Publications

Low-density, microcellular foams prepared from the natural polymers agar and gelatin have been developed for pulsed-power physics experiments. Numerous experiments were supported with foams having densities at or below 10 mg/cm{sup 3}. For some of the experiments, the agar/gelatin foam was uniformly doped with metallic elements using soluble salts. Depending on the method of preparation, cell sizes were typically below 10 microns and for one process were below 1.0 micron.

Inverters are key building blocks of photovoltaic (PV) systems that produce ac power. The balance of systems (BOS) portion of a PV system can account for up to 50% of the system cost, and its reliable operation is essential for a successful PV system. As part of its BOS program, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) maintains a laboratory wherein accurate electrical measurements of power systems can be made under a variety of conditions. This paper outlines the work that is done in that laboratory.

The ability to monitor and control the depth of a laser weld in real-time is critical in many laser welding applications. Consequently, the authors have investigated the use of an optical method to sense weld depth. Welds were generated on kovar samples, using a pulsed Nd:YAG laser. The sensing method uses digital high-speed photography to measure the velocity of the plume of vaporized metal atoms ejected from the metal surface. An energy balance equation is then used to relate the plume velocity to the size of the weld. Numerical solution of the energy balance equation yielded values for weld depth that were within 8% of the actual measured values.

The use of backscattered X rays to image buried land mines and distinguish between surface and buried features has been well documented. Laboratory imaging experiments, being conducted at Sandia National Laboratories/New Mexico (SNL/NM), have been used to develop preliminary data acquisition hardware and software for an upcoming Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD). In addition image processing techniques, developed by the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of Florida (UF), are utilized. Previous buried land mine imaging studies focused on antitank mines buried in screened sand and have included well defined surface features such as a broad or a small diameter rock. In the present study the authors have examined imaging under a variety of practical environmental conditions. They have successfully imaged antitank mines (ATM) buried in sand and rocky New Mexico (NM) soil. Images have been obtained for bare surfaces as well s for surfaces covered with limestone road coarse base (gravel), snow, water, and native grass. In addition, they have imaged buried ATM and surface antipersonnel (AP) mines covered with debris consisting of various size rocks, a log, and leaves such that no mine was visible to the eye.

A continuously operating, scanning x-ray machine is being developed for landmine detection using backscattered x-rays. The source operates at 130 kV and 650 mA. The x-rays are formed by electrons striking a high Z target. Target shape is an approximate 5 cm wide by 210 cm long racetrack. The electron beam is scanned across this target with electromagnets. There are 105, 1-cm by 1-cm collimators in each leg of the racetrack for a total of 210 collimators. The source is moved in the forward direction(the direction perpendicular to the 210-cm dimension) at 3 mi/h. The forward velocity and collimator spacing are such that a grid of collimated x-rays are projected at normal incidence to the soil. The spacing between the collimators and the ground results in a 2-cm by 2-cm x-ray pixel on the ground. A unique detector arrangement of collimated and uncollimated detectors allows surface features to be recognized and removed, leaving an image of a buried landmine. Another detector monitors the uncollimated x-ray output and is used to normalize the source output. The mine detector is being prepared for an Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD). The ATD is scheduled for midyear of 1998. The results of the source performance in pre ATD tests will be presented.

Effective utilization of unattended ground sensors (UGSs) in a theater reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition, and kill assessment environment requires that a human operator be able to interpret, and collectively assess, the significance of real time data obtained from UGS emplacements over large geographical regions of interest. The products of this UGS data interpretation and assessment activity can then be used in the decision support process for command level evaluation of appropriate courses of action. Advancements in both sensor hardware technology and in software systems and processing technology have enabled the development of practical real time situation assessment capabilities based upon information from unattended ground sensors. A decision support workstation that employs rule-based expert system processing of reports from unattended ground sensors is described. The primary goal of this development activity is to produce a suite of software to track vehicles using data from unattended ground sensors. The situational assessment products from this system have stand-alone utility, but are also intended to provide cueing support for overhead sensors and supplementary feeds to all-source fusion centers. The conceptual framework, developmental architecture, and demonstration field tests of the system are described.

A survey of ohmic contact materials and properties to GaAs, InP, GaN will be presented along with critical issues pertaining to each semiconductor material. Au-based alloys (e.g., GeAuNi for n-type GaAs) are the most commonly used contacts for GaAs and InP materials for both n- and p-type contacts due to the excellent contact resistivity, reliability, and usefulness over a wide range of doping levels. Research into new contacting schemes for these materials has focused on addressing limitations of the conventional Au-alloys in thermal stability, propensity for spiking, poor edge definition, and new approaches for a non-alloyed contact. The alternative contacts to GaAs and InP include alloys with higher temperature stability, contacts based on solid phase regrowth, and contacts that react with the substrate to form lower bandgap semiconductors alloys at the interface. A new area of contact studies is for the wide bandgap group III-Nitride materials. At present, low resistivity ohmic contact to p-type GaN has not been obtained primarily due to the large acceptor ionization energy and the resultant difficulty in achieving high free hole concentrations at room temperature. For n-type GaN, however, significant progress has been reported with reactive Ti-based metalization schemes or the use of graded InGaN layers. The present status of these approaches will be reviewed.

This report summarizes progress from the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program during fiscal year 1996. In addition to a programmatic and financial overview, the report includes progress reports from 259 individual R&D projects in seventeen categories. The general areas of research include: engineered processes and materials; computational and information sciences; microelectronics and photonics; engineering sciences; pulsed power; advanced manufacturing technologies; biomedical engineering; energy and environmental science and technology; advanced information technologies; counterproliferation; advanced transportation; national security technology; electronics technologies; idea exploration and exploitation; production; and science at the interfaces - engineering with atoms.

Nuclear operations have resulted in the accumulation of large quantities of contaminated metallic waste which are stored at various DOE, DOD, and commercial sites under the control of DOE and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). This waste will accumulate at an increasing rate as commercial nuclear reactors built in the 1950s reach the end of their projected lives, as existing nuclear powered ships become obsolete or unneeded, and as various weapons plants and fuel processing facilities, such as the gaseous diffusion plants, are dismantled, repaired, or modernized. For example, recent estimates of available Radioactive Scrap Metal (RSM) in the DOE Nuclear Weapons Complex have suggested that as much as 700,000 tons of contaminated 304L stainless steel exist in the gaseous diffusion plants alone. Other high-value metals available in the DOE complex include copper, nickel, and zirconium. Melt processing for the decontamination of radioactive scrap metal has been the subject of much research. A major driving force for this research has been the possibility of reapplication of RSM, which is often very high-grade material containing large quantities of strategic elements. To date, several different single and multi-step melting processes have been proposed and evaluated for use as decontamination or recycling strategies. Each process offers a unique combination of strengths and weaknesses, and ultimately, no single melt processing scheme is optimum for all applications since processes must be evaluated based on the characteristics of the input feed stream and the desired output. This paper describes various melt decontamination processes and briefly reviews their application in developmental studies, full scale technical demonstrations, and industrial operations.

The electromagnetic integrated demonstration (EMID) is a baseline study in electromagnetic (EM) exploration of the shallow subsurface (< 10 m). Eleven distinct EM systems, covering the geophysical spectrum, acquired data on a grid over the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) Cold Test Pit (CTP). The systems are investigated and evaluated for the purpose of identifying and reviewing existing geophysical characterization instrumentation (commercial and experimental), integrating those technologies with multi-dimensional interpretational algorithms, and identifying gaps in shallow subsurface EM imaging technology. The EMID data, are valuable for testing and evaluating new interpretational software, and developing techniques for integrating multiple datasets. The experimental field techniques shows how the acquisition of data in a variety of array configurations can considerably enhance interpretation. All data are available on the world wide web. Educators and students are encouraged to use the data for both classroom and graduate studies. The purpose of this paper is to explain why, where, how and what kind of data were collected. It is left to the reader to assess the value of a given system for their particular application. Information about the EMID is organized into two general categories: survey description and system evaluation.

Intelligent Systems are characterized by the intensive use of computer power. The computer revolution of the last few years is what has made possible the development of the first generation of Intelligent Systems. Software for second generation Intelligent Systems will be more complex and will require more powerful computing engines in order to meet real-time constraints imposed by new robots, sensors, and applications. A multiprocessor architecture was developed that merges the advantages of message-passing and shared-memory structures: expendability and real-time compliance. The HyperForest architecture will provide an expandable real-time computing platform for computationally intensive Intelligent Systems and open the doors for the application of these systems to more complex tasks in environmental restoration and cleanup projects, flexible manufacturing systems, and DOE`s own production and disassembly activities.

Linear chemometric algorithms were used to model the quantitative response of an evanescent fiber optic chemical sensor in aqueous mixtures with concentrations between 20 and 300 ppm. Four data sets were examined with two different experimental arrangements. Two data sets contained trichloroethene, 1,1,2 trichloroethane, and toluene. Partial Least Squares, PLS, and Principal Component Regression, PCR, algorithms performed comparably on these calibration sets with cross-validated root mean squared errors of prediction (RMSEP) for trichloroethene, 1,1,1 trichloroethane, and toluene of approximately 26, 29 and 22 ppm, respectively. The third data set contained trichloroethene, 1,1,2 trichloroethane, toluene, and chloroform and the fourth contained these four analytes as well as tetrachloroethene. Again, both chemometric algorithms performed comparably on a given data set with RMSEP for trichloroethene, 1,1,2 trichloroethane, toluene, and chloroform of approximately 6, 6, 9, and 16 ppm from the first set, and 7, 11, 13, and 31 ppm from the second set with tetrachloroethene RMSEP of 31 ppm. The decrease in the quantitative performance of the sensor for modeling toluene and chloroform upon addition of tetrachloroethene to the sample solutions is due to increased cladding absorption features in the spectral response matrix. These features overlap with the analyte absorption features of toluene and chloroform. These results suggest one of the limitations with this type of sensing format.

To insert high-performance oxide-confined vertical-cavity surface- emitting lasers (VCSELs) into the manufacturing arena, we have examined the critical parameters that must be controlled to establish a repeatable and uniform wet thermal oxidation process for AlGaAs. These parameters include the AlAs mole fraction, sample temperature, carrier gas flow, and bubbler water temperature. Knowledge of these parameters has enable the compilation of oxidation rate data for AlGaAs which exhibits an Arrhenius rate dependence. The compositionally dependent activation energies for Al{sub x}Ga{sub 1-x}As layers of x=1.00, 0.98, and 0.92 are found to be 1.24, 1.75, and 1.88 eV, respectively. 7 figs, 1 tab, 14 refs.

The authors consider the problem of defining the fracture permeability tensor for each grid lock in a rock mass from maps of natural fractures. For this purpose they implement a statistical model of cracked rock due to M. Oda [1985], where the permeability tensor is related to the crack geometry via a volume average of the contribution from each crack in the population. In this model tectonic stress is implicitly coupled to fluid flow through an assumed relationship between crack aperture and normal stress across the crack. The authors have included the following enhancements to the basic model: (1) a realistic model of crack closure under stress has been added along with the provision to apply tectonic stresses to the fracture system in any orientation, the application of stress results in fracture closure and consequently a reduction in permeability; (2) the fracture permeability can be superimposed onto an arbitrary anisotropic matrix permeability; (3) the fracture surfaces are allowed to slide under the application of shear stress, causing fractures to dilate and result in a permeability increase. Through an example, the authors demonstrate that significant changes in permeability magnitudes and orientations are possible when tectonic stress is applied to a fracture system.

This report is a collection of studies performed at Sandia National Laboratories in support of Phase One (inert debris) for the Risk and Lethality Commonality Team. This team was created by the Range Safety Group of the Range Commander`s Council to evaluate the safety issues for debris generated during flight tests and to develop debris safety criteria that can be adopted by the national ranges. Physiological data on the effects of debris impacts on people are presented. Log-normal curves are developed to relate the impact kinetic energy of fragments to the probability of fatality for people exposed in standing, sitting, or prone positions. Debris hazards to aircraft resulting from engine ingestion or penetration of a structure or windshield are discussed. The smallest mass fragments of aluminum, steel, and tungsten that may be hazardous to current aircraft are defined. Fragment penetration of the deck of a small ship or a pleasure craft is also considered. The smallest mass fragments of aluminum, steel, or tungsten that can penetrate decks are calculated.

In this study the authors employed the Monte Carlo/Latin Hypercube sampling technique to generate input parameters for a liquid polymeric-film drying model with prescribed uncertainty distributions. The one-dimensional drying model employed in this study was that developed by Cairncross et al. They found that the non-deterministic analysis with Monte Carlo/Latin Hypercube sampling provides a useful tool for characterizing the two responses (residual solvent volume and the maximum solvent partial vapor pressure) of a liquid polymeric-film drying process. More precisely, they found that the non-deterministic analysis via Monte Carlo/Latin Hypercube sampling not only provides estimates of statistical variations of the response variables but also yields more realistic estimates of mean values, which can differ significantly from those calculated using deterministic simulation. For input-parameter uncertainties in the range from 2 to 10% of their respective means, variations of response variables were found to be comparable to the mean values.

Sacrificial polysilicon surface micromachining is emerging as a technology that enables the mass production of complex microelectromechanical systems by themselves or integrated with microelectronic systems. Early versions of these micromachined systems-on-a-chip have already found application in the commercial world as acceleration sensors for airbag deployment (for example, ADI`s ADXL50). Two technologies described here, enable systems with increasing degrees of complexity to be fabricated. The first is a three-level polysilicon micromachining process which includes a fourth polysilicon electrical interconnect level, while the other is a single-level (+ second electrical interconnect level) polysilicon surface micromachining process integrated with 1.25 micron CMOS. Samples of systems-on-a-chip built in these processes such as combination locks, pop-up mirrors, and multi-axis accelerometers are also given.

Smaller, lighter instruments can be fabricated as Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), having micron scale moving parts packaged together with associated control and measurement electronics. Batch fabrication of these devices will make economical applications such as condition-based machine maintenance and remote sensing. The choice of instrumentation is limited only by the designer`s imagination. This paper presents one genre of MEMS fabrication, surface-micromachined polycrystalline silicon (polysilicon). Two currently available but slightly different polysilicon processes are presented. One is the ARPA-sponsored ``Multi-User MEMS ProcesS`` (MUMPS), available commercially through MCNC; the other is the Sandia National Laboratories ``Sandia Ultra-planar Multilevel MEMS Technology`` (SUMMiT). Example components created in both processes will be presented, with an emphasis on actuators, actuator force testing instruments, and incorporating actuators into larger instruments.

In the present study of design optimization of a liquid-distribution chamber-slot die, the DAKOTA (Design Analysis Kit for OpTimizAtion) toolkit, which is being developed by Sandia National Laboratories, was employed to navigate the search for the optimal die shape. This shape minimizes non-uniformity of flow at the slot exit for a given set of liquid properties and operating conditions. Three-dimensional, steady newtonian-liquid flow fields inside the chamber-slot die were computed using FIDAP, a commercial computer code based on the finite element method. The objective function of flow nonuniformity at the slot exit is formulated as the percentage of coating material across the slot width having local-flowrate deviation greater than 1% from the mean. Computation of the objective function requires the integration of the velocity profile over the outflow plane. Two constraints, namely maximum hydrodynamic pressure and average residence time, were imposed in the optimization problem. The modified method of feasible directions algorithm was used to optimize the die geometry and to reduce the flow nonuniformity at the slot exit from 16.5% (initial design) to 3.2% (final design) for the chosen liquid properties and process conditions. The case study demonstrates that liquid-distribution chamber-slot dies can be systematically optimized using DAKOTA.

Semiconductor microcavities as a composite exciton-cavity system can be characterized by two normal modes. Under an impulsive excitation by a short laser pulse, optical polarizations associated with the two normal modes have a {pi} phase difference. The total induced optical polarization is then expected to exhibit a sin{sup 2}({Omega}t)-like oscillation where 2{Omega} is the normal mode splitting, reflecting a coherent energy exchange between the exciton and cavity. In this paper the authors present experimental studies of normal mode oscillations using three-pulse transient four wave mixing (FWM). The result reveals surprisingly that when the cavity is tuned far below the exciton resonance, normal mode oscillation in the polarization is cos{sup 2}({Omega}t)-like, in contrast to what is expected form the simple normal mode model. This anomalous normal mode oscillation reflects the important role of virtual excitation of electronic states in semiconductor microcavities.

Laser-like emissions from semiconductor microcavities at low temperature have attracted considerable attention recently because of the possibility of realizing a non-equilibrium condensate by using cavity-polaritons. In this paper the authors present experimental studies of optical properties of a microcavity near the lasing threshold. They show that the minimum lasing threshold is achieved when the cavity is tuned significantly below the exciton line center. By comparing emission spectra with reflectivity spectra, they also show that well-resolved doublet in the emission spectra near the lasing threshold are not associated with cavity-polaritons. These results suggest that laser-like emissions form the microcavity are due to conventional stimulated emission processes with exciton localization playing a significant role.

The authors report an experimental and theoretical examination of the interaction of dislocations with microscopic cavities in semiconductors and the consequences for strain relaxation in heteroepitaxial structures. Dislocation-mediated relaxation and control of the resulting defect microstructure is central to the exploitation of such heterostructures in devices, and they demonstrate here that the introduction of nanometer-scale voids provides a means of strongly influencing this microstructural evolution. Methods for nanocavity formation using He ion implantation and annealing were developed for Si, SiGe on Si, GaAs, and InGaAs on GaAs. In detailed microstructural studies of SiGe on Si, cavities in the interfacial zone were shown to bind dislocations strongly. This effect reduced the excursion of dislocations into the nearby matrix, although threads into the SiGe overlayer were not eliminated. Interfacial cavities also increased the rate of stress relaxation by more than an order of magnitude as a result of enhanced nucleation of misfit dislocations. Further, in the presence of such cavities, the development of thickness variations in the overlayer during relaxation was suppressed. A theoretical model was developed to describe semiquantitatively the forces on dislocations arising from the combined influences of cavities, misfit strain, and the external surface. Predictions of this model are in accord with microstructural observations.

Many difficult material handling needs exist in remote unstructured environments. Currently these operations are accomplished using personnel in direct contact with the hazards. A safe and cost-effective alternative to this approach is the use of intelligent robotic systems for the excavation, handling, transport and manipulation of materials during remote construction operations. A robotic system designed for these tasks has been developed at Sandia National Laboratories which successfully integrates computer controlled manipulation and mobility to deliver these needed robotic capabilities in remote applications such as planetary operations. The mobile robot, RETRVIR, incorporates advanced developments in the integration of sensors, advanced computing environments, and graphical user interfaces. The addition of these elements in the control of remotely operated equipment have shown great promise for reducing the cost of remote construction while providing faster and safer operations.

A method which is capable of an efficient calculation of the two-dimensional stream function and velocity field produced by a large system of vortices is presented in this report. This work is based on the adaptive scheme of Carrier, Greengard, and Rokhlin with the added feature that the evaluation or target points do not have to coincide with the location of the source or vortex positions. A simple algorithm based on numerical experiments has been developed to optimize the method for cases where the number of vortices N{sub V} differs significantly from the number of target points N{sub T}. The ability to specify separate source and target fields provides an efficient means for calculating boundary conditions, trajectories of passive scalar quantities, and stream-function plots, etc. Test cases have been run to benchmark the truncation errors and CPU time savings associated with the method. For six terms in the series expansions, non-dimensional truncation errors for the magnitudes of the complex potential and velocity fields are on the order of 10{sup {minus}5} and 10{sup {minus}3} respectively. The authors found that the CPU time scales as {radical}(N{sub V}N{sub T}) for N{sub V}/N{sub T} in the range of 0.1 to 10. For {radical}(N{sub V}N{sub T}) less than 200, there is virtually no CPU time savings while for {radical}N{sub V}N{sub T} roughly equal to 20,000, the fast solver obtains solutions in about 1% of the time required for the direct solution technique depending somewhat upon the configuration of the vortex field and the target field.

The objective of this project was to demonstrate proof of concept of a thin film field emission electron source based on electron tunneling between discrete metal islands on an insulating substrate. An electron source of this type should be more easily fabricated permitting the use of a wider range of materials, and be less prone to damage and erratic behavior than the patterned field emitter arrays currently under development for flat panel displays and other vacuum microelectronic applications. This report describes the results of the studies of electron and light emission from such structures, and the subsequent discovery of a source of light emission from conductive paths across thin insulating gaps of the semiconductor-insulator-semiconductor (SIS) and metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structures. The substrates consisted of silicon nitride and silicon dioxide on silicon wafers, Kapton{reg_sign}, quartz, and cut slabs of silica aerogels. The conductive film samples were prepared by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and sputtering, while the MIS and SIS samples were prepared by CVD followed by cleaving, grinding, mechanical indentation, erosion by a sputter Auger beam, electrical arcing and chemical etching. Electron emission measurements were conducted in high and ultra high vacuum systems at SNL, NM as well as at SNL, CA. Optical emission measurements were made in air under an optical microscope as well as in the above vacuum environments. Sample morphology was investigated using both scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).