Electron Kinetic Energy Research Articles

Time-dependent density-functional-theory calculations of the nonlocal electron stopping range for inertial confinement fusion applications.

Nonlocal electron transport is important for understanding laser-target coupling for laser-direct-drive (LDD) inertial confinement fusion (ICF) simulations. Current models for the nonlocal electron mean free path in radiation-hydrodynamic codes are based on plasma-physics models developed decades ago; improvements are needed to accurately predict the electron conduction in LDD simulations of ICF target implosions. We utilized time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) to calculate the electron stopping power (SP) in the so-called conduction-zone plasmas of polystyrene in a wide range of densities and temperatures relevant to LDD. Compared with the modified Lee-More model, the TD-DFT calculations indicated a lower SP and a higher stopping range for nonlocal electrons. We fit these electron SP calculations to obtain a global analytical model for the electron stopping range as a function of plasma conditions and the nonlocal electron kinetic energy. This model was implemented in the one-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamic code lilac to perform simulations of LDD ICF implosions, which are further compared with simulations by the standard modified Lee-More model. Results from these integrated simulations are discussed in terms of the implications of this TD-DFT-based mean-free-path model to ICF simulations.

Energy Dissipation in Magnetic Islands Formed during Magnetic Reconnection

Magnetic reconnection converts magnetic energy into particle kinetic energy, and satellite observations have shown that 20%–50% of magnetic energy is channeled into electron kinetic energy. How such a large amount of magnetic energy is dissipated into electron kinetic energy is in debate. In this paper, by performing a large-scale 2D particle-in-cell simulation of magnetic reconnection with a guide field, we find that there exist both ion and electron shear flows in magnetic islands formed during magnetic reconnection, which are unstable to the ion and electron Kelvin–Helmholtz (K-H) instabilities. With the development of the K-H instabilities, the magnetic field lines are twisted in these magnetic islands, and intensified electron-scale current sheets are consequently generated. We quantitatively analyze the energy dissipation during such a process in magnetic islands and find that electrons obtain kinetic energy from the magnetic field while ion kinetic energy is transferred into magnetic energy. At last, it results that about 42% of magnetic energy is dissipated into electron kinetic energy in the whole process of magnetic reconnection. Our results help us better understand why a large amount of magnetic energy can be dissipated into electron kinetic energy.

Threshold Photoionization and Density Functional Theory Investigations of Small Lanthanum Monoxide Clusters, LanO (n = 2-10).

Small lanthanum monoxide clusters, LanO (n = 2-10), have been studied by laser threshold photoionization (PI) spectroscopy and density functional theory (DFT). Ionization energies (IEs) gradually decrease with cluster size with oscillatory behavior at certain sizes at n = 4, 7, and 9, and the IEs are slightly lower than the corresponding bare Lan clusters. Mulliken charge analysis of the neutral and cation clusters indicates that the threshold PI occurs from a delocalized metal-based 5d orbital. The stable geometric structures and IEs for the LanO (n = 2-8) clusters have been determined from DFT. Zero electron kinetic energy and PI spectra have been calculated based on DFT calculations and compared with the experimental PI spectra. On the basis of favorable agreement between the simulated and experimental PI spectra, reliable ground-state geometric structures have been assigned. The O atom is negatively charged, equivalent to one electronic charge mainly transferred from La atoms bonded to it. Chemical bonding between the La and O atoms is ionic, whereas La atoms are mostly covalently bonded. No direct correlation is found between the electronic properties like the IE, electron affinity, and HOMO-LUMO gap and the stability of these clusters.

(Digital Presentation) Temporal Evolution of Kinetic Energy in Two Different Plasma Systems

During the last few decades, simulation has emerged as a powerful new tool. Numerous branches of science and engineering have been revolutionized by computer simulations. Through the use of particle-in-cell simulation systems comprising many species, including electrons, ions, neutrals, molecules, dust particles, etc., are studied by the plasma research community. The current work attempts to investigate the kinetic energy behavior in two various electrostatic plasma systems using a 1D PIC simulation. Two homogeneous and non-collisional systems are considered. In the first system, just cold electrons are present. Along with cold electrons, the second system also contains electrons with a thermal velocity of 0.4 ωpe/K . In other words, the second system includes two kinds of electrons (cold and warm electrons). The same initial perturbation is applied to both systems at t=0 s. Ions are assumed to be infinitely massive and only serve as a neutralizing background for electrons.Diagrams of I, II, and III represent the kinetic energy of cold electrons, kinetic energy of electrons with a thermal velocity of 0.4 ωpe/K, and the total kinetic energy, respectively. It is worth noting that kinetic energy of cold electrons is equal to total kinetic energy in the first system. From the comparison of Figs. 1(a) and (b), it can be understood that when there is a cold type of electron in the system, the particles receive energy from the wave, but in a system that contains two types of cold and warms electrons, only warm electrons will receive energy from the wave and the kinetic energy of these warm particles increases. In contrast to Fig. 1(a), cold electrons give energy to the system. Additionally, in both cases, the total kinetic energy increases and as time goes on, the system approximates to stability and fluctuations decline. This result indicates that not only all the initial energy is not absorbed by the environment, but also a portion of it will remain in the medium. Figure 1

Identifying the secondary electron cutoff in ultraviolet photoemission spectra for work function measurements of non-ideal surfaces

Absolute values of work functions can be determined in ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS) by measuring the minimum kinetic energy of secondary electrons generated by a known photon energy. However, some samples can produce spectra that are difficult to interpret due to additional intensity below the true secondary electron cutoff. Disordered absorbates on elemental metals add small intensity below the onset for the transition metal surfaces studied, which can be attributed to energy losses after photoelectrons are generated. In contrast, spectra from WO3−x films can produce multiple onsets with comparable intensity which do not fit this model. False onsets (in the context of work function measurements) can be minimized by optimizing experimental detection parameters including limiting analyzer acceptance angles and pass energy. True work functions can be identified by examining the onsets as the sample bias is varied.

Electron kinetics in a positive column of AC discharges in a dynamic regime

We have performed hybrid kinetic-fluid simulations of a positive column in alternating current (AC) argon discharges over a range of driving frequencies f and gas pressure p for the conditions when the spatial nonlocality of the electron energy distribution function (EEDF) is substantial. Our simulations confirmed that the most efficient conditions of plasma maintenance are observed in the dynamic regime when time modulations of mean electron energy (temperature) are substantial. The minimal values of the root mean square electric field and the electron temperature have been observed at f/p values of about 3 kHz Torr−1 in a tube of radius R = 1 cm. The ionization rate and plasma density reached maximal values under these conditions. The numerical solution of a kinetic equation allowed accounting for the kinetic effects associated with spatial and temporal nonlocality of the EEDF. Using the kinetic energy of electrons as an independent variable, we solved an anisotropic tensor diffusion equation in phase space. We clarified the role of different flux components during electron diffusion in phase space over surfaces of constant total energy. We have shown that the kinetic theory uncovers a more exciting and rich physics than the classical ambipolar diffusion (Schottky) model. Non-monotonic radial distributions of excitation rates, metastable densities, and plasma density have been observed in our simulations at pR > 6 Torr cm. The predicted off-axis plasma density peak in the dynamic regime has never been observed in experiments so far. We hope our results stimulate further experimental studies of the AC positive column. The kinetic analysis could help uncover new physics even for such a well-known plasma object as a positive column in noble gases.

Electron energy dissipation in a magnetotail reconnection region

The four Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft encountered a reconnection region in the Earth's magnetospheric tail on 11 July 2017. Previous publications have reported characteristics of the electron diffusion region, including its aspect ratio, the reconnection electric field, plasma wave generation from electron beams in its vicinity, and energetic particles in the Earthward exhaust. This paper reports on the investigation of conversion of electromagnetic energy to electron kinetic energy (by J·E) and the ensuing conversion of electron beam energy to electron thermal energy via the pressure–strain interaction. The main result is that omnidirectional, compressive dissipation of electron energy dominates in the positive J·E region, while incompressive parallel dissipation dominates in the inflow region where J·E is small. The existence of parallel electric fields in the inflow region supports previous suggestions that electron trapping by these fields contributes to the parallel dissipation. All of the results are reproduced quantitatively within a factor of two with a 2.5-D particle-in-cell simulation.

DFT-based investigation of electronic-structure, magnetic and thermoelectric properties of Dy2CoMnO6 double perovskite

The density functional theory as a computational approach was used to explore the ferrimagnetic semiconducting behavior of Dy2CoMnO6 double perovskite compound in both spin-up and spin-down directions. Thermodynamic stability was confirmed in a wide pressure range set to 30 GPa. Both scalar and full relativistic calculations are used to estimate the spin–orbit effect. The topological distribution of the charge density and the net effective charge of each atom are studied based on the Quantum Theory of Atoms in Molecules (QTAIM) as implemented in Bader code, Besides this, the different QTAIM atomic basins descriptors such as electron density Laplacian of the electron density potential electronic energy density kinetic electronic energy density and density of the total electronic energy at bond critical points (BCPs) are estimated using CRITIC2 software where the ionic type for Dy-O, Co-O, and Mn-O bonds are evaluated. Holes and electrons have different effective masses, their thermoelectric properties appear high figure of merit (ZT) exceeding 0.5 for temperatures greater than 500 K in the negative chemical potential region, suggesting that doping with holes might be more favorable for thermoelectric efficiency than doping with electrons.

Assessing the source of error in the Thomas-Fermi-von Weizsäcker density functional.

We investigate the source of error in the Thomas-Fermi-von Weizsäcker (TFW) density functional relative to Kohn-Sham density functional theory (DFT). In particular, through numerical studies on a range of materials, for a variety of crystal structures subject to strain and atomic displacements, we find that while the ground state electron density in TFW orbital-free DFT is close to the Kohn-Sham density, the corresponding energy deviates significantly from the Kohn-Sham value. We show that these differences are a consequence of the poor representation of the linear response within the TFW approximation for the electronic kinetic energy, confirming conjectures in the literature. In so doing, we find that the energy computed from a non-self-consistent Kohn-Sham calculation using the TFW electronic ground state density is in very good agreement with that obtained from the fully self-consistent Kohn-Sham solution.

High-energy-resolution angle-resolved inverse-photoelectron spectroscopy apparatus for damage-free measurements of conduction band structures of functional materials.

The energy band structure of the conduction band (energy-momentum relation of electrons) is crucial to understanding the electron transport of crystalline materials. In this paper, we describe an angle-resolved low-energy inverse photoelectron spectroscopy (AR-LEIPS) apparatus that examines the conduction band structures of materials sensitive to the electron beam, such as organic semiconductors and organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites. The principle of this apparatus is based on AR inverse photoelectron spectroscopy. To minimize radiation damage and improve energy resolution, we employed our previous approach used in LEIPS [H. Yoshida, Chem. Phys. Lett. 539-540, 180 (2012)]. We obtained an overall energy resolution of 0.23eV with a momentum resolution of 0.9nm-1 at the electron kinetic energy of 2eV or higher.

Enhanced energy storage performances of nanocomposites with elaborate PN junction in core-shell structured nanofillers

Generally, the dielectric breakdown takes places as the amounts of free electrons surpasses a threshold, therefore, suppressing the amounts of free electrons and the secondary impact-ionized electrons at high electric field might enhance the breakdown strength (Eb) as well as energy storage performances of nanocomposites. Herein, core-shell structured Ni(OH)2@TiO2 (N@T for short) nanofillers were successfully designed and fabricated, where a built-in electric field is formed in PN junctions at the interface between Ni(OH)2 and TiO2. As a result, kinetic energies of electrons could be suppressed, and thus the number of free electrons and the secondary impact-ionized electrons would be reduced. Both experimental results and theoretical analyses demonstrate N@T nanofillers could increase the polarization and Eb and decrease leakage current simultaneously, resulting in the largest Ud of 20.1 J/cm3 and magnificent η of 77.5% in the 2 vol% N@T/P(VDF-HFP) nanocomposite. This work might demonstrate a novel solution to design the high-energy-density nanocomposites.

A review of the Kondo insulator materials class of strongly correlated electron systems: Selected systems and anomalous behavior

Studies of strongly correlated electron systems have been at the forefront of research in condensed matter physics ever since the discovery of the co-existence of strong Pauli-paramagnetism and superconductivity in the archetypal heavy-fermion compound CeCu2Si2 in 1979. The construct of correlated electron physics typifies the behavior of thermal and electronic properties of a material when the Coulomb interaction between conduction electrons exceeds the electron kinetic energy at a given thermal energy and redefines in remarkable ways our understanding of the behavior of a metal near its ground state. While correlated electron behavior has by now been demonstrated in a variety of different types of materials, Kondo systems in particular are arguably the most intensively studied among these. The Kondo interaction is used to describe the effect that a spin-magnetic ion has on its environment when immersed in the conduction electron sea of a metal. The localized spin of the Kondo ion polarizes nearby conduction electrons to form a so-called Kondo cloud, which acts to screen and magnetically (partially) neutralize the localized spin. In Kondo systems, the low-temperature behavior is prone to the formation of heavy fermions, which is the term given to quasiparticle excitations that define the emergence of effective electron masses that can be up to three orders of magnitude greater than that of a free electron. The Kondo effect presents itself in three guises: first, the single-ion Kondo state which is found in a metal having only a small amount of magnetic ions dissolved into it; second, the incoherent Kondo state in materials where there is a Kondo ion in every crystallographic unit cell of the material, but the Kondo ions remain incoherent or uncoupled from each other; and third, the coherent Kondo lattice state which manifests itself toward low temperatures where the interaction between Kondo ions becomes comparable to the thermal energy of conduction electrons that mediate magnetic exchange between Kondo ions. In a small number of cases, the outcome of a material condensing into the Kondo state turns out to be the peculiar formation of a very narrow energy band gap at the metallic Fermi energy. Such a band gap has significant consequences in practically all of the physical properties of a material that stem from the behavior of conduction electrons in proximity of the Fermi energy. This is most readily seen in electrical resistivity, heat capacity, and magnetic susceptibility. The band gapping gives cause to the term Kondo insulator (also referred to as Kondo semimetal or heavy-fermion semiconductor) that is used to describe this exceptional variety of Kondo systems. The term Kondo insulator is in general use although most Kondo insulators have a small but finite electrical conduction in the low-temperature limit where Kondo screening may be accomplished to its full extent. While the Kondo lattice ground state is exemplified by a very high density of electronic states at the Fermi energy, Kondo insulators, on the other hand, have, by virtue of narrow band gapping, a low density of electronic states. It remains a counter-intuitive observation, therefore, that despite their low density of states, Kondo insulators have curiously strong spin polarization energy scales and accompanying high values of their Kondo temperature, being the defining quantity which acts as an organizing principle in their temperature-dependent physical properties. In this article, we review the fundamentals of the Kondo insulating state, and we discuss the theoretical principles of what is presently understood about the formation of a Kondo insulator. The experimental results of a selected number of examples that have gained prominence in this class of materials are compared to each other in order to seek out similarities that may help deepen our understanding of the Kondo insulating state.

Versatile procedure for the correction of non-isochromatism in XPEEM spectroscopic imaging

Non-isochromatism in X-ray PhotoEmission Electron Microscopy (XPEEM) may result in unwanted artifacts especially when working with large field of views. The lack of isochromatism of XPEEM images may result from multiple factors, for instance the energy dispersion of the X-rays on the sample or the effect of one or more dispersive elements in the electron optics of the microscope, or the combination of both. In practice, the photon energy or the electron kinetic energy may vary across the image, complicating image interpretation and analysis. The effect becomes severe when imaging at low magnification upon irradiation with high energy photons. Such imaging demands for a large X-ray illuminating spot size usually achieved by opening the exit slit of the X-ray monochromator while reducing the monochromaticity of the irradiating light. However, we show that the effect is linear and can be fully removed. A versatile correction procedure is presented which leads to true monochromatic photoelectron images at improved signal-to-noise ratio. XPEEM data recorded at the nanospectroscopy beamline of the Elettra synchrotron radiation facility illustrate the working principle of the procedure. Also, reciprocal space XPEEM data such as angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) momentum plots suffer from linear energy dispersion artifacts which can be corrected in a similar way. Representative data acquired from graphene synthesized on copper by chemical vapor deposition prove the benefits of the correction procedure.

Simulation of Venus Lightning‐I: Characterization of Free Radicals Generated in Venus Major Gas Mixture

AbstractA new Venus‐ESD‐Chamber (VEC) and peripheral systems were designed and built to simulate Venus lightning. It consists of three subsystems (a) electrostatic discharge (ESD) generation, (b) environmental pressure, temperature, gas composition control & monitoring, and (c) optical and non‐optical sensors. We conducted arc discharge experiments in air, in CO2, and in Venus major gas mixture (CO2‐N2, 96.5% ± 1.5%:3.5% ± 1.5%) under 10, 350, 700, and 1,000 mbar pressures, that correspond to the 50–75 km altitude range in the cloud layer of Venus. Plasma and Raman spectra, plus gas sensors, and GC‐MS were used to identify the ESD products and to semi‐quantify CO and O3 generated by ESD. We have found all species of free radicals that have been found in previous simulation studies using different discharge technologies, including some important species in CO2‐N2 system, nitrogen oxides and CN. In addition, we found three species (O3, N2+, and C2) that have not been previously reported. Our results suggest that electron flux and kinetic energy are the determining factors for the type of generated free radical species and gas pressure plays a less important role. We found that the quantity of CO changes with the type of ESD. The detection of O3 in this study suggests that lightning might be one of the sources of O3 observed in the Venusian atmosphere. OI emission line at 777.4 nm is the most prominent line in our plasma spectra of FD, consistent with the intense optical flash observed by the Lightning and Airglow Camera (LAC) on the Akatsuki mission.

Particle-in-cell Simulation of Energy Conversion at the Turbulent Region Downstream of the Reconnection Front

We study the energy conversion in the turbulent region (TR) downstream of the reconnection front (RF) via 2.5D particle-in-cell simulations. Our study shows that most magnetic energy is transferred into plasma in the exhaust region (ER) and the TR downstream of the RF; the latter is formed due to the electron Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (KHI). Unlike the energy conversion in the ER, the energy conversion in the TR is mainly balanced by its in-plane component (E x J x +E z J z ). We further find that the time evolution of the integrated energy conversion in the TR is strongly correlated with the time evolution of the electron KHI and secondary reconnection. The KHI feeds on the electron kinetic energy to grow, and electron vortices are formed, correspondently. The energy is transferred to ions through a nonideal electric field associated with those electron vortices after the KHI is well developed. Finally, the electron vortices are collapsed due to the secondary reconnection among those vortices. The power law of the magnetic energy spectra also shows a slope near −5/3 at wavenumbers larger than the ion scale when the KHI is fully developed.

Quantum-quasiclassical analysis of center-of-mass nonseparability in hydrogen atom stimulated by strong laser fields *

We have developed a quantum-quasiclassical computational scheme for quantitative treating of the nonseparable quantum–classical dynamics of the 6D hydrogen atom in a strong laser pulse. In this approach, the electron is treated quantum mechanically and the center-of-mass (CM) motion classically. Thus, the Schrödinger equation for the electron and the classical Hamilton equations for the CM variables, nonseparable due to relativistic effects stimulated by strong laser fields, are integrated simultaneously. In this approach, it is natural to investigate the idea of using the CM- velocity spectroscopy as a classical ‘build-up’ set up for detecting the internal electron quantum dynamics. We have performed such an analysis using the hydrogen atom in linearly polarized laser fields as an example and found a strong correlation between the CM kinetic energy distribution after a laser pulse and the spectral density of electron kinetic energy. This shows that it is possible to detect the quantum dynamics of an electron by measuring the distribution of the CM kinetic energy.

Resonant Auger spectroscopy on solid xenon on gold, silver, and copper substrates

An investigation of the radiationless decay of core excited Xe atoms in the region of Xe ${L}_{3}{M}_{4,5}{M}_{4,5}$ Auger electron kinetic energies (using x-ray energies in the vicinity of the ${L}_{3}$ threshold) is presented for Xe adsorbed on Cu, Ag, and Au. The intensity distribution of the decay channels is different compared with Xe in the gas phase. Charge transfer of the core excited electron occurs within tens of attoseconds in all systems for excitation energies approaching the ionization threshold of the condensed system, whereas charge transfer times are substrate-dependent for lower excitation energies. The determination of partial yields into the decay channels allows for the observation of a decay channel present in the Xe/Cu and Xe/Ag systems but not in the case of Xe/Au. Theoretical calculations allow us to interpret this difference as emanating from varying amounts of the ground state hybridization between Xe and the substrates, which impacts the energy of the Auger final states enabling identification of these states giving rise to system specific features in the experimental data.

Study of Inductive Reactance of a Micro Strip Line Structure with The Spacing Between Two Metal Strip

The Present Paper aims at the study of inductive property developed due to propagation of electromagnetic waves through the structure and its dependence on the spacing between two metal strip and other factors. Due to interaction of electron beam with electromagnetic waves, kinetic energy of electron is increased. Microwaves have become very powerful experimental tools for study of some of the basic properties of materials. There are different structures for the propagation of electromagnetic powers in different modes. The Microwave Integrated circuits (MIC’S) have changed the systems in the present days by replacing large scale waveguides and co-axial component arrays to small light weight assemblies. These introduced microwave striplines, microslotlines, coplanar strip lines and coplanar waveguide etc.

Coulomb, exchange, kinetic, nuclear attraction and ionization energies of two-electron quantum dot with finite confinement potential

We have calculated Coulomb, exchange and configuration-average ionization energies for the ground and excited configurations in helium atom confined by a spherical cavity of finite barrier height. In addition, we have carried out kinetic energies, nuclear attraction energies, confining potential energies and probabilities of finding the electrons that occupy different subshells. In the strong and intermediate confinement regions, the results show that the barrier height of potential well and dot size have a strong influence on the energies and probabilities. The kinetic energies of electrons in 1s and nl orbitals increase as the height of the potential barrier increases, but in nuclear attraction energies the opposite behavior occurs. It is found that Coulomb and exchange energies rapidly decrease after the critical confinement radii, in which the electron in nl orbital escapes out of the well. The configuration-ionization confinement radius depends strongly on the potential barrier height.

An atoms-in-molecules characterization of the nature of the OO bond in peroxides and nitroxide dimers.

The quantum theory of atoms-in-molecules (QTAIM) method is used to examine the OO bond in peroxides (RO-OR) and nitroxide dimers (R2 NO-ONR2 ), including Fremy's salt. The electron density (ρ), electron kinetic energy density [K(ρ)], and Laplacian of the electron density (∇2 ρ) at bond critical points characterize the nature of the OO bond. The data distinguish OO bonding of two kinds. Large values of ρ and positive ∇2 ρ and K(ρ) suggest that simple peroxides have charge-shift bonds. Nitroxide dimers, with smaller ρ, positive ∇2 ρ, and near-zero K(ρ), show a lack of shared electron density, suggesting there is no conventional OO bonding in these molecules. QTAIM analysis at the B3LYP/6-311+G(d,p) level of theory gives results in agreement with valence-bond theory and X-ray diffraction characterizations of peroxide OO bonds as charge-shift bonds. In contrast, CCSD/cc-pVDZ calculations fail to agree with previous results because of an insufficient, single-determinant treatment of the charge-shift bond.