to 5 keV).

Calculation of low-Z impurity pellet induced fluxes of charge exchange neutral particles escaping from magnetically confined toroidal plasmas.

PubMed

Goncharov, P R; Ozaki, T; Sudo, S; Tamura, N; Tolstikhina, I Yu; Sergeev, V Yu

2008-10-01

Measurements of energy- and time-resolved neutral hydrogen and helium fluxes from an impurity pellet ablation cloud, referred to as pellet charge exchange or PCX experiments, can be used to study local fast ion energy distributions in fusion plasmas. The estimation of the local distribution function f(i)(E) of fast ions entering the cloud requires knowledge of both the fraction F(0)(E) of incident ions exiting the cloud as neutral atoms and the attenuation factor A(E,rho) describing the loss of fast atoms in the plasma. Determination of A(E,rho), in turn, requires the total stopping cross section sigma(loss) of neutral atoms in the plasma and the Jacobian reflecting the measurement geometry and the magnetic surface shape. The obtained functions F(0)(E) and A(E,rho) enter multiplicatively into the probability density for escaping neutral particle kinetic energy. A general calculation scheme has been developed and realized as a FORTRAN code, which is to be applied for the calculation of f(i)(E) from PCX experimental results obtained with low-Z impurity pellets.

Two Clock Transitions in Neutral Yb for the Highest Sensitivity to Variations of the Fine-Structure Constant.

PubMed

Safronova, Marianna S; Porsev, Sergey G; Sanner, Christian; Ye, Jun

2018-04-27

We propose a new frequency standard based on a 4f^{14}6s6p ^{3}P_{0}-4f^{13}6s^{2}5d (J=2) transition in neutral Yb. This transition has a potential for high stability and accuracy and the advantage of the highest sensitivity among atomic clocks to variation of the fine-structure constant α. We find its dimensionless α-variation enhancement factor to be K=-15, in comparison to the most sensitive current clock (Yb^{+}  E3, K=-6), and it is 18 times larger than in any neutral-atomic clocks (Hg, K=0.8). Combined with the unprecedented stability of an optical lattice clock for neutral atoms, this high sensitivity opens new perspectives for searches for ultralight dark matter and for tests of theories beyond the standard model of elementary particles. Moreover, together with the well-established ^{1}S_{0}-^{3}P_{0} transition, one will have two clock transitions operating in neutral Yb, whose interleaved interrogations may further reduce systematic uncertainties of such clock-comparison experiments.

Two Clock Transitions in Neutral Yb for the Highest Sensitivity to Variations of the Fine-Structure Constant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Safronova, Marianna S.; Porsev, Sergey G.; Sanner, Christian; Ye, Jun

2018-04-01

We propose a new frequency standard based on a 4 f146 s 6 p P0 3 -4 f136 s25 d (J =2 ) transition in neutral Yb. This transition has a potential for high stability and accuracy and the advantage of the highest sensitivity among atomic clocks to variation of the fine-structure constant α . We find its dimensionless α -variation enhancement factor to be K =-15 , in comparison to the most sensitive current clock (Yb+ E 3 , K =-6 ), and it is 18 times larger than in any neutral-atomic clocks (Hg, K =0.8 ). Combined with the unprecedented stability of an optical lattice clock for neutral atoms, this high sensitivity opens new perspectives for searches for ultralight dark matter and for tests of theories beyond the standard model of elementary particles. Moreover, together with the well-established 1S0-3P0 transition, one will have two clock transitions operating in neutral Yb, whose interleaved interrogations may further reduce systematic uncertainties of such clock-comparison experiments.

Focused beams of fast neutral atoms in glow discharge plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grigoriev, S. N.; Melnik, Yu. A.; Metel, A. S.; Volosova, M. A.

2017-06-01

Glow discharge with electrostatic confinement of electrons in a vacuum chamber allows plasma processing of conductive products in a wide pressure range of p = 0.01 - 5 Pa. To assist processing of a small dielectric product with a concentrated on its surface beam of fast neutral atoms, which do not cause charge effects, ions from the discharge plasma are accelerated towards the product and transformed into fast atoms. The beam is produced using a negatively biased cylindrical or a spherical grid immersed in the plasma. Ions accelerated by the grid turn into fast neutral atoms at p > 0.1 Pa due to charge exchange collisions with gas atoms in the space charge sheaths adjoining the grid. The atoms form a diverging neutral beam and a converging beam propagating from the grid in opposite directions. The beam propagating from the concave surface of a 0.24-m-wide cylindrical grid is focused on a target within a 10-mm-wide stripe, and the beam from the 0.24-m-diameter spherical grid is focused within a 10-mm-diameter circle. At the bias voltage U = 5 kV and p ˜ 0.1 Pa, the energy of fast argon atoms is distributed continuously from zero to eU ˜ 5 keV. The pressure increase to 1 Pa results in the tenfold growth of their equivalent current and a decrease in the mean energy by an order of magnitude, which substantially raises the efficiency of material etching. Sharpening by the beam of ceramic knife-blades proved that the new method for the generation of concentrated fast atom beams can be effectively used for the processing of dielectric materials in vacuum.

Stabilization of very rare tautomers of 1-methylcytosine by an excess electron.

PubMed

Harańczyk, Maciej; Rak, Janusz; Gutowski, Maciej

2005-12-22

We characterized valence anionic states of 1-methylcytosine using various electronic structure methods. We found that the most stable valence anion is related to neither the canonical amino-oxo nor a rare imino-oxo tautomer, in which a proton is transferred from the N4 to N3 atom. Instead, it is related to an imino-oxo tautomer, in which the C5 atom is protonated. This anion is characterized by an electron vertical detachment energy (VDE) of 2.12 eV and it is more stable than the anion based on the canonical tautomer by 1.0 kcal/mol. The latter is characterized by a VDE of 0.31 eV. Another unusual low-lying imino-oxo tautomer with a VDE of 3.60 eV has the C6 atom protonated and is 3.6 kcal/mol less stable than the anion of the canonical tautomer. All these anionic states are adiabatically unbound with respect to the canonical amino-oxo neutral, with the instability of 5.8 kcal/mol for the most stable valence anion. The mechanism of formation of anionic tautomers with carbon atoms protonated may involve intermolecular proton transfer or dissociative electron attachment to the canonical neutral tautomer followed by a barrier-free attachment of a hydrogen atom to the C5 or C6 atom. The six-member ring structure of anionic tautomers with carbon atoms protonated is unstable upon an excess electron detachment. Indeed the neutral systems collapse without a barrier to a linear or a bicyclo structure, which might be viewed as lesions to DNA or RNA. Within the PCM hydration model, the anions become adiabatically bound with respect to the corresponding neutrals, and the two most stable tautomers have a carbon atom protonated.

Wetting Transition of Nonpolar Neutral Molecule System on a Neutral and Atomic Length Scale Roughness Substrate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Shiqi

2018-03-01

One recently proposed new method for accurately determining wetting temperature is applied to the wetting transition occurring in a single component nonpolar neutral molecule system near a neutral planar substrate with roughness produced by cosinusoidal modulation(s). New observations are summarized into five points: (i) for a planar substrate superimposed with one cosinusoidal modulation, with increasing of the periodicity length or the surface attraction force field, or decreasing of the amplitude, wetting temperature T_W drops accordingly and the three parameters show multiplication effect; moreover, both the periodicity length and amplitude effect curves display pole phenomena and saturation phenomena, and the T_W saturation occurs at small (for case of large amplitude) or large (for case of small amplitude) periodicity length side, respectively. (ii) In the case of the planar substrate superimposed with two cosinusoidal modulations with equal periodicity length, the initial phase difference is critical issue that influences the T_W, which decreases with the initial phase difference. (iii) In the case of the planar substrate superimposed with two cosinusoidal modulations with zero phase difference, change of the T_W with one periodicity length under the condition of another periodicity length unchanged is non-monotonous. (iv) When the parameters are chosen such that the T_W draws ever closer to the bulk critical temperature, wetting transition on the roughness substrate eventually does not occur. (v) The present microscopic calculation challenges traditional macroscopic theory by confirming that the atomic length scale roughness always renders the surface less hydrophilic and whereas the mesoscopical roughness renders the surface more hydrophilic. All of these observations summarized can be reasonably explained by the relative strength of the attraction actually enjoyed by the surface gas molecules to the attraction the gas molecules can get when in bulk.

Energetic neutral particles from Jupiter and Saturn

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, A. F.

1986-04-01

The Voyager 1 spacecraft has detected energetic neutral particles escaping from the magnetospheres of Jupiter and Saturn. These energetic neutrals are created in charge exchange reactions between radiation belt ions and ambient atoms or molecules in the magnetosphere. If the Io torus is assumed to be the dominant Jovian source region for energetic neutrals, the Voyager observations can be used to infer upper limits to the average ion intensities there below about 200 keV. No readily interpretable in-situ measurements are available in the Io torus at these energies. The middle and outer Jovian magnetospheres may also be a significant source of energetic neutrals. At Saturn, the observed neutral particle count rates are too high to be explained by charge exchange between fast protons and H atoms of the Titan torus. Most of the energetic neutrals may be produced by charge exchanges between heavy ions and a neutral cloud containing H2O in Saturn's inner magnetosphere. If so, the Voyager measurements of energetic neutral fluxes would be the first detected emissions from this region of Saturn's magnetosphere.

Classical-trajectory simulation of accelerating neutral atoms with polarized intense laser pulses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xia, Q. Z.; Fu, L. B.; Liu, J.

2013-03-01

In the present paper, we perform the classical trajectory Monte Carlo simulation of the complex dynamics of accelerating neutral atoms with linearly or circularly polarized intense laser pulses. Our simulations involve the ion motion as well as the tunneling ionization and the scattering dynamics of valence electron in the combined Coulomb and electromagnetic fields, for both helium (He) and magnesium (Mg). We show that for He atoms, only linearly polarized lasers can effectively accelerate the atoms, while for Mg atoms, we find that both linearly and circularly polarized lasers can successively accelerate the atoms. The underlying mechanism is discussed and the subcycle dynamics of accelerating trajectories is investigated. We have compared our theoretical results with a recent experiment [Eichmann Nature (London)NATUAS0028-083610.1038/nature08481 461, 1261 (2009)].

Basic governing equations for the flight regimes of aeroassisted orbital transfer vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, J.-H.

1984-01-01

The basic governing equations for the low-density, high-enthalpy flow regimes expected in the shock layers over the heat shields of the proposed aeroassisted orbital transfer vehicles are derived by combining and extending existing theories. The conservation equations are derived from gas kinetic principles for a four-component ionized gas consisting of neutral molecules, neutral atoms, singly ionized ions, and electrons, assuming a continuum flow. The differences among translational-rotational, vibrational, and electron temperatures are accounted for, as well as chemical nonequilibrium and electric-charge separation. Expressions for convective and viscous fluxes, transport properties, and the terms representing interactions among various energy modes are given explicitly. The expressions for the rate of electron-vibration energy transfer, which violates the Landau-Teller conditions, is derived by solving the system of master equations accounting for the multiple-level transitions.

Basic Governing Equations for the Flight Regimes of Aeroassisted Orbital Transfer Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, Jong-Hun

1985-01-01

The basic governing equations for the low-density, high-enthalpy flow regimes expected in the shock layers over the heat shields of the proposed aeroassisted orbital transfer vehicles are derived by combining and extending existing theories. The conservation equations are derived from gas kinetic principles for a four-component ionized gas consisting of neutral molecules, neutral atoms, singly ionized ions, and electrons, assuming a continuum flow. The differences among translational-rotational, vibrational, and electron temperatures are accounted for, as well as chemical nonequilibrium and electric-charge separation. Expressions for convective and viscous fluxes, transport properties, and the terms representing interactions among various energy modes are explicitly given. The expressions for the rate of electron-vibration energy transfer, which violates the Landau-Teller conditions, are derived by solving the system of master equations accounting for the multiple-level transitions.

Impact ionization study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Whipple, E. C., Jr.

1982-01-01

The impact ionization phenomenon which was observed on certain spacecraft was studied. The phenomenon occurs when a neutral atom, molecule, or ion strikes a surface with sufficient kinetic energy that either the incident neutral or atoms on the surface are ionized, with subsequent escape of ions and/or electrons. The released ions and electrons can interfere with measurements on the spacecraft by confusing interpretation of the data. On the other hand, there is the possibility that the effect could be developed into a diagnostic tool for investigating neutral atmospheric species or for studying physical processes on spacecraft surfaces.

Optical trapping and manipulation of neutral particles using lasers

PubMed Central

Ashkin, Arthur

1997-01-01

The techniques of optical trapping and manipulation of neutral particles by lasers provide unique means to control the dynamics of small particles. These new experimental methods have played a revolutionary role in areas of the physical and biological sciences. This paper reviews the early developments in the field leading to the demonstration of cooling and trapping of neutral atoms in atomic physics and to the first use of optical tweezers traps in biology. Some further major achievements of these rapidly developing methods also are considered. PMID:9144154

Spatial Distribution of Io's Neutral Oxygen Cloud Observed by Hisaki

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koga, Ryoichi; Tsuchiya, Fuminori; Kagitani, Masato; Sakanoi, Takeshi; Yoneda, Mizuki; Yoshioka, Kazuo; Yoshikawa, Ichiro; Kimura, Tomoki; Murakami, Go; Yamazaki, Atsushi; Smith, H. Todd; Bagenal, Fran

2018-05-01

We report on the spatial distribution of a neutral oxygen cloud surrounding Jupiter's moon Io and along Io's orbit observed by the Hisaki satellite. Atomic oxygen and sulfur in Io's atmosphere escape from the exosphere mainly through atmospheric sputtering. Some of the neutral atoms escape from Io's gravitational sphere and form neutral clouds around Jupiter. The extreme ultraviolet spectrograph called EXCEED (Extreme Ultraviolet Spectroscope for Exospheric Dynamics) installed on the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hisaki satellite observed the Io plasma torus continuously in 2014-2015, and we derived the spatial distribution of atomic oxygen emissions at 130.4 nm. The results show that Io's oxygen cloud is composed of two regions, namely, a dense region near Io and a diffuse region with a longitudinally homogeneous distribution along Io's orbit. The dense region mainly extends on the leading side of Io and inside of Io's orbit. The emissions spread out to 7.6 Jupiter radii (RJ). Based on Hisaki observations, we estimated the radial distribution of the atomic oxygen number density and oxygen ion source rate. The peak atomic oxygen number density is 80 cm-3, which is spread 1.2 RJ in the north-south direction. We found more oxygen atoms inside Io's orbit than a previous study. We estimated the total oxygen ion source rate to be 410 kg/s, which is consistent with the value derived from a previous study that used a physical chemistry model based on Hisaki observations of ultraviolet emission ions in the Io plasma torus.

Antimatter plasmas in a multipole trap for antihydrogen.

PubMed

Andresen, G; Bertsche, W; Boston, A; Bowe, P D; Cesar, C L; Chapman, S; Charlton, M; Chartier, M; Deutsch, A; Fajans, J; Fujiwara, M C; Funakoshi, R; Gill, D R; Gomberoff, K; Hangst, J S; Hayano, R S; Hydomako, R; Jenkins, M J; Jørgensen, L V; Kurchaninov, L; Madsen, N; Nolan, P; Olchanski, K; Olin, A; Povilus, A; Robicheaux, F; Sarid, E; Silveira, D M; Storey, J W; Telle, H H; Thompson, R I; van der Werf, D P; Wurtele, J S; Yamazaki, Y

2007-01-12

We have demonstrated storage of plasmas of the charged constituents of the antihydrogen atom, antiprotons and positrons, in a Penning trap surrounded by a minimum-B magnetic trap designed for holding neutral antiatoms. The neutral trap comprises a superconducting octupole and two superconducting, solenoidal mirror coils. We have measured the storage lifetimes of antiproton and positron plasmas in the combined Penning-neutral trap, and compared these to lifetimes without the neutral trap fields. The magnetic well depth was 0.6 T, deep enough to trap ground state antihydrogen atoms of up to about 0.4 K in temperature. We have demonstrated that both particle species can be stored for times long enough to permit antihydrogen production and trapping studies.

Elastic scattering of X-rays and gamma rays by 2S electrons in ions and neutral atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Costescu, A.; Spânulescu, S.; Stoica, C.

2012-08-01

The nonrelativistic limit of Rayleigh scattering amplitude on 2s electrons of neutral and partially ionized atoms is obtained by making use of the Green Function method. The result takes into consideration the retardation, relativistic kinematics and screening effects. The spurious singularities introduced by the retardation in a nonrelativistic approach are cancelled by the relativistic kinematics. For neutral and partially ionized atoms, a screening model is considered with an effective charge obtained by fitting the Hartree-Fock charge distribution with pure Coulombian wave functions corresponding to a central potential of a nucleus with Zeff as the atomic number. The total cross section of the photoeffect on the 2s electrons is also calculated from the imaginary part of the forward scattering amplitude by means of the optical theorem. The numerical results obtained are in a good agreement (10%) with the ones obtained by Kissell for the Rayleigh amplitude and by Scofield for the Photoeffect total cross section on the 2s electrons, for atoms with atomic number 18 ≤ Z ≤ 92 and photon energies ω≤αZm. (α=1/137,... is the fine structure constant, m is the electron mass).

A solenoidal synthetic field and the non-Abelian Aharonov-Bohm effects in neutral atoms

PubMed Central

Huo, Ming-Xia; Nie, Wei; Hutchinson, David A. W.; Kwek, Leong Chuan

2014-01-01

Cold neutral atoms provide a versatile and controllable platform for emulating various quantum systems. Despite efforts to develop artificial gauge fields in these systems, realizing a unique ideal-solenoid-shaped magnetic field within the quantum domain in any real-world physical system remains elusive. Here we propose a scheme to generate a “hairline” solenoid with an extremely small size around 1 micrometer which is smaller than the typical coherence length in cold atoms. Correspondingly, interference effects will play a role in transport. Despite the small size, the magnetic flux imposed on the atoms is very large thanks to the very strong field generated inside the solenoid. By arranging different sets of Laguerre-Gauss (LG) lasers, the generation of Abelian and non-Abelian SU(2) lattice gauge fields is proposed for neutral atoms in ring- and square-shaped optical lattices. As an application, interference patterns of the magnetic type-I Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect are obtained by evolving atoms along a circle over several tens of lattice cells. During the evolution, the quantum coherence is maintained and the atoms are exposed to a large magnetic flux. The scheme requires only standard optical access, and is robust to weak particle interactions. PMID:25103877

Mid-latitude empirical model of the height distribution of atomic oxygen in the MLT region for different solar and geophysical conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Semenov, A.; Shefov, N.; Fadel, Kh.

The model of altitude distributions of atomic oxygen in the region of the mesopause and lower thermosphere (MLT) is constructed on the basis of empirical models of variations of the intensities, temperatures and altitudes of maximum of the layers of the emissions of atomic oxygen at 557.7 nm, hydroxyl and Atmospheric system of molecular oxygen. An altitude concentration distribution of neutral components is determined on the basis of systematization of the long-term data of temperature of the middle atmosphere from rocket, nightglow and ionospheric measurements at heights of 30-110 km in middle latitudes. They include dependence on a season, solar activity and a long-term trend. Examples of results of calculation for different months of year for conditions of the lower and higher solar activity are presented. With increasing of solar activity, the height of a layer of a maximum of atomic oxygen becomes lower, and the thickness of the layer increases. There is a high correlation between characteristics of a layer of atomic oxygen and a maximum of temperature at heights of the mesopause and lower thermosphere. This work is supported by grant of ISTC No. 2274.

ORION’S VEIL: MAGNETIC FIELD STRENGTHS AND OTHER PROPERTIES OF A PDR IN FRONT OF THE TRAPEZIUM CLUSTER

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Troland, T. H.; Goss, W. M.; Brogan, C. L.

2016-07-01

We present an analysis of physical conditions in the Orion Veil, an atomic photon-dominated region (PDR) that lies just in front (≈2 pc) of the Trapezium stars of Orion. This region offers an unusual opportunity to study the properties of PDRs, including the magnetic field. We have obtained 21 cm H i and 18 cm (1665 and 1667 MHz) OH Zeeman effect data that yield images of the line-of-sight magnetic field strength B {sub los} in atomic and molecular regions of the Veil. We find B {sub los} ≈ −50 to −75 μ G in the atomic gas across muchmore » of the Veil (25″ resolution) and B {sub los} ≈ −350 μ G at one position in the molecular gas (40″ resolution). The Veil has two principal H i velocity components. Magnetic and kinematical data suggest a close connection between these components. They may represent gas on either side of a shock wave preceding a weak-D ionization front. Magnetic fields in the Veil H i components are 3–5 times stronger than they are elsewhere in the interstellar medium where N (H) and n (H) are comparable. The H i components are magnetically subcritical (magnetically dominated), like the cold neutral medium, although they are about 1 dex denser. Comparatively strong fields in the Veil H i components may have resulted from low-turbulence conditions in the diffuse gas that gave rise to OMC-1. Strong fields may also be related to magnetostatic equilibrium that has developed in the Veil since star formation. We also consider the location of the Orion-S molecular core, proposing a location behind the main Orion H{sup +} region.« less

Semiannual and solar activity variations of daytime plasma observed by DEMETER in the ionosphere-plasmasphere transition region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, L. Y.; Cao, J. B.; Yang, J. Y.; Berthelier, J. J.; Lebreton, J.-P.

2015-12-01

Using the plasma data of Detection of Electro-Magnetic Emissions Transmitted from Earthquake Regions (DEMETER) satellite and the NRLMSISE-00 atmospheric model, we examined the semiannual and solar activity variations of the daytime plasma and neutral composition densities in the ionosphere-plasmasphere transition region (~670-710 km). The results demonstrate that the semiannually latitudinal variation of the daytime oxygen ions (O+) is basically controlled by that of neutral atomic oxygen (O), whereas the latitude distributions of the helium and hydrogen ions (He+ and H+) do not fully depend on the neutral atomic helium (He) and hydrogen (H). The summer enhancement of the heavy oxygen ions is consistent with the neutral O enhancement in the summer hemisphere, and the oxygen ion density has significantly the summer-dense and winter-tenuous hemispheric asymmetry with respect to the dip equator. Although the winter enhancements of the lighter He+ and H+ ions are also associated with the neutral He and H enhancements in the winter hemisphere, the high-density light ions (He+ and H+) and electrons (e-) mainly appear at the low and middle magnetic latitudes (|λ| < 50°). The equatorial accumulations of the light plasma species indicate that the light charged particles (He+, H+, and e-) are easily transported by some equatorward forces (e.g., the magnetic mirror force and centrifugal force). The frequent Coulomb collisions between the charged particles probably lead to the particle trappings at different latitudes. Moreover, the neutral composition densities also influence their ion concentrations during different solar activities. From the low-F10.7 year (2007-2008) to the high-F10.7 year (2004-2005), the daytime oxygen ions and electrons increase with the increasing neutral atomic oxygen, whereas the daytime hydrogen ions tend to decrease with the decreasing neutral atomic hydrogen. The helium ion density has no obvious solar activity variation, suggesting that the generation (via the neutral He photoionization) and loss (via the charge exchange with neutral nitrogen N2 and/or the recombination with electrons) of the daytime He+ ions are comparable during different solar activities.

Entangling two transportable neutral atoms via local spin exchange.

PubMed

Kaufman, A M; Lester, B J; Foss-Feig, M; Wall, M L; Rey, A M; Regal, C A

2015-11-12

To advance quantum information science, physical systems are sought that meet the stringent requirements for creating and preserving quantum entanglement. In atomic physics, robust two-qubit entanglement is typically achieved by strong, long-range interactions in the form of either Coulomb interactions between ions or dipolar interactions between Rydberg atoms. Although such interactions allow fast quantum gates, the interacting atoms must overcome the associated coupling to the environment and cross-talk among qubits. Local interactions, such as those requiring substantial wavefunction overlap, can alleviate these detrimental effects; however, such interactions present a new challenge: to distribute entanglement, qubits must be transported, merged for interaction, and then isolated for storage and subsequent operations. Here we show how, using a mobile optical tweezer, it is possible to prepare and locally entangle two ultracold neutral atoms, and then separate them while preserving their entanglement. Ground-state neutral atom experiments have measured dynamics consistent with spin entanglement, and have detected entanglement with macroscopic observables; we are now able to demonstrate position-resolved two-particle coherence via application of a local gradient and parity measurements. This new entanglement-verification protocol could be applied to arbitrary spin-entangled states of spatially separated atoms. The local entangling operation is achieved via spin-exchange interactions, and quantum tunnelling is used to combine and separate atoms. These techniques provide a framework for dynamically entangling remote qubits via local operations within a large-scale quantum register.

Ion-neutral-atom sympathetic cooling in a hybrid linear rf Paul and magneto-optical trap

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goodman, D. S.; Sivarajah, I.; Wells, J. E.; Narducci, F. A.; Smith, W. W.

2012-09-01

Long-range polarization forces between ions and neutral atoms result in large elastic scattering cross sections (e.g., ˜106a.u. for Na-Na+ or Na-Ca+ at cold and ultracold temperatures). This suggests that a hybrid ion-neutral trap should offer a general means for significant sympathetic cooling of atomic or molecular ions. We present simion 7.0 simulation results concerning the advantages and limitations of sympathetic cooling within a hybrid trap apparatus consisting of a linear rf Paul trap concentric with a Na magneto-optical trap (MOT). This paper explores the impact of various heating mechanisms on the hybrid system and how parameters related to the MOT, Paul trap, number of ions, and ion species affect the efficiency of the sympathetic cooling.

Single atoms in a MOT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Meschede, Dieter; Ueberholz, Bernd; Gomer, Victor

1999-06-11

We are experimenting with individual neutral cesium atoms stored in a magneto-optical trap. The atoms are detected by their resonance fluorescence, and fluorescence fluctuations contain signatures of the atomic internal and external degrees of freedom. This noninvasive probe provides a rich source of information about atomic dynamics at all relevant time scales.

Integrated optical dipole trap for cold neutral atoms with an optical waveguide coupler

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, J.; Park, D. H.; Mittal, S.; Dagenais, M.; Rolston, S. L.

2013-04-01

An integrated optical dipole trap uses two-color (red and blue-detuned) traveling evanescent wave fields for trapping cold neutral atoms. To achieve longitudinal confinement, we propose using an integrated optical waveguide coupler, which provides a potential gradient along the beam propagation direction sufficient to confine atoms. This integrated optical dipole trap can support an atomic ensemble with a large optical depth due to its small mode area. Its quasi-TE0 waveguide mode has an advantage over the HE11 mode of a nanofiber, with little inhomogeneous Zeeman broadening at the trapping region. The longitudinal confinement eliminates the need for a one dimensional optical lattice, reducing collisional blockaded atomic loading, potentially producing larger ensembles. The waveguide trap allows for scalability and integrability with nano-fabrication technology. We analyze the potential performance of such integrated atom traps.

Variability in the x-ray emission of H0538+608: An unusual AM Her-type cataclysmic variable. Thesis, Final Report

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Catelli, Jennifer

1992-01-01

The x-ray emissions of AM Herculis-type object H0538+608 were observed using the ROSAT satellite. Evidence was found for a highly varying soft x-ray component with a much lower intensity than is typical for this class. The spectrum was well fit by a thermal bremsstrahlung model (exponential plus gaunt factor) of 35 +/- 5 KeV plus a 0.05 +/- 0.01 KeV blackbody component, with absorption by interstellar medium with a neutral hydrogen column density of log N(sub H) (atoms/sq cm) = 20.2. No obvious periodic variations were found. There was very little correlation between the hard and soft x-ray bands.

The correcting method for the estimation of correlation energies of MF2 (M = Be, Mg, Ca) set molecules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhuo, Shuping; Wei, Jichong; Ju, Guanzhi

The intrapair and interpair correlation energies of MF2 (M = Be, Mg, Ca) set molecules are calculated and analysed, and the transferability of inner core correlation effects of Mδ+ are investigated. A detailed analysis of the comparison of correlation energies of neutral atoms with their corresponding ions of Mδ+ and Fδ-/2 is given in terms of the correlation contribution of this component. The study reveals that the total correlation energy of MF2 molecules can be obtained by summing the correlation contributions of Mδ+ and two Fδ-/2 components. This simple estimation method does shed light on the importance of searching useful means for the calculation of electron correlation energy for large biological systems.

Inner Magnetosphere Imager (IMI) instrument heritage

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilson, G. R.

1993-01-01

This report documents the heritage of instrument concepts under consideration for the Inner Magnetosphere Imager (IMI) mission. The proposed IMI will obtain the first simultaneous images of the component regions of the inner magnetosphere and will enable scientists to relate these global images to internal and external influences as well as local observations. To obtain simultaneous images of component regions of the inner magnetosphere, measurements will be made of: (1) the ring current and inner plasma sheet using energetic neutral atoms; (2) the plasmasphere using extreme ultraviolet; (3) the electron and proton auroras using far ultraviolet and x rays; and (4) the geocorona using FUV. Instrument concepts that show heritage and traceability to those that will be required to meet the IMI measurement objectives are described.

Interstellar Neutral Helium in the Heliosphere from IBEX Observations. V. Observations in IBEX-Lo ESA Steps 1, 2, and 3

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Swaczyna, Paweł; Bzowski, Maciej; Kubiak, Marzena A.; Sokół, Justyna M.; Fuselier, Stephen A.; Galli, André; Heirtzler, David; Kucharek, Harald; McComas, David J.; Möbius, Eberhard; Schwadron, Nathan A.; Wurz, P.

2018-02-01

Direct-sampling observations of interstellar neutral (ISN) He by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) provide valuable insight into the physical state of and processes operating in the interstellar medium ahead of the heliosphere. The ISN He atom signals are observed at the four lowest ESA steps of the IBEX-Lo sensor. The observed signal is a mixture of the primary and secondary components of ISN He and H. Previously, only data from one of the ESA steps have been used. Here, we extend the analysis to data collected in the three lowest ESA steps with the strongest ISN He signal, for the observation seasons 2009–2015. The instrument sensitivity is modeled as a linear function of the atom impact speed onto the sensor’s conversion surface separately for each ESA step of the instrument. We find that the sensitivity increases from lower to higher ESA steps, but within each of the ESA steps it is a decreasing function of the atom impact speed. This result may be influenced by the hydrogen contribution, which was not included in the adopted model, but seems to exist in the signal. We conclude that the currently accepted temperature of ISN He and velocity of the Sun through the interstellar medium do not need a revision, and we sketch a plan of further data analysis aiming at investigating ISN H and a better understanding of the population of ISN He originating in the outer heliosheath.

Neutral sodium atoms extraction by micrometeoroid impacts on the surface of Mercury

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cremonese, G.; Orsini, S.; Capria, M. T.; Milillo, A.; Mura, A.; Mangano, V.; Carbognani, A.

2003-04-01

The Mercury's exosphere is more dependent on the micrometeoroid impacts than the lunar exosphere and we have applied an order-to-magnitude calculation on the physical conditions of the sodium atoms during these events. This calculation shows the different ionization degree of sodium atoms depending on the meteoroid impact velocity and the related emission enhancements we may have observing the exosphere. We have applied the same calculation to the visible and UV doublets showing the large difference, a factor 5, between the two emission intensities only taking into account the same micrometeoroids contribution. Furthermore we provide a rough estimate for the impact magnitude in sodium light if we observe the night side of the Mercury's surface from the orbit of the ESA mission BepiColombo. Assuming a specific energy distribution of the emitted neutrals, we simulate the characteristics of the low-energy neutral atom fluxes as observable by the SERENA/ELENA instrument proposed on board the ESA BepiColombo Planetary Orbiter.

Structure assignment, electronic properties, and magnetism quenching of endohedrally doped neutral silicon clusters, Si(n)Co (n = 10-12).

PubMed

Li, Yejun; Tam, Nguyen Minh; Claes, Pieterjan; Woodham, Alex P; Lyon, Jonathan T; Ngan, Vu Thi; Nguyen, Minh Tho; Lievens, Peter; Fielicke, André; Janssens, Ewald

2014-09-18

The structures of neutral cobalt-doped silicon clusters have been assigned by a combined experimental and theoretical study. Size-selective infrared spectra of neutral Si(n)Co (n = 10-12) clusters are measured using a tunable IR-UV two-color ionization scheme. The experimental infrared spectra are compared with calculated spectra of low-energy structures predicted at the B3P86 level of theory. It is shown that the Si(n)Co (n = 10-12) clusters have endohedral caged structures, where the silicon frameworks prefer double-layered structures encapsulating the Co atom. Electronic structure analysis indicates that the clusters are stabilized by an ionic interaction between the Co dopant atom and the silicon cage due to the charge transfer from the silicon valence sp orbitals to the cobalt 3d orbitals. Strong hybridization between the Co dopant atom and the silicon host quenches the local magnetic moment on the encapsulated Co atom.

The terrestrial ring current - From in situ measurements to global images using energetic neutral atoms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Roelof, Edmond C.; Williams, Donald J.

1988-01-01

Electrical currents flowing in the equatorial magnetosphere, first inferred from ground-based magnetic disturbances, are carried by trapped energetic ions. Spacecraft measurements have determined the spectrum and composition of those currents, and the newly developed technique of energetic-neutral-atom imaging allows the global dynamics of that entire ion population to be viewed from a single spacecraft.

Quantum Error Correction with a Globally-Coupled Array of Neutral Atom Qubits

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-02-01

magneto - optical trap ) located at the center of the science cell. Fluorescence...Bottle beam trap GBA Gaussian beam array EMCCD electron multiplying charge coupled device microsec. microsecond MOT Magneto - optical trap QEC quantum error correction qubit quantum bit ...developed and implemented an array of neutral atom qubits in optical traps for studies of quantum error correction. At the end of the three year

IMPACT OF PLANETARY GRAVITATION ON HIGH-PRECISION NEUTRAL ATOM MEASUREMENTS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kucharek, H.; Möbius, E.; Lee, M. A.

2015-10-15

Measurements of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) have been extremely successful in providing very important information on the physical processes inside and outside of our heliosphere. For instance, recent Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) observations have provided new insights into the local interstellar environment and improved measurements of the interstellar He temperature, velocity, and direction of the interstellar flow vector. Since particle collisions are rare, and radiation pressure is negligible for these neutrals, gravitational forces mainly determine the trajectories of neutral He atoms. Depending on the distance of an ENA to the source of a gravitational field and its relative speed andmore » direction, this can result in significant deflection and acceleration. In this paper, we investigate the impact of the gravitational effects of Earth, the Moon, and Jupiter on ENA measurements performed in Earth’s orbit. The results show that current analysis of the interstellar neutral parameters by IBEX is not significantly affected by planetary gravitational effects. We further studied the possibility of whether or not the Helium focusing cone of the Sun and Jupiter could be measured by IBEX and whether or not these cones could be used as an independent measure of the temperature of interstellar Helium.« less

Ion-Atom Cold Collisions and Atomic Clocks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prestage, John D.; Maleki, Lute; Tjoelker, Robert L.

1997-01-01

Collisions between ultracold neutral atoms have for some time been the subject of investigation, initially with hydrogen and more recently with laser cooled alkali atoms. Advances in laser cooling and trapping of neutral atoms in a Magneto-Optic Trap (MOT) have made cold atoms available as the starting point for many laser cooled atomic physics investigations. The most spectacularly successful of these, the observation of Bose-Einstein Condensation (BEC) in a dilute ultra-cold spin polarized atomic vapor, has accelerated the study of cold collisions. Experimental and theoretical studies of BEC and the long range interaction between cold alkali atoms is at the boundary of atomic and low temperature physics. Such studies have been difficult and would not have been possible without the development and advancement of laser cooling and trapping of neutral atoms. By contrast, ion-atom interactions at low temperature, also very difficult to study prior to modern day laser cooling, have remained largely unexplored. But now, many laboratories worldwide have almost routine access to cold neutral atoms. The combined technologies of ion trapping, together with laser cooling of neutrals has made these studies experimentally feasible and several very important, novel applications might come out of such investigations . This paper is an investigation of ion-atom interactions in the cold and ultra-cold temperature regime. Some of the collisional ion-atom interactions present at room temperature are very much reduced in the low temperature regime. Reaction rates for charge transfer between unlike atoms, A + B(+) approaches A(+) + B, are expected to fall rapidly with temperature, approximately as T(sup 5/2). Thus, cold mixtures of atoms and ions are expected to coexist for very long times, unlike room temperature mixtures of the same ion-atom combination. Thus, it seems feasible to cool ions via collisions with laser cooled atoms. Many of the conventional collisional interactions, exploited as a useful tool at room temperature and higher, are greatly enhanced at low energy. For example, collisional spin transfer from one species of polarized atoms to another has long been a useful method for polarizing a sample of atoms where no other means was available. Because optical pumping cannot be used to polarize the nuclear spin of Xe-129 or He-3 (for use in nmr imaging of the lungs), the nuclear spins are polarized via collisions with an optically pumped Rb vapor in a cell containing both gases. In another case, a spin polarized thermal Cs beam was used to polarize the hyperfine states of trapped He(+)-3 ions in order to measure their hyperfine clock transition frequency. The absence of an x-ray light source to optically pump the ground state of the He(+)-3 ion necessitated this alternative state preparation. Similarly, Cd(+) and Sr(+) ions were spin-oriented via collisions in a cell with optically pumped Rb vapor. Resonant RF spin changing transitions in the ground state of the ions were detected by changes in the Rb resonance light absorption. Because cold collision spin exchange rates scale with temperature as T(sup -1/2) this technique is expected to be a far more powerful tool than the room temperature counterpart. This factor of 100 or more enhancement in spin exchange reaction rates at low temperatures is the basis for a novel trapped ion clock where laser cooled neutrals will cool, state select and monitor the ion clock transition. The advantage over conventional direct laser cooling of trapped ions is that the very expensive and cumbersome UV laser light sources, required to excite the ionic cooling transition, are effectively replaced by simple diode lasers.

Spectroscopy, Manipulation and Trapping of Neutral Atoms, Molecules, and Other Particles Using Optical Nanofibers: A Review

PubMed Central

Morrissey, Michael J.; Deasy, Kieran; Frawley, Mary; Kumar, Ravi; Prel, Eugen; Russell, Laura; Truong, Viet Giang; Chormaic, Síle Nic

2013-01-01

The use of tapered optical fibers, i.e., optical nanofibers, for spectroscopy and the detection of small numbers of particles, such as neutral atoms or molecules, has been gaining interest in recent years. In this review, we briefly introduce the optical nanofiber, its fabrication, and optical mode propagation within. We discuss recent progress on the integration of optical nanofibers into laser-cooled atom and vapor systems, paying particular attention to spectroscopy, cold atom cloud characterization, and optical trapping schemes. Next, a natural extension of this work to molecules is introduced. Finally, we consider several alternatives to optical nanofibers that display some advantages for specific applications. PMID:23945738

Kinetic Properties of the Neutral Solar Wind

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Florinski, V.; Heerikhuisen, J.

2017-03-01

Charge-exchange collisions between the solar wind protons and interstellar hydrogen produce a distinctive population of neutral hydrogen streaming radially at nearly the solar-wind speed. This tenuous population, known as the neutral solar wind (NSW) is thought to play a key role in the appearance of the Interplanetary Boundary EXplorer ribbon, a bright circular band in the sky that is the source of neutral hydrogen with energies near 1 keV. According to the leading model of the ribbon, the velocity distribution of NSW hydrogen is imparted on the pickup ions (PUIs) generated via charge exchange with the interstellar protons beyond the heliopause, and in this way controls the stability of the resulting ring distribution of PUIs against hydromagnetic wave generation. In this paper, we examine the velocity distributions of the NSW atoms in the heliosphere and the outer heliosheath regions by following the phase-space trajectories of the Boltzmann equation. It is demonstrated that these distributions are highly anisotropic, with the parallel (radial) temperature greatly exceeding the perpendicular temperature. Ions picked up near 90° from the anisotropic NSW would form a stable ring distribution capable of generating the ribbon flux. We also discuss a second population of neutrals born in charge transfer collisions with interstellar PUIs, the so-called neutralized pickup ion (NPI) component. Their high thermal velocities translate into large parallel velocity spread of the daughter ribbon PUIs, which would adversely affect plasma stability in local interstellar space.

Experimental investigations of low-energy (4 to 40 eV) collisions of O(-)(P2) ions and O(P3) atoms with surfaces

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chutjian, A.; Orient, O. J.; Murad, E.

1990-01-01

Using a newly-developed, magnetically confined source, low-energy, ground state oxygen negative ions and neutral atoms are generated. The energy range is variable, and atom and neutrals have been generated at energies varying from 2 eV to 40 eV and higher. It was found that the interaction of these low-energy species with a solid magnesium fluoride target leads to optical emissions in the (at least) visible and infrared regions of the spectrum. Researchers describe y details of the photodetachment source, and present spectra of the neutral and ion glows in the wavelength range 250 to 850 nm (for O(-)) and 600 to 850 nm (for O), and discuss the variability of the emissions for incident energies between 4 and 40 eV.

Experimental investigations of low-energy (4-40 eV) collisions of O-(2P) ions and O(3P) atoms with surfaces

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Orient, O. J.; Chutjian, A.; Murad, E.

1990-01-01

Using a newly-developed, magnetically confined source, low-energy, ground state oxygen negative ions and neutral atoms are generated. The energy range is variable, and atom and neutrals have been generated at energies varying from 2 eV to 40 eV and higher. It was found that the interaction of these low-energy species with a solid magnesium fluoride target leads to optical emissions in the (at least) visible and infrared regions of the spectrum. Researchers describe y details of the photodetachment source, and present spectra of the neutral and ion glows in the wavelength range 250 to 850 nm (for O/-/) and 600 to 850 nm (for O), and discuss the variability of the emissions for incident energies between 4 and 40 eV.

Possibility of deriving the Hermean surface composition through low energy neutral atom detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Milillo, A.; Orsini, S.; Massetti, S.; Mura, A.; de Angelis, E.; Lammer, H.; Wurz, P.; di Lellis, A. M.

2003-04-01

The release processes induced by ion sputtering and/or micrometeoroids impacts induces erosion of the Mercury surface. The sputtered neutrals exhibit spectra peaked at low energies (few eV). Nevertheless, a high-energy neutral signal also emerges, due to these release processes. In principle, the directional neutral signal can be detected, providing information on the local surface composition. In this study, we simulate the neutral signal due to ion sputtering below the cusp regions, assuming a highly anisotropic surface composition. The NPA SERENA / ELENA instrument proposed on board the ESA mission BepiColombo is a nadir-pointing 1-D sensor, able to detect neutral atoms, form tens of eV to about 5 keV with a capability of resolving the major species. The ELENA field-of-view (FOV) is ~ 60 degrees, with the FOV plane perpendicular to the MPO orbital plane. Here, we speculate on the possibility of discriminating composition anisotropies by detecting the high-energy portion of the sputtered signal.

Neutral-atom electron binding energies from relaxed-orbital relativistic Hartree-Fock-Slater calculations for Z between 2 and 106

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huang, K.-N.; Aoyagi, M.; Mark, H.; Chen, M. H.; Crasemann, B.

1976-01-01

Electron binding energies in neutral atoms have been calculated relativistically, with the requirement of complete relaxation. Hartree-Fock-Slater wave functions served as zeroth-order eigenfunctions to compute the expectation of the total Hamiltonian. A first-order correction to the local approximation was thus included. Quantum-electrodynamic corrections were made. For all elements with atomic numbers ranging from 2 to 106, the following quantities are listed: total energies, electron kinetic energies, electron-nucleus potential energies, electron-electron potential energies consisting of electrostatic and Breit interaction (magnetic and retardation) terms, and vacuum polarization energies. Binding energies including relaxation are listed for all electrons in all atoms over the indicated range of atomic numbers. A self-energy correction is included for the 1s, 2s, and 2p(1/2) levels. Results for selected atoms are compared with energies calculated by other methods and with experimental values.

Characterization of xenon ion and neutral interactions in a well-characterized experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Patino, Marlene I.; Wirz, Richard E.

2018-06-01

Interactions between fast ions and slow neutral atoms are commonly dominated by charge-exchange and momentum-exchange collisions, which are important to understanding and simulating the performance and behavior of many plasma devices. To investigate these interactions, this work developed a simple, well-characterized experiment that accurately measures the behavior of high energy xenon ions incident on a background of xenon neutral atoms. By using well-defined operating conditions and a simple geometry, these results serve as canonical data for the development and validation of plasma models and models of neutral beam sources that need to ensure accurate treatment of angular scattering distributions of charge-exchange and momentum-exchange ions and neutrals. The energies used in this study are relevant for electric propulsion devices ˜1.5 keV and can be used to improve models of ion-neutral interactions in the plume. By comparing these results to both analytical and computational models of ion-neutral interactions, we discovered the importance of (1) accurately treating the differential cross-sections for momentum-exchange and charge-exchange collisions over a large range of neutral background pressures and (2) properly considering commonly overlooked interactions, such as ion-induced electron emission from nearby surfaces and neutral-neutral ionization collisions.

4-(Naphthalene-2-carboxamido)­pyridin-1-ium thio­cyanate–N-(pyridin-4-yl)naphthalene-2-carboxamide (1/1)

PubMed Central

Saeed, Sohail; Rashid, Naghmana; Butcher, Ray J.; Öztürk Yildirim, Sema; Hussain, Rizwan

2012-01-01

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C16H13N2O+·NCS−·C16H12N2O, contains two N-(pyridin-4-yl)naphthalene-2-carboxamide mol­ecules, both are partially protonated in the pyridine moiety, i.e. the H atom attached to the pyridine N atom is partially occupied with an occupancy factor of 0.61 (3) and 0.39 (3), respectively. In the crystal, protonated and neutral N-(pyridin-4-yl)naphthalene-2-carboxamide mol­ecules are linked by N—H⋯N hydrogen bonding; the thio­cyanate counter-ion links with both protonated and neutral N-(pyridin-4-yl)naphthalene-2-carboxamide mol­ecules via N—H⋯S and N—H⋯N hydrogen bonding. The dihedral angles between the pyridine ring and naphthalene ring systems are 11.33 (6) and 9.51 (6)°, respectively. π–π stacking is observed in the crystal structure, the shortest centroid–centroid distance being 3.5929 (8) Å. The crystal structure was determined from a nonmerohedral twin {ratio of the twin components = 0.357 (1):0.643 (1) and twin law [-100 0-10 -101]}. PMID:23125774

A Herschel [C ii] Galactic plane survey. I. The global distribution of ISM gas components

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pineda, J. L.; Langer, W. D.; Velusamy, T.; Goldsmith, P. F.

2013-06-01

Context. The [C ii] 158 μm line is an important tool for understanding the life cycle of interstellar matter. Ionized carbon is present in a variety of phases of the interstellar medium (ISM), including the diffuse ionized medium, warm and cold atomic clouds, clouds in transition from atomic to molecular, and dense and warm photon dominated regions. Aims: Velocity-resolved observations of [C ii] are the most powerful technique available to disentangle the emission produced by these components. These observations can also be used to trace CO-dark H2 gas and determine the total mass of the ISM. Methods: The Galactic Observations of Terahertz C+ (GOT C+) project surveys the [C ii] 158 μm line over the entire Galactic disk with velocity-resolved observations using the Herschel/HIFI instrument. We present the first longitude-velocity maps of the [C ii] emission for Galactic latitudes b = 0°, ±0.5°, and ±1.0°. We combine these maps with those of H i, 12CO, and 13CO to separate the different phases of the ISM and study their properties and distribution in the Galactic plane. Results: [C ii] emission is mostly associated with spiral arms, mainly emerging from Galactocentric distances between 4 and 10 kpc. It traces the envelopes of evolved clouds as well as clouds that are in the transition between atomic and molecular. We estimate that most of the observed [C ii] emission is produced by dense photon dominated regions (~47%), with smaller contributions from CO-dark H2 gas (~28%), cold atomic gas (~21%), and ionized gas (~4%). Atomic gas inside the Solar radius is mostly in the form of cold neutral medium (CNM), while the warm neutral medium gas dominates the outer galaxy. The average fraction of CNM relative to total atomic gas is ~43%. We find that the warm and diffuse CO-dark H2 is distributed over a larger range of Galactocentric distances (4-11 kpc) than the cold and dense H2 gas traced by 12CO and 13CO (4-8 kpc). The fraction of CO-dark H2 to total H2 increases with Galactocentric distance, ranging from ~20% at 4 kpc to ~80% at 10 kpc. On average, CO-dark H2 accounts for ~30% of the molecular mass of the Milky Way. When the CO-dark H2 component is included, the radial distribution of the CO-to-H2 conversion factor is steeper than that when only molecular gas traced by CO is considered. Most of the observed [C ii] emission emerging from dense photon dominated regions is associated with modest far-ultraviolet fields in the range χ0 ≃ 1 - 30. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.Appendices are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org

A Controlled-Phase Gate via Adiabatic Rydberg Dressing of Neutral Atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keating, Tyler; Deutsch, Ivan; Cook, Robert; Biederman, Grant; Jau, Yuan-Yu

2014-05-01

The dipole blockade effect between Rydberg atoms is a promising tool for quantum information processing in neutral atoms. So far, most efforts to perform a quantum logic gate with this effect have used resonant laser pulses to excite the atoms, which makes the system particularly susceptible to decoherence through thermal motional effects. We explore an alternative scheme in which the atomic ground states are adiabatically ``dressed'' by turning on an off-resonant laser. We analyze the implementation of a CPHASE gate using this mechanism and find that fidelities of >99% should be possible with current technology, owing primarily to the suppression of motional errors. We also discuss how such a scheme could be generalized to perform more complicated, multi-qubit gates; in particular, a simple generalization would allow us to perform a Toffoli gate in a single step.

Classical molecular dynamics simulations for non-equilibrium correlated plasmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferri, S.; Calisti, A.; Talin, B.

2017-03-01

A classical molecular dynamics model was recently extended to simulate neutral multi-component plasmas where various charge states of the same atom and electrons coexist. It is used to investigate the plasma effects on the ion charge and on the ionization potential in dense plasmas. Different simulated statistical properties will show that the concept of isolated particles is lost in such correlated plasmas. The charge equilibration is discussed for a carbon plasma at solid density and investigation on the charge distribution and on the ionization potential depression (IPD) for aluminum plasmas is discussed with reference to existing experiments.

Negative Differential Conductivity in an Interacting Quantum Gas.

PubMed

Labouvie, Ralf; Santra, Bodhaditya; Heun, Simon; Wimberger, Sandro; Ott, Herwig

2015-07-31

We report on the observation of negative differential conductivity (NDC) in a quantum transport device for neutral atoms employing a multimode tunneling junction. The system is realized with a Bose-Einstein condensate loaded in a one-dimensional optical lattice with high site occupancy. We induce an initial difference in chemical potential at one site by local atom removal. The ensuing transport dynamics are governed by the interplay between the tunneling coupling, the interaction energy, and intrinsic collisions, which turn the coherent coupling into a hopping process. The resulting current-voltage characteristics exhibit NDC, for which we identify atom number-dependent tunneling as a new microscopic mechanism. Our study opens new ways for the future implementation and control of complex neutral atom quantum circuits.

DESTRUCTION OF NEUTRAL PARTICLES IN A DEVICE FOR PRODUCING A HIGH DENSITY PLASMA

DOEpatents

Simon, A.

1962-05-01

A method and apparatus are described for burning out neutral particles in an evacuated region and within a strong magnetic field. The method comprises injecting energetic molecular ions into the region perpendicular to the magnetic field and into the path of a dissociating, energetic arc discharge, the atomic ions formed in the dissociating process being trapped by the magnetic field, and then increasing the value of the trapped atomic ion current to such a value that the neutral particles are destroyed faster than they are formed, thereby causing a dense, energetic plasma to be built up and sustained by the magnetic field. (AEC)

The Basics of Electric Weapons and Pulsed-Power Technologies

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-01-01

launchers. DEWs send energy, instead of matter, toward a target, and can be separated into three types: laser weapons, particle -beam weapons, and high...beam’s energy de- position, target material, and flight dynamics is needed. Particle Beams A particle -beam weapon is a directed flow of atomic or sub...atomic particles . These parti- cles can be neutral or electrically charged. Neutral beams need to be used outside the atmosphere (in space), where

Two wide-angle imaging neutral-atom spectrometers (TWINS)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McComas, D.J.; Blake, B.; Burch, J.

1998-11-01

Two Wide-angle Imaging Neutral-atom Spectrometers (TWINS) is a revolutionary new mission designed to stereoscopically image the magnetosphere in charge exchange neutral atoms for the first time. The authors propose to fly two identical TWINS instruments as a mission of opportunity on two widely-spaced high-altitude, high-inclination US Government spacecraft. Because the spacecraft are funded independently, TWINS can provide a vast quantity of high priority science observations (as identified in an ongoing new missions concept study and the Sun-Earth Connections Roadmap) at a small fraction of the cost of a dedicated mission. Because stereo observations of the near-Earth space environs will providemore » a particularly graphic means for visualizing the magnetosphere in action, and because of the dedication and commitment of the investigator team to the principles of carrying space science to the broader audience, TWINS will also be an outstanding tool for public education and outreach.« less

A New Instrument Design for Imaging Low Energy Neutral Atoms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Keller, John W.; Collier, Michael R.; Chornay, Dennis; Rozmarynowski, Paul; Getty, Stephanie; Cooper, John F.; Smith, Billy

2007-01-01

The MidSTAR-2 satellite, to be built at the US Naval Academy as a follow-on to the successful MidSTAR-1 satellite (http://web.ew.usna.edu/midstar/), will launch in 2011 and carry three Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) experiments developed under Goddard's Internal Research and Development (IRAD) program. One of these GSFC instruments, the Miniature Imager for Neutral Ionospheric atoms and Magnetospheric Electrons (MINI-ME) builds on the heritage of the Goddard-developed Low-Energy Neutral Atom (LENA) imager launched on the IMAGE spacecraft in 2000. MINI-ME features a Venetian-blind conversion surface assembly that improves both light rejection and conversion efficiency in a smaller and lighter package than LENA making this an highly effective instrument for viewing solar wind charge exchange with terrestrial and planetary exospheres. We will describe the MINI-ME prototyping effort and its science targets.

An apparatus for immersing trapped ions into an ultracold gas of neutral atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmid, Stefan; Härter, Arne; Frisch, Albert; Hoinka, Sascha; Denschlag, Johannes Hecker

2012-05-01

We describe a hybrid vacuum system in which a single ion or a well-defined small number of trapped ions (in our case Ba+ or Rb+) can be immersed into a cloud of ultracold neutral atoms (in our case Rb). This apparatus allows for the study of collisions and interactions between atoms and ions in the ultracold regime. Our setup is a combination of a Bose-Einstein condensation apparatus and a linear Paul trap. The main design feature of the apparatus is to first separate the production locations for the ion and the ultracold atoms and then to bring the two species together. This scheme has advantages in terms of stability and available access to the region where the atom-ion collision experiments are carried out. The ion and the atoms are brought together using a moving one-dimensional optical lattice transport which vertically lifts the atomic sample over a distance of 30 cm from its production chamber into the center of the Paul trap in another chamber. We present techniques to detect and control the relative position between the ion and the atom cloud.

BepiColombo Serena/ELENA instrument:development and testing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Orsini, S.; De Angelis, E.; Selci, S.; Di Lellis, A. M.:; Leoni, R.; Rispoli, R.; Colasanti, L.; Vertolli, N.; Scheer, J.; Mura, A.; Milillo, A.; Wurz, P.; D'Alessandro, M.; Maschietti, D.; Mattioli, F.; Cibella, S.; Brienza, D.; lo Spazio, Compagnia Generale per

2012-04-01

ELENA is a TOF sensor, based on a novel concept ultra-sonic oscillating shutter (Start section) which is operated at frequencies up to 50 kHz; a MCP detector is used as a Stop section. It is aimed to detect neutral atoms in the range 10 eV - 5 keV, within 70° FOV, perpendicular to the S/C orbital plane. ELENA will monitor the emission of neutral atoms from the whole surface of Mercury thanks to the spacecraft motion. The major scientific objectives are the interaction between the environment and the planet, the global particle loss-rate and the remote sensing of the surface properties. In particular, surface release processes are investigated by identifying particles release from the surface, via solar wind-induced ion sputtering (<1eV - >100 eV) as well as Hydrogen back-scattered at hundreds eV. In particular, the capability to detect non-thermal low energy neutral species is crucial for the sensor ELENA (Emitted Low-Energy Neutral Atoms), part of the package SERENA (Search for Exospheric Refilling and Emitted Natural Abundances) on board the BepiColombo mission to Mercury to be launched in 2014. The instrument is now validated and tested to reach its performances: the up-graded shutter system (Start section) has been operated for the first time with neutral atom beam and tested at high frequency, the Stop section has been calibrated investigating the region of very low energy detection efficiency, the electronics boards and the entire acquisition chain has been appointed and tested with ion beam. The first results of all the ELENA capability will be presented.

Atomic oxygen beam source for erosion simulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cuthbertson, J. W.; Langer, W. D.; Motley, R. W.; Vaughn, J. A.

1991-01-01

A device for the production of low energy (3 to 10 eV) neutral atomic beams for surface modification studies is described that reproduces the flux of atomic oxygen in low Earth orbit. The beam is produced by the acceleration of plasma ions onto a negatively biased plate of high-Z metal; the ions are neutralized and reflected by the surface, retaining some fraction of their incident kinetic energy, forming a beam of atoms. The plasma is generated by a coaxial RF exciter which produces a magnetically-confined (4 kG) plasma column. At the end of the column, ions fall through the sheath to the plate, whose bias relative to the plasma can be varied to adjust the beam energy. The source provides a neutral flux approximately equal to 5 x 10(exp 16)/sq cm at a distance of 9 cm and a fluence approximately equal to 10(exp 20)/sq cm in five hours. The composition and energy of inert gas beams was diagnosed using a mass spectometer/energy analyzer. The energy spectra of the beams demonstrate energies in the range 5 to 15 eV, and qualitatively show expected dependences upon incident and reflecting atom species and potential drop. Samples of carbon film, carbon-based paint, Kapton, mylar, and teflon exposed to atomic O beams show erosion quite similar to that observed in orbit on the space shuttle.

Fast resolution change in neutral helium atom microscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Flatabø, R.; Eder, S. D.; Ravn, A. K.; Samelin, B.; Greve, M. M.; Reisinger, T.; Holst, B.

2018-05-01

In neutral helium atom microscopy, a beam of atoms is scanned across a surface. Though still in its infancy, neutral helium microscopy has seen a rapid development over the last few years. The inertness and low energy of the helium atoms (less than 0.1 eV) combined with a very large depth of field and the fact that the helium atoms do not penetrate any solid material at low energies open the possibility for a non-destructive instrument that can measure topology on the nanoscale even on fragile and insulating surfaces. The resolution is determined by the beam spot size on the sample. Fast resolution change is an attractive property of a microscope because it allows different aspects of a sample to be investigated and makes it easier to identify specific features. However up till now it has not been possible to change the resolution of a helium microscope without breaking the vacuum and changing parts of the atom source. Here we present a modified source design, which allows fast, step wise resolution change. The basic design idea is to insert a moveable holder with a series of collimating apertures in front of the source, thus changing the effective source size of the beam and thereby the spot size on the surface and thus the microscope resolution. We demonstrate a design with 3 resolution steps. The number of resolution steps can easily be extended.

Detection of boron, cobalt, and other weak interstellar lines toward Zeta Ophiuchi

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Federman, S. R.; Sheffer, Y.; Lambert, D. L.; Gilliland, R. L.

1993-01-01

Numerous weak lines from interstellar atomic species toward Zeta Ophiuchi were observed with the Goddard High-Resolution Spectrograph. Of particular note are the first interstellar detection of cobalt and the detection of boron in this sight line. These measurements provide estimates for the amount of depletion for the two elements. Boron, a volatile, and cobalt, a refractory element, display the depletion pattern found by Savage et al. (1992). The abundance of phosphorus in the H II region associated with the star was obtained from a detection of P III. Additional weak lines from S I, C I, Ni II, and Cu II were detected for the first time; these lines provide the basis for refinements in oscillator strength and column density. Analysis of the neutral sulfur data indicates that the atomic gas is more widely distributed than the molecular material in the main component.

Laser-Free Cold-Atom Gymnastics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gould, Harvey; Feinberg, Benedict; Munger, Charles T., Jr.; Nishimura, Hiroshi

2017-01-01

We have performed beam transport simulations on ultra cold (2 μK) and cold (130 μK) neutral Cs atoms in the F = M = + 4 (magnetic weak-field seeking) ground state. We use inhomogeneous magnetic fields to focus and accelerate the atoms. Acceleration of neutral atoms by an inhomogeneous magnetic field was demonstrated by Stern and Gerlach in 1922. In the simulations, a two mm diameter cloud of atoms is released to fall under gravity. A magnetic coil focuses the falling atoms. After falling 41 cm, the atoms are reflected in the magnetic fringe field of a solenoid. They return to their starting height, about 0.7 s later, having passed a second time through the focusing coil. The simulations show that > 98 % of ultra cold Cs atoms and > 70 % of cold Cs atoms will survive at least 15 round trips (assuming perfect vacuum). More than 100 simulations were run to optimize coil currents and focusing coil diameter and height. Simulations also show that atoms can be launched into a fountain. An experimental apparatus to test the simulations, is being constructed. This technique may find application in atomic fountain clocks, interferometers, and gravitometers, and may be adaptable for use in microgravity. It may also work with Bose-Einstein condensates of paramagnetic atoms.

Measurements of neutral helium density in helicon plasmas.

PubMed

Houshmandyar, Saeid; Sears, Stephanie H; Thakur, Saikat Chakraborty; Carr, Jerry; Galante, Matthew E; Scime, Earl E

2010-10-01

Laser-induced-fluorescence (LIF) is used to measure the density of helium atoms in a helicon plasma source. For a pump wavelength of 587.725 nm (vacuum) and laser injection along the magnetic field, the LIF signal exhibits a signal decrease at the Doppler shifted central wavelength. The drop in signal results from the finite optical depth of the plasma and the magnitude of the decrease is proportional to the density of excited state neutral atoms. Using Langmuir probe measurements of plasma density and electron temperature and a collisional-radiative model, the absolute ground state neutral density is calculated from the optical depth measurements. Optimal plasma performance, i.e., the largest neutral depletion on the axis of the system, is observed for antenna frequencies of 13.0 and 13.5 MHz and magnetic field strengths of 550-600 G.

What We've Learned from IBEX ENA Imaging of the Heliosheath

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zirnstein, E.

2017-12-01

The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) is an Earth-orbiting spacecraft equipped with two single-pixel cameras that detect neutral atoms produced by the interaction of the solar wind (SW) with the very local interstellar medium (VLISM), as well as neutral atoms flowing in from the VLISM itself. Since its launch in 2009, IBEX has provided us with over half a solar cycle of measurements of energetic neutral atom (ENA) fluxes produced in the heliosphere. In particular, a large number of these ENAs originate in the inner heliosheath, a region of nearly incompressible SW plasma that is slowed, compressed, and heated at the termination shock. As the heated SW plasma flows through the heliosheath and down the heliotail, charge-exchange with cold neutral atoms from the VLISM generates ENAs that travel on ballistic trajectories. Some of these ENAs travel to Earth and are detected by IBEX. IBEX all-sky observations of these ENAs show a unique energy and spatial dependence, revealing the structural and plasma properties of the heliosheath. One of the prime scientific objectives of the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission is to understand the SW-VLISM interaction, including the properties of the heliosheath and heliotail. This talk will review key IBEX observations of the inner heliosheath environment, the way they have shaped our understanding of the SW-VLISM interaction, and their implications for the upcoming IMAP mission.

Seeking to Improve Low Energy Neutral Atom Detection in Space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shappirio, M.; Coplan, M.; Chornay, D.; Collier, M.; Herrero, F.; Ogilvie, K.; Williams, E.

2007-01-01

The detection of energetic neutral atoms allows for the remote examination of the interactions between plasmas and neutral populations in space. Before these neutral atoms can be measured, they must first be converted to ions. For the low energy end of this spectrum, interaction with a conversion surface is often the most efficient method to convert neutrals into ions. It is generally thought that the most efficient surfaces are low work functions materials. However, by their very nature, these surfaces are highly reactive and unstable, and therefore are not suitable for space missions where conditions cannot be controlled as they are in a laboratory. We therefore are looking to optimize a stable surface for conversion efficiency. Conversion efficiency can be increased either by changing the incident angle of the neutral particles to be grazing incidence and using stable surfaces with high conversion efficiencies. We have examined how to increase the angle of incidence from -80 degrees to -89 degrees, while maintaining or improving the total active conversion surface area without increasing the overall volume of the instrument. We are developing a method to micro-machine silicon, which will reduce the volume to surface area ratio by a factor of 60. We have also examined the material properties that affect the conversion efficiency of the surface for stable surfaces. Some of the parameters we have examined are work function, smoothness, and bond structure. We find that for stable surfaces, the most important property is the smoothness of the surface.

Light desorption from an yttrium neutralizer for Rb and Fr magneto-optical trap loading

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Coppolaro, V.; Papi, N.; Khanbekyan, A.

2014-10-07

We present here the first evidence of photodesorption induced by low-intensity non-resonant light from an yttrium thin foil, which works as a neutralizer for Rb and Fr ions beam. Neutral atoms are suddenly ejected from the metal surface in a pulsed regime upon illumination with a broadband flash light and then released in the free volume of a pyrex cells. Here atoms are captured by a Magneto-Optical Trap (MOT), which is effectively loaded by the photodesorption. Loading times of the order of the flash rise time are measured. Desorption is also obtained in the continuous regime, by exploiting CW visiblemore » illumination of the metallic neutralizer surface. We demonstrate that at lower CW light intensities vacuum conditions are not perturbed by the photodesorption and hence the MOT dynamics remains unaffected, while the trap population increases thanks to the incoming desorbed atoms flux. Even with the Y foil at room temperature and hence with no trapped atoms, upon visible illumination, the number of trapped atoms reaches 10{sup 5}. The experimental data are then analyzed by means of an analytical rate equation model, which allows the analysis of this phenomenon and its dynamics and allows the determination of critical experimental parameters and the test of the procedure in the framework of radioactive Francium trapping. In this view, together with an extensive investigation of the phenomenon with {sup 85}Rb, the first demonstration of the photodesorption-aided loading of a {sup 210}Fr MOT is shown.« less

Superfluid qubit systems with ring shaped optical lattices

PubMed Central

Amico, Luigi; Aghamalyan, Davit; Auksztol, Filip; Crepaz, Herbert; Dumke, Rainer; Kwek, Leong Chuan

2014-01-01

We study an experimentally feasible qubit system employing neutral atomic currents. Our system is based on bosonic cold atoms trapped in ring-shaped optical lattice potentials. The lattice makes the system strictly one dimensional and it provides the infrastructure to realize a tunable ring-ring interaction. Our implementation combines the low decoherence rates of neutral cold atoms systems, overcoming single site addressing, with the robustness of topologically protected solid state Josephson flux qubits. Characteristic fluctuations in the magnetic fields affecting Josephson junction based flux qubits are expected to be minimized employing neutral atoms as flux carriers. By breaking the Galilean invariance we demonstrate how atomic currents through the lattice provide an implementation of a qubit. This is realized either by artificially creating a phase slip in a single ring, or by tunnel coupling of two homogeneous ring lattices. The single qubit infrastructure is experimentally investigated with tailored optical potentials. Indeed, we have experimentally realized scaled ring-lattice potentials that could host, in principle, n ~ 10 of such ring-qubits, arranged in a stack configuration, along the laser beam propagation axis. An experimentally viable scheme of the two-ring-qubit is discussed, as well. Based on our analysis, we provide protocols to initialize, address, and read-out the qubit. PMID:24599096

The influence of current neutralization and multiple Coulomb scattering on the spatial dynamics of resistive sausage instability of a relativistic electron beam propagating in ohmic plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kolesnikov, E. K.; Manuilov, A. S.; Petrov, V. S.; Klyushnikov, G. N.; Chernov, S. V.

2017-06-01

The influence of the current neutralization process, the phase mixing of the trajectories of electrons and multiple Coulomb scattering of electrons beam on the atoms of the background medium on the spatial increment of the growth of sausage instability of a relativistic electron beam propagating in ohmic plasma channel has been considered. It has been shown that the amplification of the current neutralization leads to a significant increase in this instability, and phase mixing and the process of multiple scattering of electrons beam on the atoms of the background medium are the stabilizing factor.

Compact, accurate description of diagnostic neutral beam propagation and attenuation in a high temperature plasma for charge exchange recombination spectroscopy analysis.

PubMed

Bespamyatnov, Igor O; Rowan, William L; Granetz, Robert S

2008-10-01

Charge exchange recombination spectroscopy on Alcator C-Mod relies on the use of the diagnostic neutral beam injector as a source of neutral particles which penetrate deep into the plasma. It employs the emission resulting from the interaction of the beam atoms with fully ionized impurity ions. To interpret the emission from a given point in the plasma as the density of emitting impurity ions, the density of beam atoms must be known. Here, an analysis of beam propagation is described which yields the beam density profile throughout the beam trajectory from the neutral beam injector to the core of the plasma. The analysis includes the effects of beam formation, attenuation in the neutral gas surrounding the plasma, and attenuation in the plasma. In the course of this work, a numerical simulation and an analytical approximation for beam divergence are developed. The description is made sufficiently compact to yield accurate results in a time consistent with between-shot analysis.

Stabilization of very rare tautomers of uracil by an excess electron.

PubMed

Bachorz, Rafał A; Rak, Janusz; Gutowski, Maciej

2005-05-21

We characterized valence-type and dipole-bound anionic states of uracil using various electronic structure methods. We found that the most stable anion is related to neither the canonical 2,4-dioxo nor a rare imino-hydroxy tautomer. Instead, it is related to an imino-oxo tautomer, in which the N1H proton is transferred to the C5 atom. This valence anion is characterized by an electron vertical detachment energy (VDE) of 1267 meV and it is adiabatically stable with respect to the canonical neutral by 3.93 kcal mol(-1). It is also more stable by 2.32 and 5.10 kcal mol(-1) than the dipole-bound and valence anion, respectively, of the canonical tautomer. The VDE values for the former and the latter are 73 and 506 meV, respectively. Another, anionic, low-lying imino-oxo tautomer with a VDE of 2499 meV has a proton transferred from N3H to C5. It is less stable than the neutral canonical tautomer by 1.38 kcal mol(-1). The mechanism of formation of anionic tautomers with the carbon C5 protonated may involve intermolecular proton transfer or dissociative electron attachment to the canonical neutral tautomer followed by a barrier-free attachment of a hydrogen atom to C5. The six-member ring structure of anionic tautomers with carbon atoms protonated might be unstable upon an excess electron detachment. Indeed, the neutral systems resulting from electron detachment from anionic tautomers with carbon atoms protonated evolve along barrier-free decomposition pathways to a linear or a bicyclo structure, which might be viewed as lesions to RNA. Within the PCM hydration model, the low-lying valence anions become adiabatically bound with respect to the canonical neutral and the two most stable tautomers have carbon atoms protonated.

Neutral escape at Mars induced by the precipitation of high-energy protons and hydrogen atoms of the solar wind origin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shematovich, Valery I.

2017-04-01

One of the first surprises of the NASA MAVEN mission was the observation by the SWIA instrument of a tenuous population of protons with solar wind energies travelling anti-sunward near periapsis, at altitudes of 150-250 km (Halekas et al., 2015). While the penetration of solar wind protons to low altitude is not completely unexpected given previous Mars Express results, this population maintains exactly the same velocity as the solar wind observed. From previous studies it was known that some fraction of the solar wind can interact with the extended corona of Mars. By charge exchange with the neutral particles in this corona, some fraction of the incoming solar wind protons can gain an electron and become an energetic neutral hydrogen atom. Once neutral, these particles penetrate through the Martian induced magnetosphere with ease, with free access to the collisional atmosphere/ionosphere. The origin, kinetics and transport of the suprathermal O atoms in the transition region (from thermosphere to exosphere) of the Martian upper atmosphere due to the precipitation of the high-energy protons and hydrogen atoms are discussed. Kinetic energy distribution functions of suprathermal and superthermal (ENA) oxygen atoms formed in the Martian upper atmosphere were calculated using the kinetic Monte Carlo model (Shematovich et al., 2011, Shematovich, 2013) of the high-energy proton and hydrogen atom precipitation into the atmosphere. These functions allowed us: (a) to estimate the non-thermal escape rates of neutral oxygen from the Martian upper atmosphere, and (b) to compare with available MAVEN measurements of oxygen corona. Induced by precipitation the escape of hot oxygen atoms may become dominant under conditions of extreme solar events - solar flares and coronal mass ejections, - as it was shown by recent observations of the NASA MAVEN spacecraft (Jakosky et al., 2015). This work is supported by the RFBR project and by the Basic Research Program of the Praesidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Program 1.7). References Shematovich, Solar System Res., 2013, v.47, 437. Shematovich et al., J. Geophys. Res., 2011, v.116, A11320. Halekas et al., Geophys. Res. Lett., 2015, v. 42. doi:10.1002/2015GL064781. Jakosky et al., Science, 2015, v. 350, Issue 6261, aad0210:1-7.

Integrated Optical Dipole Trap for Cold Neutral Atoms with an Optical Waveguide Coupler

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, J.; Park, D. H.; Mittal, S.; Meng, Y.; Dagenais, M.; Rolston, S. L.

2013-05-01

Using an optical waveguide, an integrated optical dipole trap uses two-color (red and blue-detuned) traveling evanescent wave fields for trapping cold neutral atoms. To achieve longitudinal confinement, we propose using an integrated optical waveguide coupler, which provides a potential gradient along the beam propagation direction sufficient to confine atoms. This integrated optical dipole trap can support an atomic ensemble with a large optical depth due to its small mode area. Its quasi-TE0 waveguide mode has an advantage over the HE11 mode of a nanofiber, with little inhomogeneous Zeeman broadening at the trapping region. The longitudinal confinement eliminates the need for a 1D optical lattice, reducing collisional blockaded atomic loading, potentially producing larger ensembles. The waveguide trap allows for scalability and integrability with nano-fabrication technology. We analyze the potential performance of such integrated atom traps and present current research progress towards a fiber-coupled silicon nitride optical waveguide integrable with atom chips. Work is supported by the ARO Atomtronics MURI. Work is supported by the ARO Atomtronics MURI.

Hybrid Quantum Information Processing with Superconductors and Neutral Atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McDermott, Robert

Hybrid approaches to quantum information processing (QIP) aim to capitalize on the strengths of disparate quantum technologies to realize a system whose capabilities exceed those of any single experimental platform. At the University of Wisconsin, we are working toward integration of a fast superconducting quantum processor with a stable, long-lived quantum memory based on trapped neutral atoms. Here we describe the development of a quantum interface between superconducting thin-film cavity circuits and trapped Rydberg atoms, the key technological obstacle to realization of superconductor-atom hybrid QIP. Specific accomplishments to date include development of a theoretical protocol for high-fidelity state transfer between the atom and the cavity; fabrication and characterization of high- Q superconducting cavities with integrated trapping electrodes to enhance zero-point microwave fields at a location remote from the chip surface; and trapping and Rydberg excitation of single atoms within 1 mm of the cavity. We discuss the status of experiments to probe the strong coherent coupling of single Rydberg atoms and the superconducting cavity. Supported by ARO under contract W911NF-16-1-0133.

Spreadsheet-Based Program for Simulating Atomic Emission Spectra

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flannigan, David J.

2014-01-01

A simple Excel spreadsheet-based program for simulating atomic emission spectra from the properties of neutral atoms (e.g., energies and statistical weights of the electronic states, electronic partition functions, transition probabilities, etc.) is described. The contents of the spreadsheet (i.e., input parameters, formulas for calculating…

Simulating the Heliosphere with Kinetic Hydrogen and Dynamic MHD Source Terms

DOE PAGES

Heerikhuisen, Jacob; Pogorelov, Nikolai; Zank, Gary

2013-04-01

The interaction between the ionized plasma of the solar wind (SW) emanating from the sun and the partially ionized plasma of the local interstellar medium (LISM) creates the heliosphere. The heliospheric interface is characterized by the tangential discontinuity known as the heliopause that separates the SW and LISM plasmas, and a termination shock on the SW side along with a possible bow shock on the LISM side. Neutral Hydrogen of interstellar origin plays a critical role in shaping the heliospheric interface, since it freely traverses the heliopause. Charge-exchange between H-atoms and plasma protons couples the ions and neutrals, but themore » mean free paths are large, resulting in non-equilibrated energetic ion and neutral components. In our model, source terms for the MHD equations are generated using a kinetic approach for hydrogen, and the key computational challenge is to resolve these sources with sufficient statistics. For steady-state simulations, statistics can accumulate over arbitrarily long time intervals. In this paper we discuss an approach for improving the statistics in time-dependent calculations, and present results from simulations of the heliosphere where the SW conditions at the inner boundary of the computation vary according to an idealized solar cycle.« less

Emission- and fluorescence-spectroscopic investigation of a glow discharge plasma: absolute number density of radiative and nonradiative atoms in the negative glow.

PubMed

Takubo, Y; Sato, T; Asaoka, N; Kusaka, K; Akiyama, T; Muroo, K; Yamamoto, M

2008-01-01

The excited-state atom densities in the negative glow of a direct-current glow discharge are derived from the spectral-line intensity of radiative atoms and the resonance-fluorescence photon flux of nonradiative atoms. The discharge is operated in a helium-argon gas mixture (molar fraction ratio 91:9; total gas pressure 5 Torr) at a dc current of 0.7-1.2 mA. The observations are made in the region of the maximum luminance in the cathode region, where high-energy electrons accelerated in the cathode fall are injected into the negative glow. The emission intensities of the He I, He II, Ar I, and Ar II spectral lines are measured with a calibrated tungsten ribbon lamp as an absolute spectral-radiance standard. Fluorescence photons scattered by helium and argon atoms in the metastable state and argon atoms in the resonance state are detected by the laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) method with the Rayleigh scattering of nitrogen molecules as an absolute standard of scattering cross section. The laser absorption method is incorporated to confirm the result of the LIF measurement. Excitation energies of the measured spectral lines range from 11.6 (Ar I) to 75.6 eV (He II), where the excitation energy is measured from the ground state of the neutral atom on the assumption that, in the plasma of this study, both the neutral and the ionic lines are excited by electron impact in a single-step process from the ground state of the corresponding neutral atoms. Experimental evidence is shown for the validity of this assumption.

X-ray generator

DOEpatents

Dawson, John M.

1976-01-01

Apparatus and method for producing coherent secondary x-rays that are controlled as to direction by illuminating a mixture of high z and low z gases with an intense burst of primary x-rays. The primary x-rays are produced with a laser activated plasma, and these x-rays strip off the electrons of the high z atoms in the lasing medium, while the low z atoms retain their electrons. The neutral atoms transfer electrons to highly excited states of the highly striped high z ions giving an inverted population which produces the desired coherent x-rays. In one embodiment, a laser, light beam provides a laser spark that produces the intense burst of coherent x-rays that illuminates the mixture of high z and low z gases, whereby the high z atoms are stripped while the low z ones are not, giving the desired mixture of highly ionized and neutral atoms. To this end, the laser spark is produced by injecting a laser light beam, or a plurality of beams, into a first gas in a cylindrical container having an adjacent second gas layer co-axial therewith, the laser producing a plasma and the intense primary x-rays in the first gas, and the second gas containing the high and low atomic number elements for receiving the primary x-rays, whereupon the secondary x-rays are produced therein by stripping desired ions in a neutral gas and transfer of electrons to highly excited states of the stripped ions from the unionized atoms. Means for magnetically confining and stabilizing the plasma are disclosed for controlling the direction of the x-rays.

Ion guiding accompanied by formation of neutrals in polyethylene terephthalate polymer nanocapillaries: Further insight into a self-organizing process

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Juhasz, Z.; Sulik, B.; Racz, R.

2010-12-15

A relatively large yield of neutralized atoms was observed when 3 keV Ar{sup 7+} ions were guided trough polyethylene terephthalate nanocapillaries. Time and deposited-charge dependence of the angular distribution of both the guided ions and the neutrals was measured simultaneously using a two-dimensional multichannel plate detector. The yield of neutrals increased significantly faster than that of guided ions and saturated typically at a few percent level. In accordance with earlier observations, both the yield and the mean emission angle of the guided ions exhibited strong oscillations. For the atoms, the equilibrium was achieved not only faster, but also without significantmore » oscillations in yield and angular position. A phase analysis of these time dependencies provides insight into the dynamic features of the self-organizing mechanisms, which leads to ion guiding in insulating nanocapillaries.« less

Laboratory Studies of Thermal Energy Charge Transfer of Silicon and Iron Ions in Astrophysical Plasmas

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kwong, Victor H. S.

1997-01-01

The laser ablation/ion storage facility at the UNLV Physics Department is dedicated to the study of atomic processes in low temperature plasmas. Our current program is directed to the study of charge transfer of multiply charged ions and neutrals that are of importance to astrophysics at energies less than 1 eV (about 10(exp 4) K). Specifically, we measure the charge transfer rate coefficient of ions such as N(2+), Si(3+), Si(3+), with helium and Fe(2+) with molecular and atomic hydrogen. All these ions are found in a variety of astrophysical plasmas. Their electron transfer reactions with neutral atoms can affect the ionization equilibrium of the plasma.

Dipole-dipole interactions in a hot atomic vapor and in an ultracold gas of Rydberg atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sautenkov, V. A.; Saakyan, S. A.; Bronin, S. Ya; Klyarfeld, A. B.; Zelener, B. B.; Zelener, B. V.

2018-01-01

In our paper ideal and non-ideal gas media of neutral atoms are analyzed. The first we discuss a dipole broadening of atomic transitions in excited dilute and dense metal vapors. Then the theoretical studies of the dipole-dipole interactions in dense ultracold gas of Rydberg atoms are considered. Possible future experiments on a base of our experimental arrangement are suggested.

Simulation of rarefied low pressure RF plasma flow around the sample

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheltukhin, V. S.; Shemakhin, A. Yu

2017-01-01

The paper describes a mathematical model of the flow of radio frequency plasma at low pressure. The hybrid mathematical model includes the Boltzmann equation for the neutral component of the RF plasma, the continuity and the thermal equations for the charged component. Initial and boundary conditions for the corresponding equations are described. The electron temperature in the calculations is 1-4 eV, atoms temperature in the plasma clot is (3-4) • 103 K, in the plasma jet is (3.2-10) • 102 K, the degree of ionization is 10-7-10-5, electron density is 1015-1019 m-3. For calculations plasma parameters is developed soft package on C++ program language, that uses the OpenFOAM library package. Simulations for the vacuum chamber in the presence of a sample and the free jet flow were carried out.

Modeling Emission of Heavy Energetic Neutral Atoms from the Heliosphere

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Swaczyna, Paweł; Bzowski, Maciej, E-mail: pswaczyna@cbk.waw.pl

2017-09-10

Observations of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) are a fruitful tool for remote diagnosis of the plasma in the heliosphere and its vicinity. So far, instruments detecting ENAs from the heliosphere were configured for observations of hydrogen atoms. Here, we estimate emissions of ENAs of the heavy chemical elements helium, oxygen, nitrogen, and neon. A large portion of the heliospheric ENAs is created in the inner heliosheath from neutralized interstellar pick-up ions (PUIs). We modeled this process and calculated full-sky intensities of ENAs for energies 0.2–130 keV/nuc. We found that the largest fluxes among considered species are expected for helium, smallermore » for oxygen and nitrogen, and smallest for neon. The obtained intensities are 50–10{sup 6} times smaller than the hydrogen ENA intensities observed by IBEX . The detection of heavy ENAs will be possible if a future ENA detector is equipped with the capability to measure the masses of observed atoms. Because of different reaction cross-sections among the different species, observations of heavy ENAs can allow for a better understanding of global structure of the heliosphere as well as the transport and energization of PUIs in the heliosphere.« less

Modeling Emission of Heavy Energetic Neutral Atoms from the Heliosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Swaczyna, Paweł; Bzowski, Maciej

2017-09-01

Observations of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) are a fruitful tool for remote diagnosis of the plasma in the heliosphere and its vicinity. So far, instruments detecting ENAs from the heliosphere were configured for observations of hydrogen atoms. Here, we estimate emissions of ENAs of the heavy chemical elements helium, oxygen, nitrogen, and neon. A large portion of the heliospheric ENAs is created in the inner heliosheath from neutralized interstellar pick-up ions (PUIs). We modeled this process and calculated full-sky intensities of ENAs for energies 0.2-130 keV/nuc. We found that the largest fluxes among considered species are expected for helium, smaller for oxygen and nitrogen, and smallest for neon. The obtained intensities are 50-106 times smaller than the hydrogen ENA intensities observed by IBEX. The detection of heavy ENAs will be possible if a future ENA detector is equipped with the capability to measure the masses of observed atoms. Because of different reaction cross-sections among the different species, observations of heavy ENAs can allow for a better understanding of global structure of the heliosphere as well as the transport and energization of PUIs in the heliosphere.

Collision cross sections and diffusion parameters for H and D in atomic oxygen. [in upper earth and Venus atmospheres

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hodges, R. R., Jr.

1993-01-01

Modeling the behavior of H and D in planetary exospheres requires detailed knowledge of the differential scattering cross sections for all of the important neutral-neutral and ion-neutral collision processes affecting these species over their entire ranges of interaction energies. In the upper atmospheres of Earth, Venus, and other planets as well, the interactions of H and D with atomic oxygen determine the rates of diffusion of escaping hydrogen isotopes through the thermosphere, the velocity distributions of exospheric atoms that encounter the upper thermosphere, the lifetimes of exospheric orbiters with periapsides near the exobase, and the transfer of momentum in collisions with hot O. The nature of H-O and D-O collisions and the derivation of a data base consisting of phase shifts and the differential, total, and momentum transfer cross sections for these interactions in the energy range 0.001 - 10 eV are discussed. Coefficients of mutual diffusion and thermal diffusion factors are calculated for temperatures of planetary interest.

Reactions between NO/+/ and metal atoms using magnetically confined afterglows

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lo, H. H.; Clendenning, L. M.; Fite, W. L.

1977-01-01

A new method of studying thermal energy ion-neutral collision processes involving nongaseous neutral atoms is described. A long magnetic field produced by a solenoid in a vacuum chamber confines a thermal-energy plasma generated by photoionization of gas at very low pressure. As the plasma moves toward the end of the field, it is crossed by a metal atom beam. Ionic products of ion-atom reactions are trapped by the field and both the reactant and product ions move to the end of the magnetic field where they are detected by a quadrupole mass filter. The cross sections for charge transfer between NO(+) and Na, Mg, Ca, and Sr and that for rearrangement between NO(+) and Ca have been obtained. The charge-transfer reaction is found strongly dominant over the rearrangement reaction that forms metallic oxide ions.

Ultracold neutral plasmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lyon, M.; Rolston, S. L.

2017-01-01

By photoionizing samples of laser-cooled atoms with laser light tuned just above the ionization limit, plasmas can be created with electron and ion temperatures below 10 K. These ultracold neutral plasmas have extended the temperature bounds of plasma physics by two orders of magnitude. Table-top experiments, using many of the tools from atomic physics, allow for the study of plasma phenomena in this new regime with independent control over the density and temperature of the plasma through the excitation process. Characteristic of these systems is an inhomogeneous density profile, inherited from the density distribution of the laser-cooled neutral atom sample. Most work has dealt with unconfined plasmas in vacuum, which expand outward at velocities of order 100 m/s, governed by electron pressure, and with lifetimes of order 100 μs, limited by stray electric fields. Using detection of charged particles and optical detection techniques, a wide variety of properties and phenomena have been observed, including expansion dynamics, collective excitations in both the electrons and ions, and collisional properties. Through three-body recombination collisions, the plasmas rapidly form Rydberg atoms, and clouds of cold Rydberg atoms have been observed to spontaneously avalanche ionize to form plasmas. Of particular interest is the possibility of the formation of strongly coupled plasmas, where Coulomb forces dominate thermal motion and correlations become important. The strongest impediment to strong coupling is disorder-induced heating, a process in which Coulomb energy from an initially disordered sample is converted into thermal energy. This restricts electrons to a weakly coupled regime and leaves the ions barely within the strongly coupled regime. This review will give an overview of the field of ultracold neutral plasmas, from its inception in 1999 to current work, including efforts to increase strong coupling and effects on plasma properties due to strong coupling.

Adiabatic quantum computation with neutral atoms via the Rydberg blockade

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goyal, Krittika; Deutsch, Ivan

2011-05-01

We study a trapped-neutral-atom implementation of the adiabatic model of quantum computation whereby the Hamiltonian of a set of interacting qubits is changed adiabatically so that its ground state evolves to the desired output of the algorithm. We employ the ``Rydberg blockade interaction,'' which previously has been used to implement two-qubit entangling gates in the quantum circuit model. Here it is employed via off-resonant virtual dressing of the excited levels, so that atoms always remain in the ground state. The resulting dressed-Rydberg interaction is insensitive to the distance between the atoms within a certain blockade radius, making this process robust to temperature and vibrational fluctuations. Single qubit interactions are implemented with global microwaves and atoms are locally addressed with light shifts. With these ingredients, we study a protocol to implement the two-qubit Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) problem. We model atom trapping, addressing, coherent evolution, and decoherence. We also explore collective control of the many-atom system and generalize the QUBO problem to multiple qubits. We study a trapped-neutral-atom implementation of the adiabatic model of quantum computation whereby the Hamiltonian of a set of interacting qubits is changed adiabatically so that its ground state evolves to the desired output of the algorithm. We employ the ``Rydberg blockade interaction,'' which previously has been used to implement two-qubit entangling gates in the quantum circuit model. Here it is employed via off-resonant virtual dressing of the excited levels, so that atoms always remain in the ground state. The resulting dressed-Rydberg interaction is insensitive to the distance between the atoms within a certain blockade radius, making this process robust to temperature and vibrational fluctuations. Single qubit interactions are implemented with global microwaves and atoms are locally addressed with light shifts. With these ingredients, we study a protocol to implement the two-qubit Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) problem. We model atom trapping, addressing, coherent evolution, and decoherence. We also explore collective control of the many-atom system and generalize the QUBO problem to multiple qubits. We acknowledge funding from the AQUARIUS project, Sandia National Laboratories

Energetic neutral atom emissions from Titan interaction with Saturn's magnetosphere.

PubMed

Mitchell, D G; Brandt, P C; Roelof, E C; Dandouras, J; Krimigis, S M; Mauk, B H

2005-05-13

The Cassini Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI) observed the interaction of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, with Saturn's magnetosphere during two close flybys of Titan on 26 October and 13 December 2004. The MIMI Ion and Neutral Camera (INCA) continuously imaged the energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) generated by charge exchange reactions between the energetic, singly ionized trapped magnetospheric ions and the outer atmosphere, or exosphere, of Titan. The images reveal a halo of variable ENA emission about Titan's nearly collisionless outer atmosphere that fades at larger distances as the exospheric density decays exponentially. The altitude of the emissions varies, and they are not symmetrical about the moon, reflecting the complexity of the interactions between Titan's upper atmosphere and Saturn's space environment.

4-Aza-1-azoniabicyclo­[2.2.2]octa­ne–2-amino­benzoate–2-amino­benzoic acid (1/1/1)

PubMed Central

Arman, Hadi D.; Kaulgud, Trupta; Tiekink, Edward R. T.

2011-01-01

A 4-aza-1-azoniabicyclo­[2.2.2]octane cation, a 2-amino­benzoate anion and a neutral 2-amino­benzoic acid mol­ecule comprise the asymmetric unit of the title compound, C6H13N2 +·C7H6NO2 −·C7H7NO2. An intra­molecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bond occurs in the anion and in the neutral 2-amino­benzoic acid mol­ecule. The cation provides a charge-assisted N—H⋯O hydrogen bond to the anion, and the 2-amino­benzoic acid mol­ecule forms an O—H⋯N hydrogen bond to the unprotonated amino N atom in the cation. In this way, a three-component aggregate is formed. These are connected into a three-dimensional network by amino–carboxyl­ate N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. N—H⋯N hydrogen bonds are also observed. PMID:22219964

Neutral gas temperature estimates and metastable resonance energy transfer for argon-nitrogen discharges

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Greig, A., E-mail: amelia.greig@anu.edu.au; Charles, C.; Boswell, R. W.

2016-01-15

Rovibrational spectroscopy band fitting of the nitrogen (N{sub 2}) second positive system is a technique used to estimate the neutral gas temperature of N{sub 2} discharges, or atomic discharges with trace amounts of a N{sub 2} added. For mixtures involving argon and N{sub 2}, resonant energy transfer between argon metastable atoms (Ar*) and N{sub 2} molecules may affect gas temperature estimates made using the second positive system. The effect of Ar* resonance energy transfer is investigated here by analyzing neutral gas temperatures of argon-N{sub 2} mixtures, for N{sub 2} percentages from 1% to 100%. Neutral gas temperature estimates are highermore » than expected for mixtures involving greater than 5% N{sub 2} addition, but are reasonable for argon with less than 5% N{sub 2} addition when compared with an analytic model for ion-neutral charge exchange collisional heating. Additional spatiotemporal investigations into neutral gas temperature estimates with 10% N{sub 2} addition demonstrate that although absolute temperature values may be affected by Ar* resonant energy transfer, spatiotemporal trends may still be used to accurately diagnose the discharge.« less

On charge exchange and knock-on processes in the exosphere of Io

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ip, W.-H.

1982-01-01

One direct consequence of magnetospheric interaction of Io is the strong dynamical coupling of its neutral atmosphere with the corotating plasma. The absorption of the thermal ions and the associated neutral injection is an improtant issue not yet explored. As far as nonthermal escape of the neutral atmosphere is concerned, three processes stand out. That is, apart from sputtering, exospheric interactions like atom-ion knock-on collision and charge exchange recombination could be a significant source of the neutral clouds in the Jovian system. Using a current electrodynamic model of Io, both the absorption rate of the corotating thermal plasma and the production rates of new exospheric ions and the fast neutrals are considered. It is found that the source strength of the neutral atoms and molecules with speeds of about 100 km/sec could amount to 10 to the 26th/sec whereas exospheric neutrals emitted at lower speed (of about 10 km/sec) amounts to 4 x 10 to the 25th/sec. The generation of the new ions in connection with the streaming of the magnetospheric plasma around Io could also produce an asymmetric sputtering with a neutral flux of about 10 to the 27th/sec emitted from the region of Io which faces Jupiter. These results may be related to a number of sodium observations.

A Novel Gravito-Optical Surface Trap for Neutral Atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xie, Chun-Xia; Wang, Zhengling; Yin, Jian-Ping

2006-04-01

We propose a novel gravito-optical surface trap (GOST) for neutral atoms based on one-dimensional intensity gradient cooling. The surface optical trap is composed of a blue-detuned reduced semi-Gaussian laser beam (SGB), a far-blue-detuned dark hollow beam and the gravity field. The SGB is produced by the diffraction of a collimated Gaussian laser beam passing through the straight edge of a semi-infinite opaque plate and then is reduced by an imaging lens. We calculate the intensity distribution of the reduced SGB, and study the dynamic process of the SGB intensity-gradient induced Sisyphus cooling for 87Rb atoms by using Monte Carlo simulations. Our study shows that the proposed GOST can be used not only to trap cold atoms loaded from a standard magneto-optical trap, but also to cool the trapped atoms to an equilibrium temperature of 3.47 μK from ~120 μK, even to realize an all-optical two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensation by using optical-potential evaporative cooling.

Measuring the dynamic polarizability of tungsten atom via electrical wire explosion in vacuum

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Huantong; Zou, Xiaobing; Wang, Xinxin

2018-02-01

Electrical explosion of wire provides a practical approach to the experimental measurement of dynamic polarizability of metal atoms with high melting and boiling temperatures. With the help of insulation coating, a section of tungsten wire was transformed to the plasma state while the near electrode region was partially vaporized, which enabled us to locate the "neutral-region" (consisting of gaseous atoms) in the Mach-Zehnder interferogram. In this paper, the polarizability of the tungsten atom at 532 nm was reconstructed based on a technique previously used for the same purpose, and the basic preconditions of the measurement were verified in detail, including the existence of the neutral region, conservation of linear density of tungsten during wire expansion, and neglect of the vaporized insulation coating. The typical imaging time varied from 80 ns to as late as 200 ns and the reconstructed polarizability of the tungsten atom was 16 ± 1 Å3, which showed good statistical consistency and was also in good agreement with the previous results.

Photon-Mediated Quantum Gate between Two Neutral Atoms in an Optical Cavity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Welte, Stephan; Hacker, Bastian; Daiss, Severin; Ritter, Stephan; Rempe, Gerhard

2018-02-01

Quantum logic gates are fundamental building blocks of quantum computers. Their integration into quantum networks requires strong qubit coupling to network channels, as can be realized with neutral atoms and optical photons in cavity quantum electrodynamics. Here we demonstrate that the long-range interaction mediated by a flying photon performs a gate between two stationary atoms inside an optical cavity from which the photon is reflected. This single step executes the gate in 2 μ s . We show an entangling operation between the two atoms by generating a Bell state with 76(2)% fidelity. The gate also operates as a cnot. We demonstrate 74.1(1.6)% overlap between the observed and the ideal gate output, limited by the state preparation fidelity of 80.2(0.8)%. As the atoms are efficiently connected to a photonic channel, our gate paves the way towards quantum networking with multiqubit nodes and the distribution of entanglement in repeater-based long-distance quantum networks.

Investigation on the neutral and anionic BxAlyH2 (x + y = 7, 8, 9) clusters using density functional theory combined with photoelectron spectroscopy.

PubMed

Ding, Li-Ping; Shao, Peng; Lu, Cheng; Zhang, Fang-Hui; Ding, Lei; Yuan, Tao Li

2016-08-17

The structure and bonding nature of neutral and negatively charged BxAlyH2 (x + y = 7, 8, 9) clusters are investigated with the aid of previously published experimental photoelectron spectra combined with the present density functional theory calculations. The comparison between the experimental photoelectron spectra and theoretical simulated spectra helps to identify the ground state structures. The accuracy of the obtained ground state structures is further verified by calculating their adiabatic electron affinities and vertical detachment energies and comparing them against available experimental data. The results show that the structures of BxAlyH2 transform from three-dimensional to planar structures as the number of boron atoms increases. Moreover, boron atoms tend to bind together forming Bn units. The hydrogen atoms prefer to bind with boron atoms rather than aluminum atoms. The analyses of the molecular orbital on the ground state structures further support the abovementioned results.

Robust quantum logic in neutral atoms via adiabatic Rydberg dressing

DOE PAGES

Keating, Tyler; Cook, Robert L.; Hankin, Aaron M.; ...

2015-01-28

We study a scheme for implementing a controlled-Z (CZ) gate between two neutral-atom qubits based on the Rydberg blockade mechanism in a manner that is robust to errors caused by atomic motion. By employing adiabatic dressing of the ground electronic state, we can protect the gate from decoherence due to random phase errors that typically arise because of atomic thermal motion. In addition, the adiabatic protocol allows for a Doppler-free configuration that involves counterpropagating lasers in a σ +/σ - orthogonal polarization geometry that further reduces motional errors due to Doppler shifts. The residual motional error is dominated by dipole-dipolemore » forces acting on doubly-excited Rydberg atoms when the blockade is imperfect. As a result, for reasonable parameters, with qubits encoded into the clock states of 133Cs, we predict that our protocol could produce a CZ gate in < 10 μs with error probability on the order of 10 -3.« less

Investigation of neutral particle dynamics in Aditya tokamak plasma with DEGAS2 code

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dey, Ritu; Ghosh, Joydeep; Chowdhuri, M. B.; Manchanda, R.; Banerjee, S.; Ramaiya, N.; Sharma, Deepti; Srinivasan, R.; Stotler, D. P.; Aditya Team

2017-08-01

Neutral particle behavior in Aditya tokamak, which has a circular poloidal ring limiter at one particular toroidal location, has been investigated using DEGAS2 code. The code is based on the calculation using Monte Carlo algorithms and is mainly used in tokamaks with divertor configuration. This code has been successfully implemented in Aditya tokamak with limiter configuration. The penetration of neutral hydrogen atom is studied with various atomic and molecular contributions and it is found that the maximum contribution comes from the dissociation processes. For the same, H α spectrum is also simulated and matched with the experimental one. The dominant contribution around 64% comes from molecular dissociation processes and neutral particle is generated by those processes have energy of ~2.0 eV. Furthermore, the variation of neutral hydrogen density and H α emissivity profile are analysed for various edge temperature profiles and found that there is not much changes in H α emission at the plasma edge with the variation of edge temperature (7-40 eV).

Investigation of neutral particle dynamics in Aditya tokamak plasma with DEGAS2 code

DOE PAGES

Dey, Ritu; Ghosh, Joydeep; Chowdhuri, M. B.; ...

2017-06-09

Neutral particle behavior in Aditya tokamak, which has a circular poloidal ring limiter at one particular toroidal location, has been investigated using DEGAS2 code. The code is based on the calculation using Monte Carlo algorithms and is mainly used in tokamaks with divertor configuration. This code has been successfully implemented in Aditya tokamak with limiter configuration. The penetration of neutral hydrogen atom is studied with various atomic and molecular contributions and it is found that the maximum contribution comes from the dissociation processes. For the same, H α spectrum is also simulated which was matched with the experimental one. Themore » dominant contribution around 64% comes from molecular dissociation processes and neutral particle is generated by those processes have energy of ~ 2.0 eV. Furthermore, the variation of neutral hydrogen density and H α emissivity profile are analysed for various edge temperature profiles and found that there is not much changes in H α emission at the plasma edge with the variation of edge temperature (7 to 40 eV).« less

Vecksler-Macmillan phase stability for neutral atoms accelerated by a laser beam

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mel'nikov, I. V.; Haus, J. W.; Kazansky, P. G.

2003-05-01

We use a Fokker-Planck equation to study the phenomenon of accelerating a neutral atom bunch by a chirped optical beam. This method enables us to obtain a semi-analytical solution to the problem in which a wide range of parameters can be studied. In addition it provides a simple physical interpretation where the problem is reduced to an analogous problem of charged particles accelerators, that is, the Vecksler-Macmillan principle of phase stability. A possible experimental scenario is suggested, which uses a photonic crystal fiber as the guiding medium.

Adiabatic Quantum Computation with Neutral Cesium

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hankin, Aaron; Parazzoli, L.; Chou, Chin-Wen; Jau, Yuan-Yu; Burns, George; Young, Amber; Kemme, Shanalyn; Ferdinand, Andrew; Biedermann, Grant; Landahl, Andrew; Ivan H. Deutsch Collaboration; Mark Saffman Collaboration

2013-05-01

We are implementing a new platform for adiabatic quantum computation (AQC) based on trapped neutral atoms whose coupling is mediated by the dipole-dipole interactions of Rydberg states. Ground state cesium atoms are dressed by laser fields in a manner conditional on the Rydberg blockade mechanism, thereby providing the requisite entangling interactions. As a benchmark we study a Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) problem whose solution is found in the ground state spin configuration of an Ising-like model. University of New Mexico: Ivan H. Deutsch, Tyler Keating, Krittika Goyal.

Measurement of visible and UV emission from Energetic Neutral Atom Precipitation (ENAP), on Spacelab

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tinsley, B. A.

1980-01-01

The charge exchange of plasmaspheric ions and exospheric H and O and of solar wind ions with exospheric and interplanetary H are sources of precipitating neutrals whose faint emission may be observed by the imaging spectrometric observatory during dark periods of the SL-1 orbit. Measurements of the interactions of these precipitating atoms with the thermosphere are needed to evaluate the heating and ionization effects on the atmosphere as well as the selective loss of i energetic ions from the sources (predominantly the ring current).

Optical Frequency Standards Based on Neutral Atoms and Molecules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riehle, Fritz; Helmcke, Juergen

The current status and prospects of optical frequency standards based on neutral atomic and molecular absorbers are reviewed. Special attention is given to an optical frequency standard based on cold Ca atoms which are interrogated with a pulsed excitation scheme leading to resolved line structures with a quality factor Q > 10^12. The optical frequency was measured by comparison with PTB's primary clock to be νCa = 455 986 240 494.13 kHz with a total relative uncertainty of 2.5 x10^-13. After a recent recommendation of the International Committee of Weights and Measures (CIPM), this frequency standard now represents one of the most accurate realizations of the length unit.

Method to estimate the electron temperature and neutral density in a plasma from spectroscopic measurements using argon atom and ion collisional-radiative models.

PubMed

Sciamma, Ella M; Bengtson, Roger D; Rowan, W L; Keesee, Amy; Lee, Charles A; Berisford, Dan; Lee, Kevin; Gentle, K W

2008-10-01

We present a method to infer the electron temperature in argon plasmas using a collisional-radiative model for argon ions and measurements of electron density to interpret absolutely calibrated spectroscopic measurements of argon ion (Ar II) line intensities. The neutral density, and hence the degree of ionization of this plasma, can then be estimated using argon atom (Ar I) line intensities and a collisional-radiative model for argon atoms. This method has been tested for plasmas generated on two different devices at the University of Texas at Austin: the helicon experiment and the helimak experiment. We present results that show good correlation with other measurements in the plasma.

Quantitative inactivation-mechanisms of P. digitatum and A. niger spores based on atomic oxygen dose

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ito, Masafumi; Hashizume, Hiroshi; Ohta, Takayuki; Hori, Masaru

2014-10-01

We have investigated inactivation mechanisms of Penicillium digitatum and Asperguills niger spores using atmospheric-pressure radical source quantitatively. The radical source was specially developed for supplying only neutral radicals without charged species and UV-light emissions. Reactive oxygen radical densities such as grand-state oxygen atoms, excited-state oxygen molecules and ozone were measured using VUV and UV absorption spectroscopies. The measurements and the treatments of spores were carried out in an Ar-purged chamber for eliminating the influences of OH, NOx and so on. The results revealed that the inactivation of spores can be explained by atomic-oxygen dose under the conditions employing neutral ROS irradiations. On the basis of the dose, we have observed the changes of intracellular organelles and membrane functions using TEM, SEM and confocal- laser fluorescent microscopy. From these results, we discuss the detail inactivation-mechanisms quantitatively based on atomic-oxygen dose.

Atomic Physics Effects on Convergent, Child-Langmuir Ion Flow between Nearly Transparent Electrodes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Santarius, John F.; Emmert, Gilbert A.

Research during this project at the University of Wisconsin Fusion Technology Institute (UW FTI) on ion and neutral flow through an arbitrary, monotonic potential difference created by nearly transparent electrodes accomplished the following: (1) developed and implemented an integral equation approach for atomic physics effects in helium plasmas; (2) extended the analysis to coupled integral equations that treat atomic and molecular deuterium ions and neutrals; (3) implemented the key deuterium and helium atomic and molecular cross sections; (4) added negative ion production and related cross sections; and (5) benchmarked the code against experimental results. The analysis and codes treat themore » species D0, D20, D+, D2+, D3+, D and, separately at present, He0 and He+. Extensions enhanced the analysis and related computer codes to include He++ ions plus planar and cylindrical geometries.« less

A neutral molecular-based layered magnet [Fe(C2O4)(CH3OH)]n exhibiting magnetic ordering at TN approximately 23 K.

PubMed

Zhang, Bin; Zhang, Yan; Zhang, Jinbiao; Li, Junchao; Zhu, Daoben

2008-10-07

Solvothermal synthesis of FeCl(2).4H2O and H2C2O(4).2H2O in methanol at 120 degrees C yielded yellow plate-like crystals of [Fe(C2O4)(CH3OH)]n. Each iron atom is in a distorted octahedral environment, being bonded to four oxygen atoms from two bisbidentate oxalate anions, one O atom of a chelating oxalate anion and one O atom from a methanol molecule as an oxalate group bridging ligand in a five-coordination mode. The neutral layer of [Fe(C2O4)(CH3OH)]n with a [4,4] net along the ac plane. There is no interaction between layers. A long range magnetic ordering with spin canting at TN approximately 23 K was observed and confirmed by AC susceptibility measurements.

1D array of dark spot traps formed by counter-propagating nested Gaussian laser beams for trapping and moving atomic qubits

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gillen-Christandl, Katharina; Frazer, Travis D.

2017-04-01

The standing wave of two identical counter-propagating Gaussian laser beams constitutes a 1D array of bright spots that can serve as traps for single neutral atoms for quantum information operations. Detuning the frequency of one of the beams causes the array to start moving, effectively forming a conveyor belt for the qubits. Using a pair of nested Gaussian laser beams with different beam waists, however, forms a standing wave with a 1D array of dark spot traps confined in all dimensions. We have computationally explored the trap properties and limitations of this configuration and, trading off trap depth and frequencies with the number of traps and trap photon scattering rates, we determined the laser powers and beam waists needed for useful 1D arrays of dark spot traps for trapping and transporting atomic qubits in neutral atom quantum computing platforms.

Mutual neutralization of He{sup +} with the anions Cl{sup −}, Br{sup −}, I{sup −}, and SF{sub 6}{sup −}

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wiens, Justin P.; Shuman, Nicholas S.; Miller, Thomas M.

2016-05-28

Mutual neutralization (MN) rate coefficients k{sub MN} for He{sup +} with the anions Cl{sup −}, Br{sup −}, I{sup −}, and SF{sub 6}{sup −} are reported from 300 to 500 K. The measured rate coefficients may contain a contribution from transfer ionization, i.e., double ionization of the anion. The large rate coefficient for He{sup +} + SF{sub 6}{sup −} (2.4 × 10{sup −7} cm{sup 3} s{sup −1} at 300 K) is consistent with earlier polyatomic MN results found to have a reduced mass dependence of μ{sup −1/2}. Neutralization of He{sup +} by the atomic halides follows the trend observed earlier for Ne{sup +},more » Ar{sup +}, Kr{sup +}, and Xe{sup +} neutralized by atomic halides, k{sub MN} (Cl{sup −}) < k{sub MN} (Br{sup −}) < k{sub MN} (I{sup −}). Only an upper limit could be measured for the neutralization of He{sup +} by Cl{sup −}. Predictions of the rate coefficients from a previously proposed simple model of atomic–atomic MN results are consistent with the present He{sup +}–halide rate coefficients. The temperature dependences are modestly negative for Br{sup −} and I{sup −}, while that for SF{sub 6}{sup −} is small or negligible.« less

Tunable Catalysis of Water to Peroxide with Anionic, Cationic, and Neutral Atomic Au, Ag, Pd, Rh, and Os

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suggs, K.; Kiros, F.; Tesfamichael, A.; Felfli, Z.; Msezane, A. Z.

2015-05-01

Fundamental anionic, cationic, and neutral atomic metal predictions utilizing density functional theory calculations validate the recent discovery identifying the interplay between Regge resonances and Ramsauer-Townsend minima obtained through complex angular momentum analysis as the fundamental atomic mechanism underlying nanoscale catalysis. Here we investigate the optimization of the catalytic behavior of Au, Ag, Pd, Rh, and Os atomic systems via polarization effects and conclude that anionic atomic systems are optimal and therefore ideal for catalyzing the oxidation of water to peroxide, with anionic Os being the best candidate. The discovery that cationic systems increase the transition energy barrier in the synthesis of peroxide could be important as inhibitors in controlling and regulating catalysis. These findings usher in a fundamental and comprehensive atomic theoretical framework for the generation of tunable catalytic systems. The ultimate aim is to design giant atomic catalysts and sensors, in the context of the recently synthesized tri-metal Ag@Au@Pt and bimetal Ag@Au nanoparticles for greatly enhanced plasmonic properties and improved chemical stability for chemical and biological sensing. Research was supported by U.S. DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schlagmüller, Michael; Liebisch, Tara Cubel; Engel, Felix

Within a dense environment (ρ ≈ 10 14 atoms/cm 3) at ultracold temperatures (T < 1 μK), a single atom excited to a Rydberg state acts as a reaction center for surrounding neutral atoms. At these temperatures, almost all neutral atoms within the Rydberg orbit are bound to the Rydberg core and interact with the Rydberg atom. We have studied the reaction rate and products for nS 87Rb Rydberg states, and we mainly observe a state change of the Rydberg electron to a high orbital angular momentum l, with the released energy being converted into kinetic energy of the Rydberg atom. Unexpectedly, the measurements show a threshold behavior at n ≈ 100 for the inelastic collision time leading to increased lifetimes of the Rydberg state independent of the densities investigated. Even at very high densities (ρ ≈ 4.8 x 10 14 cm -3), the lifetime of a Rydberg atom exceeds 10 μs at n > 140 compared to 1 μs at n = 90. In addition, a second observed reaction mechanism, namely, Rbmore » $$+\\atop{2}$$ molecule formation, was studied. Both reaction products are equally probable for n = 40, but the fraction of Rb + 2 created drops to below 10% for n ≥ 90.« less

The BepiColombo Serena/ELENA instrument: performances and testing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Orsini, Stefano; De Angelis, Elisabetta; Selci, Stefano; Di Lellis, Andrea; Leoni, Roberto; Rispoli, Rosanna; Colasanti, Luca; Vertolli, Nello; Mura, Alessandro; Milillo, Anna; D'Alessandro, Marco; Mattioli, Francesco; Maschietti, Daniele; Brienza, Daniele; Scheer, Juergen; Wurz, Peter

2013-04-01

The neutral sensor ELENA (Emitted Low-Energy Neutral Atoms) for the ESA cornerstone BepiColombo mission to Mercury (in the SERENA instrument package) is a new kind of low energetic neutral atoms instrument, mostly devoted to sputtering emission from planetary surfaces, from E ~20 eV up to E~5 keV, within 1-D (4.5°x76°). ELENA is a Time of Flight instrument, based on the novel concept of ultra-sonic oscillating shutter as Start section and MCP detector with 32 discrete anodes as a direct Stop section. ELENA will monitor the emission of neutral atoms from the whole surface of Mercury allowing to investigate the interaction between the environment and the planet, the global particle loss-rate and the remote sensing of the surface properties. In particular, surface release processes are investigated by identifying particles release from the surface via solar wind-induced ion sputtering (<1eV - >100 eV) as well as Hydrogen back-scattered at hundreds eV. The results of ELENA performance test, will be presented: the innovative Shutter system (Start section) operating at requested frequencies (around 43kHz), the ion rejection capability of double deflection system, the Stop detector, the electronic boards, the validation test.

Far-infrared study of tracers of oxygen chemistry in diffuse clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wiesemeyer, H.; Güsten, R.; Heyminck, S.; Hübers, H. W.; Menten, K. M.; Neufeld, D. A.; Richter, H.; Simon, R.; Stutzki, J.; Winkel, B.; Wyrowski, F.

2016-01-01

Context. The chemistry of the diffuse interstellar medium rests upon three pillars: exothermic ion-neutral reactions ("cold chemistry"), endothermic neutral-neutral reactions with significant activation barriers ("warm chemistry"), and reactions on the surfaces of dust grains. While warm chemistry becomes important in the shocks associated with turbulent dissipation regions, the main path for the formation of interstellar OH and H2O is that of cold chemistry. Aims: The aim of this study is to observationally confirm the association of atomic oxygen with both atomic and molecular gas phases, and to understand the measured abundances of OH and OH+ as a function of the available reservoir of H2. Methods: We obtained absorption spectra of the ground states of OH, OH+ and O I with high-velocity resolution, with GREAT onboard SOFIA, and with the THz receiver at the APEX. We analyzed them along with ancillary spectra of HF and CH from HIFI. To deconvolve them from the hyperfine structure and to separate the blend that is due to various velocity components on the sightline, we fit model spectra consisting of an appropriate number of Gaussian profiles using a method combining simulated annealing with downhill simplex minimization. Together with HF and/or CH as a surrogate for H2, and H I λ21 cm data, the molecular hydrogen fraction fNH2 = N(H2)/(N(H) + 2N(H2)) can be determined. We then investigated abundance ratios as a function of fNH2. Results: The column density of O I is correlated at a high significance with the amount of available molecular and atomic hydrogen, with an atomic oxygen abundance of 3 × 10-4 relative to H nuclei. While the velocities of the absorption features of OH and OH+ are loosely correlated and reflect the spiral arm crossings on the sightline, upon closer inspection they display an anticorrespondence. The arm-to-interarm density contrast is found to be higher in OH than in OH+. While both species can coexist, with a higher abundance in OH than in OH+, the latter is found less frequently in absence of OH than the other way around, which is a direct consequence of the rapid destruction of OH+ by dissociative recombination when not enough H2 is available. This conjecture has been substantiated by a comparison between the OH/OH+ ratio with fNH2, showing a clear correlation. The hydrogen abstraction reaction chain OH+(H2,H)H2O+(H2,H)H3O+ is confirmed as the pathway for the production of OH and H2O. Our estimate of the branching ratio of the dissociative recombination of H3O+ to OH and H2O is confined within the interval of 84 to 91%, which matches laboratory measurements (74 to 83%). - A correlation between the linewidths and column densities of OH+ features is found to be significant with a false-alarm probability below 5%. Such a correlation is predicted by models of interstellar MHD turbulence. For OH the same correlation is found to be insignificant because there are more narrow absorption features. Conclusions: While it is difficult to assess the contributions of warm neutral-neutral chemistry to the observed abundances, it seems fair to conclude that the predictions of cold ion-neutral chemistry match the abundance patterns we observed.

Instrument Suite for Vertical Characterization of the Ionosphere-Thermosphere System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Herrero, Federico; Jones, Hollis; Finne, Theodore; Nicholas, Andrew

2012-01-01

A document describes a suite that provides four simultaneous ion and neutral-atom measurements as a function of altitude, with variable sensitivity for neutral atmospheric species. The variable sensitivity makes it possible to extend the measurements over the altitude range of 100 to more than 700 km. The four instruments in the suite are (1) a neutral wind-temperature spectrometer (WTS), (2) an ion-drift ion-temperature spectrometer (IDTS), (3) a neutral mass spectrometer (NMS), and (4) an ion mass spectrometer (IMS).

Investigation of low-latitude hydrogen emission in terms of a two-component interstellar gas model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baker, P. L.; Burton, W. B.

1975-01-01

High-resolution 21-cm hydrogen line observations at low galactic latitude are analyzed to determine the large-scale distribution of galactic hydrogen. Distribution parameters are found by model fitting, optical depth effects are computed using a two-component gas model suggested by the observations, and calculations are made for a one-component uniform spin-temperature gas model to show the systematic departures between this model and data obtained by incorrect treatment of the optical depth effects. Synthetic 21-cm line profiles are computed from the two-component model, and the large-scale trends of the observed emission profiles are reproduced together with the magnitude of the small-scale emission irregularities. Values are determined for the thickness of the galactic hydrogen disk between half density points, the total observed neutral hydrogen mass of the galaxy, and the central number density of the intercloud hydrogen atoms. It is shown that typical hydrogen clouds must be between 1 and 13 pc in diameter and that optical thinness exists on large-scale despite the presence of optically thin gas.

Morphology of the Saturn Magnetospheric Neutral gas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shemansky, D. E.

2009-05-01

Although it has been known that Saturn's magnetospheric volume is filled with neutral gas, from the time of the Voyager encounters and subsequent HST observations, the Cassini Mission was essential for revealing the depth of complexity in the source processes and structure of this system. The state of the magnetosphere is unique, containing a plasma environment quenched by neutral gas from the top of the atmosphere to beyond the bow shock with neutral/plasma mixing ratios in the range 100 to ˜ 3000. The dominant neutral species identified in the magnetosphere by remote sensing are atomic hydrogen and oxygen, OH and H2O . Atomic hydrogen was mapped using the Voyager UVS and found to have an asymmetric distribution in local time, filling the entire magnetosphere, with a broad latitudinal distribution. These observations were followed by the measurement of the OH spectrum using the HST FOS. The definition of the HST distribution was limited to a few points in the system, showing a peak near 3. Saturn radii (RS ) from system center. Atomic oxygen was detected and mapped using the Cassini UVIS system, showing orbital asymmetry and temporal variation, with a substantially broader distribution than OH. All of the observed species emissions from the magnetosphere are produced by solar photon fluorescence, the ambient plasma volume being too low in density and temperature to generate measurable particle excited emission. H2O has been measured in Cassini UVIS stellar occultations at the south polar plumes at Enceladus, with a total mass injection rate that is the same order needed to maintain the oxygen population. The oxygen distribution, however, indicates that sources other than Enceladus may be contributing. Virtually all of the atomic hydrogen in the system is attributed to escape from the top of the Saturn atmosphere. The complexity of this process was graphically revealed in the Cassini UVIS system higher resolution images showing a plume of atoms in ballistic and escaping orbits emerging from the sub-solar atmosphere at about -13 deg latitude, with a FWHM of about 20 deg. The total flux in H atoms is high enough to account for the heating required to maintain the temperature at the top of the atmosphere. There is only a crude understanding of this phenomenon, that evidently requires electrodynamic forcing in hydrogen physical chemistry in the vicinity of the exobase.

Muonium in Stishovite: Implications for the Possible Existence of Neutral Atomic Hydrogen in the Earth's Deep Mantle

PubMed Central

Funamori, Nobumasa; Kojima, Kenji M.; Wakabayashi, Daisuke; Sato, Tomoko; Taniguchi, Takashi; Nishiyama, Norimasa; Irifune, Tetsuo; Tomono, Dai; Matsuzaki, Teiichiro; Miyazaki, Masanori; Hiraishi, Masatoshi; Koda, Akihiro; Kadono, Ryosuke

2015-01-01

Hydrogen in the Earth's deep interior has been thought to exist as a hydroxyl group in high-pressure minerals. We present Muon Spin Rotation experiments on SiO2 stishovite, which is an archetypal high-pressure mineral. Positive muon (which can be considered as a light isotope of proton) implanted in stishovite was found to capture electron to form muonium (corresponding to neutral hydrogen). The hyperfine-coupling parameter and the relaxation rate of spin polarization of muonium in stishovite were measured to be very large, suggesting that muonium is squeezed in small and anisotropic interstitial voids without binding to silicon or oxygen. These results imply that hydrogen may also exist in the form of neutral atomic hydrogen in the deep mantle. PMID:25675890

Ionospheric chemistry. [minor neutrals and ionized constituents of thermosphere

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Torr, D. G.

1979-01-01

This report deals primarily with progress in the chemistry of minor neutrals and ionized constituents of the thermosphere. Significant progress was made over the last few years in quantitative studies of many chemical processes. This success was primarily due to the advent of multiparameter multisatellite programs which permitted accurate simultaneous measurements to be made of many important parameters. In many cases studies of chemical reactions were made with laboratory-like precision. Rate coefficients have been derived as functions of temperature for a number of important reactions. New information has been acquired on nearly every major process which occurs in the thermosphere, including the recombination rates of all major molecular ions, charge transfer reactions, ion atom interchange reactions, and reactions of neutral and ionized metastable atoms and molecules.

ON THE GEOMETRY OF THE IBEX RIBBON

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sylla, Adama; Fichtner, Horst

2015-10-01

The Energetic Neutral Atom (ENA) full-sky maps obtained with the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) show an unexpected bright narrow band of increased intensity. This so-called ENA ribbon results from charge exchange of interstellar neutral atoms with protons in the outer heliosphere or beyond. Among other hypotheses it has been argued that this ribbon may be related to a neutral density enhancement, or H-wave, in the local interstellar medium. Here we quantitatively demonstrate, on the basis of an analytical model of the principal large-scale heliospheric structure, that this scenario for the ribbon formation leads to results that are fully consistent withmore » the observed location of the ribbon in the full-sky maps at all energies detected with high-energy sensor IBEX-Hi.« less

Muonium in Stishovite: Implications for the Possible Existence of Neutral Atomic Hydrogen in the Earth's Deep Mantle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Funamori, Nobumasa; Kojima, Kenji M.; Wakabayashi, Daisuke; Sato, Tomoko; Taniguchi, Takashi; Nishiyama, Norimasa; Irifune, Tetsuo; Tomono, Dai; Matsuzaki, Teiichiro; Miyazaki, Masanori; Hiraishi, Masatoshi; Koda, Akihiro; Kadono, Ryosuke

2015-02-01

Hydrogen in the Earth's deep interior has been thought to exist as a hydroxyl group in high-pressure minerals. We present Muon Spin Rotation experiments on SiO2 stishovite, which is an archetypal high-pressure mineral. Positive muon (which can be considered as a light isotope of proton) implanted in stishovite was found to capture electron to form muonium (corresponding to neutral hydrogen). The hyperfine-coupling parameter and the relaxation rate of spin polarization of muonium in stishovite were measured to be very large, suggesting that muonium is squeezed in small and anisotropic interstitial voids without binding to silicon or oxygen. These results imply that hydrogen may also exist in the form of neutral atomic hydrogen in the deep mantle.

Numerical quasi-linear study of the critical ionization velocity phenomenon

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moghaddam-Taaheri, E.; Goertz, C. K.

1993-01-01

The critical ionization velocity (CIV) for a neutral barium (Ba) gas cloud moving across the static magnetic field is studied numerically using quasi-linear equations and a parameter range which is typical for the shaped-charge Ba gas release experiments in space. For consistency the charge exchange between the background oxygen ions and neutral atoms and its reverse process, as well as the excitation of the neutral Ba atoms, are included. The numerical results indicate that when the ionization rate due to CIV becomes comparable to the charge exchange rate the energy lost to the ionization and excitation collisions by the superthermal electrons exceeds the energy gain from the waves that are excited by the ion beam. This results in a CIV yield less than the yield by the charge exchange process.

Ultracold Chemical Reactions of a Single Rydberg Atom in a Dense Gas

DOE PAGES

Schlagmüller, Michael; Liebisch, Tara Cubel; Engel, Felix; ...

2016-08-10

Within a dense environment (ρ ≈ 10 14 atoms/cm 3) at ultracold temperatures (T < 1 μK), a single atom excited to a Rydberg state acts as a reaction center for surrounding neutral atoms. At these temperatures, almost all neutral atoms within the Rydberg orbit are bound to the Rydberg core and interact with the Rydberg atom. We have studied the reaction rate and products for nS 87Rb Rydberg states, and we mainly observe a state change of the Rydberg electron to a high orbital angular momentum l, with the released energy being converted into kinetic energy of the Rydberg atom. Unexpectedly, the measurements show a threshold behavior at n ≈ 100 for the inelastic collision time leading to increased lifetimes of the Rydberg state independent of the densities investigated. Even at very high densities (ρ ≈ 4.8 x 10 14 cm -3), the lifetime of a Rydberg atom exceeds 10 μs at n > 140 compared to 1 μs at n = 90. In addition, a second observed reaction mechanism, namely, Rbmore » $$+\\atop{2}$$ molecule formation, was studied. Both reaction products are equally probable for n = 40, but the fraction of Rb + 2 created drops to below 10% for n ≥ 90.« less

Structures and chemical bonding of B{sub 3}O{sub 3}{sup −/0} and B{sub 3}O{sub 3}H{sup −/0}: A combined photoelectron spectroscopy and first-principles theory study

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhao, Li-Juan; Xu, Hong-Guang; Feng, Gang

We present a combined photoelectron spectroscopy and first-principles theory study on the structural and electronic properties and chemical bonding of B{sub 3}O{sub 3}{sup −/0} and B{sub 3}O{sub 3}H{sup −/0} clusters. The concerted experimental and theoretical data show that the global-minimum structures of B{sub 3}O{sub 3} and B{sub 3}O{sub 3}H neutrals are very different from those of their anionic counterparts. The B{sub 3}O{sub 3}{sup −} anion is characterized to possess a V-shaped OB–B–BO chain with overall C{sub 2v} symmetry (1A), in which the central B atom interacts with two equivalent boronyl (B≡O) terminals via B–B single bonds as well as withmore » one O atom via a B=O double bond. The B{sub 3}O{sub 3}H{sup −} anion has a C{sub s} (2A) structure, containing an asymmetric OB–B–OBO zig-zag chain and a terminal H atom interacting with the central B atom. In contrast, the C{sub 2v} (1a) global minimum of B{sub 3}O{sub 3} neutral contains a rhombic B{sub 2}O{sub 2} ring with one B atom bonded to a BO terminal and that of neutral B{sub 3}O{sub 3}H (2a) is also of C{sub 2v} symmetry, which is readily constructed from C{sub 2v} (1a) by attaching a H atom to the opposite side of the BO group. The H atom in B{sub 3}O{sub 3}H{sup −/0} (2A and 2a) prefers to interact terminally with a B atom, rather than with O. Chemical bonding analyses reveal a three-center four-electron (3c-4e) π hyperbond in the B{sub 3}O{sub 3}H{sup −} (2A) cluster and a four-center four-electron (4c-4e) π bond (that is, the so-called o-bond) in B{sub 3}O{sub 3} (1a) and B{sub 3}O{sub 3}H (2a) neutral clusters.« less

Fast computation of high energy elastic collision scattering angle for electric propulsion plume simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Araki, Samuel J.

2016-11-01

In the plumes of Hall thrusters and ion thrusters, high energy ions experience elastic collisions with slow neutral atoms. These collisions involve a process of momentum exchange, altering the initial velocity vectors of the collision pair. In addition to the momentum exchange process, ions and atoms can exchange electrons, resulting in slow charge-exchange ions and fast atoms. In these simulations, it is particularly important to accurately perform computations of ion-atom elastic collisions in determining the plume current profile and assessing the integration of spacecraft components. The existing models are currently capable of accurate calculation but are not fast enough such that the calculation can be a bottleneck of plume simulations. This study investigates methods to accelerate an ion-atom elastic collision calculation that includes both momentum- and charge-exchange processes. The scattering angles are pre-computed through a classical approach with ab initio spin-orbit free potential and are stored in a two-dimensional array as functions of impact parameter and energy. When performing a collision calculation for an ion-atom pair, the scattering angle is computed by a table lookup and multiple linear interpolations, given the relative energy and randomly determined impact parameter. In order to further accelerate the calculations, the number of collision calculations is reduced by properly defining two cut-off cross-sections for the elastic scattering. In the MCC method, the target atom needs to be sampled; however, it is confirmed that initial target atom velocity does not play a significant role in typical electric propulsion plume simulations such that the sampling process is unnecessary. With these implementations, the computational run-time to perform a collision calculation is reduced significantly compared to previous methods, while retaining the accuracy of the high fidelity models.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dey, Ritu; Ghosh, Joydeep; Chowdhuri, M. B.

Neutral particle behavior in Aditya tokamak, which has a circular poloidal ring limiter at one particular toroidal location, has been investigated using DEGAS2 code. The code is based on the calculation using Monte Carlo algorithms and is mainly used in tokamaks with divertor configuration. This code has been successfully implemented in Aditya tokamak with limiter configuration. The penetration of neutral hydrogen atom is studied with various atomic and molecular contributions and it is found that the maximum contribution comes from the dissociation processes. For the same, H α spectrum is also simulated which was matched with the experimental one. Themore » dominant contribution around 64% comes from molecular dissociation processes and neutral particle is generated by those processes have energy of ~ 2.0 eV. Furthermore, the variation of neutral hydrogen density and H α emissivity profile are analysed for various edge temperature profiles and found that there is not much changes in H α emission at the plasma edge with the variation of edge temperature (7 to 40 eV).« less

Measurement of fast minority /sub 3/He/sup + +/ energy distribution during ICRF heating

DOEpatents

Post, D.E. Jr.; Grisham, L.R.; Medley, S.S.

A method and means for measuring the fast /sub 3/He/sup + +/ distribution during /sub 3/He/sup + +/ minority Ion Cyclotron Resonance Frequency (ICRF) heating is disclosed. The present invention involves the use of 10 to 100 keV beams of neutral helium atoms to neutralize the fast /sub 3/He/sup + +/ ions in a heated plasma by double charge exchange (/sub 3/He/sup + +/ + /sub 4/He/sup 0/ ..-->.. /sub 3/He/sup 0/ + /sub 4/He/sup + +/). The neutralized fast /sub 3/He/sup 0/ atoms then escape from the hot plasma confined by a magnetic field and are detected by conventional neutral particle analyzing means. This technique permits the effectiveness of the coupling of the ion cyclotron waves to the /sub 3/He/sup + +/ minority ions to be accurately measured. The present invention is particularly adapted for use in evaluating the effectiveness of the intermediate coupling between the RF heating and the /sub 3/He/sup + +/ in an energetic toroidal plasma.

Method and apparatus for quantum information processing using entangled neutral-atom qubits

DOEpatents

Jau, Yuan Yu; Biedermann, Grant; Deutsch, Ivan

2018-04-03

A method for preparing an entangled quantum state of an atomic ensemble is provided. The method includes loading each atom of the atomic ensemble into a respective optical trap; placing each atom of the atomic ensemble into a same first atomic quantum state by impingement of pump radiation; approaching the atoms of the atomic ensemble to within a dipole-dipole interaction length of each other; Rydberg-dressing the atomic ensemble; during the Rydberg-dressing operation, exciting the atomic ensemble with a Raman pulse tuned to stimulate a ground-state hyperfine transition from the first atomic quantum state to a second atomic quantum state; and separating the atoms of the atomic ensemble by more than a dipole-dipole interaction length.

Deutsch, Toffoli, and cnot Gates via Rydberg Blockade of Neutral Atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Xiao-Feng

2018-05-01

Universal quantum gates and quantum error correction (QEC) lie at the heart of quantum-information science. Large-scale quantum computing depends on a universal set of quantum gates, in which some gates may be easily carried out, while others are restricted to certain physical systems. There is a unique three-qubit quantum gate called the Deutsch gate [D (θ )], from which a circuit can be constructed so that any feasible quantum computing is attainable. We design an easily realizable D (θ ) by using the Rydberg blockade of neutral atoms, where θ can be tuned to any value in [0 ,π ] by adjusting the strengths of external control fields. Using similar protocols, we further show that both the Toffoli and controlled-not gates can be achieved with only three laser pulses. The Toffoli gate, being universal for classical reversible computing, is also useful for QEC, which plays an important role in quantum communication and fault-tolerant quantum computation. The possibility and speed of realizing these gates shed light on the study of quantum information with neutral atoms.

Observations and Interpretations of Energetic Neutral Hydrogen Atoms from the December 5, 2006 Solar Event

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mewaldt, R. A.; Leske, R. A.; Shih, A. Y.; Stone, E. C.; Barghouty, A. f.; Cohen, C. M. S.; Cummings, A. c.; Labrador, A. W.; vonRosenvinge, T. T.

2009-01-01

We discuss recently reported observations of energetic neutral hydrogen atoms (ENAs) from an X9 solar flare/coronal mass ejection event on 5 December 2006, located at E79. The observations were made by the Low Energy Telescopes (LETs) on STEREO A and B. Prior to the arrival of the main solar energetic particle (SEP) event at Earth, both LETs observed a sudden burst of 1.6 to 15 MeV energetic neutral hydrogen atoms produced by either flare or shock-accelerated protons. RHESSI measurements of the 2.2-MeV gamma-ray line provide an estimate of the number of interacting flare-accelerated protons in this event, which leads to an improved estimate of ENA production by flare-accelerated protons. Taking into account ENA losses, we find that the observed ENAs must have been produced in the high corona at heliocentric distances > or equal to 2 solar radii. Although there are no CME images from this event, it is shown that CME-shock-accelerated protons can, in principle, produce a time-history consistent with the observations.

Plasma-formed hyperthermal atomic beams for use in thin film fabrication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gilson, E. P.; Cohen, S. A.; Berlinger, B.; Chan, W.

2013-10-01

Enhancing the surface mobility of adsorbents during thin-film growth processes is important for creating certain high-quality thin films. Under the auspices of a DARPA program to develop methods for supplying momentum to adsorbates during thin-film formation without using bulk heating, a hyperthermal atomic beam (HAB) was generated and directed at silicon surfaces with patterned coatings of pentacene, gold, and other surrogates for adsorbents relevant to various thin-film coatings. The HAB was created when the plasma from a helicon plasma source struck a tungsten neutralizer plate and was reflected as neutrals. Time averaged HAB fluxes 100 times greater than in previous PPPL HAB sources have been generated. The effect of the HAB on the patterned coatings was measured using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Results are presented on the flux and energy of the HAB for various system pressures, magnetic fields, and neutralizer biases. AFM measurements of the surface topology demonstrate that the HAB energy, species, and integrated flux are all important factors in altering surface mobility. This research is supported by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

The role of charge-exchange cross-section for pickup protons and neutrals in the inner heliosheath

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chalov, S. V.

2018-06-01

The process of deceleration of the solar wind downstream of the termination shock is studied on the basis of a one-dimensional multi-component model. It is assumed that the solar wind consists of thermal protons, electrons and interstellar pickup protons. The protons interact with interstellar hydrogen atoms by charge-exchange. Two cases are considered. In the first one, the charge-exchange cross-section for thermal protons and hydrogen atoms is the same as for pickup protons and atoms. Under this condition, there is a strong dependence of the solar wind velocity on the downstream temperature of pickup protons. When the proton temperature is close to 10 keV, the change in the velocity with the distance from the termination shock is similar to that measured on the Voyager 1 spacecraft: linear velocity decrease is accompanied by an extended transition region with near-zero velocity. However, with a more careful approach to the choice of the charge-exchange cross-section, the situation changes dramatically. The strong dependence of the solar wind speed on the pickup proton temperature disappears and the transition region in the heliosheath disappears as well, at least at reasonable distances from the TS.

Interfacial chemical and electronic structure of cobalt deposition on 2,7-dioctyl[1]benzothieno[3,2-b]benzothiophene (C8-BTBT)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Menglong; Lyu, Lu; Niu, Dongmei; Zhang, Hong; Zhang, Yuhe; Liu, Peng; Gao, Yongli

2017-04-01

Interfacial chemical and electronic structure of Co deposition on 2,7-dioctyl[1]benzothieno[3,2-b]benzothiophene(C8-BTBT) was investigated by ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS) and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS). Chemical reaction of cobalt with C8-BTBT at the interface is confirmed by a new component of S 2s peak which is electron-rich compared to the original one of C8-BTBT molecules. Intensity evolution of the core level in XPS indicates that the adsorption of Co atoms is mainly at the surface without deeper diffusion into C8-BTBT layer. Initial deposition of Co atoms downward shifts the core levels of C8-BTBT by electron transfer from isolated Co atoms or clusters to the C8-BTBT. Further deposition of Co upward shifts the core levels of C8-BTBT because of the neutralization of the thicker metal Co film. Our investigation suggests an inert buffer layer inserted to protect organic layer from reaction or decomposition and to lower the carrier barriers for both the electron and hole to improve the performance of Co/C8-BTBT-based OFETs.

Probing the Importance of Charge Flux in Force Field Modeling.

PubMed

Sedghamiz, Elaheh; Nagy, Balazs; Jensen, Frank

2017-08-08

We analyze the conformational dependence of atomic charges and molecular dipole moments for a selection of ∼900 conformations of peptide models of the 20 neutral amino acids. Based on a set of reference density functional theory calculations, we partition the changes into effects due to changes in bond distances, bond angles, and torsional angles and into geometry and charge flux contributions. This allows an assessment of the limitations of fixed charge force fields and indications for how to design improved force fields. The torsional degrees of freedom are the main contribution to conformational changes of atomic charges and molecular dipole moments, but indirect effects due to change in bond distances and angles account for ∼25% of the variation. Charge flux effects dominate for changes in bond distances and are also the main component of the variation in bond angles, while they are ∼25% compared to the geometry variations for torsional degrees of freedom. The geometry and charge flux contributions to some extent produce compensating effects.

A physics-based model for the ionization of samarium by the MOSC chemical releases in the upper atmosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernhardt, Paul A.; Siefring, Carl L.; Briczinski, Stanley J.; Viggiano, Albert; Caton, Ronald G.; Pedersen, Todd R.; Holmes, Jeffrey M.; Ard, Shaun; Shuman, Nicholas; Groves, Keith M.

2017-05-01

Atomic samarium has been injected into the neutral atmosphere for production of electron clouds that modify the ionosphere. These electron clouds may be used as high-frequency radio wave reflectors or for control of the electrodynamics of the F region. A self-consistent model for the photochemical reactions of Samarium vapor cloud released into the upper atmosphere has been developed and compared with the Metal Oxide Space Cloud (MOSC) experimental observations. The release initially produces a dense plasma cloud that that is rapidly reduced by dissociative recombination and diffusive expansion. The spectral emissions from the release cover the ultraviolet to the near infrared band with contributions from solar fluorescence of the atomic, molecular, and ionized components of the artificial density cloud. Barium releases in sunlight are more efficient than Samarium releases in sunlight for production of dense ionization clouds. Samarium may be of interest for nighttime releases but the artificial electron cloud is limited by recombination with the samarium oxide ion.

Modeling Solar Wind Flow with the Multi-Scale Fluid-Kinetic Simulation Suite

DOE PAGES

Pogorelov, N.V.; Borovikov, S. N.; Bedford, M. C.; ...

2013-04-01

Multi-Scale Fluid-Kinetic Simulation Suite (MS-FLUKSS) is a package of numerical codes capable of performing adaptive mesh refinement simulations of complex plasma flows in the presence of discontinuities and charge exchange between ions and neutral atoms. The flow of the ionized component is described with the ideal MHD equations, while the transport of atoms is governed either by the Boltzmann equation or multiple Euler gas dynamics equations. We have enhanced the code with additional physical treatments for the transport of turbulence and acceleration of pickup ions in the interplanetary space and at the termination shock. In this article, we present themore » results of our numerical simulation of the solar wind (SW) interaction with the local interstellar medium (LISM) in different time-dependent and stationary formulations. Numerical results are compared with the Ulysses, Voyager, and OMNI observations. Finally, the SW boundary conditions are derived from in-situ spacecraft measurements and remote observations.« less

Aqua complexes of 18—crown-6 with H 3PO 4, H 2TiF 6, and HNO 3: synthesis and vibrational spectra

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chénevert, R.; Rodrigue, A.; Chamberland, D.; Ouellet, J.; Savoie, R.

1985-11-01

Neutral-component complexes of 2:3:1 (acid:water:18-crown-6) stoichiometry have been obtained with H 3PO 4 and H 2TiF 6. These adducts have been studied by infrared and Raman spectroscopy, along with the corresponding (HNO 3-H 1O) 2-18-crown-6 complex, whose synthesis has already been reported. The spectra indicate that the crown ether has a highly regular conformation in these complexes. In those with H 3PO 4 and HNO 3, the binding of the acid molecule to the ether takes place through a H 2O linker, the strength of the XOH⋯OH 2 hydrogen bond being directly related to the p K a of the acid. With HNO 3, the acidic proton appears to be delocalized between the two oxygen atoms, giving a pseudo H 2O + ion whereas in the corresponding deuterocompound the D atom remains associated with the acid.

Sputtering erosion in ion and plasma thrusters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ray, Pradosh K.

1995-01-01

An experimental set-up to measure low-energy (below 1 keV) sputtering of materials is described. The materials to be bombarded represent ion thruster components as well as insulators used in the stationary plasma thruster. The sputtering takes place in a 9 inch diameter spherical vacuum chamber. Ions of argon, krypton and xenon are used to bombard the target materials. The sputtered neutral atoms are detected by a secondary neutral mass spectrometer (SNMS). Samples of copper, nickel, aluminum, silver and molybdenum are being sputtered initially to calibrate the spectrometer. The base pressure of the chamber is approximately 2 x 10(exp -9) Torr. the primary ion beam is generated by an ion gun which is capable of delivering ion currents in the range of 20 to 500 nA. The ion beam can be focused to a size approximately 1 mm in diameter. The mass spectrometer is positioned 10 mm from the target and at 90 deg angle to the primary ion beam direction. The ion beam impinges on the target at 45 deg. For sputtering of insulators, charge neutralization is performed by flooding the sample with electrons generated from an electron gun. Preliminary sputtering results, methods of calculating the instrument response function of the spectrometer and the relative sensitivity factors of the sputtered elements will be discussed.

Global molecular identification from graphs. Neutral and ionized main-group diatomic molecules.

PubMed

James, Bryan; Caviness, Ken; Geach, Jonathan; Walters, Chris; Hefferlin, Ray

2002-01-01

Diophantine equations and inequalities are presented for main-group closed-shell diatomic molecules. Specifying various bond types (covalent, dative, ionic, van der Waals) and multiplicities, it becomes possible to identify all possible molecules. While many of the identified species are probably unstable under normal conditions, they are interesting and present a challenge for computational or experimental analysis. Ionized molecules with net charges of -1, 1, and 2 are also identified. The analysis applies to molecules with atoms from periods 2 and 3 but can be generalized by substituting isovalent atoms. When closed-shell neutral diatomics are positioned in the chemical space (with axes enumerating the numbers of valence electrons of the free atoms), it is seen that they lie on a few parallel isoelectronic series.

Fluoro-alcohol phase modifiers and process for cesium solvent extraction

DOEpatents

Bonnesen, Peter V.; Moyer, Bruce A.; Sachleben, Richard A.

2003-05-20

The invention relates to a class of phenoxy fluoro-alcohols, their preparation, and their use as phase modifiers and solvating agents in a solvent composition for the extraction of cesium from alkaline solutions. These phenoxy fluoro-alcohols comply with the formula: ##STR1## in which n=2 to 4; X represents a hydrogen or a fluorine atom, and R.sup.2 -R.sup.6 are hydrogen or alkyl substituents. These phenoxy fluoro-alcohol phase modifiers are a necessary component to a robust solvent composition and process useful for the removal of radioactive cesium from alkaline nuclear waste streams. The fluoro-alcohols can also be used in solvents designed to extract other cesium from acidic or neutral solutions.

Polarization-dependent atomic dipole traps behind a circular aperture for neutral-atom quantum computing

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gillen-Christandl, Katharina; Copsey, Bert D.

2011-02-15

The neutral-atom quantum computing community has successfully implemented almost all necessary steps for constructing a neutral-atom quantum computer. We present computational results of a study aimed at solving the remaining problem of creating a quantum memory with individually addressable sites for quantum computing. The basis of this quantum memory is the diffraction pattern formed by laser light incident on a circular aperture. Very close to the aperture, the diffraction pattern has localized bright and dark spots that can serve as red-detuned or blue-detuned atomic dipole traps. These traps are suitable for quantum computing even for moderate laser powers. In particular,more » for moderate laser intensities ({approx}100 W/cm{sup 2}) and comparatively small detunings ({approx}1000-10 000 linewidths), trap depths of {approx}1 mK and trap frequencies of several to tens of kilohertz are achieved. Our results indicate that these dipole traps can be moved by tilting the incident laser beams without significantly changing the trap properties. We also explored the polarization dependence of these dipole traps. We developed a code that calculates the trapping potential energy for any magnetic substate of any hyperfine ground state of any alkali-metal atom for any laser detuning much smaller than the fine-structure splitting for any given electric field distribution. We describe details of our calculations and include a summary of different notations and conventions for the reduced matrix element and how to convert it to SI units. We applied this code to these traps and found a method for bringing two traps together and apart controllably without expelling the atoms from the trap and without significant tunneling probability between the traps. This approach can be scaled up to a two-dimensional array of many pinholes, forming a quantum memory with single-site addressability, in which pairs of atoms can be brought together and apart for two-qubit gates for quantum computing.« less

Neutral atomic absorption lines and far-UV extinction: Possible implications for depletions and grain parameters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Welty, Daniel E.

1990-01-01

Researchers examine nine lines of sight within the Galaxy and one in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) for which data on both neutral atomic absorption lines (Snow 1984; White 1986; Welty, Hobbs, and York 1989) and far UV extinction (Bless and Savage 1972; Jenkins, Savage, and Spitzer 1986) are available, in order to test the assumption that variations in gamma/alpha will cancel in taking ratios of the ionization balance equation, and to try to determine to what extent that assumption has affected the aforementioned studies of depletions and grain properties.

The Reactions of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons with OH

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ricca, Alessandra; Bauschlicher, Charles W., Jr.; Arnold, James O. (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

The OH radical adds to naphthalene and naphthalene cation without a barrier. For the neutrals, the most favorable path for this intermediate is the loss of the OH, and the next most favorable option is the loss of an H atom to form the alcohol. For the cation, the most favorable path appears to be a hydrogen migration followed by the loss of a hydrogen to form the alcohol. The OH at carbon atom 1 is energetically most favorable for both the initial complex and final product. This is true for both the neutrals and cations.

Extended atmospheres of outer planet satellites and comets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smyth, W. H.; Combi, M. R.

1985-01-01

Collisions between neutral hydrogen atoms in the interstellar medium and those in the so-called Titan hydrogen torus may provide an additional lifetime sink for atoms in the Saturn environment. Progress toward re-sorting the Voyager UVS scans of neutral hydrogen in the Saturn system to enable both a factor of two increase in the amount of data to be analyzed as well as to help identify near-Titan hydrogen is discussed. Progress toward development of the cometary carbon and oxygen models is also discussed and a preliminary model run for the H2O source of cometary oxygen is presented.

Spectroscopic detection and analysis of atomic emissions during industrial pulsed laser-drilling of structural aerospace alloys

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bright, Robin Michael

The ability to adequately cool internal gas-turbine engine components in next-generation commercial and military aircraft is of extreme importance to the aerospace industry as the demand for high-efficiency engines continues to push operating temperatures higher. Pulsed laser-drilling is rapidly becoming the preferred method of creating cooling holes in high temperature components due a variety of manufacturing advantages of laser-drilling over conventional hole-drilling techniques. As cooling requirements become more demanding, the impact of drilling conditions on material removal behavior and subsequent effects on hole quality becomes critical. In this work, the development of emission spectroscopy as a method to probe the laser-drilling process is presented and subsequently applied to the study of material behavior of various structural aerospace materials during drilling. Specifically, emitted photons associated with energy level transitions within excited neutral atoms in material ejected during drilling were detected and analyzed. Systematic spectroscopic studies indicated that electron energy level populations and calculated electron temperatures within ejected material are dependent on both laser pulse energy and duration. Local thermal conditions detected by the developed method were related to the characteristics of ejected material during drilling and to final hole quality. Finally, methods of utilizing the observed relationships for spectroscopic process monitoring and control were demonstrated.

Miniature Lightweight Ion Pump

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sinha, Mahadeva P.

2010-01-01

This design offers a larger surface area for pumping of active gases and reduces the mass of the pump by eliminating the additional vacuum enclosure. There are three main components to this ion pump: the cathode and anode pumping elements assembly, the vacuum enclosure (made completely of titanium and used as the cathode and maintained at ground potential) containing the assembly, and the external magnet. These components are generally put in a noble diode (or differential) configuration of the ion pump technology. In the present state of the art, there are two cathodes, one made of titanium and the other of tantalum. The anodes are made up of an array of stainless steel cylinders positioned between the two cathodes. All the elements of the pump are in a vacuum enclosure. After the reduction of pressure in this enclosure to a few microns, a voltage is applied between the cathode and the anode elements. Electrons generated by the ionization are accelerated toward the anodes that are confined in the anode space by the axial magnetic field. For the generation of the axial field along the anode elements, the magnet is designed in a C-configuration and is fabricated from rare earth magnetic materials (Nd-B-Fe or Sm-Co) possessing high energy product values, and the yoke is fabricated from the high permeability material (Hiperco-50A composed of Fe-Co-V). The electrons in this region collide with the gas molecules and generate their positive ions. These ions are accelerated into the cathode and eject cathode material (Ti). The neutral atoms deposit on the anode surfaces. Because of the chemical activity of Ti, the atoms combine with chemically active gas molecules (e.g. N2, O2, etc.) and remove them. New layers of Ti are continually deposited, and the pumping of active gases is thus accomplished. Pumping of the inert gases is accomplished by their burial several atomic layers deep into the cathode. However, they tend to re-emit if the entrapping lattice atoms are sputtered away. For stable pumping of inert gases, one side of the cathode is made of Ta. Impaction on Ta produces energetic, neutral atoms that pump the inert gases on the anode structure at the peripheral areas of the cathodes (between anode rings). For inert gases stability, a post design has been implemented. Here, posts of cathode material (Ti) are mounted on the cathode. These protrude into the initial part of the anode elements. Materials sputtered from the posts condense on the anode assembly and on the cathode plane at higher rates than in the normal diodes due to enhanced sputtering at glancing angles from geometrical considerations. This increases pumping by burial. This post design has enhanced pumping rates for both active and inert gases, compared with conventional designs.

Studies for the Loss of Atomic and Molecular Species from Io

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smyth, William H.

1998-01-01

Continued effort is reported to improve the emission rates of various emission lines for atomic oxygen and sulfur. Atomic hydrogen has been included as a new species in the neutral cloud model. The pertinent lifetime processes for hydrogen in the plasma torus and the relevant excitation processes for H Lyman-alpha emission in Io's atmosphere are discussed.

The neutral mass spectrometer on Dynamics Explorer B

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carignan, G. R.; Block, B. P.; Maurer, J. C.; Hedin, A. E.; Reber, C. A.; Spencer, N. W.

1981-01-01

A neutral gas mass spectrometer has been developed to satisfy the measurement requirements of the Dynamics Explorer mission. The mass spectrometer, a quadrupole, will measure the abundances of neutral species in the region 300-500 km in the earth's atmosphere. These measurements will be used in concert with other simultaneous observations on Dynamics Explorer to study the physical processes involved in the interactions of the magnetosphere-ionosphere-atmosphere system. The instrument, which is similar to that flown on Atmosphere Explorer, employs an electron beam ion source operating in the closed mode and a discrete dynode multiplier as a detector. The mass range is 22 to 50 amu. The abundances of atomic oxygen, molecular nitrogen, helium, argon, and possibly atomic nitrogen will be measured to an accuracy of about + or - 15% over the specified altitude range, with a temporal resolution of one second.

Sensitivity of MSE measurements on the beam atomic level population

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ruiz, C., E-mail: carlos.ruiz@wisc.edu; Kumar, S. T. A.; Anderson, F. S. B.

The effect of variation in atomic level population of a neutral beam on the Motional Stark Effect (MSE) measurements is investigated in the low density plasmas of HSX stellarator. A 30 KeV, 4 A, 3 ms hydrogen diagnostic neutral beam is injected into HSX plasmas of line averaged electron density ranging from 2 to 4 ⋅ 10{sup 18} m{sup −3} at a magnetic field of 1 T. For this density range, the excited level population of the hydrogen neutral beam is expected to undergo variations. Doppler shifted and Stark split H{sub α} and H{sub β} emissions from the beam aremore » simultaneously measured using two cross-calibrated spectrometers. The emission spectrum is simulated and fit to the experimental measurements and the deviation from a statistically populated beam is investigated.« less

Determination of the neutral oxygen atom density in a plasma reactor loaded with metal samples

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mozetic, Miran; Cvelbar, Uros

2009-08-01

The density of neutral oxygen atoms was determined during processing of metal samples in a plasma reactor. The reactor was a Pyrex tube with an inner diameter of 11 cm and a length of 30 cm. Plasma was created by an inductively coupled radiofrequency generator operating at a frequency of 27.12 MHz and output power up to 500 W. The O density was measured at the edge of the glass tube with a copper fiber optics catalytic probe. The O atom density in the empty tube depended on pressure and was between 4 and 7 × 1021 m-3. The maximum O density was at a pressure of about 150 Pa, while the dissociation fraction of O2 molecules was maximal at the lowest pressure and decreased with increasing pressure. At about 300 Pa it dropped below 10%. The measurements were repeated in the chamber loaded with different metallic samples. In these cases, the density of oxygen atoms was lower than that in the empty chamber. The results were explained by a drain of O atoms caused by heterogeneous recombination on the samples.

Measurements of neutral and ion velocity distribution functions in a Hall thruster

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Svarnas, Panagiotis; Romadanov, Iavn; Diallo, Ahmed; Raitses, Yevgeny

2015-11-01

Hall thruster is a plasma device for space propulsion. It utilizes a cross-field discharge to generate a partially ionized weakly collisional plasma with magnetized electrons and non-magnetized ions. The ions are accelerated by the electric field to produce the thrust. There is a relatively large number of studies devoted to characterization of accelerated ions, including measurements of ion velocity distribution function using laser-induced fluorescence diagnostic. Interactions of these accelerated ions with neutral atoms in the thruster and the thruster plume is a subject of on-going studies, which require combined monitoring of ion and neutral velocity distributions. Herein, laser-induced fluorescence technique has been employed to study neutral and single-charged ion velocity distribution functions in a 200 W cylindrical Hall thruster operating with xenon propellant. An optical system is installed in the vacuum chamber enabling spatially resolved axial velocity measurements. The fluorescence signals are well separated from the plasma background emission by modulating the laser beam and using lock-in detectors. Measured velocity distribution functions of neutral atoms and ions at different operating parameters of the thruster are reported and analyzed. This work was supported by DOE contract DE-AC02-09CH11466.

Kinetics of Fast Atoms in the Terrestrial Atmosphere

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kharchenko, Vasili A.; Dalgarno, A.; Mellott, Mary (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

This report summarizes our investigations performed under NASA Grant NAG5-8058. The three-year research supported by the Geospace Sciences SR&T program (Ionospheric, Thermospheric, and Mesospheric Physics) has been designed to investigate fluxes of energetic oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the terrestrial thermosphere. Fast atoms are produced due to absorption of the solar radiation and due to coupling between the ionosphere and the neutral thermospheric gas. We have investigated the impact of hot oxygen and nitrogen atoms on the thermal balance, chemistry and radiation properties of the terrestrial thermosphere. Our calculations have been focused on the accurate quantitative description of the thermalization of O and N energetic atoms in collisions with atom and molecules of the ambient neutral gas. Upward fluxes of oxygen and nitrogen atoms, the rate of atmospheric heating by hot oxygen atoms, and the energy input into translational and rotational-vibrational degrees of atmospheric molecules have been evaluated. Altitude profiles of hot oxygen and nitrogen atoms have been analyzed and compared with available observational data. Energetic oxygen atoms in the terrestrial atmosphere have been investigated for decades, but insufficient information on the kinetics of fast atmospheric atoms has been a main obstacle for the interpretation of observational data and modeling of the hot geocorona. The recent development of accurate computational methods of the collisional kinetics is seen as an important step in the quantitative description of hot atoms in the thermosphere. Modeling of relaxation processes in the terrestrial atmosphere has incorporated data of recent observations, and theoretical predictions have been tested by new laboratory measurements.

On the Origins of Mars' Exospheric Nonthermal Oxygen Component as Observed by MAVEN and Modeled by HELIOSARES

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leblanc, F.; Chaufray, J. Y.; Modolo, R.; Leclercq, L.; Curry, S.; Luhmann, J.; Lillis, R.; Hara, T.; McFadden, J.; Halekas, J.; Schneider, N.; Deighan, J.; Mahaffy, P. R.; Benna, M.; Johnson, R. E.; Gonzalez-Galindo, F.; Forget, F.; Lopez-Valverde, M. A.; Eparvier, F. G.; Jakosky, B.

2017-12-01

The first measurements of the emission brightness of the oxygen atomic exosphere by Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission have clearly shown that it is composed of a thermal component produced by the extension of the upper atmosphere and of a nonthermal component. Modeling these measurements allows us to constrain the origins of the exospheric O and, as a consequence, to estimate Mars' present oxygen escape rate. We here propose an analysis of three periods of MAVEN observations based on a set of three coupled models: a hybrid magnetospheric model (LATmos HYbrid Simulation (LatHyS)), an Exospheric General Model (EGM), and the Global Martian Circulation model of the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD-GCM), which provide a description of Mars' environment from the surface up to the solar wind. The simulated magnetosphere by LatHyS is in good agreement with MAVEN Plasma and Field Package instruments data. The LMD-GCM modeled upper atmospheric profiles for the main neutral and ion species are compared to Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer/MAVEN data showing that the LMD-GCM can provide a satisfactory global view of Mars' upper atmosphere. Finally, we were able to reconstruct the expected emission brightness intensity from the oxygen exosphere using EGM. The good agreement with the averaged measured profiles by Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph during these three periods suggests that Mars' exospheric nonthermal component can be fully explained by the reactions of dissociative recombination of the O2+ ion in Mars' ionosphere, limiting significantly our ability to extract information from MAVEN observations of the O exosphere on other nonthermal processes, such as sputtering.

A Ulysses Detection of Secondary Helium Neutrals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wood, Brian E.; Müller, Hans-Reinhard; Witte, Manfred

2017-12-01

The Interstellar Boundary EXplorer (IBEX) mission has recently studied the flow of interstellar neutral He atoms through the solar system and discovered the existence of a secondary He flow that likely originates in the outer heliosheath. We find evidence for this secondary component in Ulysses data. By coadding hundreds of Ulysses He beam maps together to maximize signal-to-noise ratio, we identify a weak signal that is credibly associated with the secondary component. Assuming a laminar flow from infinity, we infer the following He flow parameters: V=12.8+/- 1.9 km s-1, λ =74\\buildrel{\\circ}\\over{.} 4+/- 1\\buildrel{\\circ}\\over{.} 8, β =-10\\buildrel{\\circ}\\over{.} 5+/- 4\\buildrel{\\circ}\\over{.} 1, and T=3000+/- 1100 K; where λ and β are the ecliptic longitude and latitude direction in J2000 coordinates. The secondary component has a density that is 4.9 ± 0.9% that of the primary component. These measurements are reasonably consistent with measurements from IBEX, with the exception of temperature, where our temperature is much lower than IBEX’s T = 9500 K. Even the higher IBEX temperature is suspiciously low compared to expectactions for the outer heliosheath source region. The implausibly low temperatures are due to the incorrect assumption of a laminar flow instead of a diverging one, given that the flow in the outer heliosheath source region will be deflecting around the heliopause. As for why the IBEX and Ulysses T values are different, difficulties with background subtraction in the Ulysses data are a potential source of concern, but the discrepancy may also be another effect of the improper laminar flow assumption, which could affect the IBEX and Ulysses analyses differently.

An Electron Density Source-Function Study of DNA Base Pairs in Their Neutral and Ionized Ground States†.

PubMed

Gatti, Carlo; Macetti, Giovanni; Boyd, Russell J; Matta, Chérif F

2018-07-05

The source function (SF) decomposes the electron density at any point into contributions from all other points in the molecule, complex, or crystal. The SF "illuminates" those regions in a molecule that most contribute to the electron density at a point of reference. When this point of reference is the bond critical point (BCP), a commonly used surrogate of chemical bonding, then the SF analysis at an atomic resolution within the framework of Bader's Quantum Theory of Atoms in Molecules returns the contribution of each atom in the system to the electron density at that BCP. The SF is used to locate the important regions that control the hydrogen bonds in both Watson-Crick (WC) DNA dimers (adenine:thymine (AT) and guanine:cytosine (GC)) which are studied in their neutral and their singly ionized (radical cationic and anionic) ground states. The atomic contributions to the electron density at the BCPs of the hydrogen bonds in the two dimers are found to be delocalized to various extents. Surprisingly, gaining or loosing an electron has similar net effects on some hydrogen bonds concealing subtle compensations traced to atomic sources contributions. Coarser levels of resolutions (groups, rings, and/or monomers-in-dimers) reveal that distant groups and rings often have non-negligible effects especially on the weaker hydrogen bonds such as the third weak CH⋅⋅⋅O hydrogen bond in AT. Interestingly, neither the purine nor the pyrimidine in the neutral or ionized forms dominate any given hydrogen bond despite that the former has more atoms that can act as source or sink for the density at its BCP. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Synthesis and spectroscopic studies on the new Schiff base derived from the 1:2 condensation of 2,6-diformyl-4-methylphenol with 5-aminouracil (BDF5AU) and its transition metal complexes. Influence on biologically active peptides-regulating aminopeptidases.

PubMed

Hueso-Ureña, Francisco; Illán-Cabeza, Nuria A; Moreno-Carretero, Miguel N; Martínez-Martos, José M; Ramírez-Expósito, María J

2003-04-01

The synthesis, spectroscopic (IR, 1H and 13C NMR, UV-Vis-NIR, EPR), magnetic measurements and biological studies of a number of complexes of Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), Cd(II), Au(III) and Hg(II) of the Schiff base derived from the 1:2 condensation of 2,6-diformyl-4-methylphenol and 5-aminouracil, ((5-[[(3-[[(2,4-dioxopyrimidin-5(1H,3H)-yl)imino]methyl]-2-hydroxy-5-methylphenyl)methylene]amino]pyrimidine-2,4(1H,3H)-dione, hereafter denoted as BDF5AU) are reported. In all cases, the complexes appear to be monomeric. The deprotonated ligand in the phenolic oxygen atom shows a tridentate coordination mode through the two azomethine nitrogen atoms and the phenolic oxygen atom. The coordination of the neutral ligand takes place through the phenolic oxygen atom and one azomethine nitrogen atom and the carbonylic oxygen atom in fourth position of one uracil ring. The biological properties of some perchlorate complexes on the activity of some neutral, acid, basic and omega aminopeptidases (AP) are assayed, demonstrating a general inhibitory effect. Neutral and basic AP are mainly inhibited by Cu(II), Ni(II) and Cd(II) complexes, although tyrosyl-AP is activated by Zn(II) complex. Glutamyl-AP but not aspartyl-AP is inhibited by all the complexes assayed excepting Zn(II) complex. Finally, omega AP is inhibited by Ni(II) and Cd(II) complexes. Copyright 2003 Elsevier Science Inc.

Handbook of Basic Atomic Spectroscopic Data

National Institute of Standards and Technology Data Gateway

SRD 108 Handbook of Basic Atomic Spectroscopic Data (Web, free access)   This handbook provides a selection of the most important and frequently used atomic spectroscopic data. The compilation includes data for the neutral and singly-ionized atoms of all elements hydrogen through einsteinium (Z = 1-99). The wavelengths, intensities, and spectrum assignments are given for each element, and the data for the approximately 12,000 lines of all elements are also collected into a single table.

Precipitation of energetic neutral atoms and induced non-thermal escape fluxes from the Martian atmosphere

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lewkow, N. R.; Kharchenko, V.

2014-08-01

The precipitation of energetic neutral atoms, produced through charge exchange collisions between solar wind ions and thermal atmospheric gases, is investigated for the Martian atmosphere. Connections between parameters of precipitating fast ions and resulting escape fluxes, altitude-dependent energy distributions of fast atoms and their coefficients of reflection from the Mars atmosphere, are established using accurate cross sections in Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. Distributions of secondary hot (SH) atoms and molecules, induced by precipitating particles, have been obtained and applied for computations of the non-thermal escape fluxes. A new collisional database on accurate energy-angular-dependent cross sections, required for description of themore » energy-momentum transfer in collisions of precipitating particles and production of non-thermal atmospheric atoms and molecules, is reported with analytic fitting equations. Three-dimensional MC simulations with accurate energy-angular-dependent cross sections have been carried out to track large ensembles of energetic atoms in a time-dependent manner as they propagate into the Martian atmosphere and transfer their energy to the ambient atoms and molecules. Results of the MC simulations on the energy-deposition altitude profiles, reflection coefficients, and time-dependent atmospheric heating, obtained for the isotropic hard sphere and anisotropic quantum cross sections, are compared. Atmospheric heating rates, thermalization depths, altitude profiles of production rates, energy distributions of SH atoms and molecules, and induced escape fluxes have been determined.« less

Investigation of hydrogen interaction with defects in zirconia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Melikhova, O.; Kuriplach, J.; Čížek, J.; Procházka, I.; Brauer, G.; Anwand, W.

2010-04-01

Defect studies of a ZrO2 + 9 mol. % Y2O3 single crystal were performed in this work using a high resolution positron lifetime spectroscopy combined with slow positron implantation spectroscopy. In order to elucidate the nature of positron trapping sites observed experimentally, the structural relaxations of several types of vacancy-like defects in zirconia were performed and positron characteristics for them were calculated. Relaxed atomic configurations of studied defects were obtained by means of ab initio pseudopotential method within the supercell approach. Theoretical calculations indicated that neither oxygen vacancies nor their neutral complexes with substitute yttrium atoms are capable of positron trapping. On the other hand, zirconium vacancies are deep positron traps and are most probably responsible for the saturated positron trapping observed in yttria stabilized zirconia single crystals. However, the calculated positron lifetime for zirconium vacancy is apparently longer than the experimental value corresponding to a single-component spectrum measured for the cubic ZrO2 + 9 mol. % Y2O3 single crystal. It was demonstrated that this effect can be explained by hydrogen trapped in zirconium vacancies. On the basis of structure relaxations, we found that zirconium vacancy - hydrogen complexes represent deep positron traps with the calculated lifetime close to the experimental one. In zirconium vacancy - hydrogen complexes the hydrogen atom forms an O-H bond with one of the nearest neighbour oxygen atoms. The calculated bond length is close to 1 Å.

Atom chip microscopy: A novel probe for strongly correlated materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kasch, Brian; Naides, Matthew; Turner, Richard; Ray, Ushnish; Lev, Benjamin

2010-03-01

Atom chip technology---substrates supporting micron-sized current-carrying wires that create magnetic microtraps near surfaces for thermal or degenerate gases of neutral atoms---will enable single-shot, large area detection of magnetic flux below the 10-7 flux quantum level. By harnessing the extreme sensitivity of Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) to external perturbations, cryogenic atom chips could provide a magnetic flux detection capability that surpasses all other techniques by a factor of 10^2--10^3. We describe the merits of atom chip microscopy, our Rb BEC and atom chip apparatus, and prospects for imaging strongly correlated condensed matter materials.

Enhanced water purification: a single atom makes a difference.

PubMed

Stewart, Tom A; Trudell, Daniel E; Alam, Todd M; Ohlin, C André; Lawler, Christian; Casey, William H; Jett, Stephen; Nyman, May

2009-07-15

The aluminum Keggin polycation (Al13) has been identified as an effective specie for neutralization and coagulation of anionic contaminants in water. In this study, we compare efficacy of the aluminum Keggin-ion to the analogues containing a single Ga-atom or single Ge-atom (GaAl12 and GeAl12, respectively) substituted into the center of the polycation in water-treatment studies. We investigated removal of bacteriophage (model viruses), Cryptosporidium, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and turbidity. In every study, the order of contaminant removal efficacy trends GaAl12 > Al13 > GeAl12. By ESI MS (electrospray ionization mass spectrometry), we noted the GaAl12 deprotonates least of the three aluminum polycations, and thus probably carries the highest charge, and also optimal contaminant-neutralization ability. The ESI MS studies of the aluminum polycation solutions, as well as solid-state characterization of their resulting precipitates both reveal some conversion of Al13 to larger polycations, Al30 for instance. The GaAl12 does not show any evidence for this alteration that is responsible for poor shelf life of commercial prehydrolyzed aluminum coagulants such as polyaluminum chloride. Based on these studies, we conclude that substitution of a single Ga-atom in the center of the aluminum Keggin polycation produces an optimal water-treatment product due to enhanced shelf life and efficacy in neutralization of anionic contaminants.

V. S. Lebedev and I. L. Beigman, Physics of Highly Excited Atoms and Ions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mewe, R.

1999-07-01

This book contains a comprehensive description of the basic principles of the theoretical spectroscopy and experimental spectroscopic diagnostics of Rydberg atoms and ions, i.e., atoms in highly excited states with a very large principal quantum number (n≫1). Rydberg atoms are characterized by a number of peculiar physical properties as compared to atoms in the ground or a low excited state. They have a very small ionization potential (∝1/n2), the highly excited electron has a small orbital velocity (∝1/n), the radius (∝n2) is very large, the excited electron has a long orbital period (∝n3), and the radiation lifetime is very long (∝n3-5). At the same time the R. atom is very sensitive to perturbations from external fields in collisions with charged and neutral targets. In recent years, R. atoms have been observed in laboratory and cosmic conditions for n up to ˜1000, which means that the size amounts to about 0.1 mm, ˜106 times that of an atom in the ground state. The scope of this monograph is to familiarize the reader with today's approaches and methods for describing isolated R. atoms and ions, radiative transitions between highly excited states, and photoionization and photorecombination processes. The authors present a number of efficient methods for describing the structure and properties of R. atoms and calculating processes of collisions with neutral and charged particles as well as spectral-line broadening and shift of Rydberg atomic series in gases, cool and hot plasmas in laboratories and in astrophysical sources. Particular attention is paid to a comparison of theoretical results with available experimental data. The book contains 9 chapters. Chapter 1 gives an introduction to the basic properties of R. atoms (ions), Chapter 2 is devoted to an account of general methods describing an isolated Rydberg atom. Chapter 3 is focussed on the recent achievements in calculations of form factors and dipole matrix elements of different types of bound-bound and bound-free radiative transitions. Chapter 4 concentrates on the formulation of basic theoretical methods and physical approaches to collisions involving R. atoms. Chapters 5 to 8 contain a systematic description of major directions and modern techniques in the collision theory of R. atoms and ions with atoms, molecules, electrons, and ions. Finally, Chapter 9 deals with the spectral-line broadening and shift of R. atomic series induced by collisions with neutral and charged particles. A subject index of four pages and 250 references are given. This monograph will be a basic tool and reference for all scientists working in the fields of plasma physics, spectroscopy, physics of electronic and atomic collisions, as well as astrophysics, radio astronomy, and space physics.

Laser Cooling of Neutral Atoms.

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-12-01

Assumptions and Scope ........oo......469....... II. Theory of the Resonance Radiation Force ........... 7 .’ Introduction o ..... - ... o7 General Explanation...areas. First, the initial velocity distribution for the atoms are needed. This information is developed in Ramsey’s book (Ref 12). Second, a general ...theory of the interaction of light with an atom is required. A general theory of resonance radiation pressure of light is developed from quantum

State-dependent fluorescence of neutral atoms in optical potentials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martinez-Dorantes, M.; Alt, W.; Gallego, J.; Ghosh, S.; Ratschbacher, L.; Meschede, D.

2018-02-01

Recently we have demonstrated scalable, nondestructive, and high-fidelity detection of the internal state of 87Rb neutral atoms in optical dipole traps using state-dependent fluorescence imaging [M. Martinez-Dorantes, W. Alt, J. Gallego, S. Ghosh, L. Ratschbacher, Y. Völzke, and D. Meschede, Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 180503 (2017), 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.180503]. In this paper we provide experimental procedures and interpretations to overcome the detrimental effects of heating-induced trap losses and state leakage. We present models for the dynamics of optically trapped atoms during state-dependent fluorescence imaging and verify our results by comparing Monte Carlo simulations with experimental data. Our systematic study of dipole force fluctuations heating in optical traps during near-resonant illumination shows that off-resonant light is preferable for state detection in tightly confining optical potentials.

Material interactions with the Low Earth Orbital (LEO) environment: Accurate reaction rate measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Visentine, James T.; Leger, Lubert J.

1987-01-01

To resolve uncertainties in estimated LEO atomic oxygen fluence and provide reaction product composition data for comparison to data obtained in ground-based simulation laboratories, a flight experiment has been proposed for the space shuttle which utilizes an ion-neutral mass spectrometer to obtain in-situ ambient density measurements and identify reaction products from modeled polymers exposed to the atomic oxygen environment. An overview of this experiment is presented and the methodology of calibrating the flight mass spectrometer in a neutral beam facility prior to its use on the space shuttle is established. The experiment, designated EOIM-3 (Evaluation of Oxygen Interactions with Materials, third series), will provide a reliable materials interaction data base for future spacecraft design and will furnish insight into the basic chemical mechanisms leading to atomic oxygen interactions with surfaces.

The impact of exospheric neutral dynamics on ring current decay

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ilie, R.; Liemohn, M. W.; Skoug, R. M.; Funsten, H. O.; Gruntman, M.; Bailey, J. J.; Toth, G.

2015-12-01

The geocorona plays an important role in the energy budget of the Earth's inner magnetosphere since charge exchange of energetic ions with exospheric neutrals makes the exosphere act as an energy sink for ring current particles. Long-term ring current decay following a magnetic storm is mainly due to these electron transfer reactions, leading to the formation energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) that leave the ring current system on ballistic trajectories. The number of ENAs emitted from a given region of space depends on several factors, such as the energy and species of the energetic ion population in that region and the density of the neutral gas with which the ions undergo charge exchange. However, the density and structure of the exosphere are strongly dependent on changes in atmospheric temperature and density as well as charge exchange with the ions of plasmaspheric origin, which depletes the geocorona (by having a neutral removed from the system). Moreover, the radiation pressure exerted by solar far-ultraviolet photons pushes the geocoronal hydrogen away from the Earth in an anti-sunward direction to form a tail of neutral hydrogen. TWINS ENA images provide a direct measurement of these ENA losses and therefore insight into the dynamics of the ring current decay through interactions with the geocorona. We assess the influence of geocoronal neutrals on ring current formation and decay by analysis of the predicted ENA emissions using 6 different geocoronal models and simulations from the HEIDI ring current model during storm time. Comparison with TWINS ENA images shows that the location of the peak ENA enhancements is highly dependent on the distribution of geocoronal hydrogen density. We show that the neutral dynamics has a strong influence on the time evolution of the ring current populations as well as on the formation of energetic neutral atoms.

Electron energy balance and ionization in the channel of a stationary plasma thruster

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Veselovzorov, A. N., E-mail: Veselovzorov-AN@nrcki.ru; Pogorelov, A. A.; Svirskiy, E. B.

2016-03-15

The paper presents results of numerical simulations of the electron dynamics in the field of the azimuthal and longitudinal waves excited in the channel of a stationary plasma thruster (SPT). The simulations are based on the experimentally determined wave characteristics. The simulation results show that the azimuthal wave displayed as ionization instability enhances electron transport along the thruster channel. It is established that the electron transport rate in the azimuthal wave increases as compared to the rate of diffusion caused by electron scattering from neutral atoms in proportion to the ratio between the times of electron− neutral collisions responsible formore » ionization and elastic electron scattering, respectively. An expression governing the plasma conductivity is derived with allowance for electron interaction with the azimuthal wave. The Hall parameter, the electron component of the discharge current, and the electron heating power in the thruster channel are calculated for two model SPTs operating with krypton and xenon. The simulation results agree well with the results of experimental studies of these two SPTs.« less

Cold atmospheric pressure plasma jets: Interaction with plasmid DNA and tailored electron heating using dual-frequency excitation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Niemi, K.; O'Neill, C.; Cox, L. J.; Waskoenig, J.; Hyland, W. B.; McMahon, S. J.; Reuter, S.; Currell, F. J.; Graham, W. G.; O'Connell, D.; Gans, T.

2012-05-01

Recent progress in plasma science and technology has enabled the development of a new generation of stable cold non-equilibrium plasmas operating at ambient atmospheric pressure. This opens horizons for new plasma technologies, in particular in the emerging field of plasma medicine. These non-equilibrium plasmas are very efficient sources for energy transport through reactive neutral particles (radicals and metastables), charged particles (ions and electrons), UV radiation, and electro-magnetic fields. The effect of a cold radio frequency-driven atmospheric pressure plasma jet on plasmid DNA has been investigated. The formation of double strand breaks correlates well with the atomic oxygen density. Taken with other measurements, this indicates that neutral components in the jet are effective in inducing double strand breaks. Plasma manipulation techniques for controlled energy delivery are highly desirable. Numerical simulations are employed for detailed investigations of the electron dynamics, which determines the generation of reactive species. New concepts based on nonlinear power dissipation promise superior strategies to control energy transport for tailored technological exploitations.

Crystal structure of a 2:1 piroxicam–gentisic acid co-crystal featuring neutral and zwitterionic piroxicam molecules

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Horstman, Elizabeth M.; Bertke, Jeffery A.; Woods, Toby J.

2016-11-04

A new 2:1 co-crystal of piroxicam and gentisic acid [systematic name: 4-hydroxy-1,1-dioxo-N-(pyridin-2-yl)-2H-1λ 6,2-benzothiazine-3-carboxamide–2-(4-oxido-1,1-dioxo-2H-1λ 6,2-benzothiazine-3-amido)pyridin-1-ium–2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid, 2C 15H 13N 3O 4S·C 7H 6O 4] has been synthesized using a microfluidic platform and initially identified using Raman spectroscopy. In the co-crystal, one piroxicam molecule is in its neutral form and an intramolecular O—H...O hydrogen bond is observed. The other piroxicam molecule is zwitterionic (proton transfer from the OH group to the pyridine N atom) and two intramolecular N—H...O hydrogen bonds occur. The gentisic acid molecule shows whole-molecule disorder over two sets of sites in a 0.809(2):0.191(2) ratio. In the crystal, extensive hydrogenmore » bonding between the components forms layers propagating in theabplane.« less

Simultaneous estimation of plasma parameters from spectroscopic data of neutral helium using least square fitting of CR-model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jain, Jalaj; Prakash, Ram; Vyas, Gheesa Lal; Pal, Udit Narayan; Chowdhuri, Malay Bikas; Manchanda, Ranjana; Halder, Nilanjan; Choyal, Yaduvendra

2015-12-01

In the present work an effort has been made to estimate the plasma parameters simultaneously like—electron density, electron temperature, ground state atom density, ground state ion density and metastable state density from the observed visible spectra of penning plasma discharge (PPD) source using least square fitting. The analysis is performed for the prominently observed neutral helium lines. The atomic data and analysis structure (ADAS) database is used to provide the required collisional-radiative (CR) photon emissivity coefficients (PECs) values under the optical thin plasma condition in the analysis. With this condition the estimated plasma temperature from the PPD is found rather high. It is seen that the inclusion of opacity in the observed spectral lines through PECs and addition of diffusion of neutrals and metastable state species in the CR-model code analysis improves the electron temperature estimation in the simultaneous measurement.

Midplane neutral density profiles in the National Spherical Torus Experiment

DOE PAGES

Stotler, D. P.; Scotti, F.; Bell, R. E.; ...

2015-08-13

Atomic and molecular density data in the outer midplane of NSTX [Ono et al., Nucl. Fusion 40, 557 (2000)] are inferred from tangential camera data via a forward modeling procedure using the DEGAS 2 Monte Carlo neutral transport code. The observed Balmer-β light emission data from 17 shots during the 2010 NSTX campaign display no obvious trends with discharge parameters such as the divertor Balmer-α emission level or edge deuterium ion density. Simulations of 12 time slices in 7 of these discharges produce molecular densities near the vacuum vessel wall of 2–8 × 10 17 m –3 and atomic densitiesmore » ranging from 1 to 7 ×10 16 m –3; neither has a clear correlation with other parameters. Validation of the technique, begun in an earlier publication, is continued with an assessment of the sensitivity of the simulated camera image and neutral densities to uncertainties in the data input to the model. The simulated camera image is sensitive to the plasma profiles and virtually nothing else. The neutral densities at the vessel wall depend most strongly on the spatial distribution of the source; simulations with a localized neutral source yield densities within a factor of two of the baseline, uniform source, case. Furthermore, the uncertainties in the neutral densities associated with other model inputs and assumptions are ≤ 50%.« less

Interchannel Coupling in the Photoionization of Atoms and Ions in the X-Ray Range

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Manson, Steven T.; Chakraborty, Himadri S.; Deshmukh, Pranawa C.

2002-01-01

To understand how this interchannel coupling, so important in neutral atoms, applies to positive ions, a research program has been initiated to deal with this question, i.e., a program to quantify the effects of interchannel coupling in ionic photoionization, thereby assessing existing photoionization data bases in the x-ray region. To accomplish this task, we have employed the Relativistic Random-Phase-Approximation (RRPA) methodology which includes significant aspects of electron-electron correlation, including interchannel coupling. The RRPA methodology has been found to produce excellent agreement with experiment for neutral Ne at photon energies in the 1 keV range.

Improved Background Removal in Sounding Rocket Neutral Atom Imaging Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, M. R.; Rowland, D. E.

2017-12-01

The VISIONS sounding rocket, launched into a substorm on Feb 7, 2013 from Poker Flat, Alaska had a novel miniaturized energetic neutral atom (ENA) imager onboard. We present further analysis of the ENA data from this rocket flight, including improved removal of ultraviolet and electron contamination. In particular, the relative error source contributions due to geocoronal, auroral, and airglow UV, as well as energetic electrons from 10 eV to 3 keV were assessed. The resulting data provide a more clear understanding of the spatial and temporal variations of the ion populations that are energized to tens or hundreds of eV.

Massive Gas Cloud Around Jupiter

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

An innovative instrument on NASA's Cassini spacecraft makes the space environment around Jupiter visible, revealing a donut-shaped gas cloud encircling the planet.

The image was taken with the energetic neutral atom imaging technique by the Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument on Cassini as the spacecraft flew past Jupiter in early 2001 at a distance of about 10 million kilometers (6 million miles). This technique provides information about a source by detecting neutral atoms emitted by the source, comparable to how a camera reveals information about an object by detecting photons coming from the object.

The central object in this image represents energetic neutral atom emissions from Jupiter itself. The outer two objects represent emissions from a donut-shaped cloud, or torus, that shares an orbit with Jupiter's moon Europa. The cloud's emissions appear dot-like because of the viewing angle. The torus is viewed edge-on, and the image is brightest at the line-of-sight angles that pass through the greatest volume of it.

Cassini is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages Cassini for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.

Observation and Interpretation of Energetic Neutral Hydrogen Atoms from the December 5, 2006 Solar Flare

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barghouty, A. F.; Mewaldt, R. A.; Leske, R. A.; Shih, A. Y.; Stone, E. C.; Cohen, C. M. S.; Cummings, A. C.; Labrador, A. W.; vonRosenvinge, T. T.; Wiedenbeck, M. E.

2009-01-01

We discuss observations of energetic neutral hydrogen atoms (ENAs) from a solar flare/coronal mass ejection event reported by Mewaldt et al. (2009). The observations were made during the 5 December 2006 X9 solar flare, located at E79, by the Low Energy Telescopes (LETs) on STEREO A and B. Prior to the arrival of the main solar energetic particle (SEP) event at Earth, both LETs observed a sudden burst of 1.6 to 15 MeV particles arriving from the Sun. The derived solar emission profile, arrival directions, and energy spectrum all show that the <5 MeV particles were due to energetic neutral hydrogen atoms produced by either flare or shock-accelerated protons. RHESSI measurements of the 2.2-MeV gamma-ray line provide an estimate of the number of interacting flare-accelerated protons in this event, which leads to an improved estimate of ENA production by flare-accelerated protons. CME-driven shock acceleration is also considered. Taking into account ENA losses, we conclude that the observed ENAs must have been produced in the high corona at heliocentric distances .2 solar radii.

The Response of the Ionospheric Cusp to the Solar Through Two Perspectives: Low Energy Changed Particle In-Situ Measurements and Low- Energy Neutral Atom Imaging

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Coffey, V. N.; Moore, T. E.; Chandler, M. O.; Craven, P. D.

2000-01-01

The IMAGE mission provides a new perspective on the study of the response of the magnetosphere/ionosphere system to changing solar wind conditions, particularly the variability of ion outflow. Learning to interpret this new type of data becomes an essential step in the process of melding these results with the wealth of in-situ charged particle observations obtained over the past 25 years. In order to understand how the in-situ data correspond to and contrast with IMAGE results we will perform a conjunctive study of event data from two instruments to shed light on the coupling of the solar wind and ionosphere from these different perspectives. We will use the Low Energy Neutral Atom instrument (LENA) which images energetic neutral atom emissions from upward flowing ionospheric ions and the Thermal Ion Dynamics Instrument (TIDE) on the Polar satellite which measures in-situ ion outflow from 0.3-300 eV. Our primary goal will be to understand how comparing the imaging and in-situ perspectives can aid in the analysis of both data sets.

The Response of the Ionospheric Cusp to the Solar Wind Through Two Perspectives: Low Energy Charged Particle In-Situ Measurements and Low-Energy Neutral Atom Imaging

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Coffey, V. N.; Moore, T. E.; Chandler, M. O.; Giles, B. L.; Craven, P. D.; Rose, M. Franklin (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

The Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) mission provides a new perspective on the study of the response of the magnetosphere/ionosphere system to changing solar wind conditions, particularly the variability of ion outflow. Learning to interpret this new type of data becomes an essential step in the process of melding these results with the wealth of in-situ charged particle observations obtained over the past 25 years. In order to understand how the in-situ data correspond to and contrast with IMAGE results we will perform a conjunctive study of event data from two instruments to shed light on the coupling of the solar wind and ionosphere from these different perspectives. We will use the Low Energy Neutral Atom instrument (LENA) which images energetic neutral atom emissions from upward flowing ionospheric ions and the Thermal Ion Dynamics Instrument (TIDE) on the Polar satellite which measures in-situ ion outflow from 0.3-300 eV. Our primary goal will be to understand how comparing the imaging and in-situ perspectives can aid in the analysis of both data sets.

Characterization of an Atomic Hydrogen Source for Charge Exchange Experiments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Leutenegger, M. A.; Beierdorfer, P.; Betancourt-Martinez, G. L.; Brown, G. V.; Hell, N; Kelley, R. L.; Kilbourne, C. A.; Magee, E. W.; Porter, F. S.

2016-01-01

We characterized the dissociation fraction of a thermal dissociation atomic hydrogen source byinjecting the mixed atomic and molecular output of the source into an electron beam ion trapcontaining highly charged ions and recording the x-ray spectrum generated by charge exchangeusing a high-resolution x-ray calorimeter spectrometer. We exploit the fact that the charge exchangestate-selective capture cross sections are very different for atomic and molecular hydrogen incidenton the same ions, enabling a clear spectroscopic diagnostic of the neutral species.

Low energy high angular resolution neutral atom detection by means of micro-shuttering techniques: the BepiColombo SERENA/ELENA unit development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Orsini, S.; di Lellis, A. M.; Milillo, A.; Selci, S.; Leoni, R.; Dandouras, I.

2009-04-01

ELENA (Emitted Low-Energy Neutral Atoms) is a Time-of-Flight (ToF) system, based on oscillating shutter (operated at frequencies up to a 100 kHz) and mechanical gratings devoted to sputtering emission from planetary surfaces, from E ~20 eV up to E ~5 keV. This new kind of low energetic neutral atoms instrument is one of the four units of the SERENA experiment for the ESA cornerstone BepiColombo mission to Mercury. The low energetic neutral particles that are likely to be detected by ELENA come primarily from ion-sputtering process, and secondarily from back-scattering and from charge exchange. ELENA will resolve intensity, velocity and direction of the incoming particle flux: the entrance of the start section (an aperture of about 1 cm2consisting of two self-standing silicon nitride (Si3N4) membranes, patterned with arrays of long and narrow openings) allows the impinging neutral particles to enter through the shuttering system with a definite timing. Particles are then flown in a ToF chamber, and finally detected by a 1-dimensional array composed by MCPs and a discrete anodes set corresponding to a Field of View (FOV) of 4.5"x76", allowing the reconstruction of both velocity and direction of the incoming events. This poster will present the new results of the ELENA development in the frame of the scientific items, instrument simulation, laboratory activity and testing. In particular, the ELENA input section and shuttering system will be reported (new deflector system, shuttering functionality test, membranes VUV optical proprieties and particle beam interactions).

New insights on the collisional escape of light neutrals from Mars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gacesa, Marko; Zahnle, Kevin

2017-04-01

Photodissociative recombination (PDR) of atmospheric molecules on Mars is a major mechanism of production of hot (suprathermal) atoms with sufficient kinetic energy to either directly escape to space or to eject other atmospheric species. This collisional ejection mechanism is important for evaluating the escape rates of all light neutrals that are too heavy to escape via Jeans escape. In particular, it plays a role in estimating the total volume of escaped water constituents (i.e., O and H) from Mars, as well as influences evolution of the atmospheric [D]/[H] ratio1. We present revised estimates of total collisional escape rates of neutral light elements including H, He, and H2, based on recent (years 2015-2016) atmospheric density profiles obtained from the NASA Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission. We also estimate the contribution to the collisional escape from Energetic Neutral Atoms (ENAs) produced in charge-exchange of solar wind H+ and He+ ions with atmospheric gases2,3. Scattering of hot oxygen and atmospheric species of interest is modeled using fully-quantum reactive scattering formalism1,3. The escape rates are evaluated using a 1D model of the atmosphere supplemented with MAVEN measurements of the neutrals. Finally, new estimates of contributions of these non-thermal mechanisms to the estimated PDR escape rates from young Mars4 are presented. [1] M. Gacesa and V. Kharchenko, "Non-thermal escape of molecular hydrogen from Mars", Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L10203 (2012). [2] N. Lewkow and V. Kharchenko, "Precipitation of Energetic Neutral Atoms and Escape Fluxes induced from the Mars Atmosphere", Astroph. J., 790, 98 (2014). [3] M. Gacesa, N. Lewkow, and V. Kharchenko, "Non-thermal production and escape of OH from the upper atmosphere of Mars", Icarus 284, 90 (2017). [4] J. Zhao, F. Tian, Y. Ni, and X. Huang, "DR-induced escape of O and C from early Mars", Icarus 284, 305 (2017).

Experiments With Trapped Neutral Atoms

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-01-05

number of condensate atoms in the trap [11]. (a) i solitons (b) £ 10 \\QT>J — \\^y Darks -WW . ’ VrV Ground state A(|>=0 <* -^ Mr...interacting condensates leading to soliton formation for a relative phase of Pi. (b) The relative phase of two split condensates was monitored for various

Photoelectron spectroscopy of heavy atoms and molecules

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

White, M.G.

1979-07-01

The importance of relativistic interactions in the photoionization of heavy atoms and molecules has been investigated by the technique of photoelectron spectroscopy. In particular, experiments are reported which illustrate the effects of the spin-orbit interaction in the neutral ground state, final ionic states and continuum states of the photoionization target.

Precision measurement of the nuclear polarization in laser-cooled, optically pumped 37 K

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fenker, B.; Behr, J. A.; Melconian, D.

We report a measurement of the nuclear polarization of laser-cooled, optically pumped 37K atoms which will allow us to precisely measure angular correlation parameters in themore » $${\\beta }^{+}$$-decay of the same atoms. These results will be used to test the V ₋ A framework of the weak interaction at high precision. At the Triumf neutral atom trap (Trinat), a magneto-optical trap confines and cools neutral 37K atoms and optical pumping spin-polarizes them. We monitor the nuclear polarization of the same atoms that are decaying in situ by photoionizing a small fraction of the partially polarized atoms and then use the standard optical Bloch equations to model their population distribution. We obtain an average nuclear polarization of $$\\bar{P}=0.9913\\pm 0.0009$$, which is significantly more precise than previous measurements with this technique. Since our current measurement of the β-asymmetry has $$0.2 \\% $$ statistical uncertainty, the polarization measurement reported here will not limit its overall uncertainty. This result also demonstrates the capability to measure the polarization to $$\\lt 0.1 \\% $$, allowing for a measurement of angular correlation parameters to this level of precision, which would be competitive in searches for new physics.« less

Precision measurement of the nuclear polarization in laser-cooled, optically pumped 37 K

DOE PAGES

Fenker, B.; Behr, J. A.; Melconian, D.; ...

2016-07-13

We report a measurement of the nuclear polarization of laser-cooled, optically pumped 37K atoms which will allow us to precisely measure angular correlation parameters in themore » $${\\beta }^{+}$$-decay of the same atoms. These results will be used to test the V ₋ A framework of the weak interaction at high precision. At the Triumf neutral atom trap (Trinat), a magneto-optical trap confines and cools neutral 37K atoms and optical pumping spin-polarizes them. We monitor the nuclear polarization of the same atoms that are decaying in situ by photoionizing a small fraction of the partially polarized atoms and then use the standard optical Bloch equations to model their population distribution. We obtain an average nuclear polarization of $$\\bar{P}=0.9913\\pm 0.0009$$, which is significantly more precise than previous measurements with this technique. Since our current measurement of the β-asymmetry has $$0.2 \\% $$ statistical uncertainty, the polarization measurement reported here will not limit its overall uncertainty. This result also demonstrates the capability to measure the polarization to $$\\lt 0.1 \\% $$, allowing for a measurement of angular correlation parameters to this level of precision, which would be competitive in searches for new physics.« less

HD 62542: Probing the Bare, Dense Core of an Interstellar Cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Welty, Daniel; Sonnentrucker, Paule G.; Rachford, Brian; Snow, Theodore; York, Donald G.

2018-01-01

We discuss the interstellar absorption from many atomic and molecular species seen in high-resolution HST/STIS UV spectra of the moderately reddened B3-5 V star HD 62542 [E(B-V) ~ 0.35; AV ~ 1.2]. This remarkable sight line exhibits both very steep far-UV extinction and a high fraction of hydrogen in molecular form -- with strong absorption from CH, C2, CN, and CO but weak absorption from CH+ and most of the commonly observed diffuse interstellar bands. Most of the material appears to reside in a single narrow velocity component -- thus offering a rare opportunity to probe the relatively dense, primarily molecular core of a single interstellar cloud, with little associated diffuse atomic gas.Detailed analyses of the absorption-line profiles seen in the UV spectra reveal a number of properties of the main diffuse molecular cloud toward HD 62542:1) The depletions of Mg, Si, and Fe are more severe than those seen in any other sight line, but the depletions of Cl and Kr are very mild; the overall pattern of depletions differs somewhat from those derived from larger samples of Galactic sight lines.2) The rotational excitation of H2 and C2 indicates that the gas is fairly cold (Tk = 40-45 K) and moderately dense (nH > 420 cm-3) somewhat higher densities are suggested by the fine-structure excitation of neutral carbon.3) The excitation temperatures characterizing the rotational populations of both 12CO (11.7 K) and 13CO (7.7 K) are higher than those typically found for Galactic diffuse molecular clouds.4) Carbon is primarily singly ionized -- N(C+) > N(CO) > N(C).5) The relative abundances of various trace neutral atomic species reflect the effects of both the steep far-UV extinction and the severe depletions of some elements.6) Differences in line widths for the various atomic and molecular species are suggestive of differences in spatial distribution within the main cloud.Support for this study was provided by NASA, via STScI grant GO-12277.008-A.

Extreme Doppler Shifting of Io's Neutral Jets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmidt, Carl

2017-08-01

The dynamics and the extension of Jupiter's magnetosphere are determined by the massive internal plasma sources combined with the fast rotation. The vast majority of the plasma originates from the atmosphere of the moon Io, the most volcanically active body in our solar system. Here we propose to characterize the density and velocity of energetic neutral atoms escaping from Io's atmosphere. Exploiting the high resolution and sensitivity of the COS G130M spectral mode, we will measure the Doppler velocities of atomic O, S and Cl streams, which are energized through charge exchange and dissociative recombination of molecular ions. Prior COS observations of Io revealed a large number of emission lines from several ion and neutral species with excellent S/N, obtained over a single HST orbit. Those spectra were obtained surrounding eclipse geometry, where Doppler shifts are minimized and were restricted to Io itself rather than the stream region. Here we will target the extended clouds with only two orbits total when the moon is at eastern and western elongation for maximum Doppler shifts. The observations will provide new constraints on the diffuse large-scale cloud structures in the Jovian system and significantly improve our understanding of the transport of mass and energy within the Io-torus interaction. The absolute brightness, in combination with plasma parameters from line ratios/collision strengths, will allow us to quantify the outflow of energetic neutral atoms from Io's main sulfur-oxygen atmosphere for the first time.

An assessment for the erosion rate of DEMO first wall

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tokar, M. Z.

2018-01-01

In a fusion reactor a significant fraction of plasma particles lost from the confined volume will reach the vessel wall. The recombination of these charged species, electrons and ions of hydrogen isotopes, is a source of neutral molecules and atoms, recycling back into the plasma. Here they participate, in particular, in charge-exchange (c-x) collisions with the plasma ions and, as a result, atoms of high energies with chaotically oriented velocities are generated. A significant fraction of these hot neutrals will hit the wall, leading, as well as the outflowing fuel and impurity ions, to its erosion, limiting the reactor operation time. The rate of the wall erosion in DEMO is assessed by applying a one-dimensional model which takes into account the transport of charged and neutral species across the flux surfaces in the main part of the scrape-off layer, beyond the X-point vicinity and divertor, and by considering the shift of the centers of flux surfaces, their elongation and triangularity. Atoms generated by c-x of recycling neutrals are modeled kinetically to define firmly their energy spectrum, being of particular importance for the erosion assessment. It is demonstrated the erosion rate of the DEMO wall armor of tungsten will have a pronounced ballooning character with a significant maximum of 0.3 mm per full power year at the low field side, decreasing with an increase in the anomalous perpendicular transport in the ‘far’ SOL or the plasma density at the separatrix.

Long-term variations of the upper atmosphere parameters on Rome ionosonde observations and their interpretation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perrone, Loredana; Mikhailov, Andrey; Cesaroni, Claudio; Alfonsi, Lucilla; Santis, Angelo De; Pezzopane, Michael; Scotto, Carlo

2017-09-01

A recently proposed self-consistent approach to the analysis of thermospheric and ionospheric long-term trends has been applied to Rome ionosonde summer noontime observations for the (1957-2015) period. This approach includes: (i) a method to extract ionospheric parameter long-term variations; (ii) a method to retrieve from observed foF1 neutral composition (O, O2, N2), exospheric temperature, Tex and the total solar EUV flux with λ < 1050 Å; and (iii) a combined analysis of the ionospheric and thermospheric parameter long-term variations using the theory of ionospheric F-layer formation. Atomic oxygen, [O] and [O]/[N2] ratio control foF1 and foF2 while neutral temperature, Tex controls hmF2 long-term variations. Noontime foF2 and foF1 long-term variations demonstrate a negative linear trend estimated over the (1962-2010) period which is mainly due to atomic oxygen decrease after ˜1990. A linear trend in (δhmF2)11y estimated over the (1962-2010) period is very small and insignificant reflecting the absence of any significant trend in neutral temperature. The retrieved neutral gas density, ρ atomic oxygen, [O] and exospheric temperature, Tex long-term variations are controlled by solar and geomagnetic activity, i.e. they have a natural origin. The residual trends estimated over the period of ˜5 solar cycles (1957-2015) are very small (<0.5% per decade) and statistically insignificant.

The BepiColombo SERENA/ELENA sensor. Approaching final delivery: sensor description and recent results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Orsini, S.; Selci, S.; Di Lellis, A. M.; Mura, A.; De Angelis, E.; Milillo, A.; Leoni, R.; Dandouras, I.; Scheer, J.; Wurz, P.

2012-04-01

The neutral sensor ELENA (Emitted Low-Energy Neutral Atoms) for the ESA cornerstone BepiColombo mission to Mercury (in the SERENA instrument package) is a new kind of low energetic neutral atoms instrument, mostly devoted to sputtering emission from planetary surfaces, from E ~20 eV up to E~5 keV, within 1-D (4.5°x76°). ELENA is a Time-of-Flight (TOF) system, based on oscillating shutter (operated at frequencies up to 50 kHz) and mechanical gratings: the incoming neutral particles directly impinge upon the entrance with a definite timing (START) and arrive to a STOP detector after a flight path. In this way the low-energy neutral particles are directly detected, without using elements of interaction. The new results of the development of the BepiColombo SERENA/ELENA instrument are presented in the frame of the scientific items (instrument simulations, laboratory testing, etc.). In particular, the actual status of the ELENA TOF sections (shuttering system and MCPs) are reported in the light of recent testing results. The sensor performances are investigated, as well as their capability to accomplish the scientific requirements (new deflector system, shuttering functionality test, MCP efficiency, piezo driver and proximity boards, etc.).

Charge transfer in single and multiple scattering events at metal surfaces: a wavepacket study of the Na(+)/Cu(100) system.

PubMed

Sindona, A; Pisarra, M; Maletta, S; Riccardi, P; Falcone, G

2010-12-01

Resonant neutralization of hyperthermal energy Na(+) ions impinging on Cu(100) surfaces is studied, focusing on two specific collision events: one in which the projectile is reflected off the surface, the other in which the incident atom penetrates the outer surface layers initiating a series of scattering processes, within the target, and coming out together with a single surface atom. A semi-empirical model potential is adopted that embeds: (i) the electronic structure of the sample, (ii) the central field of the projectile, and (iii) the contribution of the Cu atom ejected in multiple scattering events. The evolution of the ionization orbital of the scattered atom is simulated, backwards in time, using a wavepacket propagation algorithm. The output of the approach is the neutralization probability, obtained by projecting the time-reversed valence wavefunction of the projectile onto the initially filled conduction band states. The results are in agreement with available data from the literature (Keller et al 1995 Phys. Rev. Lett. 75 1654) indicating that the motion of surface atoms, exiting the targets with kinetic energies of the order of a few electronvolts, plays a significant role in the final charge state of projectiles.

Interactions of atomic hydrogen with amorphous SiO2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yue, Yunliang; Wang, Jianwei; Zhang, Yuqi; Song, Yu; Zuo, Xu

2018-03-01

Dozens of models are investigated by the first-principles calculations to simulate the interactions of an atomic hydrogen with a defect-free random network of amorphous SiO2 (a-SiO2) and oxygen vacancies. A wide variety of stable configurations are discovered due to the disorder of a-SiO2, and their structures, charges, magnetic moments, spin densities, and density of states are calculated. The atomic hydrogen interacts with the defect-free a-SiO2 in positively or negatively charged state, and produces the structures absent in crystalline SiO2. It passivates the neutral oxygen vacancies and generates two neutral hydrogenated E‧ centers with different Si dangling bond projections. Electron spin resonance parameters, including Fermi contacts, and g-tensors, are calculated for these centers. The atomic hydrogen interacts with the positive oxygen vacancies in dimer configuration, and generate four different positive hydrogenated defects, two of which are puckered like the Eγ‧ centers. This research helps to understand the interactions between an atomic hydrogen, and defect-free a-SiO2 and oxygen vacancies, which may generate the hydrogen-complexed defects that play a key role in the degeneration of silicon/silica-based microelectronic devices.

Excitation and charge transfer in low-energy hydrogen atom collisions with neutral iron

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barklem, P. S.

2018-05-01

Data for inelastic processes due to hydrogen atom collisions with iron are needed for accurate modelling of the iron spectrum in late-type stars. Excitation and charge transfer in low-energy Fe+H collisions is studied theoretically using a previously presented method based on an asymptotic two-electron linear combination of atomic orbitals model of ionic-covalent interactions in the neutral atom-hydrogen-atom system, together with the multi-channel Landau-Zener model. An extensive calculation including 166 covalent states and 25 ionic states is presented and rate coefficients are calculated for temperatures in the range 1000-20 000 K. The largest rates are found for charge transfer processes to and from two clusters of states around 6.3 and 6.6 eV excitation, corresponding in both cases to active 4d and 5p electrons undergoing transfer. Excitation and de-excitation processes among these two sets of states are also significant. Full Tables and rate coefficient data are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/612/A90

Developing Density of Laser-Cooled Neutral Atoms and Molecules in a Linear Magnetic Trap

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Velasquez, Joe, III; Walstrom, Peter; di Rosa, Michael

2013-05-01

In this poster we show that neutral particle injection and accumulation using laser-induced spin flips may be used to form dense ensembles of ultracold magnetic particles, i.e., laser-cooled paramagnetic atoms and molecules. Particles are injected in a field-seeking state, are switched by optical pumping to a field-repelled state, and are stored in the minimum-B trap. The analogous process in high-energy charged-particle accumulator rings is charge-exchange injection using stripper foils. The trap is a linear array of sextupoles capped by solenoids. Particle-tracking calculations and design of our linear accumulator along with related experiments involving 7Li will be presented. We test these concepts first with atoms in preparation for later work with selected molecules. Finally, we present our preliminary results with CaH, our candidate molecule for laser cooling. This project is funded by the LDRD program of Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Shannon entropies and Fisher information of K-shell electrons of neutral atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sekh, Golam Ali; Saha, Aparna; Talukdar, Benoy

2018-02-01

We represent the two K-shell electrons of neutral atoms by Hylleraas-type wave function which fulfils the exact behavior at the electron-electron and electron-nucleus coalescence points and, derive a simple method to construct expressions for single-particle position- and momentum-space charge densities, ρ (r) and γ (p) respectively. We make use of the results for ρ (r) and γ (p) to critically examine the effect of correlation on bare (uncorrelated) values of Shannon information entropies (S) and of Fisher information (F) for the K-shell electrons of atoms from helium to neon. Due to inter-electronic repulsion the values of the uncorrelated Shannon position-space entropies are augmented while those of the momentum-space entropies are reduced. The corresponding Fisher information are found to exhibit opposite behavior in respect of this. Attempts are made to provide some plausible explanation for the observed response of S and F to electronic correlation.

Ultra-sensitive inertial sensors via neutral-atom interferometry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clauser, John F.

1989-01-01

Upon looking at the various colossal interferometers, etc., discussed at this conference to test gravitational theory, one cannot avoid feeling that easier approaches exist. The use of low velocity, neutral atom matter waves in place of electromagnetic waves in sensitive inertial interferometer configurations is proposed. For applications, spacecraft experiments to sense a drag-free condition, to measure the Lense-Thirring precession, to measure the gravitomagnetic effect and/or the earth's geopotential (depending on altitude), and to detect long period gravitational waves are considered. Also, a terrestrial precision test of the equivalence principle on spin polarized atoms, capable of detecting effects of the 5th force is considered. While the ideas described herein are preliminary, the orders of magnitude are sufficiently tantalizing to warrant further study. Although existing proposed designs may be adequate for some of these experiments, the use of matter-wave interferometry offers reduced complexity and cost, and an absence of cryogenics.

Two photon absorption laser induced fluorescence measurements of neutral density in a helicon plasma

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Galante, M. E.; Magee, R. M.; Scime, E. E.

2014-05-15

We have developed a new diagnostic based on two-photon absorption laser induced fluorescence (TALIF). We use a high intensity (5 MW/cm{sup 2}), narrow bandwidth (0.1 cm{sup −1}) laser to probe the ground state of neutral hydrogen, deuterium and krypton with spatial resolution better than 0.2 cm, a time resolution of 10 ns, and a measurement cadence of 20 Hz. Here, we describe proof-of-principle measurements in a helicon plasma source that demonstrate the TALIF diagnostic is capable of measuring neutral densities spanning four orders of magnitude; comparable to the edge neutral gradients predicted in the DIII-D tokamak pedestal. The measurements are performed in hydrogen and deuteriummore » plasmas and absolute calibration is accomplished through TALIF measurements in neutral krypton. The optical configuration employed is confocal, i.e., both light injection and collection are accomplished with a single lens through a single optical port in the vacuum vessel. The wavelength resolution of the diagnostic is sufficient to separate hydrogen and deuterium spectra and we present measurements from mixed hydrogen and deuterium plasmas that demonstrate isotopic abundance measurements are feasible. Time resolved measurements also allow us to explore the evolution of the neutral hydrogen density and temperature and effects of wall recycling. We find that the atomic neutral density grows rapidly at the initiation of the discharge, reaching the steady-state value within 1 ms. Additionally, we find that neutral hydrogen atoms are born with 0.08 eV temperatures, not 2 eV as is typically assumed.« less

Semiconductor etching by hyperthermal neutral beams

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Minton, Timothy K. (Inventor); Giapis, Konstantinos P. (Inventor)

1999-01-01

An at-least dual chamber apparatus and method in which high flux beams of fast moving neutral reactive species are created, collimated and used to etch semiconductor or metal materials from the surface of a workpiece. Beams including halogen atoms are preferably used to achieve anisotropic etching with good selectivity at satisfactory etch rates. Surface damage and undercutting are minimized.

Two-photon LIF on the HIT-SI3 experiment: Absolute density and temperature measurements of deuterium neutrals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Elliott, Drew; Sutherland, Derek; Siddiqui, Umair; Scime, Earl; Everson, Chris; Morgan, Kyle; Hossack, Aaron; Nelson, Brian; Jarboe, Tom

2016-11-01

Two-photon laser-induced fluorescence measurements were performed on the helicity injected torus (HIT-SI3) device to determine the density and temperature of the background neutral deuterium population. Measurements were taken in 2 ms long pulsed plasmas after the inductive helicity injectors were turned off. Attempts to measure neutrals during the main phase of the plasma were unsuccessful, likely due to the density of neutrals being below the detection threshold of the diagnostic. An unexpectedly low density of atomic deuterium was measured in the afterglow; roughly 100 times lower than the theoretical prediction of 1017 m-3. The neutral temperatures measured were on the order of 1 eV. Temporally and spatially resolved neutral density and temperature data are presented.

[Effects of soil, climate, and their interaction on some neutral volatile aroma components in flue-cured tobacco leaves from high quality tobacco planting regions of Hunan Province].

PubMed

Deng, Xiao-Hua; Xie, Peng-Fei; Peng, Xin-Hui; Yi, Jian-Hua; Zhou, Ji-Heng; Zhou, Qing-Ming; Pu, Wen-Xuan; Dai, Yuan-Gang

2010-08-01

A pot experiment with the soils from Yongzhou, Liuyang, and Sangzhi, the high-quality tobacco planting regions of Hunan Province, was conducted to study the effects of climate, soil, and their interaction on some neutral volatile aroma components in flue-cured tobacco leaves. The contents of test neutral volatile aroma components in the flue-cured tobacco leaves were of medium variation, and the variation intensity was decreased in the order of dihydroactinolide, damascenone, furfural, total megastigmatrienone, and beta-ionone. Climate, soil, and their interaction affected the neutral volatile aroma components in different degrees. The furfural content was most affected by climate, the damascenone content was most affected by climate and by soil, the total megastigmatrienone and beta-ionone contents were most affected by the interaction of soil and climate, while the dihydroactinolide content was less affected by soil, climate, and their interaction. The contribution of climate, soil, and their interaction to the contents of the five aroma components was 40.82%, 20.67%, and 38.51%, respectively. During different growth periods of tobacco, different climate factors had different effects on the neutral volatile aroma components. The rainfall, cloudiness, and mean air temperature at rooting stage, the diurnal temperature amplitude, sunshine time, and evaporation at vigorous growth stage, and the rainfall, evaporation, and mean air temperature at maturing stage were the top three climate factors affecting the contents of the neutral volatile aroma components in flue-tobacco leaves. For the soil factors, the available potassium, available phosphorus, and pH were the top three factors affecting the contents of the five components.

Negative Ion Photoelectron Spectroscopy Reveals Remarkable Noninnocence of Ligands in Nickel Bis(dithiolene) Complexes [Ni(dddt) 2 ] - and [Ni(edo) 2 ] -

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Liu, Xing; Hou, Gao-Lei; Wang, Xuefeng

2016-04-21

[Ni(dddt) 2] – (dddt = 5,6-dihydro-1,4-dithiine-2,3-dithiolate) and [Ni(edo) 2] – (edo = 5,6-dihydro-1,4-dioxine-2,3-dithiolate) are two donor-type nickel bis(dithiolene) complexes, with the tendency of donating low binding energy electrons. These two structurally similar complexes differ only with respect to the outer atoms in the ligand framework where the former has four S atoms while the latter has four O atoms. Herein, we report a negative ion photoelectron spectroscopy (NIPES) study on these two complexes to probe electronic structures of the anions and their corresponding neutrals. The NIPE spectra exhibit the adiabatic electron detachment energy (ADE) or, equivalently, the electron affinity (EA)more » of the neutral [Ni(L) 2] 0 to be relatively low for this type complexes, 2.780 and 2.375 eV for L = dddt and edo, respectively. The 0.4 eV difference in ADEs shows significant substitution effect for sulfur in dddt by oxygen in edo, i.e., noninnocence of the ligands, which has decreased the electronic stability of [Ni(edo) 2] – by lowering its electron binding energy by ~0.4 eV. The observed substitution effect on gas-phase EA values correlates well with the measured redox potentials for [Ni(dddt) 2] –/0 and [Ni(edo) 2] –/0 in solutions. The singlet-triplet splitting (ΔE ST) of [Ni(dddt) 2] 0 and [Ni(edo) 2] 0 is also determined from the spectra to be 0.57 and 0.53 eV, respectively. Accompanying DFT calculations and molecular orbital (MO) composition analyses show significant ligand contributions to the redox MOs and allow the components of the orbitals involved in each electronic transition and spectral assignments to be identified.« less

Transport coefficients and heat fluxes in non-equilibrium high-temperature flows with electronic excitation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Istomin, V. A.; Kustova, E. V.

2017-02-01

The influence of electronic excitation on transport processes in non-equilibrium high-temperature ionized mixture flows is studied. Two five-component mixtures, N 2 / N2 + / N / N + / e - and O 2 / O2 + / O / O + / e - , are considered taking into account the electronic degrees of freedom for atomic species as well as the rotational-vibrational-electronic degrees of freedom for molecular species, both neutral and ionized. Using the modified Chapman-Enskog method, the transport coefficients (thermal conductivity, shear viscosity and bulk viscosity, diffusion and thermal diffusion) are calculated in the temperature range 500-50 000 K. Thermal conductivity and bulk viscosity coefficients are strongly affected by electronic states, especially for neutral atomic species. Shear viscosity, diffusion, and thermal diffusion coefficients are not sensible to electronic excitation if the size of excited states is assumed to be constant. The limits of applicability for the Stokes relation are discussed; at high temperatures, this relation is violated not only for molecular species but also for electronically excited atomic gases. Two test cases of strongly non-equilibrium flows behind plane shock waves corresponding to the spacecraft re-entry (Hermes and Fire II) are simulated numerically. Fluid-dynamic variables and heat fluxes are evaluated in gases with electronic excitation. In inviscid flows without chemical-radiative coupling, the flow-field is weakly affected by electronic states; however, in viscous flows, their influence can be more important, in particular, on the convective heat flux. The contribution of different dissipative processes to the heat transfer is evaluated as well as the effect of reaction rate coefficients. The competition of diffusion and heat conduction processes reduces the overall effect of electronic excitation on the convective heating, especially for the Fire II test case. It is shown that reliable models of chemical reaction rates are of great importance for accurate predictions of the fluid dynamic variables and heat fluxes.

Consideration of neutral beam prompt loss in the design of a tokamak helicon antenna

DOE PAGES

Pace, D. C.; Van Zeeland, M. A.; Fishler, B.; ...

2016-08-02

Neutral beam prompt losses (injected neutrals that ionize such that their first poloidal transit intersects with the wall) can put appreciable power on the outer wall of tokamaks, and this power may damage the wall or other internal components. These prompt losses are simulated including a protruding helicon antenna installation in the DIII-D tokamak and it is determined that 160 kW of power will impact the antenna during the injection of a particular neutral beam. Protective graphite tiles are designed in response to this modeling and the wall shape of the installed antenna is precisely measured to improve the accuracymore » of these calculations. Initial experiments con rm that the antenna component temperature increases according to the amount of neutral beam energy injected into the plasma. Incorporating neutral beam prompt loss considerations into the design of this in-vessel component serves to ensure that adequate protection or cooling is provided.« less

Consideration of neutral beam prompt loss in the design of a tokamak helicon antenna

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pace, D. C.; Van Zeeland, M. A.; Fishler, B.

Neutral beam prompt losses (injected neutrals that ionize such that their first poloidal transit intersects with the wall) can put appreciable power on the outer wall of tokamaks, and this power may damage the wall or other internal components. These prompt losses are simulated including a protruding helicon antenna installation in the DIII-D tokamak and it is determined that 160 kW of power will impact the antenna during the injection of a particular neutral beam. Protective graphite tiles are designed in response to this modeling and the wall shape of the installed antenna is precisely measured to improve the accuracymore » of these calculations. Initial experiments con rm that the antenna component temperature increases according to the amount of neutral beam energy injected into the plasma. Incorporating neutral beam prompt loss considerations into the design of this in-vessel component serves to ensure that adequate protection or cooling is provided.« less

Generation of Werner states via collective decay of coherently driven atoms

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Agarwal, Girish S.; Kapale, Kishore T.

2006-02-15

We show deterministic generation of Werner states as a steady state of the collective decay dynamics of a pair of neutral atoms coupled to a leaky cavity and strong coherent drive. We also show how the scheme can be extended to generate a 2N-particle analogue of the bipartite Werner states.

Understanding Molecular-Ion Neutral Atom Collisions for the Production of Ultracold Molecular Ions

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-02-03

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: This project was superseded and replaced by another ARO-funded project of the same name, which is still continuing. The goal...cooled atoms," IOTA -COST Workshop on molecular ions, Arosa, Switzerland. 5. E.R. Hudson, "Sympathetic cooling of molecules with laser cooled

Atomic and molecular hydrogen gas temperatures in a low-pressure helicon plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Samuell, Cameron M.; Corr, Cormac S.

2015-08-01

Neutral gas temperatures in hydrogen plasmas are important for experimental and modelling efforts in fusion technology, plasma processing, and surface modification applications. To provide values relevant to these application areas, neutral gas temperatures were measured in a low pressure (< 10 mTorr) radiofrequency helicon discharge using spectroscopic techniques. The atomic and molecular species were not found to be in thermal equilibrium with the atomic temperature being mostly larger then the molecular temperature. In low power operation (< 1 kW), the molecular hydrogen temperature was observed to be linearly proportional to the pressure while the atomic hydrogen temperature was inversely proportional. Both temperatures were observed to rise linearly with input power. For high power operation (5-20 kW), the molecular temperature was found to rise with both power and pressure up to a maximum of approximately 1200 K. Spatially resolved measurements near a graphite target demonstrated localised cooling near the sample surface. The temporal evolution of the molecular gas temperature during a high power 1.1 ms plasma pulse was also investigated and found to vary considerably as a function of pressure.

Ion-neutral chemistry at ultralow energies:Dynamics of reactive collisions between laser-cooled Ca+ or Ba+ ions and Rb atoms in an ion-atom hybrid trap

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dulieu, O.; Hall, F. H. J.; Eberle, P.; Hegi, G.; Raoult, M.; Aymar, M.; Willitsch, S.

2013-05-01

Cold chemical reactions between laser-cooled Ca+ or Ba+ ions and Rb atoms were studied in an ion-atom hybrid trap. Reaction rate constants were determined in the collision energy range Ecoll /kB = 20 mK-20 K. Product branching ratios were studied using resonant-excitation mass spectrometry. The dynamics of the reactive processes including the radiative formation of CaRb+ and BaRb+ molecular ions has been analyzed using accurate potential energy curves and quantum-scattering calculations for the radiative channels. It is shown that the energy dependence of the reaction rates is governed by long-range interactions, while its magnitude is determined by short-range non-adiabatic and radiative couplings. The quantum character of the collisions is predicted to manifest itself in the occurrence of narrow shape resonances at well-defined collision energies. The present results highlight both universal and system-specific phenomena in cold ion-neutral collisions. This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the COST Action ''Ion Traps for Tomorrow's Applications''.

The role of electronic mechanisms in surface erosion and glow phenomena

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Haglund, Richard F., Jr.

1987-01-01

Experimental studies of desorption induced by electronic transitions (DIET) are described. Such studies are producing an increasingly complete picture of the dynamical pathways through which incident electronic energy is absorbed and rechanneled to produce macroscopic erosion and glow. These mechanistic studies can determine rate constants for erosion and glow processes in model materials and provide valuable guidance in materials selection and development. Extensive experiments with electron, photon, and heavy particle irradiation of alkali halides and other simple model materials have produced evidence showing that: (1) surface erosion, consisting primarily in the ejection or desorption of ground-state neutral atoms, occurs with large efficiencies for all irradiated species; (2) surface glow, resulting from the radiative decay of desorbed atoms, likewise occurs for all irradiating species; (3) the typical mechanism for ground-state neutral desorption is exciton formation, followed by relaxation to a permanent, mobile electronic defect which is the precursor to bond-breaking in the surface or near-surface bulk of the material; and (4) the mechanisms for excited atom formation may include curve crossing in atomic collisions, interactions with surface defect or impurity states, or defect diffusion.

A ground-based experimental test program to duplicate and study the spacecraft glow phenomenon

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Langer, W. D.; Cohen, S. A.; Manos, D. M.; Mcneill, D. H.; Motley, R. W.; Ono, M.; Paul, S.

1985-01-01

The use of a plasma device, the Advanced Concepts Torus-I, for producing atoms and molecules to study spacecraft glow mechanisms is discussed. A biased metal plate, located in the plasma edge, is used to accelerate and neutralize plasma ions, thus generating a neutral beam with a flux approx. 5 x 10 to the 14th power/sq cm/sec at the end of a drift tube. Our initial experiments are to produce a 10 eV molecular and atomic nitrogen beam directed onto material targets. Photon emission in the spectral range 2000 to 9000 A from excited species formed on the target surface will be investigated.

Numerical simulations of primary and secondary hydrogen ENA fluxes at 1 AU

DOE PAGES

Zirnstein, Eric; Heerikhuisen, Jacob; Pogorelov, Nikolai

2012-11-20

The interaction between the solar wind (SW) and the local interstellar medium (LISM) creates energetic neutral atoms (ENAs), mainly Hydrogen (H), at energies similar to ions in the SW. H ENAs are born from charge exchanges between SW protons and LISM H atoms. A large portion of measurable primary ENAs are born in the inner heliosheath (IHS), where the heated and condensed SW plasma has a large thermal component to direct ENAs back toward 1 AU. Secondary ENAs, however, require secondary charge exchanges before being detected at 1 AU. Primary ENAs born in the supersonic and subsonic SW may exitmore » the HP, charge exchange into pick-up ions (PUIs), and charge exchange again to become secondary ENAs. Recent IBEX observations show a ribbon of flux dominating the entire sky. It is possible that the IBEX ribbon is created through secondary charge exchange processes. In this article we present a numerical code that calculates primary and secondary H ENA fluxes by integrating along ENA trajectories. Here we will provide descriptions of the code and preliminary results.« less

Anion-π interaction in metal-organic networks formed by metal halides and tetracyanopyrazine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosokha, Sergiy V.; Kumar, Amar

2017-06-01

Co-crystallization of tetracyanopyrazine, TCP, with the tetraalkylammonium salts of linear [CuBr2]-, planar [PtCl4]2- or [Pt2Br6]2-, or octahedral [PtBr6]2- complexes resulted in formation of the alternating [MlXn]m-/TCP stacks separated by the Alk4N+ cations. These hybrid stacks showed multiple short contacts between halide ligands of the [MlXn]m- complexes and carbon atoms of the TCP acceptor indicating strong anion-π bonding between these species. It confirmed that the anion-π interaction is sufficiently strong to bring together such disparate components as ionic metal complexes and neutral aromatic molecules regardless of the geometry of the coordination compound. Structural features of the solid-state stacks and [MlXn]m-·TCP dyads resulted from the quantum-mechanical computations suggests that the molecular-orbital (weakly-covalent) component play an important role in association of the [MlXn]m- complexes with the TCP acceptor.

Estimating Collisionally-Induced Escape Rates of Light Neutrals from Early Mars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gacesa, M.; Zahnle, K. J.

2016-12-01

Collisions of atmospheric gases with hot oxygen atoms constitute an important non-thermal mechanism of escape of light atomic and molecular species at Mars. In this study, we present revised theoretical estimates of non-thermal escape rates of neutral O, H, He, and H2 based on recent atmospheric density profiles obtained from the NASA Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission and related theoretical models. As primary sources of hot oxygen, we consider dissociative recombination of O2+ and CO2+ molecular ions. We also consider hot oxygen atoms energized in primary and secondary collisions with energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) produced in charge-exchange of solar wind H+ and He+ ions with atmospheric gases1,2. Scattering of hot oxygen and atmospheric species of interest is modeled using fully-quantum reactive scattering formalism3. This approach allows us to construct distributions of vibrationally and rotationally excited states and predict the products' emission spectra. In addition, we estimate formation rates of excited, translationally hot hydroxyl molecules in the upper atmosphere of Mars. The escape rates are calculated from the kinetic energy distributions of the reaction products using an enhanced 1D model of the atmosphere for a range of orbital and solar parameters. Finally, by considering different scenarios, we estimate the influence of these escape mechanisms on the evolution of Mars's atmosphere throughout previous epochs and their impact on the atmospheric D/H ratio. M.G.'s research was supported by an appointment to the NASA Postdoctoral Program at the NASA Ames Research Center, administered by Universities Space Research Association under contract with NASA. 1N. Lewkow and V. Kharchenko, "Precipitation of Energetic Neutral Atoms and Escape Fluxes induced from the Mars Atmosphere", Astroph. J., 790, 98 (2014) 2M. Gacesa, N. Lewkow, and V. Kharchenko, "Non-thermal production and escape of OH from the upper atmosphere of Mars", arXiv:1607.03602 (2016) 3M. Gacesa and V. Kharchenko, "Non-thermal escape of molecular hydrogen from Mars", Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L10203 (2012).

Single-atom trapping and transport in DMD-controlled optical tweezers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stuart, Dustin; Kuhn, Axel

2018-02-01

We demonstrate the trapping and manipulation of single neutral atoms in reconfigurable arrays of optical tweezers. Our approach offers unparalleled speed by using a Texas instruments digital micro-mirror device as a holographic amplitude modulator with a frame rate of 20 000 per second. We show the trapping of static arrays of up to 20 atoms, as well as transport of individually selected atoms over a distance of 25 μm with laser cooling and 4 μm without. We discuss the limitations of the technique and the scope for technical improvements.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Safari, L., E-mail: laleh.safari@ist.ac.at; Department of Physics, University of Oulu, Box 3000, FI-90014 Oulu; Santos, J. P.

Atomic form factors are widely used for the characterization of targets and specimens, from crystallography to biology. By using recent mathematical results, here we derive an analytical expression for the atomic form factor within the independent particle model constructed from nonrelativistic screened hydrogenic wave functions. The range of validity of this analytical expression is checked by comparing the analytically obtained form factors with the ones obtained within the Hartee-Fock method. As an example, we apply our analytical expression for the atomic form factor to evaluate the differential cross section for Rayleigh scattering off neutral atoms.

Characterization of an atomic hydrogen source for charge exchange experiments

DOE PAGES

Leutenegger, M. A.; Beiersdorfer, P.; Betancourt-Martinez, G. L.; ...

2016-07-02

Here, we characterized the dissociation fraction of a thermal dissociation atomic hydrogen source by injecting the mixed atomic and molecular output of the source into an electron beam ion trap containing highly charged ions and recording the x-ray spectrum generated by charge exchange using a high-resolution x-ray calorimeter spectrometer. We exploit the fact that the charge exchange state-selective capture cross sections are very different for atomic and molecular hydrogen incident on the same ions, enabling a clear spectroscopic diagnostic of the neutral species.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Garton, W.R.S.; Connerade, J.

In tribute to the great contributions of Charlotte Moore Sitterly in critical compilations of Atomic Energy Levels, we collate some of the results from a 15-year program of atomic absorption spectroscopy of neutral species. The work reviewed has been based mainly on the utilization of the 0.5- and 2.5-GeV synchrotrons in Bonn. Such results and interpretations illustrate that no atomic structure is of the simple kind formerly associated with line series. (This applies even to the hydrogen atom, as regards Zeeman spectra.) Conversely, series can often be found in traditionally complex spectra.

Coherence properties and quantum state transportation in an optical conveyor belt.

PubMed

Kuhr, S; Alt, W; Schrader, D; Dotsenko, I; Miroshnychenko, Y; Rosenfeld, W; Khudaverdyan, M; Gomer, V; Rauschenbeutel, A; Meschede, D

2003-11-21

We have prepared and detected quantum coherences of trapped cesium atoms with long dephasing times. Controlled transport by an "optical conveyor belt" over macroscopic distances preserves the atomic coherence with slight reduction of coherence time. The limiting dephasing effects are experimentally identified, and we present an analytical model of the reversible and irreversible dephasing mechanisms. Our experimental methods are applicable at the single-atom level. Coherent quantum bit operations along with quantum state transport open the route towards a "quantum shift register" of individual neutral atoms.

Neutral winds and electric fields from model studies using reduced ionograms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baran, D. E.

1974-01-01

A relationship between the vertical component of the ion velocity and electron density profiles derived from reduced ionograms is developed. Methods for determining the horizontal components of the neutral winds and electric fields by using this relationship and making use of the variations of the inclinations and declinations of the earth's magnetic field are presented. The effects that electric fields have on the neutral wind calculations are estimated to be small but not second order. Seasonal and latitudinal variations of the calculated neutral winds are presented. From the calculated neutral winds a new set of neutral pressure gradients is determined. The new pressure gradients are compared with those generated from several static neutral atmospheric models. Sensitivity factors relating the pressure gradients and neutral winds are calculated and these indicate that mode coupling and harmonic generation are important to studies which assume linearized theories.

Synergism between low-energy neutral particles and energetic ions in the pulsed glow discharge deposition of diamond-like carbon films

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Afanasyev-Charkin, I. V.; Nastasi, M.

2004-08-01

Diamond-like carbon films were deposited using pulsed glow discharge deposition at 4kV. The duty factor was varied and all other parameters were kept constant. It was shown that the contribution of neutral particles to the total number of deposition atoms is much larger than that of energetic ions. At the same time, there is a relationship between the deposition of neutral particles and ion bombardment. The sticking coefficient of the neutral particles in proportional to the flux of energetic ions and does not exceed 5×10-4 for the deposition parameters used in our experiment.

Deflection of the Interstellar Neutral Hydrogen Flow Across the Heliospheric Interface: an Interstellar Magnetic Compass

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lallement, R.; Eric, Q.; Jean-Loup, B.; Dimitra, K.; Risto, P.

2005-05-01

Analyses of SOHO-SWAN observations show that the interstellar neutral H flow direction differs by about 4 degrees from the neutral He flow direction recently derived with an unprecedented accuracy using combined data sets (Mobius et al, 2004). The most likely explanation is a distortion of the heliospheric interface under the action of an inclined interstellar magnetic field, with imprints of the distorsion on the neutral H flow due to charge-transfer reactions between H atoms and ions. The direction of the ambient interstellar magnetic field and the heliospheric shape can be derived from the observed deviation. Implications for Voyager trajectories are discussed.

Neutral beam dose and sputtering characteristics in an ion implantation system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Roberts, A. S., Jr.; Ash, R. L.; Berger, M. H.

1973-01-01

A technique and instrument design for calorimetric detection of the neutral atom content of a 60 keV argon ion beam. A beam sampling method is used to measure local heat flux to a small platinum wire at steady state; integration of power density profiles leads to a determination of equivalent neutral beam current. The fast neutral production occurs as a result of charge transfer processes in the region of the beam system between analyzing magnet and beam stop where the pressure remains less than .00001 torr. A description of the neutral beam detector is given in section along with a presentation of results. An elementary analysis of sputter material transport from target to substrate was performed; the analysis relates to semiconductor sputtering.

In-vacuum sensors for the beamline components of the ITER neutral beam test facility.

PubMed

Dalla Palma, M; Pasqualotto, R; Sartori, E; Spagnolo, S; Spolaore, M; Veltri, P

2016-11-01

Embedded sensors have been designed for installation on the components of the MITICA beamline, the prototype ITER neutral beam injector (Megavolt ITER Injector and Concept Advancement), to derive characteristics of the particle beam and to monitor the component conditions during operation for protection and thermal control. Along the beamline, the components interacting with the particle beam are the neutralizer, the residual ion dump, and the calorimeter. The design and the positioning of sensors on each component have been developed considering the expected beam-surface interaction including non-ideal and off-normal conditions. The arrangement of the following instrumentation is presented: thermal sensors, strain gages, electrostatic probes including secondary emission detectors, grounding shunt for electrical currents, and accelerometers.

Artificial Gauge Fields for Ultracold Neutral Atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jimenez-Garcia, Karina

2013-05-01

Ultracold atoms are a versatile probe for physics at the core of the most intriguing and fascinating systems in the quantum world. Due to the high degree of experimental control offered by such systems, effective Hamiltonians can be designed and experimentally implemented on them. This unique feature makes ultracold atom systems ideal for quantum simulation of complex phenomena as important as high-temperature superconductivity, and recently of novel artificial gauge fields. Suitably designed artificial gauge fields allow neutral particles to experience synthetic- electric or magnetic fields; furthermore, their generalization to matrix valued gauge fields leads to spin-orbit coupling featuring unprecedented control in contrast to ordinary condensed matter systems, thus allowing the characterization of the underlying mechanism of phenomena such as the spin Hall effect and topological insulators. In this talk, I will present an overview of our experiments on quantum simulation with ultracold atom systems by focusing on the realization of light induced artificial gauge fields. We illuminate our Bose-Einstein condensates with a pair of far detuned ``Raman'' lasers, thus creating dressed states that are spin and momentum superpositions. We adiabatically load the atoms into the lowest energy dressed state, where they acquire an experimentally-tunable effective dispersion relation, i.e. we introduce gauge terms into the Hamiltonian. We control such light-induced gauge terms via the strength of the Raman coupling and the detuning from Raman resonance. Our experimental techniques for ultracold bosons have surpassed the apparent limitations imposed by their neutral charge, bosonic nature, and ultra-low energy and have allowed the observation of these new and exciting phenomena. Future work might allow the realization of the bosonic quantum Hall effect, of topological insulators and of systems supporting Majorana fermions using cold atoms. This work was partially supported by the ONR; the ARO with funds from the DARPA OLE program; the Atomtronics MURI; and the NSF through the PFC at the JQI. I acknowledge the support from CONACYT.

Crystal structure of aqua-1κO-{μ-2-[(2-hydroxy-ethyl)methylamino]ethanolato-2:1κ(4) O (1),N,O (2):O (1)}[μ-2,2'-(methylimino)diethanolato-1:2κ(4) O,N,O':O]dithiocyanato-1κN,2κN-chromium(III)copper(II).

PubMed

Rusanova, Julia A; Semenaka, Valentina V; Dyakonenko, Viktoriya V; Shishkin, Oleg V

2015-09-01

The title compound, [CrCu(C5H11NO2)(C5H12NO2)(NCS)2(H2O)] or [Cr(μ-mdea)Cu(μ-Hmdea)(NCS)2H2O], (where mdeaH2 is N-methylethanolamine, C5H13NO2) is formed as a neutral heterometal Cu(II)/Cr(III) complex. The mol-ecular structure of the complex is based on a binuclear {CuCr(μ-O)2} core. The coordination environment of each metal atom involves the N,O,O atoms of the tridentate ligand, one bridging O atom of the ligand and the N atom of the thio-cyanato ligands. The Cu(II) ion adopts a distorted square-pyramidal coordination while the Cr(III) ion has a distorted octa-hedral coordination geometry completed by the aqua ligand. In the crystal, the binuclear complexes are linked via two pairs of O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds to form inversion dimers, which are arranged in columns parallel to the a axis. In the μ-mdea ligand two -CH2 groups and the methyl group were refined as disordered over two sets of sites with equal occupancies. The structure was refined as a two-component twin with a twin scale factor of 0.242 (1).

STEREO Observations of Energetic Neutral Hydrogen Atoms during the 5 December 2006 Solar Flare

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mewaldt, R. A.; Leske, R. A.; Stone, E. C.; Barghouty, A. F.; Labrador, A. W.; Cohen, C. M. S.; Cummings, A. C.; Davis, A. J.; vonRosenvinge, T. T.; Wiedenbeck, M. E.

2009-01-01

We report the discovery of energetic neutral hydrogen atoms emitted during the X9 solar event of December 5, 2006. Beginning 1 hour following the onset of this E79 flare, the Low Energy Telescopes (LETs) on both the STEREO A and B spacecraft observed a sudden burst of 1.6 to 15 MeV protons beginning hours before the onset of the main solar energetic particle (SEP) event at Earth. More than 70% of these particles arrived from a longitude within 10 of the Sun, consistent with the measurement resolution. The derived emission profile at the Sun had onset and peak times remarkably similar to the GOES soft X-ray profile and continued for more than an hour. The observed arrival directions and energy spectrum argue strongly that the particle events less than 5 MeV were due to energetic neutral hydrogen atoms (ENAs). To our knowledge, this is the first reported observation of ENA emission from a solar flare/coronal mass ejection. Possible origins for the production of ENAs in a large solar event are considered. We conclude that the observed ENAs were most likely produced in the high corona and that charge-transfer reactions between accelerated protons and partially-stripped coronal ions are an important source of ENAs in solar events.

NEUTRAL ATOM PROPERTIES IN THE DIRECTION OF THE IBEX RIBBON

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Heerikhuisen, Jacob; Pogorelov, Nikolai V.; Gamayunov, Konstantin V.

2016-11-10

In this paper, we present results from our three-dimensional (3D) simulations of the interaction between the solar wind and local interstellar medium with an emphasis on the phase-space properties of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) along a sight line that intersects the ribbon of enhanced ENA flux seen by NASA’s Interstellar Boundary EXplorer spacecraft. The majority of these ENAs have velocities directed away from the heliosphere, but it is believed that interactions between heliospheric ENAs and ions outside the heliosphere may result in a population of secondary ENAs that return to the heliosphere and generate the ribbon. While we do notmore » consider the ion dynamics that result in secondary ENAs, our analysis is of key importance to the process since the heliospheric ENAs we consider form the source population for those ions. We present the moments of the hydrogen distribution, along with moments parallel and perpendicular to the local magnetic field for the pick-up ions (PUIs) that these neutrals generate. Finally, we present gyro-averaged velocity distributions relative to the local magnetic field for the PUIs created from our simulated H-atoms, along with analytic fits to these distributions in the secondary ENA source region just beyond the heliopause.« less

Rayleigh scattering of x-ray and γ-ray by 1s and 2s electrons in ions and neutral atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Costescu, A.; Karim, K.; Moldovan, M.; Spanulescu, S.; Stoica, C.

2011-02-01

Using the Coulomb-Green function method and considering the nonrelativistic limit for the two-photon S-matrix element, the right nonrelativistic 2s Rayleigh scattering amplitudes are obtained. Our result takes into account all multipoles, retardation and relativistic kinematics contributions, and the old dipole approximation result of Costescu [1] is retrieved as a limit case. The total photoeffect cross-section which is related to the imaginary part of the Rayleigh forward scattering amplitude through the optical theorem is also obtained. Our Coulombian formulae are used in the more realistic case of elastic scattering of photons by bound 1s and 2s electrons in ions and neutral atoms. Screening effects are considered in the independent particle approximation through the Hartree-Fock method. The effective charge Zeff is obtained by fitting the Hartree-Fock charge distribution by a Coulombian one. Good agreement (within 10%) is found when comparing the numerical predictions given by our nonrelativistic formulae with the full relativistic numerical results of Kissel [2] in the case of elastic scattering of photons by 1s and 2s electrons and Scofield [3] in the case of K-shell and 2s subshell photoionization for neutral atoms with 18 <= Z <= 92 and photon energies ω <= αZm.

Editorial: Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX): Direct Sampling of the Interstellar Medium

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McComas, D. J.

2012-02-01

This special supplement issue of the Astrophysical Journal comprises six coordinated papers that provide the first detailed analyses of the direct sampling of interstellar neutral atoms by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX). Interstellar atoms are the detritus of older stars—their stellar winds, novae, and supernovae—spread across the galaxy, which fill the vast interstellar space between the stars. The very local interstellar medium around the Sun is filled with both ionized and neutral atoms with approximately equal numbers, and occasional ionization, charge exchange, and recombination makes them a single interacting material over large distances. IBEX (McComas et al. 2009a) is a NASA Small Explorer mission with the sole, focused science objective to discover the global interaction between the solar wind and the interstellar medium; this objective has primarily been achieved by taking the first global energetic neutral atom (ENA) images, which provide detailed ENA fluxes and energy spectra over all look directions in space. IBEX was launched 2008 October 19 and subsequently maneuvered into a high-altitude, highly elliptical (~15,000 × 300,000 km), roughly week-long orbit. The payload comprises two very high sensitivity, single-pixel ENA cameras: IBEX-Hi (Funsten et al. 2009a), which measures ENAs from ~300 eV to 6 keV, and IBEX-Lo (Fuselier et al. 2009a), which measures ENAs from ~10 eV to 2 keV. The initial IBEX ENA results were published together in a special issue of Science magazine (McComas et al. 2009b; Funsten et al. 2009b; Fuselier et al. 2009b; Schwadron et al. 2009). Since then there have been numerous additional studies of the IBEX ENA observations of the heliosphere, as well as ENAs from the Moon and Earth's magnetosphere (see recent review by McComas et al. 2011 and references therein). Prior to IBEX, the only interstellar neutral atoms to be directly sampled were He, observed by the Ulysses spacecraft a decade ago (Witte et al. 1996; Witte 2004). The first paper published on IBEX observations of interstellar neutral atoms (Möbius et al. 2009) used observations from the spring of 2009, shortly after IBEX achieved its first long-term orbit; that study showed that IBEX is able to directly observe interstellar H and O in addition to He, but provided only limited analysis of these measurements. IBEX has now completed a second full annual season of neutral observations in 2010, which together with the independent 2009 observations provide data adequate to carry out the first round of detailed, quantitative analyses of the IBEX interstellar neutral observations. In this special supplement issue, the IBEX Science Team presents a coordinated series of six articles that focus on various synergistic aspects of these observations, their analyses, and their implications. A critical foundational paper in this volume, Hlond et al. (2012), analyzes the angular pointing knowledge of IBEX observations and demonstrates that the arrival direction knowledge of neutral atoms can be determined to ~0.1° in both spin angle and elevation. This is no mean feat for a Small Explorer mission designed to measure ENAs in 7° × 7° pixels, and largely at much higher energies than the direct interstellar neutrals. In addition, these authors demonstrate that the in-space (post-launch) bore sight of the IBEX-Lo instrument can achieve this accuracy with either the spacecraft's on board attitude control system or an independent Star Sensor that was designed and built directly into the IBEX-Lo instrument. Lee et al. (2012) derive the analytical solution for the hyperbolic trajectories of individual neutral atoms by using Liouville's theorem, including solar gravity and radiation pressure, photoionization and charge exchange, to produce interstellar neutral atom phase-space distributions. These distributions are then transformed into the IBEX reference frame and integrated over the IBEX-Lo instrumental acceptance to provide an analytic solution for the predicted fluid moments of the interstellar neutral atom distributions. This analytic solution for the interstellar neutral parameters provides the basis for a companion paper by Möbius et al. (2012), who analyze the IBEX He (and Ne+O) measurements using the Lee et al. analytic solutions. This approach allows for physical insights into the dominant physical processes, while in another related paper Bzowski et al. (2012) describe a detailed forward model of the interstellar helium from the edge of the heliosphere all the way through the IBEX instrument geometry. Together, these papers show that the prior values for the interstellar flow speed and direction from Ulysses are inconsistent with our new IBEX observations. Möbius et al. (2012) compare the He and O+Ne flow distributions for both 2009 and 2010 and find interstellar flow parameters of ecliptic longitude at ∞ = 79.0° + 3.0°/-3.5°, ecliptic latitude at ∞ = -4.9° ± 0.2°, ISM speed at ∞ = 23.5 + 3.0/-2.0 km s-1, and neutral He temperature = 5000-8200 K. They also find a combined O+Ne temperature of 5300-9000 K, consistent with an isothermal medium for He, O, and Ne. Bzowski et al. (2012) develop and extensively test a detailed forward model simulation of the interstellar He propagation, losses, and measurement in the IBEX-Lo instrument. These simulations start particles at 150 AU and include more detailed physics than the analytic solutions; they therefore complement the analytic method by allowing detailed mapping of the multi-dimensional space of possible solutions. These authors show that the IBEX results are not in statistical agreement with the Ulysses values and provide new best-fit values of ecliptic longitude 79.2°, ecliptic latitude of -5.1°, speed of ~22.8 km s-1, and He temperature is 6200 K. The values obtained with both complementary methods agree with each other and are in agreement with the flow vector of the local interstellar cloud obtained from studies of interstellar absorption (Redfield & Linsky 2008). Bzowski et al. also show evidence for a previously unknown and unanticipated secondary population of helium. Together, the Möbius et al. (2012) and Bzowski et al. (2012) results provide a new interstellar flow direction and a significantly lower velocity of the incoming gas and therefore significantly lower dynamic pressure on the heliosphere, which translates into a heliospheric interaction that is even less dominated by the external dynamic pressure and clearly lies squarely in the middle ground of astrospheres dominated by the external magnetic and dynamic pressures (McComas et al. 2009b). On another topic, Bochsler et al. (2012) report the first direct measurements of interstellar Ne and estimate the interstellar Ne/O abundance ratio, showing a gas-phase Ne/O ratio for the LISM of 0.27 ± 0.10. This value agrees with results obtained from pickup ion observations (Gloeckler & Geiss 2004; Gloeckler & Fisk 2007) and is significantly larger than the solar abundance ratio, indicating that the LISM is different than the Sun's formation region and/or that a substantial portion of the O in the LISM is tied up (and thus "hidden") in grains and/or ices. Finally, Saul et al. (2012) provide the first detailed analysis of the new interstellar H measurements from IBEX. These authors confirm that the arrival direction of interstellar H is offset from that of He. They further show a variation in the strength of the radiation pressure and thus a change in the apparent arrival direction of H penetrating to 1 AU between the first two years of IBEX observations; these results are consistent with solar cycle variations in the radiation pressure, which works opposite to the Sun's gravitational force to effect the penetration of H into the inner heliosphere. Together, these six studies provide the first detailed analyses of the multi-component local interstellar medium—a medium that both effects us by bounding and interacting with our heliosphere, and a medium that gives us a first direct glimpse of non-solar material from the rest of the galaxy.

Self-entanglement and the dissociation of homonuclear diatomic molecules

DOE PAGES

Gonis, A.; Zhang, X. -G.; Nicholson, D. M.; ...

2014-01-14

The concept of self-entanglement is introduced to describe a mixed state or ensemble density as a pure state in an augmented Hilbert space formed by the products of the individual states forming a mixed state (or ensemble). We use this representation of mixed states to show that upon dissociation a neutral homonuclear diatomic molecule will separate into two neutral atoms.

UV Observations of Atomic Oxygen in the Cusp Region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fritz, B.; Lessard, M.; Dymond, K.; Kenward, D. R.; Lynch, K. A.; Clemmons, J. H.; Hecht, J. H.; Hysell, D. L.; Crowley, G.

2017-12-01

The Rocket Experiment for Neutral Upwelling (RENU) 2 launched into the dayside cusp on 13 December, 2015. The sounding rocket payload carried a comprehensive suite of particle, field, and remote sensing instruments to characterize the thermosphere in a region where pockets of enhanced neutral density have been detected [Lühr et al, 2004]. An ultraviolet photomultiplier tube (UV PMT) was oriented to look along the magnetic field line and remotely detect neutral atomic oxygen (OI) above the payload. The UV PMT measured a clear enhancement as the payload descended through a poleward moving auroral form, an indicator of structure in both altitude and latitude. Context for the UV PMT measurement is provided by the Special Sensor Ultraviolet Imager (SSULI) instrument on the Defense Meteorological Space Program (DMSP) satellite, which also measured OI as it passed through the cusp. UV tomography of SSULI observations produces a two-dimensional cross-section of volumetric emission rates in the high-latitude thermosphere prior to the RENU 2 flight. The volume emission rate may then be inverted to produce a profile of neutral density in the thermosphere. A similar technique is used to interpret the UV PMT measurement and determine structure in the thermosphere as RENU 2 descended through the cusp.

De Haas-van Alphen effect of a two-dimensional ultracold atomic gas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Farias, B.; Furtado, C.

2016-01-01

In this paper, we show how the ultracold atom analogue of the two-dimensional de Haas-van Alphen effect in electronic condensed matter systems can be induced by optical fields in a neutral atomic system. The interaction between the suitable spatially varying laser fields and tripod-type trapped atoms generates a synthetic magnetic field which leads the particles to organize themselves in Landau levels. Initially, with the atomic gas in a regime of lowest Landau level, we display the oscillatory behaviour of the atomic energy and its derivative with respect to the effective magnetic field (B) as a function of 1/B. Furthermore, we estimate the area of the Fermi circle of the two-dimensional atomic gas.

Laser Cooling and Trapping of Neutral Strontium for Spectroscopic Measurements of Casimir-Polder Potentials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cook, Eryn C.

Casimir and Casimir-Polder effects are forces between electrically neutral bodies and particles in vacuum, arising entirely from quantum fluctuations. The modification to the vacuum electromagnetic-field modes imposed by the presence of any particle or surface can result in these mechanical forces, which are often the dominant interaction at small separations. These effects play an increasingly critical role in the operation of micro- and nano-mechanical systems as well as miniaturized atomic traps for precision sensors and quantum-information devices. Despite their fundamental importance, calculations present theoretical and numeric challenges, and precise atom-surface potential measurements are lacking in many geometric and distance regimes. The spectroscopic measurement of Casimir-Polder-induced energy level shifts in optical-lattice trapped atoms offers a new experimental method to probe atom-surface interactions. Strontium, the current front-runner among optical frequency metrology systems, has demonstrated characteristics ideal for such precision measurements. An alkaline earth atom possessing ultra-narrow intercombination transitions, strontium can be loaded into an optical lattice at the "magic" wavelength where the probe transition is unperturbed by the trap light. Translation of the lattice will permit controlled transport of tightly-confined atomic samples to well-calibrated atom-surface separations, while optical transition shifts serve as a direct probe of the Casimir-Polder potential. We have constructed a strontium magneto-optical trap (MOT) for future Casimir-Polder experiments. This thesis will describe the strontium apparatus, initial trap performance, and some details of the proposed measurement procedure.

Theoretical studies on the electronic structures and photoelectron spectra of tri-rhenium oxide clusters: Re3O(n)(-) and Re3O(n) (n=1-6).

PubMed

Zhou, Qi; Gong, Wei-Chao; Xie, Lu; Zheng, Cun-Gong; Zhang, Wei; Wang, Bin; Zhang, Yong-Fan; Huang, Xin

2014-01-03

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations are performed to study the structural and electronic properties of tri-rhenium oxide clusters Re3On(-/0) (n=1-6). Generalized Koopmans' theorem is applied to predict the vertical detachment energies (VDEs) and simulate the photoelectron spectra (PES). Theoretical calculations at the B3LYP level are carried out to search for the global minima for both the anions and the neutrals. For the anions, the first two O atoms prefer the same corner position of a Re3 triangle. Whereas, Re3O3(-) possesses a C2v symmetry with one bridging and two terminal O atoms. The next three O atoms (n=4-6) are adding sequentially on the basis of Re3O3(-) motif, i.e., adding one terminal O atom for Re3O4(-), one terminal and one bridging O atoms for Re3O5(-), and one terminal and two bridging O atoms for Re3O6(-), respectively. Their corresponding neutral species are similar to the anions in geometry except Re3O4 and Re3O5. Molecular orbital analyses are employed to investigate the chemical bonding and structural evolution in these tri-rhenium oxide clusters. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Charge exchange, ENAs and the loss of planetary ions at Mars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kallio, E.; Janhunen, P.; Säles, T.

Neither Mars nor Venus has a strong global intrinsic magnetic field and therefore the solar wind can flow close to the planets in high neutral density regions. Because of the formed direct interaction between the atmosphere/exosphere and the solar wind, the ionized atmospheric neutrals can be picked up by the solar wind. Charge exchange between solar wind protons and planetary neutrals, instead, produce energetic neutral hydrogen atoms (H-ENA) which are the manifestation of the direct interaction between the solar wind and planetary neutrals. Picked-up planetary O+ ions in turn form energetic neutral oxygen atoms (O-ENA) via charge exchange process. The ion escape, H-ENAs, O-ENAs and electrons will be investigated at Mars and Venus by two identical instruments: ASPERA-3 on MarsExpress (measurements started in Jan. 2004) and ASPERA-4 on VenusExpress (2006). We present a self-consistent, three-dimensional quasi-neutral hybrid (ions are particles, electrons a fluid) simulation to study Mars/Venus-solar wind interaction in general and ASPERA-3/4 measurements in particular. Our model includes three ion species (H+, O+, O2+), and contains charge exchange, ion-neutral and chemical reactions. We show results of quasi-neutral hybrid model runs that we have used to study the escape of planetary ions, the effects of planetary ions on the Martian plasma environment and the production and properties of fast hydrogen(H) and oxygen(O) ENAs near Mars. We also compare these hydrogen ENA images with the hydrogen ENA images that has been derived from an empirical flow model by line-of-sight integration. The advantage of the analytical gas dynamic like flow model is that it is computationally so fast that it provides a possibility to perform an ENA inversion, that is, to derive global plasma parameters from the measured ENA image.

The BepiColombo SERENA/ELENA unit development: a new technique to detect sputtered neutral atoms escaping from Mercury surface.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

di Lellis, Andrea Maria; Selci, Stefano; de Angelis, Elisabetta; Leoni, Roberto; Milillo, Anna; Orsini, Stefano; Dandouras, Iannis

2010-05-01

ELENA (Emitted Low-Energy Neutral Atoms) is one of the four units of the SERENA experiment for the ESA cornerstone BepiColombo mission to Mercury. It is primarily devoted to understanding of Ion Sputtering processes and emission from planetary surfaces, particle back-scattering and Charge Exchange via neutral atoms detections in the energy range ~20 eV - 5 keV ELENA instrument is the first attempt of a new design techniques approached for the neutral particles identification in the low energy range. It is a Time-of-Flight system based on a peculiar Start section: an oscillating shutter (operated at frequencies up to a 100 kHz) and mechanical grating (two self-standing silicon nitride (Si3N4) membranes, patterned with arrays of long and narrow openings) that allows to identify the start time of the particles entering in the Time-of-Flight chamber. The Stop section at the end of the pattern is a 1-dimensional array composed by MCPs detector with discrete anodes corresponding to a Field of View of 4,5°x76°. This system allows having the determination of velocity and direction of the incoming particles. The instrument has a good capability to reject UV photons with the start section and to reject charged particle with a deflector system. In this paper the crucial parts of the instrument and test results will be described: the nano-structure membranes manufacturing, the shuttering system, the position encoder, the optical propriety of the membranes, the photon and particle test, the electronic box.

Depolarizing collisions with hydrogen: Neutral and singly ionized alkaline earths

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Manso Sainz, Rafael; Ramos, Andrés Asensio; Bueno, Javier Trujillo

2014-06-20

Depolarizing collisions are elastic or quasielastic collisions that equalize the populations and destroy the coherence between the magnetic sublevels of atomic levels. In astrophysical plasmas, the main depolarizing collider is neutral hydrogen. We consider depolarizing rates on the lowest levels of neutral and singly ionized alkali earths Mg I, Sr I, Ba I, Mg II, Ca II, and Ba II, due to collisions with H°. We compute ab initio potential curves of the atom-H° system and solve the quantum mechanical dynamics. From the scattering amplitudes, we calculate the depolarizing rates for Maxwellian distributions of colliders at temperatures T ≤ 10,000more » K. A comparative analysis of our results and previous calculations in the literature is completed. We discuss the effect of these rates on the formation of scattering polarization patterns of resonant lines of alkali earths in the solar atmosphere, and their effect on Hanle effect diagnostics of solar magnetic fields.« less

Properties of nearby interstellar hydrogen deduced from Lyman-alpha sky background measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thomas, G. E.

1972-01-01

For a sufficiently rapid relative motion of the solar system and the nearby interstellar gas, neutral atoms may be expected to penetrate the heliosphere before becoming ionized. Recent satellite measurements of the Lyman alpha emission above the geocorona indicate such an interstellar wind of neutral hydrogen emerging from the direction of Sagittarius and reaching to within a few astronomical units of the sun. A detailed model of the scattering of solar Lyman alpha from the spatial distribution of neutral hydrogen in interplanetary space is presented. This asymmetric distribution is established by solar wind and solar ultraviolet ionization processes along the trajectories of the incoming hydrogen atoms. The values of the interstellar density, the relative velocity, and the gas temperature are adjusted to agree with the Lyman alpha measurements. The results may be interpreted in terms of two models, the cold model and the hot model of the interstellar gas, depending on whether galactic Lyman alpha emission is present at its maximum allowable value or negligibly small.

Reconstructing Ion Spectra from Low-Altitude ENAs: Moderate to Large Storms.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

LLera, K.; Goldstein, J.; McComas, D. J.; Valek, P. W.

2015-12-01

Two Wide-angle Imaging Neutral-atom Spectrometers (TWINS) Energetic neutral atom (ENA) imagers regularly observe Low-altitude Emission (LAE) intensifications during geomagnetic storm intervals. Since LAEs are produced by the interaction between ions and the near-Earth exosphere (altitudes ~200-800 km), they are a global signature of how the ring current decays in response to solar wind conditions. In this "optically thick" region, an ENA readily becomes reionized, and an ion is readily neutralized. Therefore, emerging ENAs that contribute to the LAE signal (detectable several RE away) have undergone multiple charge exchange and electron stripping interactions. Accounting for the ~36 eV energy loss per interaction, we developed a model to quantify the total energy lost by emergent LAEs. The analytical tool is applied to an ensemble of moderate to large storms (including the recent 17 March and 23 June storms in 2015) to reconstruct the parent ion spectra from TWINS ENA images. We examine the ion spectra energy characteristics among the various storm events.

Oxygen ions observed near Saturn's A ring.

PubMed

Waite, J H; Cravens, T E; Ip, W-H; Kasprzak, W T; Luhmann, J G; McNutt, R L; Niemann, H B; Yelle, R V; Mueller-Wodarg, I; Ledvina, S A; Scherer, S

2005-02-25

Ions were detected in the vicinity of Saturn's A ring by the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) instrument onboard the Cassini Orbiter during the spacecraft's passage over the rings. The INMS saw signatures of molecular and atomic oxygen ions and of protons, thus demonstrating the existence of an ionosphere associated with the A ring. A likely explanation for these ions is photoionization by solar ultraviolet radiation of neutral O2 molecules associated with a tenuous ring atmosphere. INMS neutral measurements made during the ring encounter are dominated by a background signal.

Dynamics of trapped atoms around an optical nanofiber probed through polarimetry.

PubMed

Solano, Pablo; Fatemi, Fredrik K; Orozco, Luis A; Rolston, S L

2017-06-15

The evanescent field outside an optical nanofiber (ONF) can create optical traps for neutral atoms. We present a non-destructive method to characterize such trapping potentials. An off-resonance linearly polarized probe beam that propagates through the ONF experiences a slow axis of polarization produced by trapped atoms on opposite sides along the ONF. The transverse atomic motion is imprinted onto the probe polarization through the changing atomic index of refraction. By applying a transient impulse, we measure a time-dependent polarization rotation of the probe beam that provides both a rapid and non-destructive measurement of the optical trapping frequencies.

Bulk and interfacial structures of reline deep eutectic solvent: A molecular dynamics study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaur, Supreet; Sharma, Shobha; Kashyap, Hemant K.

2017-11-01

We apply all-atom molecular dynamics simulations to describe the bulk morphology and interfacial structure of reline, a deep eutectic solvent comprising choline chloride and urea in 1:2 molar ratio, near neutral and charged graphene electrodes. For the bulk phase structural investigation, we analyze the simulated real-space radial distribution functions, X-ray/neutron scattering structure functions, and their partial components. Our study shows that both hydrogen-bonding and long-range correlations between different constituents of reline play a crucial role to lay out the bulk structure of reline. Further, we examine the variation of number density profiles, orientational order parameters, and electrostatic potentials near the neutral and charged graphene electrodes with varying electrode charge density. The present study reveals the presence of profound structural layering of not only the ionic components of reline but also urea near the electrodes. In addition, depending on the electrode charge density, the choline ions and urea molecules render different orientations near the electrodes. The simulated number density and electrostatic potential profiles for reline clearly show the presence of multilayer structures up to a distance of 1.2 nm from the respective electrodes. The observation of positive values of the surface potential at zero charge indicates the presence of significant nonelectrostatic attraction between the choline cation and graphene electrode. The computed differential capacitance (Cd) for reline exhibits an asymmetric bell-shaped curve, signifying different variation of Cd with positive and negative surface potentials.

Bulk and interfacial structures of reline deep eutectic solvent: A molecular dynamics study.

PubMed

Kaur, Supreet; Sharma, Shobha; Kashyap, Hemant K

2017-11-21

We apply all-atom molecular dynamics simulations to describe the bulk morphology and interfacial structure of reline, a deep eutectic solvent comprising choline chloride and urea in 1:2 molar ratio, near neutral and charged graphene electrodes. For the bulk phase structural investigation, we analyze the simulated real-space radial distribution functions, X-ray/neutron scattering structure functions, and their partial components. Our study shows that both hydrogen-bonding and long-range correlations between different constituents of reline play a crucial role to lay out the bulk structure of reline. Further, we examine the variation of number density profiles, orientational order parameters, and electrostatic potentials near the neutral and charged graphene electrodes with varying electrode charge density. The present study reveals the presence of profound structural layering of not only the ionic components of reline but also urea near the electrodes. In addition, depending on the electrode charge density, the choline ions and urea molecules render different orientations near the electrodes. The simulated number density and electrostatic potential profiles for reline clearly show the presence of multilayer structures up to a distance of 1.2 nm from the respective electrodes. The observation of positive values of the surface potential at zero charge indicates the presence of significant nonelectrostatic attraction between the choline cation and graphene electrode. The computed differential capacitance (C d ) for reline exhibits an asymmetric bell-shaped curve, signifying different variation of C d with positive and negative surface potentials.

Comparison of measured and modeled gas-puff emissions on Alcator C-Mod

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baek, Seung-Gyou; Terry, J. L.; Stotler, D. P.; Labombard, B. L.; Brunner, D. F.

2017-10-01

Understanding neutral transport in tokamak boundary plasmas is important because of its possible effects on the pedestal and scrape-off layer (SOL). On Alcator C-Mod, measured neutral line emissions from externally-puffed deuterium and helium gases are compared with the synthetic results of a neutral transport code, DEGAS 2. The injected gas flow rate and the camera response are absolutely calibrated. Time-averaged SOL density and temperature profiles are input to a steady-state simulation. An updated helium atomic model is employed in DEGAS2. Good agreement is found for the D α peak brightness and profile shape. However, the measured helium I line brightness is found to be lower than that in the simulation results by a roughly a factor of three over a wide range of density particularly in the far SOL region. Two possible causes for this discrepancy are reviewed. First, local cooling due to gas puff may suppress the line emission. Second, time-dependent turbulence effect may impact the helium neutral transport. Unlike deuterium atoms that gain energy from charge exchange and dissociation processes, helium neutrals remain cold and have a relatively short mean free path, known to make them prone to turbulence based on the Kubo number criterion. Supported by USDoE awards: DE-FC02-99ER54512, DE-SC0014251, and DE-AC02-09CH11466.

Generalized pseudopotential approach for electron-atom scattering.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zarlingo, D. G.; Ishihara, T.; Poe, R. T.

1972-01-01

A generalized many-electron pseudopotential approach is presented for electron-neutral-atom scattering problems. A calculation based on this formulation is carried out for the singlet s-wave and p-wave electron-hydrogen phase shifts with excellent results. We compare the method with other approaches as well as discuss its applications for inelastic and rearrangement collision problems.

A theoretical investigation on the neutral Cu(I) phosphorescent complexes with azole-based and phosphine mixed ligand

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ding, Xiao-Li; Shen, Lu; Zou, Lu-Yi; Ma, Ming-Shuo; Ren, Ai-Min

2018-04-01

A theoretical study on a series of neutral heteroleptic Cu(I) complexes with different azole-pyridine-based N^N ligands has been presented to get insight into the effect of various nitrogen atoms in the azole ring on photophysical properties. The results reveal that the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) levels and the emission wavelengths of these complexes are mainly governed by the nitrogen atom number in azole ring. With the increasing number of nitrogen atom , the electron density distribution of HOMO gradually extend from the N^N ligand to the whole molecule, meanwhile, the improved contribution from Cu(d) orbits in HOMO results in an effective mixing of various charge transfermodes, and hence, the fast radiative decay(kr) and the slow non-radiative decay rate(knr) are achieved. The photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) show an apparent dependence on the nitrogen atom number in the five-membered nitrogen heterocycles. However, the increasing number of nitrogen atoms is not necessary for increasing PLQY. The complex 3 with 1,2,4-triazole-pyridine-based N^N ligands is considered to be a potential emitter with high phosphorescence efficiency. Finally, we hope that our investigations will contribute to systematical understanding and guiding for material molecular engineering.

Coherence Preservation of a Single Neutral Atom Qubit Transferred between Magic-Intensity Optical Traps.

PubMed

Yang, Jiaheng; He, Xiaodong; Guo, Ruijun; Xu, Peng; Wang, Kunpeng; Sheng, Cheng; Liu, Min; Wang, Jin; Derevianko, Andrei; Zhan, Mingsheng

2016-09-16

We demonstrate that the coherence of a single mobile atomic qubit can be well preserved during a transfer process among different optical dipole traps (ODTs). This is a prerequisite step in realizing a large-scale neutral atom quantum information processing platform. A qubit encoded in the hyperfine manifold of an ^{87}Rb atom is dynamically extracted from the static quantum register by an auxiliary moving ODT and reinserted into the static ODT. Previous experiments were limited by decoherences induced by the differential light shifts of qubit states. Here, we apply a magic-intensity trapping technique which mitigates the detrimental effects of light shifts and substantially enhances the coherence time to 225±21  ms. The experimentally demonstrated magic trapping technique relies on the previously neglected hyperpolarizability contribution to the light shifts, which makes the light shift dependence on the trapping laser intensity parabolic. Because of the parabolic dependence, at a certain "magic" intensity, the first order sensitivity to trapping light-intensity variations over ODT volume is eliminated. We experimentally demonstrate the utility of this approach and measure hyperpolarizability for the first time. Our results pave the way for constructing scalable quantum-computing architectures with single atoms trapped in an array of magic ODTs.

In-vacuum sensors for the beamline components of the ITER neutral beam test facility

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dalla Palma, M., E-mail: mauro.dallapalma@igi.cnr.it; Pasqualotto, R.; Spagnolo, S.

2016-11-15

Embedded sensors have been designed for installation on the components of the MITICA beamline, the prototype ITER neutral beam injector (Megavolt ITER Injector and Concept Advancement), to derive characteristics of the particle beam and to monitor the component conditions during operation for protection and thermal control. Along the beamline, the components interacting with the particle beam are the neutralizer, the residual ion dump, and the calorimeter. The design and the positioning of sensors on each component have been developed considering the expected beam-surface interaction including non-ideal and off-normal conditions. The arrangement of the following instrumentation is presented: thermal sensors, strainmore » gages, electrostatic probes including secondary emission detectors, grounding shunt for electrical currents, and accelerometers.« less

Determination of the Far-Infrared Cosmic Background Using COBE/DIRBE and WHAM Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Odegard, N.; Arendt, R. G.; Dwek, E.; Haffner, L. M.; Hauser, M. G.; Reynolds, R. J.

2007-01-01

Determination of the cosmic infrared background (CIB) at far infrared wavelengths using COBE/DIRBE data is limited by the accuracy to which foreground interplanetary and Galactic dust emission can be modeled and subtracted. Previous determinations of the far infrared CIB (e.g., Hauser et al. 1998) were based on the detection of residual isotropic emission in skymaps from which the emission from interplanetary dust and the neutral interstellar medium were removed. In this paper we use the Wisconsin H(alpha) Mapper (WHAM) Northern Sky Survey as a tracer of the ionized medium to examine the effect of this foreground component on determination of the CIB. We decompose the DIRBE far infrared data for five high Galactic latitude regions into HI- and H(alpha)- correlated components and a residual component. Eased on FUSE H2 absorption line observations, the contribution of a11 H2-correlated component is expected to he negligible. We find the H(alpha)-correlated component to be consistent with zero for each region, and we find that addition of an H(alpha)-correlated component in modeling the foreground emission has negligible effect on derived CIB results. Our CIB detections and 2(sigma) upper limits are essentially the same as those derived by Hauser et al. and are given by (nu)I(sub nu)(nW/sq m/sr) < 75, < 32, 25+/-8, and 13+/-3 at gamma = 60, 100, 140, and 240 microns, respectively. Our residuals have not been subjected to a detailed anisotropy test, so our CIB results do not supersede those of Hauser et al. Mie derive upper limits on the 100 micron emissivity of the ionized medium that are typically about 40% of the 100 micron emissivity of the neutral atomic medium. This low value may be caused in part by a lower dust-to-gas mass ratio in the ionized medium than in the neutral medium, and in part by a shortcoming of using H(alpha) intensity as a tracer of far infrared emission. If H(alpha) is not a reliable tracer, our analysis would underestimate the emissivity of the ionized medium, and both our analysis and the Hauser et al. analysis may slightly overestimate the CIB. We estimate the possible effect for the CIB to be only about 5%, which is much smaller than the quoted uncertainties. From a comparison of the Hauser et al. CIB results with the integrated galaxy brightness from Spitzer source counts, we obtain 2(sigma) upper limits on a possible diffuse CIB component that are 26 nW/sq m/sr at 140 microns and 8.5 nW/sq m/sr at 240 microns.

Permeation of protons, potassium ions, and small polar molecules through phospholipid bilayers as a function of membrane thickness.

PubMed Central

Paula, S; Volkov, A G; Van Hoek, A N; Haines, T H; Deamer, D W

1996-01-01

Two mechanisms have been proposed to account for solute permeation of lipid bilayers. Partitioning into the hydrophobic phase of the bilayer, followed by diffusion, is accepted by many for the permeation of water and other small neutral solutes, but transient pores have also been proposed to account for both water and ionic solute permeation. These two mechanisms make distinctively different predictions about the permeability coefficient as a function of bilayer thickness. Whereas the solubility-diffusion mechanism predicts only a modest variation related to bilayer thickness, the pore model predicts an exponential relationship. To test these models, we measured the permeability of phospholipid bilayers to protons, potassium ions, water, urea, and glycerol. Bilayers were prepared as liposomes, and thickness was varied systematically by using unsaturated lipids with chain lengths ranging from 14 to 24 carbon atoms. The permeability coefficient of water and neutral polar solutes displayed a modest dependence on bilayer thickness, with an approximately linear fivefold decrease as the carbon number varied from 14 to 24 atoms. In contrast, the permeability to protons and potassium ions decreased sharply by two orders of magnitude between 14 and 18 carbon atoms, and leveled off, when the chain length was further extended to 24 carbon atoms. The results for water and the neutral permeating solutes are best explained by the solubility-diffusion mechanism. The results for protons and potassium ions in shorter-chain lipids are consistent with the transient pore model, but better fit the theoretical line predicted by the solubility-diffusion model at longer chain lengths. PMID:8770210

Permeation of protons, potassium ions, and small polar molecules through phospholipid bilayers as a function of membrane thickness

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Paula, S.; Volkov, A. G.; Van Hoek, A. N.; Haines, T. H.; Deamer, D. W.

1996-01-01

Two mechanisms have been proposed to account for solute permeation of lipid bilayers. Partitioning into the hydrophobic phase of the bilayer, followed by diffusion, is accepted by many for the permeation of water and other small neutral solutes, but transient pores have also been proposed to account for both water and ionic solute permeation. These two mechanisms make distinctively different predictions about the permeability coefficient as a function of bilayer thickness. Whereas the solubility-diffusion mechanism predicts only a modest variation related to bilayer thickness, the pore model predicts an exponential relationship. To test these models, we measured the permeability of phospholipid bilayers to protons, potassium ions, water, urea, and glycerol. Bilayers were prepared as liposomes, and thickness was varied systematically by using unsaturated lipids with chain lengths ranging from 14 to 24 carbon atoms. The permeability coefficient of water and neutral polar solutes displayed a modest dependence on bilayer thickness, with an approximately linear fivefold decrease as the carbon number varied from 14 to 24 atoms. In contrast, the permeability to protons and potassium ions decreased sharply by two orders of magnitude between 14 and 18 carbon atoms, and leveled off, when the chain length was further extended to 24 carbon atoms. The results for water and the neutral permeating solutes are best explained by the solubility-diffusion mechanism. The results for protons and potassium ions in shorter-chain lipids are consistent with the transient pore model, but better fit the theoretical line predicted by the solubility-diffusion model at longer chain lengths.

Energetic Neutral Atom Emissions From Venus: VEX Observations and Theoretical Modeling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fok, M.-C.; Galli, A.; Tanaka, T.; Moore, T. E.; Wurz, P.; Holmstrom, M.

2007-01-01

Venus has almost no intrinsic magnetic field to shield itself from its surrounding environment. The solar wind thus directly interacts with the planetary ionosphere and atmosphere. One of the by-products of this close encounter is the production of energetic neutral atom (ENA) emissions. Theoretical studies have shown that significant amount of ENAs are emanated from the planet. The launch of the Venus Express (VEX) in 2005 provided the first light ever of the Venus ENA emissions. The observed ENA flux level and structure are in pretty good agreement with the theoretical studies. In this paper, we present VEX ENA data and the comparison with numerical simulations. We seek to understand the solar wind interaction with the planet and the impacts on its atmospheres.

Particle visualization in high-power impulse magnetron sputtering. I. 2D density mapping

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Britun, Nikolay, E-mail: nikolay.britun@umons.ac.be; Palmucci, Maria; Konstantinidis, Stephanos

2015-04-28

Time-resolved characterization of an Ar-Ti high-power impulse magnetron sputtering discharge has been performed. This paper deals with two-dimensional density mapping in the discharge volume obtained by laser-induced fluorescence imaging. The time-resolved density evolution of Ti neutrals, singly ionized Ti atoms (Ti{sup +}), and Ar metastable atoms (Ar{sup met}) in the area above the sputtered cathode is mapped for the first time in this type of discharges. The energetic characteristics of the discharge species are additionally studied by Doppler-shift laser-induced fluorescence imaging. The questions related to the propagation of both the neutral and ionized discharge particles, as well as to theirmore » spatial density distributions, are discussed.« less

Accelerator and Fusion Research Division. Annual report, October 1978-September 1979

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

1980-03-01

Topics covered include: Super HILAC and Bevalac operations; high intensity uranium beams line item; advanced high charge state ion source; 184-inch synchrocyclotron; VENUS project; positron-electron project; high field superconducting accelerator magnets; beam cooling; accelerator theory; induction linac drivers; RF linacs and storage rings; theory; neutral beam systems development; experimental atomic physics; neutral beam plasma research; plasma theory; and the Tormac project. (GHT)

High brilliance negative ion and neutral beam source

DOEpatents

Compton, Robert N.

1991-01-01

A high brilliance mass selected (Z-selected) negative ion and neutral beam source having good energy resolution. The source is based upon laser resonance ionization of atoms or molecules in a small gaseous medium followed by charge exchange through an alkali oven. The source is capable of producing microampere beams of an extremely wide variety of negative ions, and milliampere beams when operated in the pulsed mode.

Saturn Ring

NASA Image and Video Library

2007-12-12

Like Earth, Saturn has an invisible ring of energetic ions trapped in its magnetic field. This feature is known as a "ring current." This ring current has been imaged with a special camera on Cassini sensitive to energetic neutral atoms. This is a false color map of the intensity of the energetic neutral atoms emitted from the ring current through a processed called charged exchange. In this process a trapped energetic ion steals and electron from cold gas atoms and becomes neutral and escapes the magnetic field. The Cassini Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument's ion and neutral camera records the intensity of the escaping particles, which provides a map of the ring current. In this image, the colors represent the intensity of the neutral emission, which is a reflection of the trapped ions. This "ring" is much farther from Saturn (roughly five times farther) than Saturn's famous icy rings. Red in the image represents the higher intensity of the particles, while blue is less intense. Saturn's ring current had not been mapped before on a global scale, only "snippets" or areas were mapped previously but not in this detail. This instrument allows scientists to produce movies (see PIA10083) that show how this ring changes over time. These movies reveal a dynamic system, which is usually not as uniform as depicted in this image. The ring current is doughnut shaped but in some instances it appears as if someone took a bite out of it. This image was obtained on March 19, 2007, at a latitude of about 54.5 degrees and radial distance 1.5 million kilometres (920,000 miles). Saturn is at the center, and the dotted circles represent the orbits of the moon's Rhea and Titan. The Z axis points parallel to Saturn's spin axis, the X axis points roughly sunward in the sun-spin axis plane, and the Y axis completes the system, pointing roughly toward dusk. The ion and neutral camera's field of view is marked by the white line and accounts for the cut-off of the image on the left. The image is an average of the activity over a (roughly) 3-hour period. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10094

Measurements of the Charged and Neutral Particle Spectra on the Martian Surface with MSL/RAD

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koehler, Jan

The Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) onboard Mars Science Laboratory’s rover Curiosity is the first ever instrument to measure the energetic particle radiation environment on the surface of Mars. Charged particles are a major component of this environment, both galactic cosmic rays propagating to the Martian surface and secondary particles created by interactions of these cosmic rays with the atoms of the Martian atmosphere and soil. Another important factor for determining the biological impact of the Martian surface radiation is the specific contribution of neutrons, which possess a high biological effectiveness. In contrast to charged particles, neutrons and gamma rays are generally only measured indirectly. Their measurement is the result of a complex convolution of the incident particle spectrum with the measurement process. We apply an inversion method to calculate the gamma/neutron spectra from the RAD neutral particle measurements. Here we show first surface measurements of the Martian particle spectra and compare them to theoretical predictions. Measuring the Martian particle spectra is an essential step for determining the mutagenic influences to past or present life at or beneath the Martian surface as well as the radiation hazard for future human exploration, including the shielding design of a potential habitat.

Microfabricated Waveguide Atom Traps.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jau, Yuan-Yu

A nanoscale , microfabricated waveguide structure can in - principle be used to trap atoms in well - defined locations and enable strong photon-atom interactions . A neutral - atom platform based on this microfabrication technology will be prealigned , which is especially important for quantum - control applications. At present, there is still no reported demonstration of evanescent - field atom trapping using a microfabricated waveguide structure. We described the capabilities established by our team for future development of the waveguide atom - trapping technology at SNL and report our studies to overcome the technical challenges of loading coldmore » atoms into the waveguide atom traps, efficient and broadband optical coupling to a waveguide, and the waveguide material for high - power optical transmission. From the atomic - physics and the waveguide modeling, w e have shown that a square nano-waveguide can be utilized t o achieve better atomic spin squeezing than using a nanofiber for first time.« less

A Water Geochemistry Study of Indian Wells Valley, Inyo and Kern Counties, California. Supplement. Isotope Geochemistry and Appendix H.

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-09-01

accuracy by Carl F. Austin, NWC; James Moore, California Energy Co.; and Robert 0. Fournier, Unites States Geological Survey. Approved by Under authority...protons, electrons , and neutrons. The electrical charge of protons is positive, and that of electrons is negative. Neutrons have no electrical charge...The number of protons determines what element an atom is and gives it its atomic number. In a neutral or nonionized atom the number of electrons

Dynamical Casimir-Polder force on a partially dressed atom near a conducting wall

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Messina, Riccardo; Vasile, Ruggero; Passante, Roberto

2010-12-15

We study the time evolution of the Casimir-Polder force acting on a neutral atom in front of a perfectly conducting plate, when the system starts its unitary evolution from a partially dressed state. We solve the Heisenberg equations for both atomic and field quantum operators, exploiting a series expansion with respect to the electric charge and an iterative technique. After discussing the behavior of the time-dependent force on an initially partially dressed atom, we analyze a possible experimental scheme to prepare the partially dressed state and the observability of this new dynamical effect.

κ -distributed protons in the solar wind and their charge-exchange coupling to energetic hydrogen

DOE PAGES

Heerikhuisen, J.; Zirnstein, Eric; Pogorelov, Nikolai

2015-03-16

The interaction between the solar wind and the interstellar medium represents a collision between two plasma flows, resulting in a heliosphere with an extended tail. While the solar wind is mostly ionized material from the corona, the interstellar medium is only partially ionized. The ion and neutral populations are coupled through charge-exchange collisions that operate on length scales of tens to hundreds of astronomical units. About half the interstellar hydrogen flows into the heliosphere where it may charge-exchange with solar wind protons. This process gives rise to a nonthermal proton, known as a pickup ion, which joins the plasma. Inmore » this paper we investigate the effects of approximating the total ion distribution of the subsonic solar wind as a generalized Lorentzian, or κ distribution, using an MHD neutral code. We illustrate the effect different values of the κ parameter have on both the structure of the heliosphere and the energetic neutral atom flux at 1 AU. We find that using a κ distribution in our simulations yields levels of energetic neutral atom flux that are within a factor of about 2 or 3 over the IBEX-Hi range of energies from 0.5 to 6 keV. In conclusion, while the presence of a suprathermal tail in the proton distribution leads to the production of high-energy neutrals, the sharp decline in the charge-exchange cross section around 10 keV mitigates the enhanced transfer of energy from the ions to the neutrals that might otherwise be expected.« less

Simulation of Energetic Neutral Atom Images at Venus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gunell, H.; Holmström, M.; Biernat, H. K.; Erkaev, N. V.; Lammer, H.; Lichtenegger, H.; Penz, T.

2003-12-01

We present simulated images of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) produced in charge exchange collisions between solar wind protons and neutral atoms in the exosphere of Venus. The plasma flow around Venus is modelled by a semi-analytical MHD simulation that includes mass-loading (Biernat et al., J. Geophys. Res., vol. 104, 12617--12626, 1999; Biernat,et al., Adv. Space Res., 28, 2001). These results are compared with the results that are obtained when the Spreiter-Stahara flow model (Spreiter and Stahara, Adv Space Res., 14, 5--19, 1994) is used. The ENA images are calculated by combining the proton bulk flow and temperature results of the MHD model with a model of the neutral atmosphere using the energy dependent cross sections for the charge exchange collisions. The ENA production rate is integrated along lines of sight to a virtual instrument, thus simulating what could be measured by a space-craft-carried ENA instrument. The images are found to be dominated by two local maxima. One produced by charge exchange collisions in the solar wind, upstream of the bow shock, and the other close to the dayside ionopause. The main contribution to the ENA flux observed in the ENA images stems from a region of space between the ionopause and the bow shock on the dayside of the planet. The simulated ENA fluxes at Venus are lower than those obtained in similar simulations of ENA images at Mars (Holmström et al., J. Geophys. Res., 107, 1277, doi: 10.1029/2001JA000325, 2002). The reason for the lower ENA flux at Venus is thought to be the smaller extent of Venus' exosphere. The steeper falloff of the neutral gas density with altitude in the exosphere of Venus is caused by Venus' mass, which is 7.5 times greater than the mass of Mars. The dependence of the ENA flux on the altitude of the ionopause is studied numerically, and it is found that the ENA flux decreases as the ionopause altitude is increased.

Structures and stability of metal-doped Ge nM (n = 9, 10) clusters

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Qin, Wei; Lu, Wen-Cai; Xia, Lin-Hua

The lowest-energy structures of neutral and cationic Ge nM (n = 9, 10; M = Si, Li, Mg, Al, Fe, Mn, Pb, Au, Ag, Yb, Pm and Dy) clusters were studied by genetic algorithm (GA) and first-principles calculations. The calculation results show that doping of the metal atoms and Si into Ge 9 and Ge 10 clusters is energetically favorable. Most of the metal-doped Ge cluster structures can be viewed as adding or substituting metal atom on the surface of the corresponding ground-state Ge n clusters. However, the neutral and cationic FeGe 9,10,MnGe 9,10 and Ge 10Al are cage-like withmore » the metal atom encapsulated inside. Such cage-like transition metal doped Ge n clusters are shown to have higher adsorption energy and thermal stability. Our calculation results suggest that Ge 9,10Fe and Ge 9Si would be used as building blocks in cluster-assembled nanomaterials because of their high stabilities.« less

Structures and stability of metal-doped Ge nM (n = 9, 10) clusters

DOE PAGES

Qin, Wei; Lu, Wen-Cai; Xia, Lin-Hua; ...

2015-06-26

The lowest-energy structures of neutral and cationic Ge nM (n = 9, 10; M = Si, Li, Mg, Al, Fe, Mn, Pb, Au, Ag, Yb, Pm and Dy) clusters were studied by genetic algorithm (GA) and first-principles calculations. The calculation results show that doping of the metal atoms and Si into Ge 9 and Ge 10 clusters is energetically favorable. Most of the metal-doped Ge cluster structures can be viewed as adding or substituting metal atom on the surface of the corresponding ground-state Ge n clusters. However, the neutral and cationic FeGe 9,10,MnGe 9,10 and Ge 10Al are cage-like withmore » the metal atom encapsulated inside. Such cage-like transition metal doped Ge n clusters are shown to have higher adsorption energy and thermal stability. Our calculation results suggest that Ge 9,10Fe and Ge 9Si would be used as building blocks in cluster-assembled nanomaterials because of their high stabilities.« less

Adiabatic Quantum Computation with Neutral Atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Biedermann, Grant

2013-03-01

We are implementing a new platform for adiabatic quantum computation (AQC)[2] based on trapped neutral atoms whose coupling is mediated by the dipole-dipole interactions of Rydberg states. Ground state cesium atoms are dressed by laser fields in a manner conditional on the Rydberg blockade mechanism,[3,4] thereby providing the requisite entangling interactions. As a benchmark we study a Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) problem whose solution is found in the ground state spin configuration of an Ising-like model. In collaboration with Lambert Parazzoli, Sandia National Laboratories; Aaron Hankin, Center for Quantum Information and Control (CQuIC), University of New Mexico; James Chin-Wen Chou, Yuan-Yu Jau, Peter Schwindt, Cort Johnson, and George Burns, Sandia National Laboratories; Tyler Keating, Krittika Goyal, and Ivan Deutsch, Center for Quantum Information and Control (CQuIC), University of New Mexico; and Andrew Landahl, Sandia National Laboratories. This work was supported by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program at Sandia National Laboratories

Linear combination of atomic orbitals calculation of the Auger neutralization rate of He{sup +} on Al(111) (100), and (110) surfaces

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Valdes, Diego; Blanco, J.M.; Monreal, R.C.

2005-06-15

We develop a theory of the Auger neutralization rate of ions on solid surfaces in which the matrix elements for the transition are calculated by means of a linear combination of atomic orbitals technique. We apply the theory to the calculation of the Auger rate of He{sup +} on unreconstructed Al(111) (100), and (110) surfaces, assuming He{sup +} to approach these surfaces on high symmetry positions and compare them with the results of the jellium model. Although there are substantial differences between the Auger rates calculated with both kinds of approaches, those differences tend to compensate when evaluating the integralmore » along the ion trajectory and, consequently, are of minor influence in some physical magnitudes like the ion survival probability for perpendicular energies larger than 100 eV. We find that many atoms contribute to the Auger process and small effects of lateral corrugation are registered.« less

Structures and stability of metal-doped GenM (n = 9, 10) clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qin, Wei; Lu, Wen-Cai; Xia, Lin-Hua; Zhao, Li-Zhen; Zang, Qing-Jun; Wang, C. Z.; Ho, K. M.

2015-06-01

The lowest-energy structures of neutral and cationic GenM (n = 9, 10; M = Si, Li, Mg, Al, Fe, Mn, Pb, Au, Ag, Yb, Pm and Dy) clusters were studied by genetic algorithm (GA) and first-principles calculations. The calculation results show that doping of the metal atoms and Si into Ge9 and Ge10 clusters is energetically favorable. Most of the metal-doped Ge cluster structures can be viewed as adding or substituting metal atom on the surface of the corresponding ground-state Gen clusters. However, the neutral and cationic FeGe9,10,MnGe9,10 and Ge10Al are cage-like with the metal atom encapsulated inside. Such cage-like transition metal doped Gen clusters are shown to have higher adsorption energy and thermal stability. Our calculation results suggest that Ge9,10Fe and Ge9Si would be used as building blocks in cluster-assembled nanomaterials because of their high stabilities.

Jupiter Thermospheric General Circulation Model (JTGCM): Global Structure and Dynamics Driven by Auroral and Joule Heating

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bougher, S. W.; J. Il. Waite, Jr.; Majeed, T.

2005-01-01

A growing multispectral database plus recent Galileo descent measurements are being used to construct a self-consistent picture of the Jupiter thermosphere/ionosphere system. The proper characterization of Jupiter s upper atmosphere, embedded ionosphere, and auroral features requires the examination of underlying processes, including the feedbacks of energetics, neutral-ion dynamics, composition, and magnetospheric coupling. A fully 3-D Jupiter Thermospheric General Circulation Model (JTGCM) has been developed and exercised to address global temperatures, three-component neutral winds, and neutral-ion species distributions. The domain of this JTGCM extends from 20-microbar (capturing hydrocarbon cooling) to 1.0 x 10(exp -4) nbar (including aurora/Joule heating processes). The resulting JTGCM has been fully spun-up and integrated for greater than or equal to40 Jupiter rotations. Results from three JTGCM cases incorporating moderate auroral heating, ion drag, and moderate to strong Joule heating processes are presented. The neutral horizontal winds at ionospheric heights vary from 0.5 km/s to 1.2 km/s, atomic hydrogen is transported equatorward, and auroral exospheric temperatures range from approx.1200-1300 K to above 3000 K, depending on the magnitude of Joule heating. The equatorial temperature profiles from the JTGCM are compared with the measured temperature structure from the Galileo AS1 data set. The best fit to the Galileo data implies that the major energy source for maintaining the equatorial temperatures is due to dynamical heating induced by the low-latitude convergence of the high-latitude-driven thermospheric circulation. Overall, the Jupiter thermosphere/ionosphere system is highly variable and is shown to be strongly dependent on magnetospheric coupling which regulates Joule heating.

COS Observations of Molecular H2 at z = 0.248

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kruse, Ethan; Tumlinson, J.; Thom, C.; Sembach, K.

2011-01-01

We present HST/COS observations of a QSO sightline through the halo of two merging galaxies at z = 0.25 at impact parameter 90 kpc. This sightline presents the first example of strong H2 absorption features in our large COS survey of galaxy halo gas at low redshift (COS-Halos, Tumlinson et al.). COS spectra reveal a sub-DLA at z = 0.2478 which splits into two components separated by 70 km/s. One component appears to contain more high-ionization states and less neutral H I while the other favors neutral atoms and contains a strong H2 signature (J = 0-3) along with the majority of the H I. Aside from H2 we detect O I, N I and N II, Si II and Si III, and C II. We find a total H2 column density of N(H2) = 16.89 and an H2 fraction of f_{H2} = 0.0034. Fitting the unblended H2 lines from 0-0 to 15-0 to a curve of growth we find a best fit with b = 11.8 km s-1. Due to the full saturation of all Lyman lines, we are unable to separate the H I column density into the two components and therefore cannot get a direct metallicity for either cloud. However through Cloudy modelling we are able to estimate a H I column density and ionization correction in each component and therefore obtain an approximate metallicity through O I absorption. This system shows similar features to a portion of the Magellanic Stream studied by Sembach et al. 2006. Both sightlines have comparable H I and H2 columns, H2 excitation temperatures, and similar metallicities, suggesting this sightline could be a distant counterpart to the Magellanic Stream, perhaps stripped from an unseen companion galaxy to the two merger partners.

A Theoretical Investigation of the Infrared Spectroscopic Properties of Closed-Shell Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Cations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hudgins, Douglas M.; Bauschlicher, Charles W., Jr.; Allamandola, Louis J.; DeVincenzi, Donald L. (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

Density functional theory has been employed to calculate the harmonic frequencies and intensities of a range of PAH cations which explore both size and electronic structure effects on the infrared spectroscopic of these species. The sample extends the size range of PAH species considered to more than 50 carbon atoms and includes several representatives from each of two heretofore unexplored categories of PAH cations: (1) fully benzenoid PAH cations whose carbon skeleton is composed of an odd number of carbon atoms and (2) protonated PAH cations. Unlike the radical electronic structures of the PAH cations that have been the subject of previous theoretical and experimental work, the species in these two classes have a closed-shell electronic configuration. The calculated spectra of circumcoronene, C54H18, in both neutral and (radical) cationic form are also reported and compared to those of the other species. Closed-shell species are inherently less reactive than radical (or open-shell) cations and are known to play a role in combustion chemistry. Since interstellar PAHs are typically exposed to abundant atomic hydrogen and are thought to originate under pseudo-combustion conditions in carbon-rich circumstellar shells, such species may represent an important component of the interstellar PAH population. Furthermore, species larger than 50 carbon atoms are more representative of the size of the typical interstellar PAH. Overall, as has been the case for previous studies of PAH radical cations, the general pattern of band positions and intensities are consistent with that of the interstellar infrared emission spectrum. In addition, the spectra of closed-shell and open-shell cations are found to converge with increasing molecular size and are found to be relatively similar for species containing about 50 carbon atoms.

Ionic Impurity in a Bose-Einstein Condensate at Submicrokelvin Temperatures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kleinbach, K. S.; Engel, F.; Dieterle, T.; Löw, R.; Pfau, T.; Meinert, F.

2018-05-01

Rydberg atoms immersed in a Bose-Einstein condensate interact with the quantum gas via electron-atom and ion-atom interaction. To suppress the typically dominant electron-neutral interaction, Rydberg states with a principal quantum number up to n =190 are excited from a dense and tightly trapped micron-sized condensate. This allows us to explore a regime where the Rydberg orbit exceeds the size of the atomic sample by far. In this case, a detailed line shape analysis of the Rydberg excitation spectrum provides clear evidence for ion-atom interaction at temperatures well below a microkelvin. Our results may open up ways to enter the quantum regime of ion-atom scattering for the exploration of charged quantum impurities and associated polaron physics.

Matter-wave teleportation via cavity-field trans-pads

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ul-Islam, Rameez; Awais Haider, Syed; Abbas, Tasawar; Ikram, Manzoor

2016-10-01

We propose experimentally feasible schematics to teleport one of the major attributes of matter—i.e. atomic motion in the momentum space—with the assistance of Bragg regime atom-cavity field interactions. In this context, the procedure for teleportation of a superposition of the external momentum of a neutral atom along with its atomic momentum Bell state is described in detail. The protocol is then generalized to cover the teleportation of any high-dimensional entangled state. Such schematics based on a hybrid system—i.e. atoms and photons—may solve a long standing problem by efficiently closing both the detection as well as locality loopholes simultaneously for Bell’s inequality testing, an option not available with either photons or atoms alone.

A statistical model of a metallic inclusion in semiconducting media

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Shikin, V. B., E-mail: shikin@issp.ac.ru

The properties of an isolated multicharged atom embedded into a semiconducting medium are discussed. The analysis generalizes the results of the known Thomas–Fermi theory for a multicharged (Z ≫ 1) atom in vacuum when it is immersed into an electron–hole gas of finite temperature. The Thomas–Fermi–Debye (TFD) atom problem is directly related to the properties of donors in low-doped semiconductors and is alternative in its conclusions to the ideal scenario of dissociation of donors. In the existing ideal statistics, an individual donor under infinitely low doping is completely ionized (a charged center does not hold its neutralizing counter-ions). A Thomas–Fermi–Debyemore » atom (briefly, a TFD donor) remains a neutral formation that holds its screening “coat” even for infinitely low doping level, i.e., in the region of n{sub d}λ{sub 0}{sup 3} ≪ 1, where n{sub d} is the concentration of the doping impurity and λ{sub 0} is the Debye length with the parameters of intrinsic semiconductor. Various observed consequences in the behavior of a TFD donor are discussed that allow one to judge the reality of the implications of the TFD donor model.« less

Excitation and charge transfer in low-energy hydrogen atom collisions with neutral oxygen

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barklem, P. S.

2018-02-01

Excitation and charge transfer in low-energy O+H collisions is studied; it is a problem of importance for modelling stellar spectra and obtaining accurate oxygen abundances in late-type stars including the Sun. The collisions have been studied theoretically using a previously presented method based on an asymptotic two-electron linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) model of ionic-covalent interactions in the neutral atom-hydrogen-atom system, together with the multichannel Landau-Zener model. The method has been extended to include configurations involving excited states of hydrogen using an estimate for the two-electron transition coupling, but this extension was found to not lead to any remarkably high rates. Rate coefficients are calculated for temperatures in the range 1000-20 000 K, and charge transfer and (de)excitation processes involving the first excited S-states, 4s.5So and 4s.3So, are found to have the highest rates. Data are available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (http://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/vizbin/qcat?J/A+A/610/A57. The data are also available at http://https://github.com/barklem/public-data

A Look at Six Years of IBEX

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohler, Susanna

2015-10-01

The objective of the Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, is to study the interaction between the solar wind and the interstellar medium (ISM) at the outer boundary of our solar system. In a special issue of the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, a set of 14 papers presents some of the most recent scientific results to come from the first six years of IBEX data.The Heliosphere and IBEXThe IBEX spacecraft, launched in October 2008. [NASA]As the solar wind streams outward, it blows a bubble into the ISM known as the heliosphere. The outer boundary of the heliosphere, where the solar wind is no longer able to push the ISM out of the way, marks the edge of our solar system. Wed like to understand the composition and properties of both the heliosphere and the local interstellar environment, as well as the processes at work in the interstellar space around our Sun.How do we learn about these things? One approach is to send spacecraft to the edge of the heliosphere to make measurements, such as Voyagers 1 and 2. But these spacecraft are only able to measure properties at their specific locations and since the heliosphere doesnt appear to be symmetric, this is a major limitation. This is where IBEX comes in.IBEXs orbit around the Earth, at various stages in the Earths orbit around the Sun. IBEX makes its observations while outside of the Earths magnetosphere (purple shaded region). [SwRI/IBEX Team]IBEX is a spacecraft on a highly elliptical orbit around Earth. Its orbit takes it outside of the Earths magnetosphere, where its able to detect neutral atoms of varying energies that have traveled from the outer edges of our solar system. IBEXs observations are therefore of particles rather than light; the spacecraft detects the directions and energies of roughly 600 particles per day. This data has provided us with a full 3D view of the outer boundary of the heliosphere.IBEXs detections rely on two types of particles: 1) energetic neutral atoms, which are produced by charge exchange at the solar system boundary when the solar wind ions and the neutral ISM gas interact, and 2) various species of interstellar neutral atoms themselves that pass through the heliosphere and stream toward Earth. Detections of the latter type are the focus of the papers in this special issue of ApJS.Latest ResultsIn the overview paper of this ApJS issue, PI David McComas (Southwest Research Institute) and coauthors outline the recent science results of IBEX. The major outcomes include:Resolution of the differences between IBEXs and Ulyssess measurements of helium atoms in the ISMThe space mission Ulysses, which gathered data while orbiting the Sun until 2009, measured a different temperature and direction for the interstellar flow of helium atoms than IBEX did. These two studies have now been reconciled and confirm that the local interstellar wind is significantly hotter than originally measured by Ulysses.Determination of where the pristine ISM startsUnderstanding the properties of the ISM outside of our solar system requires knowing how far out we need to look to observe ISM that hasnt been mixed with atoms from our solar system. The studies presented here find that the distance to the pristine ISM is 1000 AU (thats more than 30 times the distance to Neptune!). The temperature, speed, and direction of the ISM flow at that location are also presented.Measurement of other interstellar neutral atomsIBEX has gathered neutral hydrogen, oxygen, and neon particles, helping to identify the flows of these interstellar neutral atoms and the composition of the local region surrounding the heliosphere.These results are the latest in a long stream of important scientific findings from IBEX and as the mission has been extended through at least 2017, it seems likely that there will be many more!CitationD. J. McComas et al 2015 ApJS 220 22. doi:10.1088/0067-0049/220/2/22The entire ApJS issue can be found here: http://iopscience.iop.org/0067-0049/220/2

Does Maximal External Tibial Component Rotation Influence Tibiofemoral Load Distribution in the Primary Knee Arthroplasty Setting: A Comparison of Neutral vs Maximal Anatomical External Rotatory States.

PubMed

Manning, William A; Ghosh, Kanishka M; Blain, Alasdair P; Longstaff, Lee M; Rushton, Steven P; Deehan, David J

2017-06-01

Tibial component rotation at time of knee arthroplasty can influence conformity, load transmission across the polyethylene surface, and perhaps ultimately determined survivorship. Optimal tibial component rotation on the cut surface is reliant on standard per operative manual stressing. This subjective assessment aims to balance constraint and stability of the articulation through a full arc of movement. Using a cadaveric model, computer navigation and under defined, previously validated loaded conditions mimicking the in vivo setting, the influence of maximal tibial component external rotation compared with the neutral state was examined for changes in laxity and tibiofemoral continuous load using 3D displacement measurement and an orthosensor continuous load sensor implanted within the polyethylene spacer in a simulated single radius total knee arthroplasty. No significant difference was found throughout arc of motion (0-115 degrees of flexion) for maximal varus and/or valgus or rotatory laxity between the 2 states. The neutral state achieved equivalence for mediolateral load distribution at each point of flexion. We have found that external rotation of the tibial component increased medial compartment load in comparison with the neutral position. Compared with the neutral state, external rotation consistently effected a marginal, but not significant reduction in lateral load under similar loading conditions. The effects were most pronounced in midflexion. On the basis of these findings, we would advocate for the midtibial tubercle point to determine tibial component rotation and caution against component external rotation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

MAVEN Pickup Ion Constraints on Mars Neutral Escape

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rahmati, A.; Larson, D. E.; Cravens, T.; Lillis, R. J.; Dunn, P.; Halekas, J. S.; McFadden, J. P.; Mitchell, D. L.; Thiemann, E.; Connerney, J. E. P.; DiBraccio, G. A.; Espley, J. R.; Eparvier, F. G.

2017-12-01

Mars is currently losing its atmosphere mainly due to the escape of neutral hydrogen and oxygen. Directly measuring the rate of escaping neutrals is difficult, because the neutral density in the Mars exosphere is dominated, up to several Martian radii, by atoms that are gravitationally bound to the planet. Neutral atoms in the Martian exosphere, however, can get ionized, picked up, and accelerated by the solar wind motional electric field and energized to energies high enough for particle detectors to measure them. The MAVEN SEP instrument detects O+ pickup ions that are created at altitudes where the escaping part of the exosphere is dominant. Fluxes of these ions reflect neutral densities in the distant exosphere of Mars, allowing us to constrain neutral oxygen escape rates. The MAVEN SWIA and STATIC instruments measure pickup H+ and O+ created closer to Mars; comparisons of these data with models can be used to constrain exospheric hot O and thermal H densities and escape rates. In this work, pickup ion measurements from SEP, SWIA, and STATIC, taken during the first 3 Earth years of the MAVEN mission, are compared to the outputs of a pickup ion model to constrain the variability of neutral escape at Mars. The model is based on data from six MAVEN instruments, namely, MAG providing magnetic field used in calculating pickup ion trajectories, SWIA providing solar wind velocity as well as 3D pickup H+ and O+ spectra, SWEA providing solar wind electron spectrum used in electron impact ionization rate calculations, SEP providing pickup O+ spectra, STATIC providing mass resolved 3D pickup H+ and O+ spectra, and EUVM providing solar EUV spectra used in photoionization rate calculations. A variability of less than a factor of two is observed in hot oxygen escape rates, whereas thermal escape of hydrogen varies by an order of magnitude with Mars season. This hydrogen escape variability challenges our understanding of the H cycle at Mars, but is consistent with other recent measurements.

Level-energy-dependent mean velocities of excited tungsten atoms sputtered by krypton-ion bombardment

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nogami, Keisuke; Sakai, Yasuhiro; Mineta, Shota

2015-11-15

Visible emission spectra were acquired from neutral atoms sputtered by 35–60 keV Kr{sup +} ions from a polycrystalline tungsten surface. Mean velocities of excited tungsten atoms in seven different 6p states were also obtained via the dependence of photon intensities on the distance from the surface. The average velocities parallel to the surface normal varied by factors of 2–4 for atoms in the different 6p energy levels. However, they were almost independent of the incident ion kinetic energy. The 6p-level energy dependence indicated that the velocities of the excited atoms were determined by inelastic processes that involve resonant charge exchange.

Entanglement of two individual neutral atoms using Rydberg blockade.

PubMed

Wilk, T; Gaëtan, A; Evellin, C; Wolters, J; Miroshnychenko, Y; Grangier, P; Browaeys, A

2010-01-08

We report the generation of entanglement between two individual 87Rb atoms in hyperfine ground states |F=1,M=1> and |F=2,M=2> which are held in two optical tweezers separated by 4 microm. Our scheme relies on the Rydberg blockade effect which prevents the simultaneous excitation of the two atoms to a Rydberg state. The entangled state is generated in about 200 ns using pulsed two-photon excitation. We quantify the entanglement by applying global Raman rotations on both atoms. We measure that 61% of the initial pairs of atoms are still present at the end of the entangling sequence. These pairs are in the target entangled state with a fidelity of 0.75.

Low Earth orbital atomic oxygen environmental simulation facility for space materials evaluation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stidham, Curtis R.; Banks, Bruce A.; Stueber, Thomas J.; Dever, Joyce A.; Rutledge, Sharon K.; Bruckner, Eric J.

1993-01-01

Simulation of low Earth orbit atomic oxygen for accelerated exposure in ground-based facilities is necessary for the durability evaluation of space power system component materials for Space Station Freedom (SSF) and future missions. A facility developed at the National Aeronautics and Space Administrations's (NASA) Lewis Research Center provides accelerated rates of exposure to a directed or scattered oxygen beam, vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) radiation, and offers in-situ optical characterization. The facility utilizes an electron-cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma source to generate a low energy oxygen beam. Total hemispherical spectral reflectance of samples can be measured in situ over the wavelength range of 250 to 2500 nm. Deuterium lamps provide VUV radiation intensity levels in the 115 to 200 nm range of three to five equivalent suns. Retarding potential analyses show distributed ion energies below 30 electron volts (eV) for the operating conditions most suited for high flux, low energy testing. Peak ion energies are below the sputter threshold energy (approximately 30 eV) of the protective coatings on polymers that are evaluated in the facility, thus allowing long duration exposure without sputter erosion. Neutral species are expected to be at thermal energies of approximately .04 eV to .1 eV. The maximum effective flux level based on polyimide Kapton mass loss is 4.4 x 10 exp 6 atoms/((sq. cm)*s), thus providing a highly accelerated testing capability.

Compton spectra of atoms at high x-ray intensity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Son, Sang-Kil; Geffert, Otfried; Santra, Robin

2017-03-01

Compton scattering is the nonresonant inelastic scattering of an x-ray photon by an electron and has been used to probe the electron momentum distribution in gas-phase and condensed-matter samples. In the low x-ray intensity regime, Compton scattering from atoms dominantly comes from bound electrons in neutral atoms, neglecting contributions from bound electrons in ions and free (ionized) electrons. In contrast, in the high x-ray intensity regime, the sample experiences severe ionization via x-ray multiphoton multiple ionization dynamics. Thus, it becomes necessary to take into account all the contributions to the Compton scattering signal when atoms are exposed to high-intensity x-ray pulses provided by x-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs). In this paper, we investigate the Compton spectra of atoms at high x-ray intensity, using an extension of the integrated x-ray atomic physics toolkit, xatom. As the x-ray fluence increases, there is a significant contribution from ionized electrons to the Compton spectra, which gives rise to strong deviations from the Compton spectra of neutral atoms. The present study provides not only understanding of the fundamental XFEL-matter interaction but also crucial information for single-particle imaging experiments, where Compton scattering is no longer negligible. , which features invited work from the best early-career researchers working within the scope of J. Phys. B. This project is part of the Journal of Physics series’ 50th anniversary celebrations in 2017. Sang-Kil Son was selected by the Editorial Board of J. Phys. B as an Emerging Leader.

PREDICTION OF FORBIDDEN ULTRAVIOLET AND VISIBLE EMISSIONS IN COMET 67P/CHURYUMOV–GERASIMENKO

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Raghuram, Susarla; Galand, Marina; Bhardwaj, Anil, E-mail: raghuramsusarla@gmail.com

Remote observation of spectroscopic emissions is a potential tool for the identification and quantification of various species in comets. The CO Cameron band (to trace CO{sub 2}) and atomic oxygen emissions (to trace H{sub 2}O and/or CO{sub 2}, CO) have been used to probe neutral composition in the cometary coma. Using a coupled-chemistry-emission model, various excitation processes controlling the CO Cameron band and different atomic oxygen and atomic carbon emissions have been modeled in comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko at 1.29 AU (perihelion) and at 3 AU heliocentric distances, which is being explored by ESA's Rosetta mission. The intensities of the CO Cameronmore » band, atomic oxygen, and atomic carbon emission lines as a function of projected distance are calculated for different CO and CO{sub 2} volume mixing ratios relative to water. Contributions of different excitation processes controlling these emissions are quantified. We assess how CO{sub 2} and/or CO volume mixing ratios with respect to H{sub 2}O can be derived based on the observed intensities of the CO Cameron band, atomic oxygen, and atomic carbon emission lines. The results presented in this work serve as baseline calculations to understand the behavior of low out-gassing cometary coma and compare them with the higher gas production rate cases (e.g., comet Halley). Quantitative analysis of different excitation processes governing the spectroscopic emissions is essential to study the chemistry of inner coma and to derive neutral gas composition.« less

Laboratory Studies of Thermal Energy Charge Transfer of Multiply Charged Ions in Astrophysical Plasmas

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kwong, Victor H. S.

2003-01-01

The laser ablation/ion storage facility at the UNLV Physics Department has been dedicated to the study of atomic and molecular processes in low temperature plasmas. Our program focuses on the charge transfer (electron capture) of multiply charged ions and neutrals important in astrophysics. The electron transfer reactions with atoms and molecules is crucial to the ionization condition of neutral rich photoionized plasmas. With the successful deployment of the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) and the Chandra X-ray Observatory by NASA high resolution VUV and X-ray emission spectra fiom various astrophysical objects have been collected. These spectra will be analyzed to determine the source of the emission and the chemical and physical environment of the source. The proper interpretation of these spectra will require complete knowledge of all the atomic processes in these plasmas. In a neutral rich environment, charge transfer can be the dominant process. The rate coefficients need to be known accurately. We have also extended our charge transfer measurements to KeV region with a pulsed ion beam. The inclusion of this facility into our current program provides flexibility in extending the measurement to higher energies (KeV) if needed. This flexibility enables us to address issues of immediate interest to the astrophysical community as new observations are made by high resolution space based observatories.

Backscattered energetic neutral atoms from the Moon in the Earth's plasma sheet observed by Chandarayaan-1/Sub-keV Atom Reflecting Analyzer instrument

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harada, Yuki; Futaana, Yoshifumi; Barabash, Stas; Wieser, Martin; Wurz, Peter; Bhardwaj, Anil; Asamura, Kazushi; Saito, Yoshifumi; Yokota, Shoichiro; Tsunakawa, Hideo; Machida, Shinobu

2014-05-01

We present the observations of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) produced at the lunar surface in the Earth's magnetotail. When the Moon was located in the terrestrial plasma sheet, Chandrayaan-1 Energetic Neutrals Analyzer (CENA) detected hydrogen ENAs from the Moon. Analysis of the data from CENA together with the Solar Wind Monitor (SWIM) onboard Chandrayaan-1 reveals the characteristic energy of the observed ENA energy spectrum (the e-folding energy of the distribution function) ˜100 eV and the ENA backscattering ratio (defined as the ratio of upward ENA flux to downward proton flux) <˜0.1. These characteristics are similar to those of the backscattered ENAs in the solar wind, suggesting that CENA detected plasma sheet particles backscattered as ENAs from the lunar surface. The observed ENA backscattering ratio in the plasma sheet exhibits no significant difference in the Southern Hemisphere, where a large and strong magnetized region exists, compared with that in the Northern Hemisphere. This is contrary to the CENA observations in the solar wind, when the backscattering ratio drops by ˜50% in the Southern Hemisphere. Our analysis and test particle simulations suggest that magnetic shielding of the lunar surface in the plasma sheet is less effective than in the solar wind due to the broad velocity distributions of the plasma sheet protons.

Charge-leveling and proper treatment of long-range electrostatics in all-atom molecular dynamics at constant pH.

PubMed

Wallace, Jason A; Shen, Jana K

2012-11-14

Recent development of constant pH molecular dynamics (CpHMD) methods has offered promise for adding pH-stat in molecular dynamics simulations. However, until now the working pH molecular dynamics (pHMD) implementations are dependent in part or whole on implicit-solvent models. Here we show that proper treatment of long-range electrostatics and maintaining charge neutrality of the system are critical for extending the continuous pHMD framework to the all-atom representation. The former is achieved here by adding forces to titration coordinates due to long-range electrostatics based on the generalized reaction field method, while the latter is made possible by a charge-leveling technique that couples proton titration with simultaneous ionization or neutralization of a co-ion in solution. We test the new method using the pH-replica-exchange CpHMD simulations of a series of aliphatic dicarboxylic acids with varying carbon chain length. The average absolute deviation from the experimental pK(a) values is merely 0.18 units. The results show that accounting for the forces due to extended electrostatics removes the large random noise in propagating titration coordinates, while maintaining charge neutrality of the system improves the accuracy in the calculated electrostatic interaction between ionizable sites. Thus, we believe that the way is paved for realizing pH-controlled all-atom molecular dynamics in the near future.

Charge-leveling and proper treatment of long-range electrostatics in all-atom molecular dynamics at constant pH

PubMed Central

Wallace, Jason A.; Shen, Jana K.

2012-01-01

Recent development of constant pH molecular dynamics (CpHMD) methods has offered promise for adding pH-stat in molecular dynamics simulations. However, until now the working pH molecular dynamics (pHMD) implementations are dependent in part or whole on implicit-solvent models. Here we show that proper treatment of long-range electrostatics and maintaining charge neutrality of the system are critical for extending the continuous pHMD framework to the all-atom representation. The former is achieved here by adding forces to titration coordinates due to long-range electrostatics based on the generalized reaction field method, while the latter is made possible by a charge-leveling technique that couples proton titration with simultaneous ionization or neutralization of a co-ion in solution. We test the new method using the pH-replica-exchange CpHMD simulations of a series of aliphatic dicarboxylic acids with varying carbon chain length. The average absolute deviation from the experimental pKa values is merely 0.18 units. The results show that accounting for the forces due to extended electrostatics removes the large random noise in propagating titration coordinates, while maintaining charge neutrality of the system improves the accuracy in the calculated electrostatic interaction between ionizable sites. Thus, we believe that the way is paved for realizing pH-controlled all-atom molecular dynamics in the near future. PMID:23163362

Chemistry of sprite discharges through ion-neutral reactions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hiraki, Y.; Kasai, Y.; Fukunishi, H.

2008-02-01

We estimate the concentration changes, caused by a single streamer in sprites, of ozone and related minor species as odd nitrogen (NOx) and hydrogen (HOx) families in the upper stratosphere and mesosphere. The streamer has an intense electric field and high electron density at its head where a large number of chemically-radical ions and atoms are produced through electron impact on neutral molecules. After propagation of the streamer, the densities of minor species can be perturbed through ion-neutral chemical reactions initiated by the relaxation of these radical products. We evaluate the production rates of ions and atoms using electron kinetics model and assuming the electric field and electron density in the streamer head. We calculate the density variations mainly for NOx, Ox, and HOx species using a one-dimensional model of the neutral and ion composition of the middle atmosphere, including the effect of the sprite streamer. Results at the nighttime condition show that the densities of NO, O3, H, and OH increase suddenly through reactions triggered by firstly produced atomic nitrogen and oxygen, and electrons just after streamer initiation. It is shown that NO and NO2 still remain for 1 h by a certain order of increase with their source-sink balance predominantly around 60 km; for other species, increases in O3, OH, HO2, and H2O2 still remain in the range of 40-70 km. From this affirmative result of long time behavior previously not presented, we emphasize that sprites would have a power to impact on local chemistry at night. We also discuss comparison with previous studies and suggestion for satellite observations.

Chemistry of sprite discharges through ion-neutral reactions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hiraki, Y.; Kasai, Y.; Fukunishi, H.

2008-07-01

We estimate the concentration changes, caused by streamer discharge in sprites, of ozone and related minor species as odd nitrogen (NOx) and hydrogen (HOx) families in the upper stratosphere and mesosphere. The streamer has an intense electric field and high electron density at its head, where a large number of chemically-radical ions and atoms are produced through electron impact on neutral molecules. After its propagation, densities of minor species can be perturbed through ion-neutral chemical reactions initiated by the relaxation of these radical products. We evaluate the production rates of ions and atoms using an electron kinetics model and by assuming that the electric field and electron density are in the head region. We calculate the density variations mainly for NOx, Ox, and HOx species using a one-dimensional model of the neutral and ion composition of the middle atmosphere, including the effect of the sprite streamer. Results at the nighttime condition show that the densities of NO, O3, H, and OH increase suddenly through reactions triggered by the first atomic nitrogen and oxygen product, and electrons just after streamer initiation. It is shown that NO and NO2 still remain for 1 h by a certain order of increase with their source-sink balance, predominantly around 60 km; for other species, increases in O3, OH, HO2, and H2O2 still remain in the range of 40 70 km. From this affirmative result of long-time behavior previously not presented, we emphasize that sprites would have the power to impact local chemistry at night. We also discuss the consistency with previous theoretical and observational studies, along with future suggestions.

Neutral Wind Observations below 200 km altitudes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Watanabe, S.; Abe, T.; Habu, H.; Kakinami, Y.; Larsen, M. F.; Pfaff, R. F., Jr.; Yamamoto, M.

2015-12-01

Neutral Wind Observations below 200 km altitudesS. Watanabe1, T. Abe2, H. Habu2, Y. Kakinami3, M. Larsen4, R. Pfaff5, M. Yamamoto6, M-Y. Yamamoto31Hokkaido University/Hokkaido Information University, 2JAXA/ISAS, 3Kochi University of Technology, 4Clemson University, 5NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, 6Kyoto University, Neutral wind in the thermosphere is one of the key parameters to understand the ionosphere-thermosphere coupling process. JAXA/ISAS successfully launched sounding rockets from Uchinoura Space Center (USC) on September 2, 2007, January 12, 2012, and July 20, 2013, and NASA launched sounding rockets from Kwajalein on May 7, 2013 and from Wallops on July 4, 2013. The rockets installed Lithium and/or TMA canisters as well as instruments for plasma and electric and magnetic fields. The atomic Lithium gases were released at altitudes between 150 km and 300 km in the evening on September 2, 2007, at altitude of ~100 km in the morning on January 12, 2012, at altitude of ~120km in the midnight on July 20, 2013, at altitude between 150 km and 300 km in the evening on May 7, 2013 and at altitude of ~150 km in the noon on July 4, 2013. The Lithium atoms were scattering sunlight by resonance scattering with wavelength of 670nm. However, the Lithium atoms scattered moon light on July 20, 2013. The moon light scattering is the first time to use for thermospheric wind measurement in the midnight. The Lithium clouds/trails and TMA trails showed clearly the neutral wind shears and atmospheric waves at ~150 km altitude in the lower thermosphere for all local time.

Continuous wave cavity ring-down spectroscopy for velocity distribution measurements in plasma.

PubMed

McCarren, D; Scime, E

2015-10-01

We report the development of a continuous wave cavity ring-down spectroscopic (CW-CRDS) diagnostic for real-time, in situ measurement of velocity distribution functions of ions and neutral atoms in plasma. This apparatus is less complex than conventional CW-CRDS systems. We provide a detailed description of the CW-CRDS apparatus as well as measurements of argon ions and neutrals in a high-density (10(9) cm(-3) < plasma density <10(13) cm(-3)) plasma. The CW-CRDS measurements are validated through comparison with laser induced fluorescence measurements of the same absorbing states of the ions and neutrals.

Neutral beamline with ion energy recovery based on magnetic blocking of electrons

DOEpatents

Stirling, W.L.

1980-07-01

A neutral beamline generator with energy recovery of the full-energy ion component of the beam based on magnetic blocking of electrons is provided. Ions from a positive ion source are accelerated to the desired beam energy from a slightly positive potential level with respect to ground through a neutralizer cell by means of a negative acceleration voltage. The unneutralized full-energy ion component of the beam exiting the neutralizer are retarded and slightly deflected and the elecrons in the neutralizer are blocked by a magnetic field generated transverse to the beamline. An electron collector in the form of a coaxial cylinder surrounding and protruding axial a few centimeters beyond the neutralizer exit terminates the electrons which exit the neutralizer in an E x B drift to the collector when the collector is biased a few hundred volts positive with respect to the neutralizer voltage. The neutralizer is operated at the negative acceleration voltage. The neutralizer is operated at the negative acceleration voltage, and the deflected full energy ions are decelerated and the charge collected at ground potential thereby expending none of their energy received from the acceleration power supply.

A new nonlinear optical silicate carbonate K2Ca[Si2O5](CO3) with a hybrid structure of kalsilite and soda-like layered fragments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Belokoneva, Elena L.; Stefanovich, Sergey Yu.; Volkov, Anatoly S.; Dimitrova, Olga V.

2016-10-01

Single crystals of a new silicate carbonate, K2Ca[Si2O5](CO3), have been synthesized in a multi-components hydrothermal solution with a pH value close to neutral and a high concentration of a carbonate mineralizer. The new compound has an axial structure (s.g. P6322) with unit cell parameters a = 5.04789 (15), c = 17.8668 (6) Å. Pseudosymmetry of the structure corresponds to s.g. P63/mmc which is broken only by one oxygen position. The structure consists of two layered fragments: one of the type of the mineral kalsilite (KAlSiO4) and the other of the high-temperature soda-like α-Na2CO3, Ca substituting for Na. The electro-neutral layer K2[Si2O5] (denoted K) as well as the layer Ca(CO3) (denoted S) may separately correspond to individual structures. In K2Ca[Si2O5](CO3) the S-K layers are connected together via Ca-O interactions between Ca atoms from the carbonate layer and apical O atoms from the silicate one, and also via K-O interlayer interactions. A hypothetical acentric structure, sp.gr. P-62c, is predicted on the basis of the order-disorder theory. It presents another symmetrical option for the arrangement of K-layers relative to S-layers. The K,Ca-silicate-carbonate powder produces a moderate SHG signal that is two times larger that of the α-quartz powder standard and close to other silicates with acentric structures and low electronic polarizability.

Compression and ablation of the photo-irradiated molecular cloud the Orion Bar.

PubMed

Goicoechea, Javier R; Pety, Jérôme; Cuadrado, Sara; Cernicharo, José; Chapillon, Edwige; Fuente, Asunción; Gerin, Maryvonne; Joblin, Christine; Marcelino, Nuria; Pilleri, Paolo

2016-09-08

The Orion Bar is the archetypal edge-on molecular cloud surface illuminated by strong ultraviolet radiation from nearby massive stars. Our relative closeness to the Orion nebula (about 1,350 light years away from Earth) means that we can study the effects of stellar feedback on the parental cloud in detail. Visible-light observations of the Orion Bar show that the transition between the hot ionized gas and the warm neutral atomic gas (the ionization front) is spatially well separated from the transition between atomic and molecular gas (the dissociation front), by about 15 arcseconds or 6,200 astronomical units (one astronomical unit is the Earth-Sun distance). Static equilibrium models used to interpret previous far-infrared and radio observations of the neutral gas in the Orion Bar (typically at 10-20 arcsecond resolution) predict an inhomogeneous cloud structure comprised of dense clumps embedded in a lower-density extended gas component. Here we report one-arcsecond-resolution millimetre-wave images that allow us to resolve the molecular cloud surface. In contrast to stationary model predictions, there is no appreciable offset between the peak of the H 2 vibrational emission (delineating the H/H 2 transition) and the edge of the observed CO and HCO + emission. This implies that the H/H 2 and C + /C/CO transition zones are very close. We find a fragmented ridge of high-density substructures, photoablative gas flows and instabilities at the molecular cloud surface. The results suggest that the cloud edge has been compressed by a high-pressure wave that is moving into the molecular cloud, demonstrating that dynamical and non-equilibrium effects are important for the cloud evolution.

Compression and ablation of the photo-irradiated molecular cloud the Orion Bar

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goicoechea, Javier R.; Pety, Jérôme; Cuadrado, Sara; Cernicharo, José; Chapillon, Edwige; Fuente, Asunción; Gerin, Maryvonne; Joblin, Christine; Marcelino, Nuria; Pilleri, Paolo

2016-09-01

The Orion Bar is the archetypal edge-on molecular cloud surface illuminated by strong ultraviolet radiation from nearby massive stars. Our relative closeness to the Orion nebula (about 1,350 light years away from Earth) means that we can study the effects of stellar feedback on the parental cloud in detail. Visible-light observations of the Orion Bar show that the transition between the hot ionized gas and the warm neutral atomic gas (the ionization front) is spatially well separated from the transition between atomic and molecular gas (the dissociation front), by about 15 arcseconds or 6,200 astronomical units (one astronomical unit is the Earth-Sun distance). Static equilibrium models used to interpret previous far-infrared and radio observations of the neutral gas in the Orion Bar (typically at 10-20 arcsecond resolution) predict an inhomogeneous cloud structure comprised of dense clumps embedded in a lower-density extended gas component. Here we report one-arcsecond-resolution millimetre-wave images that allow us to resolve the molecular cloud surface. In contrast to stationary model predictions, there is no appreciable offset between the peak of the H2 vibrational emission (delineating the H/H2 transition) and the edge of the observed CO and HCO+ emission. This implies that the H/H2 and C+/C/CO transition zones are very close. We find a fragmented ridge of high-density substructures, photoablative gas flows and instabilities at the molecular cloud surface. The results suggest that the cloud edge has been compressed by a high-pressure wave that is moving into the molecular cloud, demonstrating that dynamical and non-equilibrium effects are important for the cloud evolution.

Structure and composition of the neutral upper atmosphere of Mars from the MAVEN NGIMS investigation

PubMed Central

Benna, M.; Elrod, M.; Yelle, R. V.; Bougher, S. W.; Stone, S. W.; Jakosky, B. M.

2015-01-01

Abstract The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer (NGIMS) provides sensitive detections of neutral gas and ambient ion composition. NGIMS measurements of nine atomic and molecular neutral species, and their variation with altitude, latitude, and solar zenith angle are reported over several months of operation of the MAVEN mission. Sampling NGIMS signals from multiple neutral species every several seconds reveals persistent and unexpectedly large amplitude density structures. The scale height temperatures are mapped over the course of the first few months of the mission from high down to midlatitudes. NGIMS measurements near the homopause of 40Ar/N2 ratios agree with those reported by the Sample Analysis at Mars investigation and allow the altitude of the homopause for the most abundant gases to be established. PMID:27667873

Crystal structure of aqua-1κO-{μ-2-[(2-hydroxy­ethyl)methylamino]ethanolato-2:1κ4 O 1,N,O 2:O 1}[μ-2,2′-(methylimino)diethanolato-1:2κ4 O,N,O′:O]dithiocyanato-1κN,2κN-chromium(III)copper(II)

PubMed Central

Rusanova, Julia A.; Semenaka, Valentina V.; Dyakonenko, Viktoriya V.; Shishkin, Oleg V.

2015-01-01

The title compound, [CrCu(C5H11NO2)(C5H12NO2)(NCS)2(H2O)] or [Cr(μ-mdea)Cu(μ-Hmdea)(NCS)2H2O], (where mdeaH2 is N-methylethanolamine, C5H13NO2) is formed as a neutral heterometal CuII/CrIII complex. The mol­ecular structure of the complex is based on a binuclear {CuCr(μ-O)2} core. The coordination environment of each metal atom involves the N,O,O atoms of the tridentate ligand, one bridging O atom of the ligand and the N atom of the thio­cyanato ligands. The CuII ion adopts a distorted square-pyramidal coordination while the CrIII ion has a distorted octa­hedral coordination geometry completed by the aqua ligand. In the crystal, the binuclear complexes are linked via two pairs of O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds to form inversion dimers, which are arranged in columns parallel to the a axis. In the μ-mdea ligand two –CH2 groups and the methyl group were refined as disordered over two sets of sites with equal occupancies. The structure was refined as a two-component twin with a twin scale factor of 0.242 (1). PMID:26396853

Interatomic Coulombic Decay: The Mechanism for Rapid Deexcitation of Hollow Atoms.

PubMed

Wilhelm, Richard A; Gruber, Elisabeth; Schwestka, Janine; Kozubek, Roland; Madeira, Teresa I; Marques, José P; Kobus, Jacek; Krasheninnikov, Arkady V; Schleberger, Marika; Aumayr, Friedrich

2017-09-08

The impact of a highly charged ion onto a solid gives rise to charge exchange between the ion and target atoms, so that a slow ion gets neutralized in the vicinity of the surface. Using highly charged Ar and Xe ions and the surface-only material graphene as a target, we show that the neutralization and deexcitation of the ions proceeds on a sub-10 fs time scale. We further demonstrate that a multiple Interatomic Coulombic Decay (ICD) model can describe the observed ultrafast deexcitation. Other deexcitation mechanisms involving nonradiative decay and quasimolecular orbital formation during the impact are not important, as follows from the comparison of our experimental data with the results of first-principles calculations. Our method also enables the estimation of ICD rates directly.

The earth's ring current - Present situation and future thrusts

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, D. J.

1987-01-01

Particle distributions, currents, and the ring current situation prior to the August 1984 launch of the AMPTE Charge Composition Explorer (CCE) are discussed. CCE results which demonstrate the capability of these new measurements to pursue questions of ring current sources, energization, and transport are presented. Consideration is given to various ring current generation mechanisms which have been discussed in the literature, and a two-step generation process which to a certain extent unifies the previous mechanisms is presented. The first in-situ global observations of ring current decay as obtained through the detection of energetic neutral atoms generated by charge exchange interactions between the ring current and hydrogen geocorona are discussed, as well as the possibility of using the detection of energetic neutral atoms to obtain global images of the earth's ring current.

Energy Deposition and Escape Fluxes Induced by Energetic Solar Wind Ions and ENAs Precipitating into Mars Atmosphere: Accurate Consideration of Energy Transfer Collisions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kharchenko, V. A.; Lewkow, N.; Gacesa, M.

2014-12-01

Formation and evolution of neutral fluxes of atoms and molecules escaping from the Mars atmosphere have been investigated for the sputtering and photo-chemical mechanisms. Energy and momentum transfer in collisions between the atmospheric gas and fast atoms and molecules have been considered using our recently obtained angular and energy dependent cross sections[1]. We have showed that accurate angular dependent collision cross sections are critical for the description of the energy relaxation of precipitating keV energetic ions/ENAs and for computations of altitude profiles of the fast atom and molecule production rates in recoil collisions. Upward and escape fluxes of the secondary energetic He and O atoms and H2, N2, CO and CO2 molecules, induced by precipitating ENAs, have been determined and their non-thermal energy distribution functions have been computed at different altitudes for different solar conditions. Precipitation and energy deposition of the energetic H2O molecules and products of their dissociations into the Mars atmosphere in the Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) - Mars interaction have been modeled using accurate cross sections. Reflection of precipitating ENAs by the Mars atmosphere has been analyzed in detail. [1] N. Lewkow and V. Kharchenko, "Precipitation of Energetic Neutral Atoms and Escape Fluxes induced from the Mars Atmosphere, ApJ, v.790, p.98 (2014).

The electron affinity of Al13H cluster: high level ab initio study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moc, Jerzy

2014-11-01

Al13H clusters have been considered candidates for cluster assembled materials. Here we have carried out benchmark calculations for the Al13H cluster, both neutral and anionic, with the aim of verifying the nature of stationary points on the potential energy surface, studying dynamics of H atom and determining an adiabatic electron affinity. A range of correlated methods applied include second-order perturbation theory (MP2), spin-component-scaled MP2, coupled electron pair (CEPA) and coupled cluster singles and doubles with perturbative triple corrections (CCSD(T)). These methods are used in combination with the correlation consistent basis sets through aug-cc-pVTZ including extrapolation to the complete basis set (CBS) limit. Performance of several different flavours of density functional theory (DFT) such as generalised gradient approximation (GGA), hybrid GGA, meta-GGA and hybrid-meta-GGA is assessed with respect to the ab initio correlated reference data. The harmonic force constant analysis is systematically performed with the MP2 and DFT methods. The MP2 results show that for neutral Al13H only the hollow structure is a potential energy minimum, with the bridged structure being a transition state for the H shift from the hollow site to the adjacent hollow site. The CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ (CCSD(T)/CBS) estimate of the energy barrier to this H shift is 2.6 (2.9) kcal/mol, implying that the H atom movement over the Al13H cluster surface is facile. By contrast, the DFT force constant analysis results suggest additional terminal and bridged minima structures. For the anion Al13H-, exhibiting 'stiffer' potential energy surface compared to the neutral, the existence of the hollow and terminal isomers is consistent with the earlier photoelectron spectroscopy assignment. The adiabatic electron affinity of Al13H is determined to be 2.00 and 1.95 eV (the latter including the ΔZPE correction) based on the CCSD(T) energies extrapolated to the CBS limit, whereas the respective CCSD(T)/CBS thermodynamic EA values are 2.79 and 2.80 eV.

On the stability of pick-up ion ring distributions in the outer heliosheath

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Summerlin, Errol J.; Viñas, Adolfo F.; Moore, Thomas E.

The 'secondary energetic neutral atom (ENA)' hypothesis for the ribbon feature observed by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) posits that the neutral component of the solar wind continues beyond the heliopause and charge exchanges with interstellar ions in the Outer Heliosheath (OHS). This creates pick-up ions that gyrate about the draped interstellar magnetic field (ISMF) lines at pitch angles near 90° on the locus where the ISMF lies tangential to the heliopause and perpendicular to the heliocentric radial direction. This location closely coincides with the location of the ribbon feature according to the prevailing inferences of the ISMF orientation andmore » draping. The locally gyrating ions undergo additional charge exchange and escape as free-flying neutral atoms, many of which travel back toward the inner solar system and are imaged by IBEX as a ribbon tracing out the locus described above. For this mechanism to succeed, the pick-up ions must diffuse in pitch angle slowly enough to permit secondary charge exchange before their pitch angle distribution substantially broadens away from 90°. Previous work using linear Vlasov dispersion analysis of parallel propagating waves has suggested that the ring distribution in the OHS is highly unstable, which, if true, would make the secondary ENA hypothesis incapable of rendering the observed ribbon. In this paper, we extend this earlier work to more realistic ring distribution functions. We find that, at the low densities necessary to produce the observed IBEX ribbon via the secondary ENA hypothesis, growth rates are highly sensitive to the temperature of the beam and that even very modest temperatures of the ring beam corresponding to beam widths of <1° are sufficient to damp the self-generated waves associated with the ring beam. Thus, at least from the perspective of linear Vlasov dispersion analysis of parallel propagating waves, there is no reason to expect that the ring distributions necessary to produce the observed IBEX ENA flux via the secondary ENA hypothesis will be unstable to their own self-generated turbulence.« less

On the Stability of Pick-up Ion Ring Distributions in the Outer Heliosheath

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Summerlin, Errol J.; Viñas, Adolfo F.; Moore, Thomas E.; Christian, Eric R.; Cooper, John F.

2014-10-01

The "secondary energetic neutral atom (ENA)" hypothesis for the ribbon feature observed by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) posits that the neutral component of the solar wind continues beyond the heliopause and charge exchanges with interstellar ions in the Outer Heliosheath (OHS). This creates pick-up ions that gyrate about the draped interstellar magnetic field (ISMF) lines at pitch angles near 90° on the locus where the ISMF lies tangential to the heliopause and perpendicular to the heliocentric radial direction. This location closely coincides with the location of the ribbon feature according to the prevailing inferences of the ISMF orientation and draping. The locally gyrating ions undergo additional charge exchange and escape as free-flying neutral atoms, many of which travel back toward the inner solar system and are imaged by IBEX as a ribbon tracing out the locus described above. For this mechanism to succeed, the pick-up ions must diffuse in pitch angle slowly enough to permit secondary charge exchange before their pitch angle distribution substantially broadens away from 90°. Previous work using linear Vlasov dispersion analysis of parallel propagating waves has suggested that the ring distribution in the OHS is highly unstable, which, if true, would make the secondary ENA hypothesis incapable of rendering the observed ribbon. In this paper, we extend this earlier work to more realistic ring distribution functions. We find that, at the low densities necessary to produce the observed IBEX ribbon via the secondary ENA hypothesis, growth rates are highly sensitive to the temperature of the beam and that even very modest temperatures of the ring beam corresponding to beam widths of <1° are sufficient to damp the self-generated waves associated with the ring beam. Thus, at least from the perspective of linear Vlasov dispersion analysis of parallel propagating waves, there is no reason to expect that the ring distributions necessary to produce the observed IBEX ENA flux via the secondary ENA hypothesis will be unstable to their own self-generated turbulence.

Heat-Pipe Bismuth Laser; Examination of Laser Action at 4722A in Bismuth Vapor

DTIC Science & Technology

1976-11-01

11, 15(1975). of Type 6p 3 -6p 2 7s in the Bismuth Atomic Spectrum in Intermediate Coupling," Acta Physica Polonica A47, 231(1975). 19. A.N. Nesmeyanov...Calculated Transit n Probabilities and Lifetimes for the First Excited Configuration np (n+l)s in the Neutral As, Sb and Bi Atoms, " Physica Scripta

NIST Databases on Atomic Spectra

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reader, J.; Wiese, W. L.; Martin, W. C.; Musgrove, A.; Fuhr, J. R.

2002-11-01

The NIST atomic and molecular spectroscopic databases now available on the World Wide Web through the NIST Physics Laboratory homepage include Atomic Spectra Database, Ground Levels and Ionization Energies for the Neutral Atoms, Spectrum of Platinum Lamp for Ultraviolet Spectrograph Calibration, Bibliographic Database on Atomic Transition Probabilities, Bibliographic Database on Atomic Spectral Line Broadening, and Electron-Impact Ionization Cross Section Database. The Atomic Spectra Database (ASD) [1] offers evaluated data on energy levels, wavelengths, and transition probabilities for atoms and atomic ions. Data are given for some 950 spectra and 70,000 energy levels. About 91,000 spectral lines are included, with transition probabilities for about half of these. Additional data resulting from our ongoing critical compilations will be included in successive new versions of ASD. We plan to include, for example, our recently published data for some 16,000 transitions covering most ions of the iron-group elements, as well as Cu, Kr, and Mo [2]. Our compilations benefit greatly from experimental and theoretical atomic-data research being carried out in the NIST Atomic Physics Division. A new compilation covering spectra of the rare gases in all stages of ionization, for example, revealed a need for improved data in the infrared. We have thus measured these needed data with our high-resolution Fourier transform spectrometer [3]. An upcoming new database will give wavelengths and intensities for the stronger lines of all neutral and singly-ionized atoms, along with energy levels and transition probabilities for the persistent lines [4]. A critical compilation of the transition probabilities of Ba I and Ba II [5] has been completed and several other compilations of atomic transition probabilities are nearing completion. These include data for all spectra of Na, Mg, Al, and Si [6]. Newly compiled data for selected ions of Ne, Mg, Si and S, will form the basis for a new database intended to assist interpretation of soft x-ray astronomical spectra, such as from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. These data will be available soon on the World Wide Web [7].

Scrape-off layer modeling with kinetic or diffusion description of charge-exchange atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tokar, M. Z.

2016-12-01

Hydrogen isotope atoms, generated by charge-exchange (c-x) of neutral particles recycling from the first wall of a fusion reactor, are described either kinetically or in a diffusion approximation. In a one-dimensional (1-D) geometry, kinetic calculations are accelerated enormously by applying an approximate pass method for the assessment of integrals in the velocity space. This permits to perform an exhaustive comparison of calculations done with both approaches. The diffusion approximation is deduced directly from the velocity distribution function of c-x atoms in the limit of charge-exchanges with ions occurring much more frequently than ionization by electrons. The profiles across the flux surfaces of the plasma parameters averaged along the main part of the scrape-off layer (SOL), beyond the X-point and divertor regions, are calculated from the one-dimensional equations where parallel flows of charged particles and energy towards the divertor are taken into account as additional loss terms. It is demonstrated that the heat losses can be firmly estimated from the SOL averaged parameters only; for the particle loss the conditions in the divertor are of importance and the sensitivity of the results to the so-called "divertor impact factor" is investigated. The coupled 1-D models for neutral and charged species, with c-x atoms described either kinetically or in the diffusion approximation, are applied to assess the SOL conditions in a fusion reactor, with the input parameters from the European DEMO project. It is shown that the diffusion approximation provides practically the same profiles across the flux surfaces for the plasma density, electron, and ion temperatures, as those obtained with the kinetic description for c-x atoms. The main difference between the two approaches is observed in the characteristics of these species themselves. In particular, their energy flux onto the wall is underestimated in calculations with the diffusion approximation by 20 % - 30 % . This discrepancy can be significantly reduced if after the convergence of coupled plasma-neutral calculations, the final computation for c-x atoms is done kinetically.

Rydberg blockade in three-atom systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barredo, Daniel; Ravets, Sylvain; Labuhn, Henning; Beguin, Lucas; Vernier, Aline; Chicireanu, Radu; Nogrette, Florence; Lahaye, Thierry; Browaeys, Antoine

2014-05-01

The control of individual neutral atoms in arrays of optical tweezers is a promising avenue for quantum science and technology. Here we demonstrate unprecedented control over a system of three Rydberg atoms arranged in linear and triangular configurations. The interaction between Rydberg atoms results in the observation of an almost perfect van der Waals blockade. When the single-atom Rabi frequency for excitation to the Rydberg state is comparable to the interaction energy, we directly observe the anisotropy of the interaction between nD-states. Using the independently measured two-body interaction energy shifts we fully reproduce the dynamics of the three-atom system with a model based on a master equation without any adjustable parameter. Combined with our ability to trap single atoms in arbitrary patterns of 2D arrays of up to 100 traps separated by a few microns, these results are very promising for a scalable implementation of quantum simulation of frustrated quantum magnetism with Rydberg atoms.

Experimental nonlinear dynamical studies in cesium magneto-optical trap using time-series analysis

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Anwar, M., E-mail: mamalik2000@gmail.com; Islam, R.; Faisal, M.

2015-03-30

A magneto-optical trap of neutral atoms is essentially a dissipative quantum system. The fast thermal atoms continuously dissipate their energy to the environment via spontaneous emissions during the cooling. The atoms are, therefore, strongly coupled with the vacuum reservoir and the laser field. The vacuum fluctuations as well as the field fluctuations are imparted to the atoms as random photon recoils. Consequently, the external and internal dynamics of atoms becomes stochastic. In this paper, we have investigated the stochastic dynamics of the atoms in a magneto-optical trap during the loading process. The time series analysis of the fluorescence signal showsmore » that the dynamics of the atoms evolves, like all dissipative systems, from deterministic to the chaotic regime. The subsequent disappearance and revival of chaos was attributed to chaos synchronization between spatially different atoms in the magneto-optical trap.« less

Importance of elastic finite-size effects: Neutral defects in ionic compounds

DOE PAGES

Burr, P. A.; Cooper, M. W. D.

2017-09-15

Small system sizes are a well known source of error in DFT calculations, yet computational constraints frequently dictate the use of small supercells, often as small as 96 atoms in oxides and compound semiconductors. In ionic compounds, electrostatic finite size effects have been well characterised, but self-interaction of charge neutral defects is often discounted or assumed to follow an asymptotic behaviour and thus easily corrected with linear elastic theory. Here we show that elastic effect are also important in the description of defects in ionic compounds and can lead to qualitatively incorrect conclusions if inadequatly small supercells are used; moreover,more » the spurious self-interaction does not follow the behaviour predicted by linear elastic theory. Considering the exemplar cases of metal oxides with fluorite structure, we show that numerous previous studies, employing 96-atom supercells, misidentify the ground state structure of (charge neutral) Schottky defects. We show that the error is eliminated by employing larger cells (324, 768 and 1500 atoms), and careful analysis determines that elastic effects, not electrostatic, are responsible. The spurious self-interaction was also observed in non-oxide ionic compounds and irrespective of the computational method used, thereby resolving long standing discrepancies between DFT and force-field methods, previously attributed to the level of theory. The surprising magnitude of the elastic effects are a cautionary tale for defect calculations in ionic materials, particularly when employing computationally expensive methods (e.g. hybrid functionals) or when modelling large defect clusters. We propose two computationally practicable methods to test the magnitude of the elastic self-interaction in any ionic system. In commonly studies oxides, where electrostatic effects would be expected to be dominant, it is the elastic effects that dictate the need for larger supercells | greater than 96 atoms.« less

Importance of elastic finite-size effects: Neutral defects in ionic compounds

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Burr, P. A.; Cooper, M. W. D.

Small system sizes are a well known source of error in DFT calculations, yet computational constraints frequently dictate the use of small supercells, often as small as 96 atoms in oxides and compound semiconductors. In ionic compounds, electrostatic finite size effects have been well characterised, but self-interaction of charge neutral defects is often discounted or assumed to follow an asymptotic behaviour and thus easily corrected with linear elastic theory. Here we show that elastic effect are also important in the description of defects in ionic compounds and can lead to qualitatively incorrect conclusions if inadequatly small supercells are used; moreover,more » the spurious self-interaction does not follow the behaviour predicted by linear elastic theory. Considering the exemplar cases of metal oxides with fluorite structure, we show that numerous previous studies, employing 96-atom supercells, misidentify the ground state structure of (charge neutral) Schottky defects. We show that the error is eliminated by employing larger cells (324, 768 and 1500 atoms), and careful analysis determines that elastic effects, not electrostatic, are responsible. The spurious self-interaction was also observed in non-oxide ionic compounds and irrespective of the computational method used, thereby resolving long standing discrepancies between DFT and force-field methods, previously attributed to the level of theory. The surprising magnitude of the elastic effects are a cautionary tale for defect calculations in ionic materials, particularly when employing computationally expensive methods (e.g. hybrid functionals) or when modelling large defect clusters. We propose two computationally practicable methods to test the magnitude of the elastic self-interaction in any ionic system. In commonly studies oxides, where electrostatic effects would be expected to be dominant, it is the elastic effects that dictate the need for larger supercells | greater than 96 atoms.« less

Importance of elastic finite-size effects: Neutral defects in ionic compounds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burr, P. A.; Cooper, M. W. D.

2017-09-01

Small system sizes are a well-known source of error in density functional theory (DFT) calculations, yet computational constraints frequently dictate the use of small supercells, often as small as 96 atoms in oxides and compound semiconductors. In ionic compounds, electrostatic finite-size effects have been well characterized, but self-interaction of charge-neutral defects is often discounted or assumed to follow an asymptotic behavior and thus easily corrected with linear elastic theory. Here we show that elastic effects are also important in the description of defects in ionic compounds and can lead to qualitatively incorrect conclusions if inadequately small supercells are used; moreover, the spurious self-interaction does not follow the behavior predicted by linear elastic theory. Considering the exemplar cases of metal oxides with fluorite structure, we show that numerous previous studies, employing 96-atom supercells, misidentify the ground-state structure of (charge-neutral) Schottky defects. We show that the error is eliminated by employing larger cells (324, 768, and 1500 atoms), and careful analysis determines that elastic, not electrostatic, effects are responsible. The spurious self-interaction was also observed in nonoxide ionic compounds irrespective of the computational method used, thereby resolving long-standing discrepancies between DFT and force-field methods, previously attributed to the level of theory. The surprising magnitude of the elastic effects is a cautionary tale for defect calculations in ionic materials, particularly when employing computationally expensive methods (e.g., hybrid functionals) or when modeling large defect clusters. We propose two computationally practicable methods to test the magnitude of the elastic self-interaction in any ionic system. In commonly studied oxides, where electrostatic effects would be expected to be dominant, it is the elastic effects that dictate the need for larger supercells: greater than 96 atoms.

Neutral helium beam probe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karim, Rezwanul

1999-10-01

This article discusses the development of a code where diagnostic neutral helium beam can be used as a probe. The code solves numerically the evolution of the population densities of helium atoms at their several different energy levels as the beam propagates through the plasma. The collisional radiative model has been utilized in this numerical calculation. The spatial dependence of the metastable states of neutral helium atom, as obtained in this numerical analysis, offers a possible diagnostic tool for tokamak plasma. The spatial evolution for several hypothetical plasma conditions was tested. Simulation routines were also run with the plasma parameters (density and temperature profiles) similar to a shot in the Princeton beta experiment modified (PBX-M) tokamak and a shot in Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor tokamak. A comparison between the simulation result and the experimentally obtained data (for each of these two shots) is presented. A good correlation in such comparisons for a number of such shots can establish the accurateness and usefulness of this probe. The result can possibly be extended for other plasma machines and for various plasma conditions in those machines.

Physics with Trapped Antihydrogen

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Charlton, Michael

2017-04-01

For more than a decade antihydrogen atoms have been formed by mixing antiprotons and positrons held in arrangements of charged particle (Penning) traps. More recently, magnetic minimum neutral atom traps have been superimposed upon the anti-atom production region, promoting the trapping of a small quantity of the antihydrogen yield. We will review these advances, and describe some of the first physics experiments performed on anrtihydrogen including the observation of the two-photon 1S-2S transition, invesigation of the charge neutrailty of the anti-atom and studies of the ground state hyperfine splitting. We will discuss the physics motivations for undertaking these experiments and describe some near-future initiatives.

Engineering quantum hyperentangled states in atomic systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nawaz, Mehwish; -Islam, Rameez-ul; Abbas, Tasawar; Ikram, Manzoor

2017-11-01

Hyperentangled states have boosted many quantum informatics tasks tremendously due to their high information content per quantum entity. Until now, however, the engineering and manipulation of such states were limited to photonic systems only. In present article, we propose generating atomic hyperentanglement involving atomic internal states as well as atomic external momenta states. Hypersuperposition, hyperentangled cluster, Bell and Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states are engineered deterministically through resonant and off-resonant Bragg diffraction of neutral two-level atoms. Based on the characteristic parameters of the atomic Bragg diffraction, such as comparatively large interaction times and spatially well-separated outputs, such decoherence resistant states are expected to exhibit good overall fidelities and offer the evident benefits of full controllability, along with extremely high detection efficiency, over the counterpart photonic states comprised entirely of flying qubits.

Dual species entanglement of Rb and Cs qubits with Rydberg blockade for crosstalk free qubit measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baker, Kevin; Yu, Zhaoning; Ebert, Matthew; Sun, Yuan; Saffman, Mark

2016-05-01

One of the outstanding challenges facing neutral atom qubit approaches to quantum computation is suppression of crosstalk between proximal qubits due to scattered light that is generated during optical pumping and measurement operations. We have recently proposed a dual species approach to solving this challenge whereby computational qubits encoded in Cs atoms are entangled with Rb atoms via an interspecies Rydberg interaction. The quantum state of a Cs atom can then be readout by measuring the state of a Rb atom. The difference in resonant wavelengths of the two species effectively suppresses crosstalk. We will present progress towards experimental demonstration of dual species entanglement using Rb and Cs atoms cotrapped in a single beam optical trap. Work supported by the ARL CDQI.

FAST TRACK COMMUNICATION: Novel mechanism for nanoscale catalysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Msezane, Alfred Z.; Felfli, Zineb; Sokolovski, Dmitri

2010-10-01

The interplay between Regge resonances and Ramsauer-Townsend minima in the electron elastic total cross sections for Au and Pd atoms along with their large electron affinities is proposed as the fundamental atomic mechanism responsible for the observed exceptional catalytic properties of Au nanoparticles and to explain why the combination Au-Pd possesses an even higher catalytic activity than Au or Pd separately when catalyzing H2O2, consistent with recent experiments. The investigation uses the recent complex angular momentum description of electron scattering from neutral atoms and the proposed mechanism in general.

Mixing of the Interstellar and Solar Plasmas at the Heliospheric Interface

DOE PAGES

Pogorelov, N. V.; Borovikov, S. N.

2015-10-12

From the ideal MHD perspective, the heliopause is a tangential discontinuity that separates the solar wind plasma from the local interstellar medium plasma. There are physical processes, however, that make the heliopause permeable. They can be subdivided into kinetic and MHD categories. Kinetic processes occur on small length and time scales, and cannot be resolved with MHD equations. On the other hand, MHD instabilities of the heliopause have much larger scales and can be easily observed by spacecraft. The heliopause may also be a subject of magnetic reconnection. In this paper, we discuss mechanisms of plasma mixing at the heliopausemore » in the context of Voyager 1 observations. Numerical results are obtained with a Multi-Scale Fluid-Kinetic Simulation Suite (MS-FLUKSS), which is a package of numerical codes capable of performing adaptive mesh refinement simulations of complex plasma flows in the presence of discontinuities and charge exchange between ions and neutral atoms. The flow of the ionized component is described with the ideal MHD equations, while the transport of atoms is governed either by the Boltzmann equation or multiple Euler gas dynamics equations. The code can also treat nonthermal ions and turbulence produced by them.« less

Observation of entanglement between a quantum dot spin and a single photon.

PubMed

Gao, W B; Fallahi, P; Togan, E; Miguel-Sanchez, J; Imamoglu, A

2012-11-15

Entanglement has a central role in fundamental tests of quantum mechanics as well as in the burgeoning field of quantum information processing. Particularly in the context of quantum networks and communication, a main challenge is the efficient generation of entanglement between stationary (spin) and propagating (photon) quantum bits. Here we report the observation of quantum entanglement between a semiconductor quantum dot spin and the colour of a propagating optical photon. The demonstration of entanglement relies on the use of fast, single-photon detection, which allows us to project the photon into a superposition of red and blue frequency components. Our results extend the previous demonstrations of single-spin/single-photon entanglement in trapped ions, neutral atoms and nitrogen-vacancy centres to the domain of artificial atoms in semiconductor nanostructures that allow for on-chip integration of electronic and photonic elements. As a result of its fast optical transitions and favourable selection rules, the scheme we implement could in principle generate nearly deterministic entangled spin-photon pairs at a rate determined ultimately by the high spontaneous emission rate. Our observation constitutes a first step towards implementation of a quantum network with nodes consisting of semiconductor spin quantum bits.

Spectroscopic determinations of carbon fluxes, sources, and shielding in the DIII-D divertors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Isler, R. C.; Colchin, R. J.; Brooks, N. H.; Evans, T. E.; West, W. P.; Whyte, D. G.

2001-10-01

The most important mechanisms for eroding plasma-facing components (PFCs) and introducing carbon into tokamak divertors are believed to be physical sputtering, chemical sputtering, sublimation, and radiation enhance sublimation (RES). The relative importance of these processes has been investigated by analyzing the spectral emission rates and the effective temperatures of CI, CD, and C2 under several operating conditions in the DIII-D tokamak [Plasma Physics Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research, 1986 (International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 1987), Vol. I, p. 159; Proceedings of the 18th IEEE/NPSS Symposium on Fusion Engineering, Albuquerque (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Piscataway, 1999), p. 515]. Discrimination of chemical sputtering from physical sputtering is accomplished by quantitatively relating the fraction of CI influxes expected from dissociation of hydrocarbons to the measured CD and C2 influxes. Characteristics of sublimation are studied from carbon test samples heated to surface temperatures exceeding 2000 K. The shielding efficiency of carbon produced at the divertor target is assessed from comparison of fluxes of neutral atoms and ions; approximately 95% of the primary influx appears to be redeposited before being transported far enough upstream to fuel the core plasma.

Spectroscopic determinations of carbon fluxes, sources, and shielding in the DIII-D divertors

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Isler, R. C.; Colchin, R. J.; Brooks, N. H.

2001-10-01

The most important mechanisms for eroding plasma-facing components (PFCs) and introducing carbon into tokamak divertors are believed to be physical sputtering, chemical sputtering, sublimation, and radiation enhance sublimation (RES). The relative importance of these processes has been investigated by analyzing the spectral emission rates and the effective temperatures of CI, CD, and C{sub 2} under several operating conditions in the DIII-D tokamak [Plasma Physics Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research, 1986 (International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 1987), Vol. I, p. 159; Proceedings of the 18th IEEE/NPSS Symposium on Fusion Engineering, Albuquerque (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Piscataway, 1999), p. 515]. Discriminationmore » of chemical sputtering from physical sputtering is accomplished by quantitatively relating the fraction of CI influxes expected from dissociation of hydrocarbons to the measured CD and C{sub 2} influxes. Characteristics of sublimation are studied from carbon test samples heated to surface temperatures exceeding 2000 K. The shielding efficiency of carbon produced at the divertor target is assessed from comparison of fluxes of neutral atoms and ions; approximately 95% of the primary influx appears to be redeposited before being transported far enough upstream to fuel the core plasma.« less

Effect of Thermospheric Neutral Density upon Inner Trapped-belt Proton Flux

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilson, Thomas L.; Lodhi, M. A. K.; Diaz, Abel B.

2007-01-01

We wish to point out that a secular change in the Earth's atmospheric neutral density alters charged-particle lifetime in the inner trapped radiation belts, in addition to the changes recently reported as produced by greenhouse gases. Heretofore, changes in neutral density have been of interest primarily because of their effect on the orbital drag of satellites. We extend this to include the orbital lifetime of charged particles in the lower radiation belts. It is known that the charged-belt population is coupled to the neutral density of the atmosphere through changes induced by solar activity, an effect produced by multiple scattering off neutral and ionized atoms along with ionization loss in the thermosphere where charged and neutral populations interact. It will be shown here that trapped-belt flux J is bivariant in energy E and thermospheric neutral density , as J(E,rho). One can conclude that proton lifetimes in these belts are also directly affected by secular changes in the neutral species populating the Earth s thermosphere. This result is a consequence of an intrinsic property of charged-particle flux, that flux is not merely a function of E but is dependent upon density rho when a background of neutrals is present.

Impact of neutral density fluctuations on gas puff imaging diagnostics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wersal, C.; Ricci, P.

2017-11-01

A three-dimensional turbulence simulation of the SOL and edge regions of a toroidally limited tokamak is carried out. The simulation couples self-consistently the drift-reduced two-fluid Braginskii equations to a kinetic equation for neutral atoms. A diagnostic neutral gas puff on the low-field side midplane is included and the impact of neutral density fluctuations on D_α light emission investigated. We find that neutral density fluctuations affect the D_α emission. In particular, at a radial distance from the gas puff smaller than the neutral mean free path, neutral density fluctuations are anti-correlated with plasma density, electron temperature, and D_α fluctuations. It follows that the neutral fluctuations reduce the D_α emission in most of the observed region and, therefore, have to be taken into account when interpreting the amplitude of the D_α emission. On the other hand, higher order statistical moments (skewness, kurtosis) and turbulence characteristics (such as correlation length, or the autocorrelation time) are not significantly affected by the neutral fluctuations. At distances from the gas puff larger than the neutral mean free path, a non-local shadowing effect influences the neutral density fluctuations. There, the D_α fluctuations are correlated with the neutral density fluctuations, and the high-order statistical moments and measurements of other turbulence properties are strongly affected by the neutral density fluctuations.

Spectra for the reemission of attosecond and shorter electromagnetic pulses by multielectron atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Makarov, D. N.; Matveev, V. I.

2017-08-01

Based on the analytical solution of the Schrödinger equation, we have considered the reemission of attosecond and shorter electromagnetic pulses by multielectron atoms in the sudden perturbation approximation. We have developed a technique of calculating the spectra for the reemission of attosecond and shorter electromagnetic pulses by neutral multielectron atoms with nuclear charges from 1 to 92. The results are presented in the form of analytical formulas dependent on several coefficients and screening parameters tabulated for all of the atoms whose electron densities are described by the well-known Dirac-Hartree-Fock-Slater model. As examples we have calculated the spectra for the reemission by lithium, carbon, calcium, and iron atoms for two types of incident pulse: Gaussian and "sombrero."

Possible impact of multi-electron loss events on the average beam charge state in an HIF target chamber and a neutral beam approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grisham, L. R.

2001-05-01

Experiments were carried out during the early 1980s to assess the obtainable atomic neutralization of energetic beams of negative ions ranging from lithium to silicon. The experiments found (Grisham et al. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 53 (1982) 281; Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory Report PPPL-1857, 1981) that, for higher atomic number elements than lithium, it appeared that a substantial fraction of the time more than one electron was being lost in a single collision. This result was inferred from the existence of more than one ionization state in the product beam for even the thinnest line densities at which any electron removal took place. Because of accelerator limitations, these experiments were limited to maximum energies of 7 MeV. However, based upon these results, it is possible that multi-electron loss events may also play a significant role in determining the average ion charge state of the much higher Z and more energetic beams traversing the medium in an heavy ion fusion chamber. This could result in the beam charge state being considerably higher than previously anticipated, and might require designers to consider harder vacuum ballistic focusing approaches, or the development of additional space charge neutralization schemes. This paper discusses the measurements that gave rise for these concerns, as well as a description of further measurements that are proposed to be carried out for atomic numbers and energies per amu which would be closer to those required for heavy ion fusion drivers. With a very low current beam of a massive, but low charge state energetic ion, the charge state distribution emerging from a target gas cell could be measured as a function of line density and medium composition. Varying the line density would allow one to simulate the charge state evolution of the beam as a function of distance into the target chamber. This paper also briefly discusses a possible alternative driver approach using photodetachment-neutralized atomic beams, which could reduce plasma complications far from the target, but which would impose more stringent limitations upon chamber pressure and repetition rate.

Reduced sensitivity to neutral feedback versus negative feedback in subjects with mild depression: Evidence from event-related potentials study.

PubMed

Li, Peng; Song, Xinxin; Wang, Jing; Zhou, Xiaoran; Li, Jiayi; Lin, Fengtong; Hu, Zhonghua; Zhang, Xinxin; Cui, Hewei; Wang, Wenmiao; Li, Hong; Cong, Fengyu; Roberson, Debi

2015-11-01

Many previous event-related potential (ERP) studies have linked the feedback related negativity (FRN) component with medial frontal cortex processing and associated this component with depression. Few if any studies have investigated the processing of neutral feedback in mildly depressive subjects in the normal population. Two experiments compared brain responses to neutral feedback with behavioral performance in mildly depressed subjects who scored highly on the Beck Depression Inventory (high BDI) and a control group with lower BDI scores (low BDI). In the first study, the FRN component was recorded when neutral, negative or positive feedback was pseudo-randomly delivered to the two groups in a time estimation task. In the second study, real feedback was provided to the two groups in the same task in order to measure their actual accuracy of performance. The results of experiment one (Exp. 1) revealed that a larger FRN effect was elicited by neutral feedback than by negative feedback in the low BDI group, but no significant difference was found between neutral condition and negative condition in the High BDI group. The present findings demonstrated that depressive tendencies influence the processing of neutral feedback in medial frontal cortex. The FRN effect may work as a helpful index for investigating cognitive bias in depression in future studies. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Selective effects of acute alcohol intake on the prospective and retrospective components of a prospective-memory task with emotional targets.

PubMed

Walter, Nora T; Bayen, Ute J

2016-01-01

Prospective memory involves remembering to do something in the future and has a prospective component (remembering that something must be done) and a retrospective component (remembering what must be done and when it must be done). Initial studies reported an impairment in prospective-memory performance due to acute alcohol consumption. Retrospective-memory studies demonstrated that alcohol effects vary depending on the emotionality of the information that needs to be learned. The aim of the present study was to investigate possible differential effects of a mild acute alcohol dose (0.4 g/kg) on the prospective and retrospective components of prospective memory depending on cue valence. Seventy-five participants were allocated to an alcohol or placebo group and performed a prospective-memory task in which prospective-memory cue valence was manipulated (negative, neutral, positive). The multinomial model of event-based prospective memory (Smith and Bayen 2004) was used to measure alcohol and valence effects on the two prospective-memory components separately. Overall, no main effect of alcohol or valence on prospective-memory performance occurred. However, model-based analyses demonstrated a significantly higher retrospective component for positive compared with negative cues in the placebo group. In the alcohol group, the prospective component was weaker for negative than for neutral cues and the retrospective component was stronger for positive than for neutral cues. Group comparisons showed that the alcohol group had a significantly lower prospective component for negative cues and a lower retrospective component for neutral cues. This is the first study to demonstrate selective alcohol effects on prospective-memory components depending on prospective-memory cue valence.

Chemical Bonding: The Orthogonal Valence-Bond View

PubMed Central

Sax, Alexander F.

2015-01-01

Chemical bonding is the stabilization of a molecular system by charge- and spin-reorganization processes in chemical reactions. These processes are said to be local, because the number of atoms involved is very small. With multi-configurational self-consistent field (MCSCF) wave functions, these processes can be calculated, but the local information is hidden by the delocalized molecular orbitals (MO) used to construct the wave functions. The transformation of such wave functions into valence bond (VB) wave functions, which are based on localized orbitals, reveals the hidden information; this transformation is called a VB reading of MCSCF wave functions. The two-electron VB wave functions describing the Lewis electron pair that connects two atoms are frequently called covalent or neutral, suggesting that these wave functions describe an electronic situation where two electrons are never located at the same atom; such electronic situations and the wave functions describing them are called ionic. When the distance between two atoms decreases, however, every covalent VB wave function composed of non-orthogonal atomic orbitals changes its character from neutral to ionic. However, this change in the character of conventional VB wave functions is hidden by its mathematical form. Orthogonal VB wave functions composed of orthonormalized orbitals never change their character. When localized fragment orbitals are used instead of atomic orbitals, one can decide which local information is revealed and which remains hidden. In this paper, we analyze four chemical reactions by transforming the MCSCF wave functions into orthogonal VB wave functions; we show how the reactions are influenced by changing the atoms involved or by changing their local symmetry. Using orthogonal instead of non-orthogonal orbitals is not just a technical issue; it also changes the interpretation, revealing the properties of wave functions that remain otherwise undetected. PMID:25906476

Modeling the near-Earth interaction between ring current ions and exospheric neutrals: escape through energetic neutral atoms (ENAs)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

LLera, K.; Goldstein, J.; McComas, D. J.; Valek, P. W.

2016-12-01

The two major loss processes for ring current decay are precipitation and energetic neutral atoms (ENAs). Since the exospheric neutral density increases with decreasing altitudes, precipitating ring current ions (reaching down to 200 - 800 km in altitude) also produce low-altitude ENA signatures that can be stronger than the ring current emission at equatorial distances ( 2 - 9 Re). The higher density results in multiple collisions between the ring current ions and exospheric oxygen. The affect on hydrogen ions is the focus of this study. Since the H particle sustains energy loss ( 36 eV) at each neutralizing or re-ionizing interaction, the escaped ENAs do not directly reflect the ring current properties. We model the energy loss due to multiple charge exchange and electron stripping interactions of 1 - 100 keV precipitating ring current ions undergo before emerging as low-altitude ENAs. The H particle is either an ion or an ENA throughout the simulation. Their lifetime is analytically determined by the length of one mean free path. We track the ion state with Lorentz motion while the ENA travels ballistically across the geomagnetic field. Our simulations show the energy loss is greater than 20% for hydrogen ring current ions below 30 keV (60 keV for the simulations that wander equatorward). This is the first quantification of the energy loss associated with the creation of low-altitude ENAs. Our model (currently constrained in the meridional plane) has revealed characteristics on how precipitation is affected by the near-Earth neutral exosphere. This ion-neutral interaction removes particles from the loss cone but promotes loss through ENA generation. These findings should be implemented in models predicting the ring current decay and used as an analysis tool to reconstruct the ring current population from observed low-altitude ENAs.

Distribution of forbidden neutral carbon emission in the ring nebula (NGC 6720)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jewitt, D. C.; Danielson, G. E.; Kupferman, P. N.; Maran, S. P.

1983-01-01

The spatial distribution of forbidden C I 9823, 9850 A emission in NGC 6720 is reported. Like forbidden O I, the forbidden C I radiation appears enhanced in the region of the bright filaments. A few percent of the carbon atoms in the filaments are neutral. The neutral fraction is consistent with ionization equilibrium calculations made under the assumption of complete shielding of direct stellar radiation by hydrogen. The observed carbon lines are excited by photoelectrons produced from hydrogen by the nebular diffuse radiation field. The forbidden C I observations confirm that the filaments in NGC 6720 are regions of locally enhanced shielding.

Continuous wave cavity ring-down spectroscopy for velocity distribution measurements in plasma

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McCarren, D.; Lockheed Martin, Palmdale, California 93599; Scime, E., E-mail: earl.scime@mail.wvu.edu

2015-10-15

We report the development of a continuous wave cavity ring-down spectroscopic (CW-CRDS) diagnostic for real-time, in situ measurement of velocity distribution functions of ions and neutral atoms in plasma. This apparatus is less complex than conventional CW-CRDS systems. We provide a detailed description of the CW-CRDS apparatus as well as measurements of argon ions and neutrals in a high-density (10{sup 9} cm{sup −3} < plasma density <10{sup 13} cm{sup −3}) plasma. The CW-CRDS measurements are validated through comparison with laser induced fluorescence measurements of the same absorbing states of the ions and neutrals.

Structures and stability of metal-doped Ge{sub n}M (n = 9, 10) clusters

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Qin, Wei, E-mail: qinw@qdu.edu.cn; Xia, Lin-Hua; Zhao, Li-Zhen

The lowest-energy structures of neutral and cationic Ge{sub n}M (n = 9, 10; M = Si, Li, Mg, Al, Fe, Mn, Pb, Au, Ag, Yb, Pm and Dy) clusters were studied by genetic algorithm (GA) and first-principles calculations. The calculation results show that doping of the metal atoms and Si into Ge{sub 9} and Ge{sub 10} clusters is energetically favorable. Most of the metal-doped Ge cluster structures can be viewed as adding or substituting metal atom on the surface of the corresponding ground-state Ge{sub n} clusters. However, the neutral and cationic FeGe{sub 9,10},MnGe{sub 9,10} and Ge{sub 10}Al are cage-like withmore » the metal atom encapsulated inside. Such cage-like transition metal doped Ge{sub n} clusters are shown to have higher adsorption energy and thermal stability. Our calculation results suggest that Ge{sub 9,10}Fe and Ge{sub 9}Si would be used as building blocks in cluster-assembled nanomaterials because of their high stabilities.« less

A high flux source of swift oxygen atoms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fink, M.; Kohl, D. A.; Keto, J. W.; Antoniewicz, P.

1987-01-01

A source of swift oxygen atoms is described which has several unique features. A high current ion beam is produced by a microwave discharge, accelerated to 10 keV and the mass selected by a modified Du Pont 21-110 mass spectrometer. The O(+) beam exciting the mass spectrometer is focused into a rectangular shape with an energy spread of less than 1 eV. The next section of the machine decelerates the ion beam into a counterpropagating electron beam in order to minimize space charge effects. After deceleration, the ion beam intersects at 90 deg, a neutral oxygen atom beam, which via resonant charge exchange produces a mixture of O(+) and O. Any remaining O(+) are swept out of the beam by an electric field and differentially pumped away while the desired O beam, collimated by slits, impinges on the target. In situ monitoring of the target surface is done by X-ray photoelectron or Auger spectroscopy. Faraday cups provide flux measurements in the ion sections while the neutral flux is determined by a special torsion balance or by a quadrupole mass spectrometer specially adapted for swift atoms. While the vacuum from the source through the mass spectrometer is maintained by diffusion pumps, the rest of the machine is UHV.

Degradation of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria by neutral oxygen atoms

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cvelbar, U.; Mozetic, M.; Hauptman, N.

2009-11-15

The degradation of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria during treatment with neutral oxygen atoms was monitored by scanning electron microscopy. Experiments were performed in an afterglow chamber made from borosilicate glass. The source of oxygen atoms was remote inductively coupled radiofrequency oxygen plasma. The density of atoms at the samples was 8x10{sup 20} m{sup -3}. The treatment was performed at room temperature. The first effect was the removal of dried capsule. Capsule on exposed parts of bacteria was removed after receiving the dose of 6x10{sup 23} at./m{sup 2}, while the parts of capsule filling the gaps between bacteria were removed after receivingmore » the dose of 2.4x10{sup 24} m{sup -2}. After removing the capsule, degradation continued as etching of bacterial cell wall. The etching was rather nonuniform as holes with diameter of several 10 nm were observed. The cell wall was removed after receiving the dose of about 7x10{sup 24} m{sup -2}. The etching probabilities were about 2x10{sup -5} for the capsule and 2x10{sup -6} for the cell wall. The results were explained by different compositions of capsule and the cell wall.« less

Electron stimulated desorption of atomic oxygen from silver

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Outlaw, R. A.; Peregoy, W. K.; Hoflund, Gar B.; Corallo, Gregory R.

1987-01-01

The electron stimulated desorption (ESD) of neutral oxygen atoms from polycrystalline silver and of oxygen ions from Ag(110) has been studied. Polycrystalline Ag charged with (16)O2 and (18)O2 and bombarded by low-energy electrons (approx 100 eV) under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions emitted O atom flux levels of 1 x 10 to the 12th power/sq cm/s at a Ag temperature of 300 C. The flux was detected with a quadrupole mass spectrometer operating in the appearance potential mode. The neutral cross section at about 100 C was determined to be 7 x 10 to the -19 sq cm. Ancillary experiments conducted in a UHV chamber equipped with a cylindrical mirror analyzer and rigged for ion energy distribution and ion angular distribution were used to study O ions desorbed from Ag(110). Two primary O(+) energies of 2.4 and 5.4 eV were detected from the Ag(110) after having been dosed with 2500 L of (16)O2. It also appears that in both experiments there was strong evidence for directionality of the emitted flux. The results of this study serve as a proof of concept for the development of a laboratory atomic oxygen beam generator that simulates the gas flux environment experienced by orbiting vehicles.

Scattering of low-energetic atoms and molecules from a boron-doped CVD diamond surface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Allenbach, M.; Neuland, M. B.; Riedo, A.; Wurz, P.

2018-01-01

For the detection of low energetic neutral atoms for the remote sensing of space plasmas, charge state conversion surfaces are used to ionize the neutrals for their subsequent measurement. We investigated a boron-doped Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) diamond sample for its suitability to serve as a conversion surface on future space missions, such as NASA's Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe. For H and O atoms incident on conversion surface with energies ranging from 195 to 1000 eV and impact angles from 6° to 15° we measured the angular scattering distributions and the ionization yields. Atomic force microscope and laser ablation ionization mass spectrometry analyses were applied to further characterize the sample. Based on a figure-of-merit, which included the ionization yield and angular scatter distribution, the B-doped CVD surface was compared to other, previously characterized conversion surfaces, including e.g. an undoped CVD diamond with a metallized backside. For particle energies below 390 eV the performance of the B-doped CVD conversion surfaces is comparable to surfaces studied before. For higher energies the figure-of-merit indicates a superior performance. From our studies we conclude that the B-doped CVD diamond sample is well suited for its application on future space missions.

Neutralized solar energetic particles in the inner heliosphere: a parameter study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Xiao-Dong; Klecker, Berndt; Futaana, Yoshifumi; Cipriani, Fabrice; Barabash, Stas; Wieser, Martin

2016-04-01

The large fluxes of solar energetic particles (SEPs) in Gradual Events, dominated by protons, are believed to be produced by the acceleration of shocks driven by coronal mass ejections (CMEs). As SEPs propagate in the lower corona, there is a chance for them to be neutralized via the charge exchange and/or recombination processes and become energetic neutral atoms (ENAs). These ENAs retain the velocity of their parent SEPs and propagate in straight lines without the influence of the interplanetary magnetic field, and therefore might potentially serve as a new window to observe the particle acceleration processes in the solar corona. STEREO/Low Energy Telescope reported the first probable observation of hydrogen ENAs between 1.6 MeV - 5 MeV from the Sun prior to an X-class flare/CME [Mewaldt et al., 2009]. While such observations were somehow controversial, Wang et al. [2014] simulated the neutralization of solar energetic protons in the corona lower than 40 RS, and the result agreed with the STEREO observation. In this work, we further developed a production model of the ENA near the sun together with a transport model toward the inner planets, and explore the dependences of the ENA characteristics against the model parameters. These parameters include the angular width of the CME, its propagation direction with respect to the Sun-observer line, the propagation speed, the particle density in the corona, the abundances of O6+ and C4+, and the reaction rate of electron impact ionization in the loss of ENAs, and the heliospheric distance of the observer. The calculated ENA flux shows that at lower energy the expected ENA flux depends most sensitively on the CME apex angle and the CME propagation direction. At higher energy the dependence on the coronal density is more prominent. References Mewaldt, R. A., R. A. Leske, E. C. Stone, A. F. Barghouty, A. W. Labrador, C. M. S. Cohen, A. C. Cummings, A. J. Davis, T. T. von Rosenvinge, and M. E. Wiedenbeck (2009), STEREO Observations of Energetic Neutral Hydrogen Atoms During the 2006 December 5 Solar Flare, Astrophys. J. Lett., 693(1), L11. Wang, L., G. Li, A. Y. Shih, R. P. Lin, and R. F. Wimmer-Schweingruber (2014), Simulation of Energetic Neutral Atoms from Solar Energetic Particles, Astrophys. J. Lett., 793(2), L37.

The Star Formation Rate Efficiency of Neutral Atomic-Dominated Hydrogen Gas in the Ooutskirts of Star-Forming Galaxies From z approx. 1 to z approx. 3

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rafelski, Marc; Gardner, Jonathan P.; Fumagalli, Michele; Neeleman, Marcel; Teplitz, Harry I.; Grogin, Norman; Koekemoer, Anton M.; Scarlata, Claudia

2016-01-01

Current observational evidence suggests that the star formation rate (SFR)efficiency of neutral atomic hydrogen gas measured in damped Ly(alpha) systems (DLAs) at z approx. 3 is more than 10 times lower than predicted by the Kennicutt-Schmidt (KS)relation. To understand the origin of this deficit, and to investigate possible evolution with redshift and galaxy properties, we measure the SFR efficiency of atomic gas at z approx. 1, z approx. 2, and z approx. 3 around star-forming galaxies. We use new robust photometric redshifts in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field to create galaxy stacks in these three redshift bins, and measure the SFR efficiency by combining DLA absorber statistics with the observed rest-frame UV emission in the galaxies' outskirts. We find that the SFR efficiency of H I gas at z > 1 is approx. 1%-3% of that predicted by the KS relation. Contrary to simulations and models that predict a reduced SFR efficiency with decreasing metallicity and thus with increasing redshift, we find no significant evolution in the SFR efficiency with redshift. Our analysis instead suggests that the reduced SFR efficiency is driven by the low molecular content of this atomic-dominated phase, with metallicity playing a secondary effect in regulating the conversion between atomic and molecular gas. This interpretation is supported by the similarity between the observed SFR efficiency and that observed in local atomic-dominated gas, such as in the outskirts of local spiral galaxies and local dwarf galaxies.

Fission gas in thoria

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuganathan, Navaratnarajah; Ghosh, Partha S.; Galvin, Conor O. T.; Arya, Ashok K.; Dutta, Bijon K.; Dey, Gautam K.; Grimes, Robin W.

2017-03-01

The fission gases Xe and Kr, formed during normal reactor operation, are known to degrade fuel performance, particularly at high burn-up. Using first-principles density functional theory together with a dispersion correction (DFT + D), in ThO2 we calculate the energetics of neutral and charged point defects, the di-vacancy (DV), different neutral tri-vacancies (NTV), the charged tetravacancy (CTV) defect cluster geometries and their interaction with Xe and Kr. The most favourable incorporation point defect site for Xe or Kr in defective ThO2 is the fully charged thorium vacancy. The lowest energy NTV in larger supercells of ThO2 is NTV3, however, a single Xe atom is most stable when accommodated within a NTV1. The di-vacancy (DV) is a significantly less favoured incorporation site than the NTV1 but the CTV offers about the same incorporation energy. Incorporation of a second gas atom in a NTV is a high energy process and more unfavourable than accommodation within an existing Th vacancy. The bi-NTV (BNTV) cluster geometry studied will accommodate one or two gas atoms with low incorporation energies but the addition of a third gas atom incurs a high energy penalty. The tri-NTV cluster (TNTV) forms a larger space which accommodates three gas atoms but again there is a penalty to accommodate a fourth gas atom. By considering the energy to form the defect sites, solution energies were generated showing that in ThO2-x the most favourable solution equilibrium site is the NTV1 while in ThO2 it is the DV.

In situ single-atom array synthesis using dynamic holographic optical tweezers

PubMed Central

Kim, Hyosub; Lee, Woojun; Lee, Han-gyeol; Jo, Hanlae; Song, Yunheung; Ahn, Jaewook

2016-01-01

Establishing a reliable method to form scalable neutral-atom platforms is an essential cornerstone for quantum computation, quantum simulation and quantum many-body physics. Here we demonstrate a real-time transport of single atoms using holographic microtraps controlled by a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator. For this, an analytical design approach to flicker-free microtrap movement is devised and cold rubidium atoms are simultaneously rearranged with 2N motional degrees of freedom, representing unprecedented space controllability. We also accomplish an in situ feedback control for single-atom rearrangements with the high success rate of 99% for up to 10 μm translation. We hope this proof-of-principle demonstration of high-fidelity atom-array preparations will be useful for deterministic loading of N single atoms, especially on arbitrary lattice locations, and also for real-time qubit shuttling in high-dimensional quantum computing architectures. PMID:27796372

Lowest-energy structures and electronic properties of Na-Si binary clusters from ab initio global search.

PubMed

Sai, Linwei; Tang, Lingli; Zhao, Jijun; Wang, Jun; Kumar, Vijay

2011-11-14

The ground state structures of neutral and anionic clusters of Na(n)Si(m) (1 ≤ n ≤ 3, 1 ≤ m ≤ 11) have been determined using genetic algorithm incorporated in first principles total energy code. The size dependence of the structural and electronic properties is discussed in detail. It is found that the lowest-energy structures of Na(n)Si(m) clusters resemble those of the pure Si clusters. Interestingly, Na atoms in neutral Na(n)Si(m) clusters are usually well separated by the Si(m) skeleton, whereas Na atoms can form Na-Na bonds in some anionic clusters. The ionization potentials, adiabatic electron affinities, and photoelectron spectra are also calculated and the results compare well with the experimental data. © 2011 American Institute of Physics

The TWINS Science Data System after the launch of TWINS 1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goldstein, J.; Valek, P.; Skoug, R.; Delapp, D.; Redfern, J.; Carruth, B.; McComas, D.

2007-05-01

The Two Wide-angle Imaging Neutral-atom Spectrometers (TWINS) 1 satellite is in orbit and science data are expected to commence in the near future. TWINS-1 comprises half of the TWINS stereoscopic neutral atom imaging system that will advance our knowledge of the Earth's ring current. To support the expected data return, we have developed a Science Data System (SDS) for the TWINS mission. The TWINS SDS is an IDL- and Java- driven data interface that operates primarily via a web browser, and has as its spine an SQL-queryable database. Through this interface, TWINS science data will be provided to the TWINS team, the space science community, and the public. In this paper we present the current and future capabilities of the TWINS SDS, as well as how the SDS fits into virtual observatory infrastructure.

Midnight flash model of energetic neutral atom periodicities at Saturn

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carbary, J. F.; Mitchell, D. G.

2017-07-01

The Ion Neutral Camera on the Cassini spacecraft made images of energetic H atoms (25-55 keV) over a 3 day span in 2017. The images were projected onto the equatorial plane of Saturn, and a keogram was made by interpolating the projections in local time at 9 RS (1 RS = 60268 km). The keogram intensities show strong periodicities near the 10.79 h period of Saturn's energetic particles and exhibit a slope commensurate with corotation at that period. These periodic fluxes intensify near midnight but are weaker near noon. A "midnight flash" model can explain this behavior in terms of a searchlight rotating at 10.79 h that intensifies in the midnight sector. The model can also describe similar activity in Saturn's kilometric radiation and magnetic fields, although the "flash" must be shifted to the dawn-to-noon sector.

A gated Thomson parabola spectrometer for improved ion and neutral atom measurements in intense laser produced plasmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tata, Sheroy; Mondal, Angana; Sarkar, Soubhik; Lad, Amit D.; Krishnamurthy, M.

2017-08-01

Ions of high energy and high charge are accelerated from compact intense laser produced plasmas and are routinely analysed either by time of flight or Thomson parabola spectrometry. At the highest intensities where ion energies can be substantially large, both these techniques have limitations. Strong electromagnetic pulse noise jeopardises the arrival time measurement, and a bright central spot in the Thomson parabola spectrometer affects the signal to noise ratio of ion traces that approach close to the central spot. We present a gated Thomson parabola spectrometer that addresses these issues and provides an elegant method to improvise ion spectrometry. In addition, we demonstrate that this method provides the ability to detect and measure high energy neutral atoms that are invariably present in most intense laser plasma acceleration experiments.

A gated Thomson parabola spectrometer for improved ion and neutral atom measurements in intense laser produced plasmas.

PubMed

Tata, Sheroy; Mondal, Angana; Sarkar, Soubhik; Lad, Amit D; Krishnamurthy, M

2017-08-01

Ions of high energy and high charge are accelerated from compact intense laser produced plasmas and are routinely analysed either by time of flight or Thomson parabola spectrometry. At the highest intensities where ion energies can be substantially large, both these techniques have limitations. Strong electromagnetic pulse noise jeopardises the arrival time measurement, and a bright central spot in the Thomson parabola spectrometer affects the signal to noise ratio of ion traces that approach close to the central spot. We present a gated Thomson parabola spectrometer that addresses these issues and provides an elegant method to improvise ion spectrometry. In addition, we demonstrate that this method provides the ability to detect and measure high energy neutral atoms that are invariably present in most intense laser plasma acceleration experiments.

Neutral particle beam sensing and steering

DOEpatents

Maier, II, William B.; Cobb, Donald D.; Robiscoe, Richard T.

1991-01-01

The direction of a neutral particle beam (NPB) is determined by detecting Ly.alpha. radiation emitted during motional quenching of excited H(2S) atoms in the beam during movement of the atoms through a magnetic field. At least one detector is placed adjacent the beam exit to define an optical axis that intercepts the beam at a viewing angle to include a volume generating a selected number of photons for detection. The detection system includes a lens having an area that is small relative to the NPB area and a pixel array located in the focal plane of the lens. The lens viewing angle and area pixel array are selected to optimize the beam tilt sensitivity. In one embodiment, two detectors are placed coplanar with the beam axis to generate a difference signal that is insensitive to beam variations other than beam tilt.

Experimental realization of real-time feedback-control of single-atom arrays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Hyosub; Lee, Woojun; Ahn, Jaewook

2016-05-01

Deterministic loading of neutral atoms on particular locations has remained a challenging problem. Here we show, in a proof-of-principle experimental demonstration, that such deterministic loading can be achieved by rearrangement of atoms. In the experiment, cold rubidium atom were trapped by optical tweezers, which are the hologram images made by a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator (LC-SLM). After the initial occupancy was identified, the hologram was actively controlled to rearrange the captured atoms on to unfilled sites. For this, we developed a new flicker-free hologram algorithm that enables holographic atom translation. Our demonstration show that up to N=9 atoms were simultaneously moved in the 2D plane with the movable degrees of freedom of 2N=18 and the fidelity of 99% for single-atom 5- μm translation. It is hoped that our in situ atom rearrangement becomes useful in scaling quantum computers. Samsung Science and Technology Foundation [SSTF-BA1301-12].

Time-of-flight mass spectrographs—From ions to neutral atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Möbius, E.; Galvin, A. B.; Kistler, L. M.; Kucharek, H.; Popecki, M. A.

2016-12-01

After their introduction to space physics in the mid 1980s time-of-flight (TOF) spectrographs have become a main staple in spaceborne mass spectrometry. They have largely replaced magnetic spectrometers, except when extremely high mass resolution is required to identify complex molecules, for example, in the vicinity of comets or in planetary atmospheres. In combination with electrostatic analyzers and often solid state detectors, TOF spectrographs have become key instruments to diagnose space plasma velocity distributions, mass, and ionic charge composition. With a variety of implementation schemes that also include isochronous electric field configurations, TOF spectrographs can respond to diverse science requirements. This includes a wide range in mass resolution to allow the separation of medium heavy isotopes or to simply provide distributions of the major species, such as H, He, and O, to obtain information on source tracers or mass fluxes. With a top-hat analyzer at the front end, or in combination with deflectors for three-axis stabilized spacecraft, the distribution function of ions can be obtained with good time resolution. Most recently, the reach of TOF ion mass spectrographs has been extended to include energetic neutral atoms. After selecting the arrival direction with mechanical collimation, followed by conversion to ions, adapted TOF sensors form a new branch of the spectrograph family tree. We review the requirements, challenges, and implementation schemes for ion and neutral atom spectrographs, including potential directions for the future, while largely avoiding overlap with complementary contributions in this special issue.

IBEX Observations and Simulations of the Ribbon: Implications for the Very Local Interstellar Medium

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zirnstein, E.

2017-12-01

The crossing of the Voyager 1 spacecraft into the very local interstellar medium (VLISM) in 2012 August opened a new chapter in humankind's exploration of space. Voyager 1 has been measuring interstellar plasma properties outside the heliosphere, including the galactic cosmic ray flux, (indirectly) the compressed interstellar plasma, as well as the compressed interstellar magnetic field draped around the heliosphere. Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) neutral atom observations complement the only in situ observations of the VLISM made by Voyager 1. IBEX is an Earth-orbiting spacecraft equipped with two single-pixel cameras that detect neutral atoms produced by the interaction of the solar wind (SW) with the VLISM, as well as neutral atoms flowing into the heliosphere from the VLISM itself. After its launch in 2009, IBEX discovered the unexpected existence of the "ribbon," a nearly circular arc across the sky of enhanced hydrogen ENA fluxes observed at keV energies. The ribbon fluxes originate from look directions perpendicular to the local interstellar magnetic field draped around the heliosphere, and can be used to derive the VLISM magnetic field magnitude and direction far from the heliopause. Thus, IBEX observations of the ribbon complement Voyager 1 in situ observations of the VLISM magnetic field, and provide insight into what Voyager 2 will observe after it crosses the heliopause. This talk will review key IBEX observations of the VLISM environment related to the ribbon and the VLISM magnetic field observed by Voyager 1, and their implications for the VLISM environment.

Physical Roles of Interstellar-origin Pickup Ions at Heliospheric Termination Shock. II. Impact of the Front Nonstationary on the Energy Partition and Particle Velocity Distribution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lembège, Bertrand; Yang, Zhongwei

2018-06-01

The impact of the nonstationarity of the heliospheric termination shock in the presence of pickup ions (PUIs) on the energy partition between different plasma components is analyzed self-consistently by using a one-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation code. Solar wind ions (SWIs) and PUIs are introduced as Maxwellian and shell distributions, respectively. For a fixed time, (a) with a percentage of 25% PUIs, a large part of the downstream thermal pressure is carried by reflected PUIs, in agreement with previous hybrid simulations; (b) the total downstream distribution includes three main components: (i) a low-energy component dominated by directly transmitted (DT) SWIs, (ii) a high-energy component dominated by reflected PUIs, and (iii) an intermediate-energy component dominated by reflected SWIs and DT PUIs. Moreover, results show that the front nonstationarity (self-reformation) persists even in presence of 25% PUIs, and has some impacts on both SWIs and PUIs: (a) the rate of reflected ions suffers some time fluctuations for both SWIs and PUIs; (b) the relative percentage of downstream thermal pressure transfered to PUIs and SWIs also suffers some time fluctuations, but depends on the relative distance from the front; (c) the three components within the total downstream heliosheath distribution persist in time, but the contribution of the ion subpopulations to the low- and intermediate-energy components are redistributed by the front nonstationarity. Our results allow clarifying the respective roles of SWIs and PUIs as a viable production source of energetic neutral atoms and are compared with previous results.

DOUBLE code simulations of emissivities of fast neutrals for different plasma observation view-lines of neutral particle analyzers on the COMPASS tokamak

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mitosinkova, K.; Tomes, M.; Stockel, J.; Varju, J.; Stano, M.

2018-03-01

Neutral particle analyzers (NPA) measure line-integrated energy spectra of fast neutral atoms escaping the tokamak plasma, which are a product of charge-exchange (CX) collisions of plasma ions with background neutrals. They can observe variations in the ion temperature T i of non-thermal fast ions created by additional plasma heating. However, the plasma column which a fast atom has to pass through must be sufficiently short in comparison with the fast atom’s mean-free-path. Tokamak COMPASS is currently equipped with one NPA installed at a tangential mid-plane port. This orientation is optimal for observing non-thermal fast ions. However, in this configuration the signal at energies useful for T i derivation is lost in noise due to the too long fast atoms’ trajectories. Thus, a second NPA is planned to be connected for the purpose of measuring T i. We analyzed different possible view-lines (perpendicular mid-plane, tangential mid-plane, and top view) for the second NPA using the DOUBLE Monte-Carlo code and compared the results with the performance of the present NPA with tangential orientation. The DOUBLE code provides fast-atoms’ emissivity functions along the NPA view-line. The position of the median of these emissivity functions is related to the location from where the measured signal originates. Further, we compared the difference between the real central T i used as a DOUBLE code input and the T iCX derived from the exponential decay of simulated energy spectra. The advantages and disadvantages of each NPA location are discussed.

Emission of hydrogen energetic neutral atoms from the Martian subsolar magnetosheath

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, X.-D.; Alho, M.; Jarvinen, R.; Kallio, E.; Barabash, S.; Futaana, Y.

2016-01-01

We have simulated the hydrogen energetic neutral atom (ENA) emissions from the subsolar magnetosheath of Mars using a hybrid model of the proton plasma charge exchanging with the Martian exosphere to study statistical features revealed from the observations of the Neutral Particle Detectors on Mars Express. The simulations reproduce well the observed enhancement of the hydrogen ENA emissions from the dayside magnetosheath in directions perpendicular to the Sun-Mars line. Our results show that the neutralized protons from the shocked solar wind are the dominant ENA population rather than those originating from the pickup planetary ions. The simulation also suggests that the observed stronger ENA emissions in the direction opposite to the solar wind convective electric field result from a stronger proton flux in the same direction at the lower magnetosheath; i.e., the proton fluxes in the magnetosheath are not cylindrically symmetric. We also confirm the observed increasing of the ENA fluxes with the solar wind dynamical pressure in the simulations. This feature is associated with a low altitude of the induced magnetic boundary when the dynamic pressure is high and the magnetosheath protons can reach to a denser exosphere, and thus, the charge exchange rate becomes higher. Overall, the analysis suggests that kinetic effects play an important and pronounced role in the morphology of the hydrogen ENA distribution and the plasma environment at Mars, in general.

Endotoxin Neutralization as a Biomonitor for Inflammatory Bowel Disease

PubMed Central

Champion, Keith; Chiu, Laura; Ferbas, John; Pepe, Michael

2013-01-01

Gram-negative bacterial endotoxin is a potent immunostimulant implicated in the development and/or progression of a variety of diseases. The mammalian immune system has both innate and adaptive immune responses to neutralize endotoxin. In this study, a system was developed to monitor bacterial exposure by measuring the extent and nature of endotoxin neutralization in plasma. In control patients, females had higher levels of endotoxin neutralization than males, mirroring clinical outcomes from bacterial infection and sepsis. In addition to the total amount of neutralization, we used inactivation techniques to elucidate the nature of this activity and develop a system to compare early and late immune responses. Using this method to monitor patients with inflammatory bowel disease, we found a more robust total response that relies more on long-term, adaptive components of the immune system and less on early, innate components. Our results indicate that endotoxin neutralization is a valuable method to discern inflammatory bowel disease patients from a control population. Additionally, the nature of neutralization may be valuable in monitoring disease severity and/or the role of medication. PMID:23826338

Design of a Permanent-Magnet Zeeman Slower

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adler, Charles; Narducci, Frank; Sukenik, Charles; Mulholland, Jonathan; Goodale, Sarah

2006-05-01

During the past decade, low cost, flexible, and highly-polarized magnetic field sheet material has become available with field strengths useful for applications in modern atomic physics experiments. One advantage of using such material is that it can easily be cut to almost any desired shape without appreciable loss of field strength making it more versatile than ceramic magnets. We present the design of a Zeeman slower, made from such material, for cooling an atomic beam of neutral rubidium atoms and discuss results from an atomic beam trajectory simulation which indicates that the slower should perform well. We will also report on progress of a prototype permanent magnet Zeeman slower presently under construction in the laboratory.

Spin properties of charged Mn-doped quantum dota)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Besombes, L.; Léger, Y.; Maingault, L.; Mariette, H.

2007-04-01

The optical properties of individual quantum dots doped with a single Mn atom and charged with a single carrier are analyzed. The emission of the neutral, negatively and positively charged excitons coupled with a single magnetic atom (Mn) are observed in the same individual quantum dot. The spectrum of the charged excitons in interaction with the Mn atom shows a rich pattern attributed to a strong anisotropy of the hole-Mn exchange interaction slightly perturbed by a small valence-band mixing. The anisotropy in the exchange interaction between a single magnetic atom and a single hole is revealed by comparing the emission of a charged Mn-doped quantum dot in longitudinal and transverse magnetic field.

A minimalistic and optimized conveyor belt for neutral atoms.

PubMed

Roy, Ritayan; Condylis, Paul C; Prakash, Vindhiya; Sahagun, Daniel; Hessmo, Björn

2017-10-20

Here we report of a design and the performance of an optimized micro-fabricated conveyor belt for precise and adiabatic transportation of cold atoms. A theoretical model is presented to determine optimal currents in conductors used for the transportation. We experimentally demonstrate a fast adiabatic transportation of Rubidium ( 87 Rb) cold atoms with minimal loss and heating with as few as three conveyor belt conductors. This novel design of a multilayered conveyor belt structure is fabricated in aluminium nitride (AlN) because of its outstanding thermal and electrical properties. This demonstration would pave a way for a compact and portable quantum device required for quantum information processing and sensors, where precise positioning of cold atoms is desirable.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Roberts, III, Herbert Chidsey; Meschter, Peter Joel

A turbomachine component includes a body having an exterior surface and an interior surface, an internal cavity defined by the interior surface, and a reactivity neutralizing member arranged within the internal cavity. The reactivity neutralizing member is configured and disposed to neutralize turbomachine combustion products on the interior surface of the body.

Investigating Global Ion and Neutral Atom Populations with IBEX and Voyager

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Florinski, Vladimir

2016-01-01

The main objective of this project was to investigate pickup ion (PUI) production in the solar wind and heliosheath (the region between the termination shock and the heliopause) and compute the distributed energetic neutral atom fluxes throughout the helioshpere. The simulations were constrained by comparing the model output against observations from Ulysses, New Horizons, Voyager 1 and 2, and IBEX space probes. As evidenced by the number of peer reviewed journal publications resulting from the project (13 plus three submitted) and their citation rate (156 citations over three years), the project has made a lasting contribution to the field. The outcome is a significant improvement of our understanding of the pickup ion production and distribution in the distant heliosphere. The team has accomplished the entire set of tasks A-H set forth in the proposal. Namely, the transport modeling framework has been augmented with two populations of pickup ions (PUIs), the boundary conditions for the plasma and interstellar neutral hydrogen were verified against Ulysses and New Horizons PUI and an optimal set of velocity diffusion parameters established. The multi-component fluxes of PUIs were computed and isotropic velocity distributions generated for each cell in the computer simulation that covered the heliosphere from 1.5 AU to the heliopause. The distributions were carefully compared with in situ measurements at 3 AU (Ulysses), 12 AU (New Horizons), and 80-90 AU (Voyager 1 and 2) as well as those inferred from ENA fluxes measured by Cassini and IBEX (Wu et al., 2016). Some examples of modeldata comparison are shown in Figure 1. We have used coupled MHD-plasma and kinetic-neutral code to investigate the likely range of plasma and magnetic field parameters in the local interstellar medium (LISM), based on the assumption that the shape of the IBEX ribbon could be used to determine the orientation of the interstellar magnetic field. While the magnetic field is believed to be oriented toward the center of the ribbon, constraining its strength requires comparing the model-predicted angular diameter and circularity of the ribbon with the observations. The study, published in Heerikhuisen et al. (2014), found that the most likely range for the LISM magnetic field strength is between 0.2 and 0.3 nT, which is less than previously thought. Figure 2 shows the IBEX data (left) and compares it to the simulation with a 0.2 nT interstellar magnetic field (center) and a 0.4 nT (right).

A Global Atmospheric Model of Meteoric Iron

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Feng, Wuhu; Marsh, Daniel R.; Chipperfield, Martyn P.; Janches, Diego; Hoffner, Josef; Yi, Fan; Plane, John M. C.

2013-01-01

The first global model of meteoric iron in the atmosphere (WACCM-Fe) has been developed by combining three components: the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM), a description of the neutral and ion-molecule chemistry of iron in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT), and a treatment of the injection of meteoric constituents into the atmosphere. The iron chemistry treats seven neutral and four ionized iron containing species with 30 neutral and ion-molecule reactions. The meteoric input function (MIF), which describes the injection of Fe as a function of height, latitude, and day, is precalculated from an astronomical model coupled to a chemical meteoric ablation model (CABMOD). This newly developed WACCM-Fe model has been evaluated against a number of available ground-based lidar observations and performs well in simulating the mesospheric atomic Fe layer. The model reproduces the strong positive correlation of temperature and Fe density around the Fe layer peak and the large anticorrelation around 100 km. The diurnal tide has a significant effect in the middle of the layer, and the model also captures well the observed seasonal variations. However, the model overestimates the peak Fe+ concentration compared with the limited rocket-borne mass spectrometer data available, although good agreement on the ion layer underside can be obtained by adjusting the rate coefficients for dissociative recombination of Fe-molecular ions with electrons. Sensitivity experiments with the same chemistry in a 1-D model are used to highlight significant remaining uncertainties in reaction rate coefficients, and to explore the dependence of the total Fe abundance on the MIF and rate of vertical transport.

Ion-Neutral Coupling in Solar Prominences

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gilbert, Holly

2011-01-01

Interactions between ions and neutrals in a partially ionized plasma are important throughout heliophysics, including near the solar surface in prominences. Understanding how ion-neutral coupling affects formation, support, structure, and dynamics of prominences will advance our physical understanding of magnetized systems involving a transition from a weakly ionized dense gas to a fully ionized tenuous plasma. We address the fundamental physics of prominence support, which is normally described in terms of a magnetic force on the prominence plasma that balances the solar gravitational force, and the implications for observations. Because the prominence plasma is only partially ionized, it is necessary to consider the support of the both the ionized and neutral components. Support of the neutrals is accomplished through a frictional interaction between the neutral and ionized components of the plasma, and its efficacy depends strongly on the degree of ionization of the plasma. More specifically, the frictional force is proportional to the relative flow of neutral and ion species, and for a sufficiently weakly ionized plasma, this flow must be relatively large to produce a frictional force that balances gravity. A large relative flow, of course, implies significant draining of neutral particles from the prominence. We evaluate the importance of this draining effect for a hydrogen-helium plasma, and consider the observational evidence for cross-field diffusion of neutral prominence material.

Two-fluid (plasma-neutral) Extended-MHD simulations of spheromak configurations in the HIT-SI experiment with PSI-Tet

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sutherland, D. A.; Hansen, C. J.; Jarboe, T. R.

2017-10-01

A self-consistent, two-fluid (plasma-neutral) dynamic neutral model has been implemented into the 3-D, Extended-MHD code PSI-Tet. A monatomic, hydrogenic neutral fluid reacts with a plasma fluid through elastic scattering collisions and three inelastic collision reactions: electron-impact ionization, radiative recombination, and resonant charge-exchange. Density, momentum, and energy are evolved for both the plasma and neutral species. The implemented plasma-neutral model in PSI-Tet is being used to simulate decaying spheromak configurations in the HIT-SI experimental geometry, which is being compare to two-photon absorption laser induced fluorescence measurements (TALIF) made on the HIT-SI3 experiment. TALIF is used to measure the absolute density and temperature of monatomic deuterium atoms. Neutral densities on the order of 1015 m-3 and neutral temperatures between 0.6-1.7 eV were measured towards the end of decay of spheromak configurations with initial toroidal currents between 10-12 kA. Validation results between TALIF measurements and PSI-Tet simulations with the implemented dynamic neutral model will be presented. Additionally, preliminary dynamic neutral simulations of the HIT-SI/HIT-SI3 spheromak plasmas sustained with inductive helicity injection will be presented. Lastly, potential benefits of an expansion of the two-fluid model into a multi-fluid model that includes multiple neutral species and tracking of charge states will be discussed.

Matter, energy, and heat transfer in a classical ballistic atom pump.

PubMed

Byrd, Tommy A; Das, Kunal K; Mitchell, Kevin A; Aubin, Seth; Delos, John B

2014-11-01

A ballistic atom pump is a system containing two reservoirs of neutral atoms or molecules and a junction connecting them containing a localized time-varying potential. Atoms move through the pump as independent particles. Under certain conditions, these pumps can create net transport of atoms from one reservoir to the other. While such systems are sometimes called "quantum pumps," they are also models of classical chaotic transport, and their quantum behavior cannot be understood without study of the corresponding classical behavior. Here we examine classically such a pump's effect on energy and temperature in the reservoirs, in addition to net particle transport. We show that the changes in particle number, of energy in each reservoir, and of temperature in each reservoir vary in unexpected ways as the incident particle energy is varied.

Photoluminescence Study of N-Type Thermal Conversion in Semi-Insulating GaAs.

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-12-01

free electron to the crystal. For example, in GaAs, a tellurium atom on an arsenic site (TeAs) or a silicon atom on a gallium site (SiGa) are donor atoms...Photoconductivity Photoluminescenc Silicon, SiGa 5.81 6.80 Germanium, GeGa 6.08 Sulfur, SAs 6.10 Selenium, SeAs 5.89 6.10 Tellurium , TeAs When an electron...34 to the neutral donor or acceptor (Ref 16:15). The following excitonic com- plexes have been observed in GaAs: (i) exciton bound to a neutron donor at

Ultracold atoms in strong synthetic magnetic fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ketterle, Wolfgang

2015-03-01

The Harper Hofstadter Hamiltonian describes charged particles in the lowest band of a lattice at high magnetic fields. This Hamiltonian can be realized with ultracold atoms using laser assisted tunneling which imprints the same phase into the wavefunction of neutral atoms as a magnetic field dose for electrons. I will describe our observation of a bosonic superfluid in a magnetic field with half a flux quantum per lattice unit cell, and discuss new possibilities for implementing spin-orbit coupling. Work done in collaboration with C.J. Kennedy, G.A. Siviloglou, H. Miyake, W.C. Burton, and Woo Chang Chung.

Solar X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Imaging Spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dennis, B. R.; Christe, S. D.; Shih, A. Y.; Holman, G. D.; Emslie, A. G.; Caspi, A.

2018-02-01

X-ray and gamma-ray Sun observations from a lunar-based observatory would provide unique information on solar atmosphere thermal and nonthermal processes. EUV and energetic neutral atom imaging spectroscopy would augment the scientific value.

Mutual Neutralization of Atomic Rare-Gas Cations (Ne+, Ar+, Kr+, Xe+) with Atomic Halide Anions (Cl-, Br-, I-)

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-01-07

DOCUMENTATION PAGE Form Approved OMB No. 0704-0188 Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per...reviewing this collection of information . Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information , including...suggestions for reducing this burden to Department of Defense, Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports

Analysis of Data on the Cross Sections for Electron-Impact Ionization and Excitation of Electronic States of Atomic Hydrogen (Review)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shakhatov, V. A.; Lebedev, Yu. A.

2018-01-01

A review is given of experimental and theoretical data on the cross sections for ionization, excitation, and deexcitation of atomic hydrogen. The set of the cross sections required to calculate the electron energy distribution function and find the level-to-level rate coefficients needed to solve balance equations for the densities of neutral and charged particles in hydrogen plasma is determined.

Synthesis and structural characterization of dinuclear Cd2+, Hg2+ and Fe2+ complexes with neutral bi and tetradentate flexible pyrazole-based ligands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beheshti, Azizolla; Lalegani, Arash; Behvandi, Fatemeh; Safaeiyan, Forough; Sarkarzadeh, Afsoon; Bruno, Giuseppe; Amiri Rudbari, Hadi

2015-02-01

Four new complexes of [Hg2Cl4(bpp)]n (1), [Hg2Cl4(tdmpp)] (2), [Cd2I4(tdmpp)] (3) and [Fe2Cl4(tdmpp)] (4) were prepared by using the neutral N-donor ligands 1,3-bis(3,5-dimethyl-1-pyrazolyl)propane (bpp) and 1,1,3,3-tetrakis(3,5-dimethyl-1-pyrazolyl)propane (tdmpp) with different flexibility and appropriate metal salts of Cd(II), Hg(II) and Fe(II) ions. These compounds were characterized by the infrared spectroscopy, elemental analysis and X-ray crystallography. Flexible ligands and non-covalent Csbnd H⋯Cl hydrogen bonds play a major role in the crystal packing of compounds 1, 2 and 4. In the two-dimensional non-covalent structure of 1, there are two distinctly different coordination modes for the mercury atoms. One mercury atom has pseudo-trigonal bipyramidal geometry and the other adopts a distorted tetrahedral environment. In the dinuclear structures of 2 and 4 the neutral molecules are linked together by the Csbnd H⋯Cl hydrogen bonds, forming an infinite one-dimensional zigzag chain structure. Compounds 2-4 are isostructural with each other.

Global distribution of the Energetic Neutral Atom (ENA) / precipitating ion particulate albedo from Low Altitude Emission (LAE) source regions over the last solar maximum

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mackler, D. A.; Jahn, J.; Mukherjee, J.; Pollock, C. J.

2012-12-01

Charge exchange between ring current ions spiraling into the upper atmosphere and terrestrial neutral constituents produces a non-isotropic distribution of escaping Energetic Neutral Atoms (ENA). These ENA's are no longer tied to the magnetic field, and can therefore be observed remotely from orbiting platforms. Particularly of interest is Low Altitude Emissions (LAE) of ENA's. These ENA emissions occur near the oxygen exobase and constitute the brightest ENA signatures during geomagnetic storms. In this study we build on previous work described in Pollock et al. [2009] in which IMAGE/MENA data was used to compute the Invariant Latitude (IL) and Magnetic Local Time (MLT) distributions of ENA's observed in the 29 October 2003 storm. The algorithms developed in Pollock et al. [2009] are used to compute the IL and MLT of LAE source regions for 76 identified storms at different phases of solar cycle 23. The ENA flux from the source regions are divided by in-situ ion precipitation obtained by DMSP-SSJ4 and NOAA-TED to give a global mapping of the particulate albedo during storm times.

Studies for the Europagenic Plasma Source in Jupiter's Inner Magnetosphere during the Galileo Europa Mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smyth, William H.

2004-01-01

Progress in research to understand the three-dimensional nature of the Europagenic plasma torus is summarized. Efforts to improve the plasma torus description near Europa's orbit have included a better understanding of Europa's orbit and an improved description of the planetary magnetic field. New plasma torus chemistry for molecular and atomic species has been introduced and implemented in Europa neutral cloud models. Preliminary three-dimensional model calculations for Europa's neutral clouds and their plasma sources are presented.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Theuws, P.G.A.; Beijerinck, H.C.W.; Schram, D.C.

Velocity analysis of the molecular beam is done with a time-of-flight method. The measured velocity distribution of the fast neutral atoms is described by the sum of two Maxwell-Boltzmann distributions with temperatures on the order of 0.25 and 1 eV, respectively. This bimodal distribution is attributed to an overpopulation of the high-energy tail of the ion velocity distribution. The measured intensities of the fast neutrals vary between 5 x 10/sup 14/ and 7 x 10/sup 15/ (molecules s/sup -1/ sr/sup -1/).