Benchmark experiment of large-angle scattering reaction cross section of iron at 14 MeV using two shadow bars – Comparison of experimental results with ENDF/B-VIII –

ABSTRACT

It is important to perform neutron transport simulations with accurate nuclear data in the neutronics design of a fusion reactor. However, absolute values of large-angle scattering cross sections vary among nuclear data libraries even for well-examined nuclide of iron. Benchmark experiments focusing on large-angle scattering cross sections were thus performed to confirm the correctness of nuclear data libraries. The series benchmark experiments were performed at a DT neutron source facility, OKTAVIAN of Osaka University, Japan, by the unique experimental system established by the authors’ group, which can extract only the contribution of large-angle scattering reactions. This system consists of two shadow bars, target plate (iron), and neutron detector (niobium). Two types of shadow bars were used and four irradiations were conducted for one experiment, so that contribution of room-return neutrons was effectively removed and only large-angle scattering neutrons were extracted from the measured four Nb reaction rates. The obtained experimental results were compared with calculations for five nuclear data libraries including JENDL-4.0, JEFF.-3.3, FENDL-3.1, ENDF/B- VII, and recently released ENDF/B-VIII. It was found from the comparison that ENDF/B-VIII showed the best result, though ENDF/B-VII showed overestimation and others are in large underestimation at 14 MeV.     

Direct observation of the crystal-growth transition in undercooled silicon

Using an electromagnetic levitation facility with a laser heating unit, silicon droplets were highly undercooled in the containerless state. The crystal morphologies on the surface of the undercooled droplets during the solidification process and after solidification were recorded live by using a high-speed camera and were observed by scanning electron microscopy. The growth behavior of silicon was found to vary not only with the nucleation undercooling, but also with the time after nucleation. In the earlier stage of solidification, the silicon grew in lateral, intermediary, and continuous modes at low, medium, and high undercoolings, respectively. In the later stage of solidification, the growth of highly undercooled silicon can transform to the lateral mode from the nonlateral one. The transition time of the sample with 320 K of undercooling was about 535 ms after recalescence, which was much later than the time where recalescence was completed.     

Containerless solidification of highly undercooled mullite melts: Crystal growth behavior and microstructure formation

A mullite (3Al₂O₃·2SiO₂) sample has been levitated and undercooled in an aero-acoustic levitator, so as to investigate the solidification behavior in a containerless condition. Crystal-growth velocities are measured as a function of melt undercoolings, which increase slowly with melt undercoolings up to 380 K and then increase quickly when undercoolings exceed 400 K. In order to elucidate the crystal growth and solidification behavior, the relationship of melt viscosities as a function of melt undercoolings is established on the basis of the fact that molten mullite melts are fragile, from which the atomic diffusivity is calculated via the Einstein-Stokes equation. The interface kinetics is analyzed when considering atomic diffusivities. The crystal-growth velocity vs melt undercooling is calculated based on the classical rate theory. Interestingly, two different microstructures are observed; one exhibits a straight, faceted rod without any branching with melt undercoolings up to 400 K, and the other is a feathery faceted dendrite when undercoolings exceed 400 K. The formation of these morphologies is discussed, taking into account the contributions of constitutional and kinetic undercoolings at different bulk undercoolings.     

Dissolution of Ti wires in sulphuric acid and hydrochloric acid solutions

Ti wire electrodes were immersed in acidic solutions containing H₂SO₄ and HCl of various concentrations at 353 K to evaluate corrosion rate by measurement of electric resistance change (resistometry). Addition of hydrochloric acid to sulphuric acid solution promoted depassivation of Ti. After depassivation, the immersion potential dropped to the hydrogen evolution potential and a hydride layer was formed on the surface. The hydride layer dissolved continuously in the acidic solution. SEM observation showed that Ti wires dissolved almost uniformly in the early stage and that the dissolution then trace became irregular due to nonuniform growth of the hydride layer. Dissolution rate of a Ti wire was estimated almost accurately by resistometry.     

High performance 35 nm gate length CMOS with NO oxynitride gate dielectric and Ni salicide

The 35 nm gate length CMOS devices with oxynitride gate dielectric and Ni salicide have been fabricated to study the feasibility of higher performance operation. Nitrogen concentration in gate oxynitride was optimized to reduce gate current I/sub g/ and to prevent boron penetration in the pFET. The thermal budget in the middle of the line (MOL) process was reduced enough to realize shallower junction depth in the S/D extension regions and to suppress gate poly-Si depletion. Finally, the current drives of 676 /spl mu/A//spl mu/m in nFET and 272 /spl mu/A//spl mu/m in pFET at V/sub dd/=0.85 V (at I/sub off/=100 nA//spl mu/m) were achieved and they are the best values for 35 nm gate length CMOS reported to date.     

A calibration method for the energy-integrating function in photovoltaic system monitoring

Solar radiation has an irregularly varying factor due to a basic day and night cycle and climatic conditions. For such conditions a data sampling interval is important to ensure the accuracy of energy monitoring in a photovoltaic system. While treating a system monitoring equipment as a black box. the author has developed the method of calibrating an energy-integrating function. At first for various input waveforms, the relationship between sampling intervals and quasi-integration outputs have been examined by trapezoidal rule. In the numerical simulation the phases of the sampling clock also are considered Then it is concluded that a sampling interval can be inspected through outside observation only by using a rectangular single pulse. By applying the pulse to the energy-integrating process, two kinds of integrated outputs can be obtained for different sampling phases. The calculated difference between both outputs can uniquely give the sampling interval being inspected. Conditions to ensure measuring accuracy are discussed and the validity of this method has been demonstrated experimentally. Practical calibrating procedures also are proposed for the integrating function of PV system monitoring.     

Spherical Yttrium Aluminum Garnet Embedded in a Glass Matrix

Containerless processing was used to investigate the glass-forming behavior of Al₂O₃–Y₂O₃ glass. The amorphous bulk samples were obtained at compositions with 25–37.5 mol% yttria when the melt was cooled at a cooling rate of ∼250 K/s. Although small spherical particles (∼10 μm) with the same composition of the matrix were detected in the amorphous samples with 32.5–37.5 mol% yttria, the microfocus X-ray diffraction result indicated that the small spherical particles were crystalline Y₃Al₅O₁₂ garnet (YAG), rather than being amorphous. This observation suggested that small YAG particles could not grow larger after their nucleation, because of the high viscosity at high undercooling and the high cooling rate, which would graze the nose of the continuous cooling temperature diagram of YAG.     

Enhanced thermal stability of poly(lactide)s in the melt by enantiomeric polymer blending

Poly(l-lactide) (i.e. poly(l-lactic acid) (PLLA)) and poly(d-lactide) (i.e. poly(d-lactic acid) (PDLA)) and their equimolar enantiomeric blend (PLLA/PDLA) films were prepared and the effects of enantiomeric polymer blending on the thermal stability and degradation of the films were investigated isothermally and non-isothermally under nitrogen gas using thermogravimetry (TG). The enantiomeric polymer blending was found to successfully enhance the thermal stability of the PLLA/PDLA film compared with those of the pure PLLA and PDLA films. The activation energies for thermal degradation (ΔE_td) were evaluated at different weight loss values from TG data using the procedure recommended by MacCallum et al. The ΔE_td values of the PLLA/PDLA, PLLA, and PDLA films were in the range of 205-297, 77-132, and 155-242 kJ mol⁻¹ when they were evaluated at weight loss values of 25-90% and the ΔE_td value of the PLLA/PDLA film was higher by 82-110 kJ mol⁻¹ than the averaged ΔE_td value of the PLLA and PDLA films. The mechanism for the enhanced thermal stability of the PLLA/PDLA film is discussed.