Short-time reactor neutron irradiation of YSZ prepared using reactive calcination method

The present work is devoted to study the short-time reactor neutron irradiation of yttria stabilised zirconia (YSZ) at 315 K. The samples were prepared by the reactive calcination method and characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis and scanning electronic microscope. The prepared samples were irradiated by reactor neutrons at different exposure times and investigated by XRD analysis. The results obtained show good radiation resistance of YSZ to reactor neutron irradiation.     

XRD and AFM study of radiation damage induced by swift heavy ions in Y3Al5O12 single crystals

Defects induced in Y₃Al₅O₁₂ single crystals by swift heavy ions are investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy. The irradiation was performed at GANIL with 561 MeV ⁵¹Cr, 466 MeV ¹²⁸Te, and 957 MeV ²⁰⁸Pb ions. The XRD data reveal that the lattice strain increases with increasing electronic stopping power, whereas the hillock parameters (height and diameter) are not influenced by the electronic stopping power. According to our experimental data, for the same mean electronic stopping power, the hillock parameters are more pronounced for the lower range in contrast to swelling measurements. The experimental data show a strong increase in the hillock parameter at higher fluence, indicating the amorphization of Y₃Al₅O₁₂ single crystals.     

Properties of thin-film silicon solar cells at very high irradiance

The focussed beam of a low-power helium–neon laser is used to study accelerated light-induced degradation (Staebler–Wronski effect) and high steady-state photocarrier generation rates in amorphous and microcrystalline silicon thin-film solar cells, at up to 13 MW m^? 2 irradiance. Even at these high power densities, COMSOL® simulations indicate that heat diffusion into the substrate, aided by spreading conduction via the Ag back-contact, restricts the temperature rise to less than 14 °C. Short-circuit current may be measured directly, and the I–V characteristic estimated by taking into account shunting by the inactive part of the cell. The improved resistance to degradation of microcrystalline silicon cells is shown to persist to high irradiance. Computer simulations of an amorphous silicon solar cell are presented that are consistent with measured un-degraded and degraded properties, and offer insight into prevailing defect creation processes and carrier recombination mechanisms.     

Considerations on shock wave/boundary layer interaction in undular hydraulic jumps in horizontal channels with a very high aspect ratio

It can be seen in the literature that the fundamental factors governing oblique shock wave development, typically in very large channels with straight sidewalls, have not yet been completely understood and remain at the level of indicating its presence and formation. In this study, in addition to an analysis of various properties of hydraulic jump behaviour in very large channels, some aspects of boundary layer development and its detachment from the channel lateral sidewall are also investigated. At the detachment point of the lateral shock waves, it was noted that the displacement thickness experiences a significant increase; this is accompanied by a significantly reduced gradient normal to the channel sidewalls of the flow velocity as well as the occurrence of a strong, sudden adverse pressure gradient. An analysis of the flow velocity distribution and the background turbulence intensity of both the streamwise and spanwise velocity components was also carried out. Furthermore, it is argued that the supersonic flow separation analogy with a supercritical free surface flow can be applied to this case study and that the behaviour of the supercritical flow during separation can be interpreted by the free interaction theory typically used in aerodynamics.     

Staggered Finite Volume Modeling of Transport Phenomena in Porous Materials with Convective Boundary Conditions

The aim of this article is to present a one-dimensional finite volume modeling of mass transport phenomena in partially saturated open porous media. The finite volume model is based on a staggered solution strategy which permits to solve the equations sequentially. This appropriate partitioning reduces thus the size of the system to be solved at each time step. Therefore, two iterative algorithms are proposed to solve the discretized problem. Moreover, an original treatment of the convective boundary condition, based on a suitable linearization to derive the algebraic form of this condition, is also presented. The computational model is then specifically used for studying the drying process of a cementitious material. For this purpose, the two proposed algorithms are compared in terms of computational efficiency. Thereafter, the convective boundary condition is analyzed with regard to the drying kinetics. Finally, a one-dimensional drying experimental test is simulated.     

Photoluminescence studies of confined states in AlGaAs/GaAs asymmetric quantum well

In the recombination spectra of AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructures, a peculiar and asymmetric photoluminescence (PL) band F has previously been reported [Aloulou et al., Mater. Sci. Eng. B 96 (2002) 14] to be due to recombinations of confined electrons from the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) formed at AlGaAs/GaAs interface in asymmetric quantum well (AQW). Detailed experiments are reported here on GaAs/Al_0.31Ga_0.69As/GaAs:δSi/Al_0.31Ga_0.69As/GaAs samples with different spacer layer thicknesses. We show that the band F is the superposition of two PL bands F′ and F″ associated, respectively, to AQW and a symmetric quantum well (SQW). In the low excitation regime, the F′ band present a blue shift (4.4 meV) followed by important red shift (16.5 meV) when increasing optical excitation intensity. The blue shift in energy is interpreted in terms of optical control of the 2DEG density in the AQW while the red shift is due to the narrowing of the band gaps caused by the local heating of the sample and band bending modification for relatively high-optical excitation intensity. Calculation performed using self-consistent resolution of the coupled Schrödinger–Poisson equations are included to support the interpretation of the experimental data.     

Contribution to Calculation of Ion Microfield Nonuniformity Effect on the Asymmetry of Lyman‐α Line in Dense Plasma

The high orders of Stark effects on spectral line shapes are examined in the ion‐static and electron‐impact ap‐proximations. At first the distribution functions of the spatial derivative of the ion microfield in He⁺ plasma are calculated for different plasma conditions when the coupling parameter is weak. We present new results about the spatial derivative ion microfield distributions and apply them to show the asymmetry of the Lyman‐α (Ly‐α) line in He⁺ plasma. At the second stage we show that asymmetry is affected by the spatial derivative tensor of the local ion electric field. We have used the Monte‐Carlo simulation (MCS) to compute the distribution functions for all tensor components and use them to solve the evolution equation of emitter whose solution serves to compute and therefore to show the line shape asymmetry. Good agreement of our distribution functions of ion microfield gradients and the line asymmetry with other results are obtained (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Angular Velocity Distribution of the Electric Microfield in Plasma

In theory of the spectral line shapes, the conventional scheme use two approximations for the local electric field (microfield) due to all charged particles of the plasma. The quasi‐static approximations for the ions and the impact approximation for the electrons. The first approximation consists to say that the electric field is constant during the characteristic time. In this work we shall transpose the idea of the first approximation, to the angular velocity of the microfield whereas its strength is kept constant and equal to its mean value. We shall use the Holtsmark approach and the independent particles model (due to Margeneau and Lewis) to compute the static distribution function of the angular velocity of the microfield. In the first approach (Holtsmark), the distribution shows a Lorentzian behavior, whereas the second approach (Margenau and Lewis) shows a gaussian behavior. Subsequently, we have applied the obtained static distribution to show the effect on the broadening of Lyman‐alpha line for a plasma composed of He⁺ ions. (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)