Physical Insight Research Articles

Effect of the boson peak and the ionic resonance in the dielectric properties of silicate materials at mm-wave and THz frequencies

In this paper, a broadband measurement of the dielectric properties of silicates has been done to cover the seldom characterized mm-wave spectrum and the low THz spectrum. The dielectric properties, i.e. loss and permittivity, show a frequency independent response up to approximately 40 GHz and the loss monotonically increases to the THz frequency range. Two resonance peaks appear at THz frequencies: the first is the boson peak, and the second one corresponds to the ionic resonance of the network former, which in this case is silicon. Even though the materials belong to different groups in the silicate family (crystalline and non-crystalline, with different levels of purity), they seem to have the same overall tendency in the dielectric properties. Argand plots are used for the first time at THz frequencies to provide physical insight into the boson peak and ionic resonance. The complex plane analysis reveals details on the polarization mechanisms underlying silicate network vibrations through direct visualization of their characteristic signatures, and simplifies the process of modeling the dielectric response, leading to a better fit.

Conformal ultra‐miniaturized frequency selective surface for medical shielding applications

SummaryThis article presents a novel wearable frequency selective surface (FSS) for shielding the communication link of implantable devices with the external environment. The proposed shield blocks a dual‐band frequency operating at 404 MHz and 2.45 GHz in the medical implant communication service (MICS) and industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands. The two distinct stop bands provide a high‐frequency band ratio of 6.02 in an ultra‐miniaturized physical form factor of 0.024λo × 0.024λo, with at least 76.96% miniaturization when compared to the existing art. Each of the unit cells is imprinted on a conformal 50 μm polyester substrate in a symmetrical configuration. The polyester adheres with jean to realize its compatibility with wearable applications. The designed shield system offers a low profile of only 0.00146λo. By suppressing the grating lobe, the proposed shield achieves a high angular stability of 80° and polarization insensitivity of 90° in both transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) modes. The FSS is fabricated and measured results validate its performance. To evaluate the physical insight, an equivalent circuit model (ECM) analysis is done. To ensure durability, the proposed shield system is tested with Amitech SDR04.

Physical insights into non-fullerene organic photovoltaics

Physical insights into non-fullerene organic photovoltaics

Influence of highly optimized charge carrier mobility and diverse physical features toward efficient organic solar cells

Organic solar cells (OSCs) exhibit potential in low-emissive photovoltaic (PV) technology by enhancing excitonic absorption, higher trap-assist recombination, lower excitons diffusion length (Ln,p), and carrier lifetime (τ n,p). The main challenge remains the asymmetric carrier mobility (μ n,p) of the organic absorbing layer (OAL) and various physical factors affecting efficiency (η). This effort has been explored through the attributes of different fullerene derivatives based on binary blends of OAL thickness that suggest new physical insights into the roles of several contributions in the PV performances under intense light illumination. The relationship between optimum mobility ratio (β) and lower trap-state density (Nt) of OAL in OSC structures for inclusive η has been collectively investigated. With a very thin OAL and pioneering transparent hole transport layers (HTLs) can significantly reduce recombination loss and enhance transparency, focusing on near-infrared band absorption and thin hetero-interface design for η and stability. The improved thin OALs, tunable absorption bands, and carrier selectivity address efficiency–transparency trade-offs and reproducibility concerns. The outcome revealed a stable η of 6.27% with a 250 nm thinnest OAL at a temperature of 300 K, which may be interpreted as a coupled framework for effective optimization strategies to accomplish balance between photogeneration and charge carrier recombination. Thus, the observed hypothetically analyzed results have verified the further optimization of OAL thickness for fabrication perspectives with a typical interpretation of ohmic contact.

Numerical investigation of surface wettability effect on two-phase closed thermosyphon

A two-phase closed thermosyphon (TPCT) is promising for heat removal due to its simple structure and high performance in heat transfer. However, investigating the phase change process in TPCT through experiments with current technology is still challenging. To study the various surface wettability effects on TPCT, this is the first systematical volume of fluid (VOF) method-based numerical study. The wettability in terms of contact angles (5°, 40°, 120°, and 175°) is endowed on the surfaces of TPCT. The numerical results of heat transfer coefficients of the TPCT show good agreement compared with the correlations. The simulation results reveal that the hydrophilic evaporator and the hydrophobic condenser benefit heat transfer. Within the input power of 376.14 W, the hydrophilic evaporator can reduce the thermal resistance of the evaporator to 35.3 % and delays the vapor film formation. The hydrophobic condenser decreases the thermal resistance of the condenser at 3.64 % and prevents filmwise condensation. The surface wettability is critical to the temperature distribution along the evaporator, but the main temperature drop is located between the adiabatic section and the condenser. It is also noted that the thermal resistance of the condenser is dominant to the overall thermal resistance. This study provides a detailed physical insight into the surface wettability effect on TPCT and benefits the future design in thermal engineering applications.

Spatially Resolved High Voltage Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy: A Novel Avenue for Examining Electrical Phenomena at Nanoscale

AbstractKelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) is a well‐established scanning probe technique, used to measure surface potential accurately; it has found extensive use in the study of a range of materials phenomena. In its conventional form, KPFM frustratingly precludes imaging samples or scenarios where large surface potential or surface potential gradients exist outside the typical ±10 V window. If the potential regime measurable via KPFM can be expanded, to enable precise and reliable metrology, through a high voltage KPFM (HV‐KPFM) adaptation, it can open up pathways toward a range of novel experiments, where the detection limit of regular KPFM has so far prevented the use of the technique. In this work, HV‐KPFM is realized and shown to be capable of measuring large surface potential and potential gradients with accuracy and precision. The technique is employed to study a range of materials (positive temperature coefficient of resistivity ceramics, charge storage fluoropolymers, and pyroelectrics) where accurate, spatially resolved mapping of surface potential within high voltage regime facilitates novel physical insight. The results demonstrate that HV‐KPFM can be used as an effective tool to fill in existing gaps in surface potential measurements while also opening routes for novel studies in materials physics.

Refraction of a triple-shock configuration at planar fast–slow gas interfaces

This paper characterizes the refraction of a triple-shock configuration at planar fast–slow gas interfaces. The primary objective is to reveal the wave configurations and elucidate the mechanisms governing circulation deposition and velocity perturbation on the interface caused by triple-shock refraction. The incident triple-shock configuration is generated by diffracting a planar shock around a rigid cylinder, and four interfaces with various $Z_{{r}}$ (i.e. acoustic impedance ratio across the interface) are considered. An analytical model describing the triple-shock refraction is developed, which accurately predicts both the wave configurations as well as circulation deposition and velocity perturbation. Depending on $Z_{{r}}$ , three distinct patterns of transmitted waves can be anticipated: a triple-shock configuration; a four-shock configuration; a four-wave configuration. The underlying mechanism for the formation of these wave configurations is elucidated through shock polar analysis. A novel physical insight into the contribution of triple-shock refraction to the interface perturbation growth is provided. The results indicate that the reflected shock in an incident triple-shock configuration makes significant negative contribution to both circulation deposition and velocity perturbation. This investigation elucidates the underlying mechanism responsible for the relatively insignificant contribution of baroclinic circulation to the Richtmyer–Meshkov-like instability induced by a non-uniform shock, and provides an explanation for the decrease in growth rate of interface perturbation amplitude with increasing Atwood number.

Current-distorted wave diffraction patterns in the near-field of a monopile in coastal seas

The simultaneous impact of a wave field in the diffraction regime and a perpendicular intersecting current on a cylinder reflects a common application case for wave-current-structure interaction with offshore wind turbines in the German North Sea. Although existing literature has thoroughly investigated structural impacts from both waves and currents individually, the complex interplay between both forcings in the near-field of an offshore monopile has not been explored as thoroughly in the past. Only little is understood concerning the resulting nonlinear 3D interaction. This laboratory study evaluates the physical insights of a broad range of wavelength-dependent pile diameters, i.e., 0.14<diameterD/wavelengthL<0.25. The study focuses on surface elevation characteristics, documented either qualitatively using video recordings or quantitatively by surface elevation measurements in close vicinity of the pile. Within the experimental boundaries of this initial study, a current-induced, D/L-dependent asymmetry in crest amplitudes is documented. These distorted diffraction patterns are explained to originate from non-linear wave–current–structure interactions, which are not represented by existing design approaches. The findings further suggest that in this context, secondary load cycle dynamics are of practical relevance to the design and operation of offshore structures.

Ion Transport in Polymer Electrolytes: Building New Bridges between Experiment and Molecular Simulation.

ConspectusPolymer electrolytes constitute a promising type of material for solid-state batteries. However, one of the bottlenecks for their practical implementation lies in the transport properties, often including restricted Li+ self-diffusion and conductivity and low cationic transference numbers. This calls for a molecular understanding of ion transport in polymer electrolytes in which molecular dynamics (MD) simulation can provide both new physical insights and quantitative predictions. Although efforts have been made in this area and qualitative pictures have emerged, direct and quantitative comparisons between experiment and simulation remain challenging because of the lack of a unified theoretical framework to connect them.In our work, we show that by computing the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the model system and using the normalized inverse temperature 1000/(T - Tg + 50), the Li+ self-diffusion coefficient can be compared quantitatively between MD simulations and experiments. This allows us to disentangle the effects of Tg and the polymer dielectric environment on ion conduction in polymer electrolytes, giving rise to the identification of an optimal solvating environment for fast ion conduction.Unlike Li+ self-diffusion coefficients and ionic conductivity, the transference number, which describes the fraction of current carried by Li+ ions, depends on the boundary conditions or the reference frame (RF). This creates a non-negligible gap when comparing experiment and simulation because the fluxes in the experimental measurements and in the linear response theory used in MD simulation are defined in different RFs. We show that by employing the Onsager theory of ion transport and applying a proper RF transformation, a much better agreement between experiment and simulation can be achieved for the PEO-LiTFSI system. This further allows us to derive the theoretical expression for the Bruce-Vincent transference number in terms of the Onsager coefficients and make a direct comparison to experiments. Since the Bruce-Vincent method is widely used to extract transference numbers from experimental data, this opens the door to calibrating MD simulations via reproducing the Bruce-Vincent transference number and using MD simulations to predict the true transference number.In addition, we also address several open questions here such as the time-scale effects on the ion-pairing phenomenon, the consistency check between different types of experiments, the need for more accurate force fields used in MD simulations, and the extension to multicomponent systems. Overall, this Account focuses on building new bridges between experiment and simulation for quantitative comparison, warnings of pitfalls when comparing apples and oranges, and clarifying misconceptions. From a physical chemistry point of view, it connects to concentrated solution theory and provides a unified theoretical framework that can maximize the power of MD simulations. Therefore, this Account will be useful for the electrochemical energy storage community at large and set examples of how to approach experiments from theory and simulation (and vice versa).

Vortex photon induced nuclear reaction: Mechanism, model, and application to the studies of giant resonance and astrophysical reaction rate

The vortex photon beam induced nuclear reaction is studied. The interaction formalism of nuclei with vortex photons is developed and incorporated into the statistical reaction model to calculate reaction cross-sections. For 138 nuclei of high nuclear astrophysics and structure interest, the cross-sections of γ-ray emission and neutron production from the decay of the giant resonances (GR) populated by vortex photons, e.g., (γvo,γemit) and (γvo,nprod.), are computed. It is shown that for the (γvo,γemit) and (γvo,nprod.) cross-sections, the GR contribution of an individual L is either enhanced or suppressed depending on the parameters of vortex γ-rays, and the contribution from the GR of a specific L can be identified and deduced. To this end, a novel method to exclusively determine the γ-strength function (γSF) for the GR of a specific L is proposed considering the (γvo,γemit) and (γvo,nprod.) measurements, and the feasibility studies demonstrate that the γSF for the giant quadrupole resonance can be extracted. Furthermore, the astrophysical reaction rates of the vortex photon induced reactions in p-process are investigated. It is indicated that photo-nuclear reactions induced by vortex photons will bring new insights in nuclear physics and astrophysics research.

Meso-scale size effects of material heterogeneities on crack propagation in brittle solids: Perspectives from phase-field simulations

Brittle solids are often toughened by adding a second-phase material. This practice often results in composites with material heterogeneities on the meso scale: large compared to the scale of the fracture process zone but small compared to that of the application. The specific configuration (both geometrical and mechanical) of this mesoscale heterogeneity is generally recognized as important in controlling crack propagation behavior and, subsequently, the (effective) toughness of the composite. Here, we systematically investigate how dynamic brittle fracture navigates through a linear array of mesoscale inclusions. Using a variational phase-field (PF) approach, we compute the apparent crack speed and fracture energy dissipation rate to compare crack propagation (and the resulting toughening) under Mode-I loading for various configurations of inclusions. We identify an interplay between the size of inclusion and that of the K-dominant zone in the presence of elastic heterogeneity: matching these two sizes gives rise to the best toughening outcome for a given area fraction of inclusions. We discuss mechanisms that rationalize this observation and the importance of the length scale parameter used in PF models in interpreting simulation results. Our work sheds physical insight into the interaction between size effects and material properties, thereby opening a venue for the rational design of functional (architected) composites for dynamic fracture applications.

Unified SIF at different stress ratios and the physical insight on the exponent of the Paris law

The Paris law has been broadly employed to describe fatigue crack growth (FCG) at steady state. It establishes the relationship between FCG rate and stress intensity factor (SIF) range. However, its physical insight remains an issue of controversy. The study aims to employ dislocation dynamics to explore two aspects associated with the Paris law: how does the stress-ratio affect the application of the Paris law? What is the microcosmic mechanism behind the Paris exponent in Paris law? We limit our exploration on the scenarios that dislocation nucleation and dislocation glide dominate FCG in an ideally isotropic single crystallite. Our exploration revealed that (1) a unified SIF range without empirical parameters could be adopted to account for the stress ratio effect, and this observation is in line with existing experiments, and (2) SIF affects FCG by influencing the nucleation of dislocation sources and activity of dislocations before crack tips. The stress-dependent dislocation nucleation time is correlated with the exponent of the Paris law.

Enhanced physics‐informed neural networks for efficient modelling of hydrodynamics in river networks

AbstractThis article enhances the physics‐informed neural networks (PINNs) method to effectively model the hydrodynamics of real‐world river networks with irregular cross‐sections. First, we pre‐process hydraulic parameters to optimize training speed without compromising accuracy, achieving a 91.67% acceleration compared with traditional methods. To address the vanishing gradient problem, layer normalization is also incorporated into the architecture. We also introduce novel physical constraints—water level range and junction node equations—to ensure effective training convergence and enrich the model with additional physical insights. Two practical case studies using HEC‐RAS benchmarks demonstrate that our improved PINN method can predict river network hydrodynamics with less data and is less sensitive to time step size, allowing for longer computational time steps. Incorporating physical knowledge, our enhanced PINN methodology emerges as an efficient and promising avenue for modelling the complexities of hydrodynamic processes in natural river networks.

Modeling of memory effects in nanofluidic diodes

Nanofluidic diodes and ionic solutions find application in electrochemical circuits for information processing, controlled release, and signal conversion in hybrid devices. Here, we describe a physical model that accounts for the memory effects observed in conical nanopores in terms of the driving signal and ionic solution characteristics. The concepts invoked describe the device operation on the basis of the electrical interaction between the pore surface charges and the nanoconfined ionic solution. The physical insights provided can explain the experimental dependence of the nanofluidic tunability on the amplitude and frequency of the driving signal, the ionic concentration, and the solution pH. The model should also be useful for the design of electrochemical circuits based on ionic conduction in asymmetric memristors.

Accelerating Asteroidal Period and Pole Inversion from Multiple Lightcurves Using Parallel Differential Evolution and Cellinoid Shape Model

Determining asteroid properties provides valuable physical insights but inverting them from photometric lightcurves remains computationally intensive. This paper presents a new approach that combines a simplified Cellinoid shape model with the Parallel Differential Evolution (PDE) algorithm to accelerate inversion. The PDE algorithm is more efficient than the Differential Evolution algorithm, achieving an extraordinary speedup of 37.983 with 64 workers on multicore CPUs. The PDE algorithm accurately derives period and pole values from simulated data. The analysis of real asteroid lightcurves validates the method’s reliability: in comparison with results published elsewhere, the PDE algorithm accurately recovers the rotational periods and, given adequate viewing geometries, closely matches the pole orientations. The PDE approach converges to solutions within 20,000 iterations and under one hour, demonstrating its potential for large-scale data analysis. This work provides a promising new tool for unveiling asteroid physical properties by overcoming key computational bottlenecks.

Electro-osmotic transport and thermal energy dynamics of tetra-hybrid nano fluid in complex peristaltic flows

BackgroundThis study explores the use of tetra-hybrid nanoparticles consisting of gold, silver, alumina, and titania nanocomposites dispersed in a non-Newtonian Casson fluid modelled as blood. The motivation lies in harnessing the synergistic optical, electrical, thermal, and physicochemical properties of the multimodal nanoscale assembly to advance electrokinetic pumping processes. ObjectivesThe study aims to computationally investigate the complex transport assisted by tailored gold, silver, alumina, and titania dioxide nanoparticles in the tetra-hybrid nanofluid, with potential applications in targeted drug delivery, hyperthermia cancer treatment, Lab-on-Chip devices, and miniaturized biosensors. MethodologyThe constructed streaming flow model examines the cumulative influence of viscous heating, Joule heating, conductive thermal, and external laser irradiation. Current simulations examine Casson flows with the integrated nanoparticles by modelling two- and three-dimensional conduits subject to transverse magnetohydrodynamics and localized laser irradiation. Key findingsThe solutions provide mathematical predictions and physical insights into the fully coupled velocity, temperature, concentration, and pressure gradient contours. Additional plots examining dimensionless analytes against pertinent profiles, combined with streamlined visualization, further elucidate the multifaceted transport and complex trapping patterns stemming from non-Newtonian rheology. Applications/implicationsThis multiscale examination reveals performance improvements realizable by leveraging biocompatible tetra-hybrid nanocomposites in electrokinetic flows vital for next-generation biomedical technologies.

Comparative wetting behavior of condensed and sessile drops on single micro-scale textured hydrophobic surfaces: Physical insights for condenser design

Dropwise condensation (DWC) has gained significant attention in industrial applications for enhancing heat transfer efficiency. The wetting behavior of condensed droplets on patterned surfaces is crucial in DWC but has yet to be systematically investigated. In this study, we search for single micro-scale textured surfaces that can form Cassie condensed droplets. A total of 153 square-pillar-array-patterned hydrophobic substrates with various solid fractions and roughness factors were fabricated. An inverted optical microscopy system was applied to observe the wetting behavior of bottom-up growing condensed droplets and top-down depositing sessile drops on all substrates directly. Condensed droplets may exhibit different temporary wetting states simultaneously until their diameter exceeds 177.6 μm. Cassie condensed droplets can form through frequent dewetting transition on substrates with pillar-height ranging between 3.31 and 6.56 μm and pillar-spacing not exceeding 5.0 μm. Sessile droplets on superhydrophobic surfaces with excessively high pillar-heights always exhibit the Cassie state. However, condensed droplets on such surfaces exhibit an irregularly shaped Wenzel state instead, leading to filmwise condensation. Cassie and Wenzel DWC substrates demonstrate 28.3 % degradation and 36.9 % enhancement in experimentally obtained heat flux compared to a Teflon-coated flat surface. Our findings provide a guideline for the condenser's textured surface design to improve DWC.

Planar Printed Structures Based on Matryoshka Geometries: A Review.

A review on planar printed structures that are based on Matryoshka-like geometries is presented. These structures use the well-known principle of Matryoshka dolls that are successively nested inside each other. The well-known advantages of the planar printed technology and of the meandered nested Matryoshka geometries are combined to generate miniaturized, multi-resonance, and/or wideband configurations. Both metal and complementary slot structures are considered. Closed and open configurations were analyzed. The working principles were explored in order to obtain physical insight into their behavior. Low-cost and single-layer applications as frequency-selective surfaces, filters, antennas, and sensors, in the microwave frequency region, were reviewed. Potential future research perspectives and new applications are then discussed.

Effect of the tip speed ratio on the wake characteristics of wind turbines using LBM‐LES

AbstractIn this paper, the wake characteristics of Zell 2000 wind turbine under different tip velocity ratios are studied by using the lattice Boltzmann method and large eddy simulation. The adaptive mesh refinement method is performed to capture the fine flow structure and wake characteristics development. In this paper, we mainly focus on the effect of the tip speed ratio on the flow structure and unsteady characteristics of wind turbine wake. The three‐dimensional flow vorticity structures, the section vorticity diagram, the pressure fluctuation of wake and the lift coefficient of wind turbine wake are utilized to explore the effect of the tip speed ratio on the unsteady physics mechanism of wind turbine wake. With the increase of the tip speed ratio, the distance between two adjacent vortex rings along the axial direction gradually decreases, as the position of the broken vortex circles gradually approaches the center of the blade, separated vortexes are rapidly generated, and the coherent structure appears closer to the wind turbine. A relationship is established between the tip speed ratios and the positions of the broken vortex circles. It is further found that the dominant frequency amplitude gradually increases with the increase of tip speed ratio and the pressure amplitude spectra of vortex increases with the decrease of the distance between the wake and the center of the blade axis. The above series of studies can provide significant physical insight into deep understanding the influence of the tip speed ratio on the wake characteristics of wind turbines.

New physical insights into the supporting subspace factorization of XMS-CASPT2 and generalization to multiple spin states via spin-free formulation.

This paper introduces a spin-free formulation of the supporting subspace factorization [C. Song and T. J. Martínez, J. Chem. Phys. 149, 044108 (2018)], enabling a reduction in the computational scaling of the extended multi-state complete active space second-order perturbation (XMS-CASPT2) method for arbitrary spins. Compared to the original formulation that is defined in the spin orbitals and is limited to singlet states, the spin-free formulation in this work treats different spin states equivalently, thus naturally generalizing the idea beyond singlet states. In addition, we will present a new way of deriving the supporting subspace factorization with the purpose of understanding its physical interpretation. In this new derivation, we separate the sources that make CASPT2 difficult into the "same-site interactions" and "inter-site interactions." We will first show how the Kronecker sum can be used to remove the same-site interactions in the absence of inter-site interactions, leading to MP2 energy in dressed orbitals. We will then show how the inter-site interactions can be exactly recovered using Löwdin partition, where the supporting subspace concept will naturally arise. The new spin-free formulation maintains the main advantage of the supporting subspace factorization, i.e., allowing XMS-CASPT2 energies to be computed using highly optimized MP2 energy codes and Fock build codes, thus reducing the scaling of XMS-CASPT2 to the same scaling as MP2. We will present and discuss results that benchmark the accuracy and performance of the new method. To demonstrate how the new method can be useful in studying real photochemical systems, the supporting subspace XMS-CASPT2 is applied to a photoreaction sensitive to magnetic field effects. The new spin-free formulation makes it possible to calculate the doublet and quartet states required in this particular photoreaction mechanism.