Effect of Surface Potential Barrier on the Electron Energy Distribution of NEA Photocathodes

By calculating the energy distribution of electrons reaching the photocathode surface and solving the Schrodinger equation that describes the behavior of an electron tunneling through the surface potential barrier,we obtain an equation to calculate the emitted electron energy distribution of transmission-mode NEA GaAs photocathodes. Accord- ing to the equation,we study the effect of cathode surface potential barrier on the electron energy distribution and find a significant effect of the barrier-Ⅰ thickness or end height,especially the thickness,on the quantum efficiency of the cath- ode. Barrier Ⅱ has an effect on the electron energy spread, and an increase in the vacuum level will lead to a narrower electron energy spread while sacrificing a certain amount of cathode quantum efficiency. The equation is also used to fit the measured electron energy distribution curve of the transmission-mode cathode and the parameters of the surface barri- er are obtained from the fitting. The theoretical curve is in good agreement with the experimental curve.

Design, simulation and testing of large area silicon drift detectors and detector array for X-ray spectroscopy

Large area (25 mm(2)) silicon drift detectors and detector arrays (5x5) have been designed, simulated, and fabricated for X-ray spectroscopy. On the anode side, the hexagonal drift detector was designed with self-biasing spiral cathode rings (p(+)) of fixed resistance between rings and with a grounded guard anode to separate surface current from the anode current. Two designs have been used for the P-side: symmetric self-biasing spiral cathode rings (p(+)) and a uniform backside p(+) implant. Only 3 to 5 electrodes are needed to bias the detector plus an anode for signal collection. With graded electrical potential, a sub-nanoamper anode current, and a very small anode capacitance, an initial FWHM of 1.3 keV, without optimization of all parameters, has been obtained for 5.9 keV Fe-55 X-ray at RT using a uniform backside detector.

Experimental Investigation of Performance of a Miniature Direct Methanol Fuel Cell in Short-Term Microgravity

Experimental study of a liquid fed direct methanol fuel cell has been conducted in different gravity environments. A small single cell with 5 cm x 5 cm active area has single serpentine channel on the graphite cathode polar plate and 11 parallel straight channels on the graphite anode flow bed. Cell voltage and current have been measured and two-phase flow in anode channels has been in situ visually observed. The experimental results indicate that the effect of gravity on power performance of the direct methanol fuel cell is large when the concentration polarization governs fuel cells operation. Gravitational effect becomes larger at higher current density. Increasing methanol feeding molarity is conducive to weaken the influence of gravity on performance of liquid fed direct methanol fuel cells. Increasing feeding flow rate of methanol solution from 6 to 15 ml/min could reduce the size of carbon dioxide bubbles, while the influence of gravity still exist. Transport phenomena inside direct methanol fuel cells in microgravity is also analyzed and discussed.

Modeling study on the flow, heat transfer and energy conversion characteristics of low-power arc-heated hydrogen/nitrogen thrusters

A modeling study is conducted to investigate the effect of hydrogen content in propellants on the plasma flow, heat transfer and energy conversion characteristics of low-power (kW class) arc-heated hydrogen/nitrogen thrusters (arcjets). 1:0 (pure hydrogen), 3:1 (to simulate decomposed ammonia), 2:1 (to simulate decomposed hydrazine) and 0:1 (pure nitrogen) hydrogen/nitrogen mixtures are chosen as the propellants. Both the gas flow region inside the thruster nozzle and the anode-nozzle wall are included in the computational domain in order to better treat the conjugate heat transfer between the gas flow region and the solid wall region. The axial variations of the enthalpy flux, kinetic energy flux, directed kinetic-energy flux, and momentum flux, all normalized to the mass flow rate of the propellant, are used to investigate the energy conversion process inside the thruster nozzle. The modeling results show that the values of the arc voltage, the gas axial-velocity at the thruster exit, and the specific impulse of the arcjet thruster all increase with increasing hydrogen content in the propellant, but the gas temperature at the nitrogen thruster exit is significantly higher than that for other three propellants. The flow, heat transfer, and energy conversion processes taking place in the thruster nozzle have some common features for all the four propellants. The propellant is heated mainly in the near-cathode and constrictor region, accompanied with a rapid increase of the enthalpy flux, and after achieving its maximum value, the enthalpy flux decreases appreciably due to the conversion of gas internal energy into its kinetic energy in the divergent segment of the thruster nozzle. The kinetic energy flux, directed kinetic energy flux and momentum flux also increase at first due to the arc heating and the thermodynamic expansion, assume their maximum inside the nozzle and then decrease gradually as the propellant flows toward the thruster exit. It is found that a large energy loss (31-52%) occurs in the thruster nozzle due to the heat transfer to the nozzle wall and too long nozzle is not necessary. Modeling results for the NASA 1-kW class arcjet thruster with hydrogen or decomposed hydrazine as the propellant are found to compare favorably with available experimental data.

Modeling study to compare the flow and heat transfer characteristics of low-power hydrogen, nitrogen and argon arc-heated thrusters

A modelling study is performed to compare the plasma °ow and heat transfer char- acteristics of low-power arc-heated thrusters (arcjets) for three di®erent propellants: hydrogen, nitrogen and argon. The all-speed SIMPLE algorithm is employed to solve the governing equa- tions, which take into account the e®ects of compressibility, Lorentz force and Joule heating, as well as the temperature- and pressure-dependence of the gas properties. The temperature, veloc- ity and Mach number distributions calculated within the thruster nozzle obtained with di®erent propellant gases are compared for the same thruster structure, dimensions, inlet-gas stagnant pressure and arc currents. The temperature distributions in the solid region of the anode-nozzle wall are also given. It is found that the °ow and energy conversion processes in the thruster nozzle show many similar features for all three propellants. For example, the propellant is heated mainly in the near-cathode and constrictor region, with the highest plasma temperature appear- ing near the cathode tip; the °ow transition from the subsonic to supersonic regime occurs within the constrictor region; the highest axial velocity appears inside the nozzle; and most of the input propellant °ows towards the thruster exit through the cooler gas region near the anode-nozzle wall. However, since the properties of hydrogen, nitrogen and argon, especially their molecular weights, speci¯c enthalpies and thermal conductivities, are di®erent, there are appreciable di®er- ences in arcjet performance. For example, compared to the other two propellants, the hydrogen arcjet thruster shows a higher plasma temperature in the arc region, and higher axial velocity but lower temperature at the thruster exit. Correspondingly, the hydrogen arcjet thruster has the highest speci¯c impulse and arc voltage for the same inlet stagnant pressure and arc current. The predictions of the modelling are compared favourably with available experimental results.

Numerical Simulation of a Low-power Hydrazine Arcjet Thruster

A modeling study is conducted to investigate the plasma flow and heat transfer characteristics of low-power (kW class) arc-heated thrusters (arcjets) with 2:1 hydrogen/nitrogen to simulate decomposed hydrazine as the propellant. The all-speed SIMPLE algorithm is employed to solve the governing equations, which take into account the effects of compressibility, the Lorentz force and Joule heating, as well as the temperature- and pressure-dependence of the gas properties. Typical computed results about the temperature, velocity and Mach number distributions within arcjet thruster are presented for the case with arc current of 9 A and inlet stagnant pressure of 3.3×105 Pa to show the flow and heat transfer characteristics. It is found that the propellant is heated mainly in the near-cathode and constrictor region, with the highest plasma temperature appearing near the cathode tip, and the flow transition from the subsonic to supersonic regime occurs within the constrictor region. The effect of gas viscosity on the plasma flow within arcjet thruster is examined by an additional numerical test using artificially reduced values of gas viscosity. The test results show that the gas viscosity appreciably affects the plasma flow and the performance of the arcjet thruster for the cases with the hydrazine or hydrogen as the propellant. The integrated axial Lorentz force in the thruster nozzle is also calculated and compared with the thrust force of the arcjet thruster. It is found that the integrated axial Lorentz force is much smaller than the thrust force for the low-power arcjet thruster. Modeling results for the NASA 1-kW class arcjet thruster with simulated hydrazine as the propellant are found to be reasonably consistent with available experimental data.

无介体双室微生物燃料电池产电性能初步研究

本文对无介体双室微生物燃料电池的产电性能进行了初步研究，并根据不同运行阶段产电性能的优劣，对其中微生物的差异性进行了比较分析。全文分为两个部分： 第一部分：以乙酸钠为阳极原料构建双室微生物燃料电池（MFC），研究不同阴极受体、外接电阻、乙酸钠浓度和pH等因素对电池产电性能的影响，研究结果表明：在500mL的阴阳极反应体系中，选用乙酸钠作为阳极底物，质量浓度为6.46 g/L， pH 7.0，接入500Ω外电阻，阴极电子受体选择高锰酸钾的情况下，微生物燃料电池产电性能最好，最大电功率密度达到294.72 mW/m2，库伦效率能达到25.87%。在确定最适外接电阻阻值的同时对MFC内阻进行测定，阻值为871.87Ω。 第二部分：微生物燃料电池运行中，比较以厌氧污泥作为接种源的第一阶段和只接入附着有大量微生物电极的第二阶段的产电性能，得出第二阶段产电性能优于第一阶段，最大电功率密度达到353.57mW/m2，比第一阶段提高58.85 mW/m2；库伦效率为39.35%，增幅达52％左右；针对微生物燃料电池运行过程中，底物CH3COONa可能存在其它的代谢途径，本实验进行了第二阶段产电性能与CH3COONa消耗率关系以及阳极液面上方气体成分和含量的研究，发现第二阶段50h前CH3COONa的大量消耗主要用于微生物的生长，在整个运行过程中，阳极液面上方含有CH4和CO2；对气体测定的同时还发现，振荡能增强电功率密度的输出；通过对电极上和污泥中微生物差异性分析得出，δ-变形菌纲、β-变形菌纲和拟杆菌门的菌种更适应微生物燃料电池的运行环境，能在电极上大量富集，提高电池的产电性能，只接入附着有大量微生物的电极能有效降低热袍菌纲的菌种数量，降低了CH3COONa的无为消耗，有效提高了电池的库伦效率。 Electricity production in the mediator-less two-chambered microbial fuel cell(MFC) was researched. Based on the result in the different operation phase in the MFC, the microbial diversity was analysed. The paper involved two parts: Part 1: A two-chambered microbial fuel cell (MFC) was constructed with high-concentration sodium acetate as fuel in the anode. The influence of different electron acceptors in the cathode, external resistance value, pH value and concentration of sodium acetate on electricity generation in MFC was investigated. The result showed that the maximum power density of 294.72 mW/m2 and the coulombic efficiency of 25.87% was achieved at sodium acetate concentration of 6.46 g/L, pH 7.0, external resistance 500Ωin the anode and when using potassium permanganate as electron acceptor in the cathode. While decided the value of resistor, we found that shaking has effect on electricity production in the MFC. Part 2: Comparing the electricity production in different operation phases when using anaerobic sludge as inoculum in the first phase and microbes in the anodic electrode as inoculum in the second phase, the result showed that electricity production in the second phase was more than that in the first phase, the maximum power density of 353.57 mW/m2 and the coulombic efficiency of 39.35% was achieved, 58.85 mW/m2 and 52％ more than that in the first phase, respectively. According to the fact that CH3COONa might be metabolized in other pathway in the running process in the MFC, we determining the relationship between electricity production and CH3COONa consumption, and the gas content in the anode, we found that CH3COONa was mainly used for microbe growth before 50h, and the anode contained CH4 and CO2. At the same time, we found that shaking could improve power density. The analysis on diversity of microbe in the anodic electrode and anaerobic sludge showed that δ-proteobacterium, β-proteobacterium and Bacteroidetes adapted themselves to the running environment of MFC. The anode could enrich them to improve the electricity production while reduced the quantity of Thermotogales, which were obligately anaerobic organotrophs with a fermentative metabolism, to increase the coulombic efficiency effectively.

The preparation of 238U targets on 2mm Al foils

Preparation of 238U on 2μm Al foils by molecular plating technique is described. In order to obtain optimum conditions for deposition, several parameters influencing the quality of layers such as current density, distance between the anode and cathode and the deposition time were investigated. The target thickness was determined by spectrophotometry. The uniformity and morphology of the target surface were studied by means of scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry and Infrared spectra. The results show that uranium is deposited in its oxide or hydroxide form uniformly and adherently onto the foil.

Development of external electron-beam enhancement of the Penning ionization gauge ion source

To study the injection of additional electrons from an external electron gun into the plasma of a Penning ionization gauge (PIG) ion source, a test bench for the external electron-beam enhancement of the PIG (E-PIG) ion source was set up. A source magnet assembly was built to satisfy the request for magnetic field configuration of the E-PIG ion source. Numerical calculations have been done to optimize the magnetic field configuration so as to fit the primary electrons to be fed into the PIG discharge chamber along the spreading magnetic field lines. Many possible methods for improving the performance and stability of the PIG ion source have been used in the E-PIG ion source, including the use of multicrystal LaB6 cathode and optimized axial magnetic field. This article presents a detailed design of the E-PIG ion source. Substantial enhancement of ion charge state is expected to be observed which demonstrates that the E-PIG is a viable alternative to other much more costly and difficult to operate devices for the production of intense ion beams of higher charge state.

Simulation of micromegas detector by garfield program

In this paper, a batch file which describes the detailed structure and the corresponding physical process of Micro-Mesh Gaseous Structure (Micromegas) detector, the macro commands and the control structures based on the Garfield program has been developed. And using the Garfield program controlled by this batch file, the detector's gain and spatial resolution have been investigated under different conditions. These results obtained by the simulation program not only exhibit the influences of the mesh and drift voltage, the mixture gas proportion, the distance between the mesh cathode and the printed circuit board readout anode, and the Lines Per Inch of the mesh cathode on the gain and spatial resolution of the detector, but also are very important to optimize the design, shorten the experimental period, and save cost during the detector development. Additionally, they also indicate that the Garfield program is a powerful tool for the Micromegas detector design and optimization.

八单元一维位置灵敏雪崩室

In the experiment of nuclear reaction, it is important to measure the mass, charge, energy and emitted direction of particles. For multiparameter measurement, we must use a detector or a group of detectors which can give the time, energy, and position information. The Large Area position sensitive Ionization Chamber(LAIC) is one of the eight experiment terminals of HIRFL. It is built for researching nuclear reactions from low energy to intermediate energy. It is an excellent equipment for energy measurements and atomic number identification of emitted fragments in this energy region. It is also designed to give the time and position information of the emitted fragments by itself. Obviously, an IC can not supply a good timing signal. Moreover, the mechanical installation is different from the original design by some other reasons. In this case, it is not enough to obtain the correct direction information of the emitted fragments. To obtain good timing signals and the correct direction information, some modifications must be made. It is well known that a PPAC can give us excellent timing signals. It also can be easily built as a position sensitive detector. For this reason, a specially designed PPAC is installed in the entrance of the LAIC. For the different purposes, two types of PPACs were designed and tested. Both are OCTPSACs (OCTunit one dimension Position Sensitive Avalanche Counter). In this paper, both OCTPSACs will be introduced. Based on the requirements of the LAIC, the OCTPSACs consist of eight position sensitive PPACs. Each PPAC has an anode and a cathode. In both cases, the sizes are same. But different type of cathodes are used. In one type of OCTPSAC, its cathode is made of wire plane. It consists of gold-plated tungsten wires with the diameter of 20μm, spaced 0.5 mm apart from each other. The anode is a mylar foil which was evaporated by gold layer with the thickness of 50μg/cm~2 mounted on a printed plate in the shape of rectangle. the thickness of mylar foil is 1.5μm. The gap between anode and cathode is 3mm. The performance of the OCTPSAC has been tested by using a ~(252)Cf source in flowing isobutylene gas at the pressure of 3.4mb. The intrinsic time resolution of 289ps and position resolution of 2 mm have been obtained. In another type of OCTPSAC, the cathode is made of mylar foil, which is composed of gold strip by vacuume evaporation method with a special mask on the mylar foil. The thickness and the width of the gold strip is 50μg/cm~2 and 1.7mm. The strips are spaced 0.3 mm apart from each other. The anode is the same as the former type. We have obtained the time resolution of 296ps and position resolution of 2mm by using ~(241)Am-a source when the gas pressure is 6 mb and high voltage is 600V. The working gas is heptane

The effect of methanol and ethanol cross-over on the performance of PtRu/C-based anode DAFCs

In the present work, the cross-over rates of methanol and ethanol, respectively, through Nafion(R)-115 membranes at different temperatures and different concentrations have been measured and compared. The changes of Nafion(R)-115 membrane porosity in the presence of methanol or ethanol aqueous solutions were also determined by weighing vacuum-dried and alcohol solution-equilibrated membranes. The techniques of anode polarization and adsorption stripping voltarnmetry were applied to compare the electrochemical activity and adsorption ability, respectively. To investigate the consequences of methanol and ethanol permeation from the anode to the cathode on the performance of direct alcohol fuel cells (DAFCs), single DAFC tests, with methanol or ethanol as the fuel, have been carried out and the corresponding anode and cathode polarizations versus dynamic hydrogen electrode (DHE) were also performed. The effect of alcohol concentration on the performance of PtRu/C anode-based DAFCs was investigated.

Degradation mechanism of polystyrene sulfonic acid membrane and application of its composite membranes in fuel cells

The lifetime behavior of a H-2/O-2 proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell with polystyrene sulfonic acid (PSSA) membrane have been investigated in order to give an insight into the degradation mechanism of the PSSA membrane. The distribution of sulfur concentration in the cross section of the PSSA membrane was measured by energy dispersive analysis of X-ray, and the chemical composition of the PSSA membrane was characterized by infrared spectroscopy before and after the lifetime experiment. The degradation mechanism of the PSSA membrane is postulated as: the oxygen reduction at the cathode proceeds through some peroxide intermediates during the fuel cell operation, and these intermediates have strong oxidative ability and may chemically attack the tertiary hydrogen at the a carbon of the PSSA; the degradation of the PSSA membrane mainly takes place at the cathode side of the cell, and the loss of the aromatic rings and the SO3- groups simultaneously occurs from the PSSA membrane. A new kind of the PSSA-Nafion composite membrane, where the Nafion membrane is bonded with the PSSA membrane and located at the cathode of the cell, was designed to prevent oxidation degradation of the PSSA membrane in fuel cells. The performances of fuel cells with PSSA-Nafion101 and PSSA-recast Nafion composite membranes are demonstrated to be stable after 835 h and 240 h, respectively.

Fabrication of a miniature twin-fuel-cell on silicon wafer

The fabrication and performance evaluation of a miniature twin-fuel-cell on silicon wafers are presented in this paper. The miniature twin-fuel-cell was fabricated in series using two membrane-electrode-assemblies sandwiched between two silicon substrates in which electric current, reactant, and product flow. The novel structure of the miniature twin-fuel-cell is that the electricity interconnect from the cathode of one cell to the anode of another cell is made on the same plane. The interconnect was fabricated by sputtering a layer of copper over a layer of gold on the top of the silicon wafer. Silicon dioxide was deposited on the silicon wafer adjacent to the copper layer to prevent short-circuiting between the twin cells. The feed holes and channels in the silicon wafers were prepared by anisotropic silicon etching from the back and front of the wafer with silicon dioxide acting as intrinsic etch-stop layer. Operating on dry H-2/O-2 at 25 degreesC and atmospheric pressure, the measured peak power density was 190.4 mW/cm(2) at 270 mA/cm(2) for the miniature twin-fuel-cell using a Nafion 112 membrane. Based on the polarization curves of the twin-fuel-cell and the two single cells, the interconnect resistance between the twin cells was calculated to be in the range from 0.0113 Omega (at 10 mA/cm(2)) to 0.0150 Omega (at 300 mA/cm(2)), which is relatively low. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.