In the autumn of 2012, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) launched a new research project named F-TRACE (Long-Term Assessment of Transport of Radioactive Contaminant in the Environment of Fukushima). The aims of this project are to develop a system for prediction of radiation exposure, taking into consideration the transport, deposition, and remobilization behavior of radiocaesium (RCs) from the highest contaminated mountain forests, down through the biosphere, before deposition in a number of different aquatic systems. Especially, it is important to understand balances of suspended and deposited particles and RCs inventory in inflow water, discharge water and bottom sediments of an upland reservoir. In this paper, we describe current research activities performed by JAEA at the Ogi Reservoir, Fukushima prefecture, Japan.

According to our analyses the specific sediment yield and the average rate of storage capacity loss at the Ogi Reservoir are 210 m3 km-2 year-1 and 0.15 % year-1, respectively. The vertical distribution of RCs exhibits clear peaks at several sites in the reservoir formed by deposition of eroded soil particles from the catchment that were contaminated by accident fallout. Above the depth of each of the RCs peaks, the distribution of RCs was found to be variable with depth, with concentrations ranging over five orders of magnitude for a single core. The peaks in the sedimentation profiles are probably formed from eroded soil particles entering the reservoir from the surrounding contaminated watershed (most probably during storm events). Results from grain size analyses suggest that contaminated fine sediment tends to be deposited thickly within deeper parts of the reservoir. In addition, above the depth of RCs peaks at these deeper sites, the concentration of RCs approximately increased or decreased as the proportion of fine sediments increased or decreased. However, some fine particles are possibly discharged downstream during operational releases from the dam.

We report a stable CdS/Sb2S3/SnSe heterojunction thin film solar cell deposited on SnO2:F (FTO) – coated glass substrates. Thermal evaporation at 10-5 Torr with substrate temperature of 400 °C was used to deposit Sb2S3 and SnSe thin films of 450 nm and 160 nm, respectively. Thin film Sb2S3 has an optical band gap (E g ) of 1.48 eV and photoconductivity (σ p ) of 4x10-7 Ω-1 cm-1 and thin film SnSe has an E g of 1.28 eV and σ p of 2 Ω-1 cm-1. The chemically deposited CdS thin film heated at 400 °C shows an E g of 2.34 eV and σ p of 0.1 Ω-1 cm-1. Stabilized solar cell structures with these thin films, FTO/CdS/Sb2S3/SnSe/C-Ag, showed open circuit voltage (V oc ) of 0.60 V, short circuit current density (J sc ) of 5.51 mA/cm2 and power conversion efficiency (η) of 0.96% with a fill factor FF of 0.29. In the absence of the SnSe layer, J sc decreases to 4.77 mA/cm2.

Agave fibers were used to elaborate a transparent and flexible cellulose hydrogel films used as scaffold for tissue regeneration and tested by in vitro assays with NIH 3T3 fibroblast cells. Using dimethylacetamide/lithium chloride (DMAc/LiCl) system was possible to obtain cellulose solutions and hydrogel films were prepared by phase inverse method without cross-linker. The concentration of LiCl in the DMAc solution was varied from 4 to 12 wt% in the phase inversion process and then the cytotoxicity was tested for 14 days on the cultivation. The resultant hydrogel films showed better cytocompatibility than the PS dish used as control. The cell growing images showed that the hydrogel films with lower LiCl apparently contained ordered and aggregated fiber orientation. This comparison suggested that the segmental microstructure in the hydrogel films influenced fibroblast cells spreading. In addition, the agave hydrogel films displayed good stability without biodegradiation through the cell cultivation.

We investigated theoretically the transmission spectra in one-dimensional photonic quasicrystals (1DPQ) made up from dielectric materials organized in accordance to a discrete varying electric permittivity profile that obeys an analogous of the quasiperiodic potential in the so-called Audry-André (AA) model, in order to modulate the refraction index. Our results show that due to the incommensurate dielectric distribution, the spectrum splits into a fractal set of pass- and forbidden-band structure. By studying the transmission spectra as a function of the modulation phase ϕ, we found boundary states lying within the gaps localized either on the left or on the right boundary of the system, characterizing the so-called topological states.

A generic model of bulk crystal plasticity with stochastic evolution of the local microstructure is formulated. The evolution of local fluctuations of internal stress and plastic strain, as well as the cross correlation between these variables, is investigated for different loading modes (stress control vs. displacement control) as a function of the coarse graining scale, and the spatial structure of the respective correlation functions is determined. The investigations demonstrate that, after an initial transient characterized by uncorrelated initiation of plasticity in different sample locations, nontrivial long range correlations emerge both within the strain pattern and between the internal stress and plastic strain patterns. The internal stresses, on the other hand, remain short range correlated throughout. Implications of our findings for larger-scale plasticity models are discussed.

Multiferroic BFO/SRO/Si trilayers have been prepared by pulsed laser deposition in the form of thin films. As a function of the BFO layer thickness, magnetic and magneto-transport properties have been investigated at room temperature and down to 5 K. At low BFO layer thickness, a residual γ-Fe2O3 phase, which interacts interfacially with the SRO and BFO layers, is responsible for moderately hard magnetic properties of the film. On increasing BFO layer thickness, more homogeneous deposits are obtained with uniform magnetic and magneto-resistive properties.

In this work, electrochemically recyclable lithium is analyzed as high energy density, large scale storage material for stranded renewable energy in a closed loop. The strongly exothermic reaction of lithium with carbon dioxide (CO2) yields thermal energy directly comparable to the combustion of coal or methane in an oxygen containing atmosphere. The thermal level of the reaction is sufficient for re-electrification in a thermal power plant compatible process.

The reaction of single lithium particles, avoiding particle-particle interactions, is compared to the combustion of atomized lithium spray in a CO2 containing atmosphere. Particle temperatures of up to 4000K were found for the reaction of single lithium particles in a CO2, nitrogen (N2), oxygen (O2) and steam gas mixture. Furthermore the combustion of atomized lithium spray in both dry CO2 atmosphere and CO2/steam gas mixture was analyzed. The identified solid reaction products are lithium carbonate, lithium oxide and lithium hydroxide. The formation of carbon monoxide (CO) as gaseous reaction product is demonstrated. Carbon monoxide is a valuable by-product, which could be converted to methanol or gasoline using hydrogen.

Alternate aluminum and arsenic precursors were investigated for InAlAs grown by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy (OMVPE). The quality of the InAlAs growths was investigated by secondary-ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) to measure impurity concentrations. Trends are extracted from SIMS measurements for each precursor as a function of V/III ratio and growth temperature. Two arsenic precursors, arsine and tertiarybutylarsine (TBAs), were chosen to compare InAlAs growth quality. The impurity concentrations measured by SIMS decrease as the V/III ratio increases, for both arsine and TBAs growths. Impurities also decrease as growth temperature increases. Two aluminum precursors, trimethylaluminum (TMAl) and tritertiarybutylaluminum (TTBAl), were used to compare the effect of alumimum precursor on carbon and oxygen impurity levels. TMAl is widely studied in literature, though TTBAl is less common. This study represents the first report using the TTBAl precursor for InAlAs growth. Each aluminum source is used in conjunction with each aforementioned arsenic precursor in order to compare all possible precursor combinations. TMAl growths demonstrated decreasing impurities with increasing V/III ratio. TTBAl growths did not exhibit such a dependence, impurity concentrations remained virtually constant regardless of V/III ratio.

Advanced electrochemical technique was elaborated to fabricate self-organized CdSe nanowire structures from aqueous electrolytes on ITO coated glass substrates. We have recently been demonstrated successful electrochemical formation of free-assistent CdSe nanowire structures with diameter around 30 nm. This work has extended our previous research of electrodeposition of Cd chalcogenide (CdSe, CdS) nanowires to formation of core-shell CdSe/CdTe photosensitive nanowire structures. CdSe nanowire structures were synthesized potentiostatically from an acidic solution of H2SeO3 and CdCl2 at room temperature. Then the CdSe (core) nanowires were further passivated with CdTe (shell) thin film by method of electrochemical deposition from acidic solution of H2TeO3 and CdCl2. The effect of interfacial passivation with CdTe layer on the performance of the prepared photovoltaic structures was investigated and special account was paid to the morphology, composition and photovoltaic properties of obtained CdSe/CdTe nano-layers. It should be noted, that electrically conductive polymer photoabsorbers (poly (3-octylthiophene) etc.) were applied successfully for preparation of high work-function ohmic contact-sensitizer layer to CdTe shells. The electrodeposition and spin-casting techniques were applied step-by-step to prepare complete hybrid photovoltaic structures.

This study used Langmuir-Schaefer (LS) method to produce thermo-responsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PIPAAm) modified surface. Block copolymer composed of polystyrene (PSt) and PIPAAm was synthesized by RAFT polymerization. PSt-block-PIPAAm (St-IP) with various chemical compositions was dropped on an air-water interface and formed Langmuir film by compression. Then, the Langmuir film changing a density was transferred on a hydrophobic modified glass substrate to produce St-IP transferred surface (St-IP LS surface). From the observation of atomic force microscope images, a nanostructure was observed on the transference of Langmuir films. Cell adhesion and detachment were also evaluated on the LS surfaces in response to temperature. Cell adhesion on LS surfaces at 37 °C was controlled by changing the chemical compositions and densities. After reducing temperature to 20 °C, adhering cells rapidly detached themselves with lower Am and higher composition of PIPAAm. Our method should be proved novel insights for investigating cell adhesion and detachment on thermo-responsive surfaces.

We have developed a “Relative Rates Method” to make bounding calculations regarding radionuclide migration due to uplift/erosion (“exhumation”) of a HLW repository. Results show that this method can apply to a wide range of different uplift rates and erosion rates. In addition, for the long time period, it was shown that the relative difference of uplift rate / erosion rate and potential hydraulic change arising from extreme uplift/erosion could affect radionuclide release and migration, thus uplift/erosion concerns should be fed back to site selection. Our method provides a credible and defensible basis for analysis and interpretation of possible uplift/erosion impacts for future volunteer sites.

Position-controlled InP nanowires (NWs) with separations of 10-100 μm were grown by the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) method using Au-deposited SiO2-mask-patterned InP substrates. Excess indium species diffused from the large mask region formed plural tilted NW-like structures from single openings in addition to the vertical VLS NWs formed by Au catalyst. The introduction of HCl gas during the NW growth was found to efficiently suppress the tilted NW-like structures. Vertical InP NWs without anomalous growth were successfully formed by controlling the HCl flow rate. Moreover, single InP/InAsP/InP quantum wells (QWs) with wurtzite crystal phase structure were epitaxially grown on the sidewall of the position-controlled InP NWs, and two-dimensional arrayed patterns of photoluminescence (PL) coming from the radial QWs were clearly observed in the 1.3-μm wavelength region at room temperature.

As a preliminary study aiming to possible applications, novel polythiophenes (PTs) derivatives of 3-hexylthiophene and a thiophene functionalized with pyrene chromophore were synthesized. Homopolymer and copolymers of these monomers were obtained in different stoichiometric ratios which allow obtaining structure-property relation of each of the polymers. PTs were characterized by FT-IR, 1H NMR, UV-vis, DSC-TGA, GPC and fluorescence experiments. Polymers have λmax between 345 to 450 nm and an emission band at 485 and 542 nm. Low molecular weights distribution (Mn = 875 to 1600 g/mol) and thermostable products (Td = 336 to 474°C) were obtained. These PTs functionalized with aromatic molecules and π-conjugated systems could offer interesting applications such as optical sensors, nonlinear optics and photovoltaic cells.

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) suffers from an important limitation: it does not provide quantitative information about the scanned sample. This is because too many unknowns come into play in AFM measurements. The shape of the tip is probably the most important. A technique able to characterize in situ the shape of the tip apex would represent an important step ahead to turn the AFM into a quantitative tool.

Standard methods can be destructive to the tip and are time consuming. Two main methods are currently used to characterize the tip radius in situ without affecting its shape. The first consists of characterizing the tip radius by monitoring the dynamics of the cantilever. The value of free amplitude, for which transitions from the attractive to repulsive force regimes are observed, strongly depends on the curvature of the tip. The second method to characterize the tip radius consists instead on fitting the capacitance curve of the tip-sample system with an analytical function.

In this work we compare the two methods to characterize in situ the tip radius and results are verified with SEM images. The value of the free amplitude is correlated with the value of R while the capacitance curve is derived with a method we proposed. Tips with different tip radii are used. The investigation is conducted with the aim of determining the most reliable technique for characterizing the tip radius for both sharp and blunt tips.

A model is presented for computing the temperature increase associated with the formation of an adiabatic shear band. The hypothesis is that the heating is supplied by the difference in energy of a pile-up of n dislocations and the energy of n individual dislocations. The heating is assumed to occur within a volume determined by the grain size (i.e. slip band length) and an effective thermal length determined by the dislocation velocity. The model predicts increases in temperature with increasing shear modulus (G), increasing numbers of piled up dislocations (n), increasing Burgers vector (b), increased grain size (d), and increased dislocation velocity (v d ). Increasing temperature is also predicted with decreasing heat capacity (c*) and thermal diffusivity (α) as would be expected. The model was applied to low carbon steel for which considerable data are available. Application to low carbon steel gives a temperature increase of about 1400K. The implied result that untempered martensite should be observed after adiabatic shear banding is in agreement with examples cited in the literature. Further investigation into the dynamics of pile-up release and the associated heat transfer mechanisms is discussed.

High performance and cost effective multi-junction III-V solar cells are attractive for satellite applications. High performance multi-junction solar cells are based on a triple-junction design that employs an InGaP top-junction, a GaAs middle-junction, and a bottom-junction consisting of a 1.0 – 1.25 eV-material. The most attractive 1.0 – 1.25 eV-material is the lattice-matched dilute nitride such as InGaAsN(Sb). A record efficiency of 43.5% was achieved from multi-junction solar cells including dilute nitride materials [1]. In addition, cost effective manufacturing of III-V triple-junction solar cells can be achieved by employing full-wafer epitaxial lift-off (ELO) technology, which enables multiple substrate re-usages. We employed time-resolved photoluminescence (TR-PL) techniques to study carrier dynamics in both pre- and post-ELO processed GaAs double heterostructures (DHs) as well as in MOVPE-grown bulk dilute nitride layers lattice matched to GaAs substrates.

Three types of 316L stainless steel surface with different topography were prepared by a Fine Particle Peening (FPP) treatment using titania, silica and alumina shot particles and analyzed the cell proliferation and cell-scaffold interaction. FPP-treated surface with titania and silica particles had micro asperities at low frequency. On the other hand, the alumina treated surface had micro asperities at high frequency. L929 fibroblasts were seeded on these specimens and then the number of cells was counted after 72 hours of culturing. The FPP-treated surfaces showed good cell proliferation comparing to polished surface. This indicates that micro asperities formed on the surface encourage cell adhesion. Cell adhesion behavior was evaluated by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and a fluorescence microscope. Dense filopodia were observed when cells cultured on the FPP-treated surface. This means that FPP treatment enhances cell adhesion and proliferation. The number of cells observed on the FPP-treated surface depended on the shape of asperities formed by FPP treatment; the highest cell counts were obtained on alumina treated surface. This is because cell migration was not inhibited by the shape of alumina treated surface asperities.

In this work we report the fractographic study of polymer matrix composites specimens reinforced with glass and carbon fibers. Specimens of a polyester matrix composite with 30% of E-glass fibers are prepared and fractured in flexure mode. We also test an epoxy matrix composite with 30% carbon fibers, which is fractured in flexure mode. All specimens are manufactured based on the D790 ASTM standard for bending mode at room temperature. As an exception, the composites with epoxy matrix and reinforced with carbon fiber are cured in an autoclave. The most commonly observed fracture mechanisms are debonding in the interphase, delamination, Chevron lines, microbuckling, river patterns and radial fracture on the fibers.

This work presents two multifunctional magnetic hybrid materials with potential applications as micro-actuators. The first one consists of iron oxide (Fe2O3) nanoparticles embedded in polyvinyl butyral (PVB). For the second one, Fe2O3 nanoparticles, coated with carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), were embedded in PVB. The main objective is to describe their synthesis and morphological and magnetic characterizations, and to evaluate their displacement against a variable magnetic field. The maximal displacement is obtained by the (Fe2O3-CMC)/PVB beam-shaped structure (28.37 x 2.6 x 0.183 mm3) with 843 μm; the maximal electric power being 1.14 W. The levels of displacement induced in both hybrid materials as a response of the external magnetic field, besides the low electric power required, let us conclude that the studied materials could be considered as good candidates to micro-actuators applications.

We have previously reported, based on fluctuation electron microscopy (FEM) data, that Zr50Cu45Al5 bulk metallic glass (BMG) contains significant icosahedral and crystal-like medium-range order. Here, we report similar finding for Zr54Cu38Al8 BMG, which is a poorer glass former. Like Zr50Cu45Al5, Zr54Cu38Al8 contains icosahedral and crystal-like structures. In the as-cast state, the crystal-like peak in the FEM data is stronger than icosahedral-like peak. After annealing at 0.83T g (573 K), the icosahedral-like peak increases, but, unlike Zr50Cu45Al5, the crystal-like peak does not decrease. This tendency toward stronger, more thermally stable crystal-like order may be associated with the poorer glass forming ability of Zr54Cu38Al8.