External Collaborators

Sponsors

Fundamental → Applied → Commercial Example

Caruso-Paquette Research Group – Blue Collar Physics and Opportunities for Collaboration

IntroductionEach research thrust in the Paqurso group is disparate in application, but all motivated by understanding, controlling and implementing some fundamental physical phenomena. In most cases, it is the ill-pragmatic knowledge of the electronic structure of surfaces, combined with the skillset of a day laborer, that somehow manifests itself into the projects discussed throughout this poster (i.e., blue collar physics). The commonality between projects is usually that of uniqueness; we find that competing with major research groups on standard/hot topics/solutions is too difficult to find funding for; thus, we come from left field with a solution to a problem, or, work on problems that reside in left field. The tricky part is convincing a program officer that a left field topic or solution is important and worth funding.

Whenever possible, we try to span the fundamental-applied-commercial research areas. For an ideal project, it starts with a strong need and usually, solutions in the prior art do not fully solve the problem or meet the need. From here, a concept rooted in fundamental physics is developed (phenomenological or analytical form) to meet the need and proof of that concept (i.e., art-of-the-possible) is demonstrated. Following the demonstration phase we may try to integrate the fundamental concept into a commercial level architecture with a commercial partner. However, very few projects actually make it this far (e.g., an instrument that the Navy would use or a thin film that Intel would integrate with their product line).

Not focusing on one area has its downfalls and definitely has hurt the group in some ways; however, the approach may work in the long run as techniques/methods from other fields/communities are necessary to keep innovation strong. So, while we sometimes struggle with not being the foremost scholars in some of the research areas you see on this poster, we are cross pollinating in a way that will bring the field(s) forward in total more so than if we focused on the part alone.

Eliot Myers, Brad Nordell, Stephan Young, Brent Roges, Ren Dickson, Noah Kramer, Paul Scott, James Currie, Cory Hoshor, Gyanendra Bhattarai, Chris Keck, Justin Hurley, Steve Bales, Mark Pederson, Thuong Nguyen, Andrew Weber, Shallesh Dhungana, Sridhar Vanja, Joseph Crow, Michelle Paquette, and A.N. Caruso, carusoan@umkc.edu

Portable Neutron Spectrometry and Imaging

Like a bullet shot into sand, the depth reached is related to its incident kinetic energy. In moderating type neutron spectrometry the same principle holds, expect it’s neutrons bouncing (scattering) off of hydrogen instead of sand. For the instrument represented here, the position at which a neutron is detected tells us something about where it came from and how much energy it had. Point of origin is of interest for finding where sources are located, while kinetic energy yields a fingerprint of what the neutron came from (isotope).

Equipment / Capabilities

Improving on Hybrid Electric PowerResponse Function Fusion

Molecule-based Magnetism

The following capabilities are available for use under a collaboration and/or user fee:

Thin Film DepositionRF and DC Magnetron Sputtering (2”,3”,4” guns, reactive sputtering, QCM thickness, 1E-8 Torr base pressure, many standard and specialized targets available, custom masks/fixtures)Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (500-W RF, 5-kW DC, matching network, 8” diameter showerhead, 4” rotating substrate heater up to 500-C)Thermal Evaporation (500-Ampere, custom boats/crucibles, sublimation rods, QCM thickness monitoring, 1E-9 Torr base pressure)

Special Contacts for Electrical Characterization Radioactive SourcesWire bonder (Palomar wedge bonder) Neutron and Gamma-ray Sources – contact Caruso for detailsMercury probe

Electronic Structure, Magnetic Structure, and Electrical Carrier Transport CharacterizationX-ray Photoemission Spectroscopy (Kratos Axis HS w/ CASA XPS analysis software, Al-Kα, Mg-Kα, He I, He II, Ar+ etching, in situ evaporation, annealing, 5E-10 Torr, LN2 cooling capable)Magnetic Susceptbility and Magnetization (Quantum Design Physics Properties Measurement System, 0-9 Tesla, low field option, 1.6 – 400-K, frequency dependence) DC Hall for high resistivity materials (2 Tesla open bore magnet, using picocurrent source and high impedance electrometer)Impedance Spectroscopy (HP 4156A, custom sample contract fixtures)Dark Injection Space Charge Limited CurrentPhotoconductivity (and all associated coefficient/variable needs determined separately from ellipsometry and modelling)

Early Prototype Example

Acknowledgements

Tunable Conductivity Surfaces

The image above represents an early prototype neutron spectrometer system (weighing ~80 lbs total) that we designed, built and tested for an ONR field exercise. The purpose of showing this image is to demonstrate the ridiculous ends we went (carrying around an instrument that’s 10x too heavy) to show that this concept was feasible.

Vehicles (and some electrical power systems) that rely on internal combustion engines (ICE) alone are energy inefficient. This is because the ICE is itself inefficient (<30%) and much of the vehicle kinetic energy is lost to heat (e.g., brakes). ICE-battery hybrid systems improve on the ICE only concept, but ICE-battery-flywheel-capacitor or similar systems are even more efficient. This project explores the energy efficiency improvements of vehicle systems which use electrical energy storage components that achieve a better energy- and power-density balance.

Generator

Ultracapacitor bank

Inverter

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ICE

DC/DC converter

DC/DC converter

DC bus

Flywheel

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DC/DC converter

Rectifier

DC/DC converter

*This work is performed in collaboration with Prof. Nathan Oyler (UMKC – Chemistry) and Prof. Mike Kelly (UMKC – CME).

Below is an example of a complete research and development cycle. In this case, the Office of Naval Research solicited for the development of instruments and methods that could meet their need for a more unique signature of special nuclear material. We replied with a concept to measure the neutron kinetic energy degree-of-freedom and were funded to build a prototype device to demonstrate the art-of-the-possible. Following a successful demonstration of the prototype, we were invited to build a fieldable prototype and exercise it at Naval Station Norfolk. After the field exercise showed the expected results we were asked to shrink the instrument to a manageable size and demonstrate it could still meet the requirements; doing so required going back to the basics of neutron scattering and starting the design from scratch. Following this overhaul/refinement, two of the non-provisional patents from the work were licensed by an external company (a UMKC Physics alumnus). From here, a commercialization grant from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency was awarded and the instrument is now an available product.

6-fold coordination by cyano’s (−C≡N)

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Topological Insulators

The value of the electrical conductivity of a surface can govern whether light reflects from it or not. The aim of this project is to reproducibly control the conductivity of a material (especially its surface) by making slight changes to its electronic structure. The application for this tunable conductivity surface is to control the reflection and transmission of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (light).

Radiation Detection Technologies, Inc.Steven Bellinger

Naval Research Laboratory – Code 6700Joseph Schumer, Robert Commisso, Stuart Jackson

UM – ColumbiaWilliam Miller

Kansas State University, Mech-Nuc Engr.Douglas McGregor, J. Kenneth Shultis, Tim Sobering

U2D, Inc.Paul Scott

The main goal of this project is to develop a sensor fusion technique for more accurate identification of radiological material, more specifically special nuclear materials (SNM’s). This can be broken down into two specific achievements…

(1) Fuse two orthogonal transduction devices (gamma and neutron) to develop more unique response functions and subsequently improve spectral identification

(2) Determine the improvement on shielding material identification by neutron spectroscopy information alone, and, the implication of fusing neutron spectroscopy identification certainty with photon identification certainty to yield higher net certainty

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Photon Energy (MeV)

NaI(Tl) CsI(Na) NaI(Tl) AND CsI(Na)

Since one can view a measured pulse height spectrum from a single detector as a discrete probability distribution of counts as a function of channel number, such probability distributions from two different detectors collecting data simultaneously may be represented as P(A) and P (B), and can be combined by P(A+B) = (P(A)*P(B)). The figure above is an example of this method applied to spectra obtained from NaI(Tl) and CsI(Na) scintillators in the presence of 133Ba, 137Cs, 40K, and 60Co gamma sources. This example of fusing two gamma-ray spectra can be extended to the case of fusing neutron and gamma spectroscopic data.

We are presently studying three methods to enable the change in the occupation of states (i.e., cause a metal-to-insulator transition), including:(1) adsorbing/desorbing molecules

that transfer charge from the underlying substrate;

(2) Applying a voltage to change the level of the chemical potential;

(3) Applying tuned microwaves to cause interband transitions to alter their occupation.

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Molecule-based magnetism is a field that strives to understand how magnetic information may be controllably communicated through traditionally non-magnetic bonds, and, over long distances. Applications include those where rare-earth magnets could be replaced (due to the low-density and low(er) cost of molecule-based magnets). In our group, we aim to understand what controls the communication of spin polarized metals (e.g., vanadium) between polarized (e.g., TCNE) and un-polarized ligands.

Topological Insulators are materials which are insulating in the bulk and metallic on the surface. The surface electron states have energies between the bulk valence band and bulk conduction band, tying those bands together in the energy-momentum space. These topological surface states pass through the Fermi level (Energy = 0), making them responsible for metallic behavior, but the flow of a current through such a metal occurs without the loss of energy because of the states’ unique spin-structure. The electron spin is helically coupled with its momentum, which prevents moving electrons from scattering backward. We can determine the relationship between the electron spin and momentum for surface states using spin- and angle-resolved photoemission, shown for the new material Bi6Se6 in Panels (a) and (b).