The effect of intragranular microstress in A1203-SiC nanocomposites

A theoretical model is established to investigate the intragranular particle residual stress in A1203-SiC nanocom-posites. Using this model, we calculate the average compressive stress on the A1203 grain boundary （GB） and the average tensile stress within A1203 grains caused by SiC nanoparticles. The normal compressive stress strengthens the GB, and the average tensile stress weakens the grains. The model gives a reasonable interpretation of the strength changes of A1203-SiC nanocomposites with the number of SiC particles.     

Role of helium in the sliding and mechanical properties of a vanadium grain boundary:A first-principles study

The effects of helium （He） on the sliding and mechanical properties of a vanadium （V） E5（310）/[001] grain boundary （GB） have been investigated using a first-principles method. It has been found that He was energetically favorable sitting at the GB region with a segregation energy of -0.27 eV, which was attributed to the special atomic configurations and charge density distributions of the GB. The maximal sliding energy barrier of the He-doped GB was calculated to be 1.73 J/m^2, 35% larger than that of the clean GB. This suggested that the presence of He would hinder the V GB mobility. Based on the thermodynamic criterion, the total energy calculations indicated that the embrittlement of V GB would be enhanced by He segregation.     

Segregation of alloying atoms at a tilt symmetric grain boundary in tungsten and their strengthening and embrittling effects

We investigate the segregation behavior of alloying atoms （Sr, Th, In, Cd, Ag, Sc, Au, Zn, Cu, Mn, Cr, and Ti） near Z3 （ 111 ） [1]-0] tilt symmetric grain boundary （GB） in tungsten and their effects on the intergranular embrittlement by performing first-principles calculations. The calculated segregation energies suggest that Ag, Au, Cd, In, Sc, Sr, Th, and Ti prefer to occupy the site in the mirror plane of the GB, while Cu, Cr, Mn, and Zn intend to locate at the first layer nearby the GB core. The calculated strengthening energies predict Sr, Th, In, Cd, Ag, Sc, Au, Ti, and Zn act as embrittlers while Cu, Cr, and Mn act as cohesion enhancers. The correlation of the alloying atom＇s metal radius with strengthening energy is strong enough to predict the strengthening and embrittling behavior of alloying atoms; that is, the alloying atom with larger metal radius than W acts as an embrittler and the one with smaller metal radius acts as a cohesion enhancer.     

First-principles study of structural,electronic and optical properties of ZnF_2

The structural, electronic, and optical properties of rutile-, CaC12-, and PdF2-ZnF2 are calculated by the plane-wave pseudopotential method within the density functional theory. The calculated equilibrium lattice constants are in reasonable agreement with the available experimental and other calculated results. The band structures show that the rutile-, CaCl2-, and PdF2-ZnF2 are all direct band insulator. The band gaps are 3.63, 3.62, and 3.36 eV, respectively. The contribution of the different bands was analyzed by the density of states. The Mulliken population analysis is performed. A mixture of covalent and weak ionic chemical bonding exists in ZnF2. Furthermore, in order to understand the optical properties of ZnF2, the dielectric function, absorption coefficient, refractive index, electronic energy loss spectroscopy, and optical reflectivity are also performed in the energy range from 0 to 30 eV. It is found that the main absorption parts locate in the UV region for ZnF2. This is the first quantitative theoretical prediction of the electronic and optical properties of ZnF2 compound, and it still awaits experimental confirmation.     

First-principles study of the structural,elastic, and optical properties for Sr0.5Ca0.5TiO3

A detailed theoretical study of the structural, elastic, and optical properties for Sr0.5Ca0.5TiO3 is carried out by first- principles calculations. The band structure exhibits a direct bandgap of 2.08 eV at the F point in the Brillouin zone. The bulk modulus, shear modulus, Young＇s modulus, and Poisson＇s ratio are derived based on the calculated elastic constants. The bulk modulus B = 153 GPa and shear modulus G = 81GPa are in good agreement with available experimental data. Poisson＇s ratio v = 0.275 suggests that Sr0.sCa0.sTiO3 should be classified as being a ductile material. Using the electronic band structure and density of states, we analyze the interband contribution to the optical properties. The real and imaginary parts of the dielectric function, as well as the optical properties such as the optical absorption coefficient, refractive index, extinction coefficient, and energy-loss spectrum are calculated. The static dielectric constant ε1 （0） and the refractive index n（0） are also investigated.     

Theoretical investigation on the electronic structure,elastic properties, and intrinsic hardness of Si2N20

According to the density functional theory we systematically study the electronic structure, the mechanical prop- erties and the intrinsic hardness of Si2N2O polymorphs using the first-principles method. The elastic constants of four Si2N2O structures are obtained using the stress-strain method. The mechanical moduli （bulk modulus, Young’s mod-ulus, and shear modulus） are evaluated using the Voigt-Reuss-Hill approach. It is found that the tetragonal Si2N2O exhibits a larger mechanical modulus than the other phases. Some empirical methods are used to calculate the Vickers hardnesses of the Si2N2O structures. We further estimate the Vickers hardnesses of the four Si2N2O crystal structures, suggesting all Si2N2O phases are not the superhard compounds. The results imply that the tetragonal Si2N2O is the hardest phase. The hardness of tetragonal Si2N2O is 31.52 GPa which is close to values of β-Si3N4 and γ-Si3N4.     

First-Principles Study of Structural,Elastic and Electronic Properties of OsSi

First-principles study of structural, elastic, and electronic properties of the B20 structure OsSi has been reported using the plane-wave pseudopotential density functional theory method. The calculated equilibrium lattice and elastic constants are in good agreement with the experimented data and other theoretical results. The dependence of the elastic constants, the aggregate elastic modulus, the deviation from the Cauchy relation, the elastic wave velocities in different directions and the elastic anisotropy on pressure have been obtained and discussed. This could be the first quantitative theoretical prediction of the elastic properties under high pressure of OsSi compound. Moreover, the electronic structure calculations show that OsSi is a degenerate semiconductor with the gap value of 0.68 eV, which is higher than the experimental value of 0.26 eV. The analysis of the PDOS reveals that hybridization between Os d and Sip states indicates a certain covalency of the Os-Si bonds.     

Structural, electronic, and optical properties of ZnOl_xSex alloys using first-principles calculations

The structural, electronic, and optical properties of binary ZnO, ZnSe compounds, and their ternary ZnOl_xSex alloys are computed using the accurate full potential linearized augmented plane wave plus local orbital （FP-LAPW ＋ lo） method in the rocksalt （B 1） and zincblende （B3） crystallographic phases. The electronic band structures, fundamental energy band gaps, and densities of states for ZnO1_xSex are evaluated in the range 0 〈 x 〈 1 using Wu-Cohen （WC） generalized gradient approximation （GGA） for the exchange-correlation potential. Our calculated results of lattice parameters and bulk modulus reveal a nonlinear variation for pseudo-binary and their ternary alloys in both phases and show a considerable deviation from Vegard＇s law. It is observed that the predicted lattice parameter and bulk modulus are in good agreement with the available experimental and theoretical data. We establish that the composition dependence of band gap is semi-metallic in B1 phase, while a direct band gap is observed in B3 phase. The calculated density of states is described by taking into account the contribution of Zn 3d, O 2p, and Se 4s, and the optical properties are studied in terms of dielectric functions, refractive index, reflectivity, and energy loss function for the B3 phase and are compared with the available experimental data.     

Proton-induced grain boundary segregation in stainless steel

Abstract

A technique is developed which addresses the problem of irradiation assisted stress corrosion cracking of stainless steels in light water reactors using high energy protons to induce grain boundary segregation. These results represent the first grain boundary segregation measurements in bulk produced by proton irradiation of stainless steel. The technique allows the study of grain boundary composition with negligible sample activation, short irradiation time, rapid sample turnaround and at minimal cost. Scanning Auger electron microscopy is used to obtain grain boundary composition measurements of irradiated and unirradiated samples of ultra high purity (UHP) type 304L stainless steel and UHP type 304L steels with the additions of phosphorus (UHP + P) and sulphur (UHP + S). Results show that irradiation of all three alloys causes significant Ni segregation to the grain boundary and Cr and Fe away from it. Irradiation of the UHP + P alloy also results in segregation of P at the grain boundary from 5.3 to 8.7 at %, over 80 times the bulk value. No radiation-induced grain boundary segregation of S was measured in the UHP + S alloy. Results also indicate that the presence of P or S may enhance radiation-induced segregation of major alloying elements at the boundary. Comparison of irradiated and unirradiated regions of the UHP + P alloy indicate that while a prior thermal treatment segregates P to the grain boundary to 5.3 at %, the major element concentrations at the grain boundary are completely different from those under irradiation.     

First-principles calculations of structural,electronic, and thermodynamic properties of ZnO_(1-x)S_x alloys

In this study the pseudo-potential method is used to investigate the structural, electronic, and thermodynamic proper- ties of ZnOl_xSx semiconductor materials. The results show that the electronic properties are found to be improved when calculated by using LDA ~ U functional as compared with local density approximation （LDA）. At various concentrations the ground-state properties are determined for bulk materials ZnO, ZnS, and their tertiary alloys in cubic zinc-blende phase. From the results, a minor difference is observed between the lattice parameters from Vegard＇s law and other calculated results, which may be due to the large mismatch between lattice parameters of binary compounds ZnO and ZnS. A small deviation in the bulk modulus from linear concentration dependence is also observed for each of these alloys. The ther- modynamic properties, including the phonon contribution to Helmholtz free energy △F, phonon contribution to internal energy △E, and specific iheat at constant-volume Cv, are calculated within quasi-harmonic approximation based on the calculated phonon dispersion relations.     

Electronic and Optical Properties of Rock-Salt AIN under High Pressure via First-Principles Analysis

Electronic and optical properties of rock-salt AIN under high pressure are investigated by first -principles method based on the plane-wave basis set. Analysis of band structures suggests that the rock-salt AIN has an indirect gap of 4.53 eV, which is in good agreement with other results. By investigating the effects of pressure on the energy gap, the different movement of conduction band at X point below and above 22.5 GPa is predicted. The optical properties including dielectric function, absorption, reflectivity, and refractive index are also calculated and analyzed. It is found that the rock-salt AIN is transparent from the partially ultra-violet to the visible light area and hardly does the transparence affected by the pressure. Furthermore, the curve of optical spectrum will shift to high energy area （blue shift） with increasing pressure.     

First-principles calculations of electronic and magnetic properties of CeN： The LDA ＋ U method

Electronic and magnetic properties of CeN are investigated using first-principles calculations based on density func- tional theory （DFT） with the LDA ＋ U method. Our results show that CeN is a half-metal. The majority-spin electron band structure has metallic intersections, whereas the minority-spin electron band structure has a semiconducting gap straddling the Fermi level. A small indirect energy gap occurs between X and W. The calculated magnetic moment is 0.99 μb per unit cell.     

First-principles study of the electronic structure and optical properties of cubic Perovskite NaMgF_3

The structural, electronic, and optical properties of cubic perovskite NaMgF3 are calculated by plane-wave pseudopo- tential density functional theory. The calculated lattice constant a0, bulk modulus B0, and the derivative of bulk modulus B~ are 3.872/~, 78.2 GPa, and 3.97, respectively. The results are in good agreement with the available experimental and theo- retical values. The electronic structure shows that cubic NaMgF3 is an indirect insulator with a wide forbidden band gap of Eg = 5.90 eV. The contribution of the different bands is analyzed by total and partial density of states curves. Population analysis of NaMgF3 indicates that there is strong ionic bonding in the MgF2 unit, and a mixture of ionic and weak covalent bonding in the NaF unit. Calculations of dielectric function, absorption coefficient, refractive index, electronic energy loss spectroscopy, optical reflectivity, and conductivity are also performed in the energy range 0 to 70 eV.     

Laser-Manipulating Macroscopic Quantum States of a Bose-Einstein Condensate Held in a Kronig-Penny Potential

We investigate the boundary vaJue problem （BVP） of a quasi-one-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equation with the Kronig-Penney potential （KPP） of period d, which governs a repulsive Bose-Einstein condensate. Under the zero and periodic boundary conditions, we show how to determine n exact stationary eigenstates {Rn} corresponding to different chemical potentials {μn} from the known solutions of the system. The n-th eigenstate P~ is the Jacobian elliptic function with period 2din for n = 1,2,…, and with zero points containing the potential barrier positions. So Rn is differentiable at any spatial point and R2 describes n complete wave-packets in each period of the KPP. It is revealed that one can use a laser pulse modeled by a 5 potential at site xi to manipulate the transitions from the states of {Rn} with zero Point x≠xi to the states of {Rn＇} with zero Point x= Xi. The results suggest an experimental scheme for applying BEC to test the BVP and to observe the macroscopic quantum transitions.     

Electronic structures and thermoelectric properties of solid solutions CuGa_(1-x) In_xTe_2 : A first-principles study

The electronic structures of solid solutions CuGal_xlnxTe2 are systematically investigated using the full-potential all-electron linearized augmented plane wave method. The calculated lattice parameters almost linearly increase with the increase of the In composition, which are in good agreement with the available experimental results. The calculated band structures with the modified Becke-Johnson potential show that all solid solutions are direct gap conductors. The band gap decreases linearly with In composition increasing. Based on the electronic structure calculated, we investigate the thermoelectric properties by the semi-classical Boltzmann transport theory. The results suggest that when Ga is replaced by In, the bipolar effect of Seebeck coefficient S becomes very obvious. The Seebeck coefficient even changes its sign from positive to negative for p-type doping at low carrier concentrations. The optimal p-type doping concentrations have been estimated based on the predicted maximum values of the power factor divided by the scattering time.     

Electronic structures and optical properties of IIIA-doped wurtzite Mg0.25Zn0.75O

The energy band structures, density of states, and optical properties of IliA-doped wurtzite Mg0.25Zn0.75O （IIIA= A1, Ga, In） are investigated by a first-principles method based on the density functional theory. The calculated results show that the optical bandgaps of Mg0.25Zn0.75O：IIIA are larger than those of Mg0.25Zn0.75O because of the Burstein-Moss effect and the bandgap renormalization effect. The electron effective mass values of Mg0.25Zn0.75O：IIIA are heavier than those of Mgo.25Zno.750, which is in agreement with the previous experimental result. The formation energies of MgZnO：Al and MgZnO：Ga are smaller than that of MgZnO：In, while their optical bandgaps are larger, so MgZnO：Al and MgZnO：Ga are suitable to be fabricated and used as transparent conductive oxide films in the ultra-violet （UV） and deep UV optoelectronic devices.     

Boundary Correlation Functions of the gl（1/1） Supersymmetric Vertex Model

The gl（1/1） supersymmetric vertex model with domain wall boundary conditions （DWBC） on an N × N square lattice is considered. We derive the reduction formulae for the one-point boundary correlation functions of the model. The determinant representation for the boundary correlation functions is also obtained.     

Experimental studies on flow visualization and velocity field of compression ramp with different incoming boundary layers

Experimental studies which focus on flow visualization and the velocity field of a supersonic laminar/turbulent flow over a compression ramp were carried out in a Mach 3.0 wind tunnel. Fine flow structures and velocity field structures were obtained via NPLS （nanoparticle-tracer planar laser scattering） and PIV （particle image velocimetry） techniques, time- averaged flow structures were researched, and spatiotemporal evolutions of transient flow structures were analyzed. The flow visualization results indicated that when the ramp angles were 25~, a typical separation occurred in the laminar flow, some typical flow structures such as shock induced by the boundary layer, separation shock, reversed flow and reattachment shock were visible clearly. While a certain extent separation occurred in turbulent flow, the separation region was much smaller. When the ramp angles were 28~, laminar flow separated further, and the separation region expanded evidently, flow structures in the separation region were complex. While a typical separation occurred in turbulent flow, reversed flow structures were significant, flow structures in the separation region were relatively simple. The experimental results of velocity field were corresponding to flow visualization, and the velocity field structures of both compression ramp flows agreed with the flow structures well. There were three layered structures in the U component velocity, and the V component velocity appeared like an oblique ＂v＂. Some differences between these two compression ramp flows can be observed in the velocity profiles of the shear layer and the shearing intensity.     

Boundary States and Correlation Functions of Tricritical Ising Model from Coulomb-Gas Formalism

We consider the minimal conformaJ model describing the tricritical Ising model on the disk and on the upper half plane. Using the coulomb-gas formalism we determine its consistents boundary states as well as its one-point and two-point correlation functions.     

Shockwave–boundary layer interaction control by plasma aerodynamic actuation:An experimental investigation

The potential of controlling shockwave–boundary layer interactions(SWBLIs) in air by plasma aerodynamic actuation is demonstrated. Experiments are conducted in a Mach 3 in-draft air tunnel. The separation-inducing shock is generated with a diamond-shaped shockwave generator located on the wall opposite to the surface electrodes, and the flow properties are studied with schlieren imaging and static wall pressure probes. The measurements show that the separation phenomenon is weakened with the plasma aerodynamic actuation, which is observed to have significant control authority over the interaction. The main effect is the displacement of the reflected shock. Perturbations of incident and reflected oblique shocks interacting with the separation bubble in a rectangular cross section supersonic test section are produced by the plasma actuation. This interaction results in a reduction of the separation bubble size, as detected by phase-lock schlieren images.The measured static wall pressure also shows that the separation-inducing shock is restrained. Our results suggest that the boundary layer separation control through heating is the primary control mechanism.