Award Data

Advances in soft X-ray detector technology have enabled higher count rates while maintaining high spectral resolution. These new superconducting detectors share the common form of a pixilated active area that must be operated in the milli-Kelvin temperature range below the boiling temperature of liquid helium. Because the cryogenic detectors are under high vacuum and must be able to sense ambien ...

The performance and productivity of DOE synchrotron systems is hindered due to focusing limitations from imperfections in the mirror surfaces. The ability to manufacture higher quality mirrors is directly limited by the accuracy and efficiency of the systems used to measure them. Currently available measurement methods do not provide the manufacturing feedback or quality control to allow efficien ...

Improvements in performance of the components are needed for polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyzers, which is one of the key technologies for DOEs hydrogen production plan. In particular, high- performance ion-exchange membranes are needed that can withstand significantly higher mechanical loads due to high-pressure operation, while having significantly reduce hydrogen permeability and i ...

Car and fleet vehicle manufacturers must increase the average fuel efficiency of their vehicles. A viable, low cost solution is Micro-Hybrid technology. Micro-Hybrids are capable of shutting down their engine when coasting and stopped, and then rapidly restarting to move the vehicle forward, offering the highest marginal ROI for improving fuel efficiency of any hybridization design. Micro-Hybrid v ...

In 2000, shale gas represented just 1 percent of American natural gas supplies. Today, it is 30 percent and the percentage keeps increasing. The technology to drill and fracture the shale formations is now exported to the rest of the world, increasing the national oil and gas reserves in many other countries. The thickness of the shale formations is often just a few hundred feet, so new high-r ...

There is a clear requirement for gathering greater quantity and quality of atmospheric data in the Arctic regions. The harsh nature of the environment combined with remote location creates the need for technological solutions. Current efforts have successfully used small unmanned aerial systems (UAS); however, a large cost in both time and money is incurred when miniaturizing sensors to fit with ...

The global GDP has gone up from $38 Trillion in 2000 to $60 Trillion in 2009. Price increase in consumer products is directly proportional to rate of growth of global GDP. Fatty acids form the basic building blocks of skincare as well as personal hygiene consumer products. Within the last decade, fatty acid prices have more than quadrupled. Fatty acids with carbon range of C8 to C12 are prod ...

The National Academy of Sciences issued a report in February 2008 detailing isotope replacement priorities in the interests of national security [National Research Council, 2008] . 137Cs used in self-contained irradiators was identified as the single most dangerous isotope in the inventory, owing to its long half life (30+ years) and production as cesium chloride salt, which means it ...

Neutron detectors for well logging require stable operation in an extreme environment of high temperatures, (175C up to 260C), high mechanical vibration, and shock. Helium-3 tubes have been the preferred solution, as they satisfy these requirements to 175C, can be configured in small packages, are easy to fabricate, have low power requirements, and offer high detection efficiency. The supply of 3H ...

To address the DOE need for a high-power laser source used for synchronous photoinjection of GaAs photoemission guns, AdValue Photonics proposes to develop a radio-frequency (RF) synchronized 100W green fiber laser source with a repetition rate near 1GHz. Although GHz-rate mode-locked solid-state/fiber lasers in the near infrared have been previously demonstrated, which could be used as ...