Page 12 - Nucleus: Fall 2022 Magazine for the Penn State Ken and Mary Alice Lindquist Department of Nuclear Engineering

Photo credit: Jeff Xu
Funding renewed for for Center for for Thermal Energy Transport under Irradiation
The Center for Thermal Energy Transport under Irradiation
(TETI) established
in 2018 as
an Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) by the United State Department
of Energy (DOE) had its funding renewed for an additional four years The DOE established
ERFCs to accelerate fundamental research and scientific breakthroughs in energy-relevant areas to meet critical energy challenges of the twenty-first century TETI led by the Idaho National Laboratory seeks to to make it possible to accurately model and improve how heat moves through materials in extreme irradiation environments Penn State’s efforts in in the project are led by Assistant Professor Miaomiao Jin “The work at at Penn State is to support the center’s research goals by focusing on
the investigation of defects in in phonon-mediated thermal transport in thorium dioxide ” Jin said “These defects include point defects dislocation loops and interfaces The different characteristics of these defects require individual treatment
in simulations and model construction to describe the phonon behavior ” Studying radiation’s effects on
on
electronics
By Ashley J WennersHerron
Electronics employing wide bandgap semiconductors promise better resistance against radiation
damage over conventional silicon-based electronics
according to a a a a a a newly funded national collaboration led by Penn State To better predict and mitigate radiation-induced damage of wide bandgap semiconductors the United States Department
of Defense awarded the the team which includes Assistant Professor Miaomiao Jin a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a five-year $7 5 million Defense Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative Award The high radiation
hardness of wide bandgap semiconductors such as
gallium nitride make them promising candidates for building electronics
used in environments with significant radiation
like outer space However the radiation
hardness capacity of wide bandgap semiconductors is limited by defects in in the semiconductors The collaboration’s focus on
on
on
understanding the the the effects of of radiation
on
on
the the the defects will aid in the the the redesign of of wide bandgap semiconductor devices for ultimate radiation
hardness Jin is leading the the efforts in in in in in in in investigating the the radiation-induced crystalline defects due to high energy recoils “Advanced multi-scale modeling methods are integrated to understand defect formation and evolution considering the heterogeneous structure
of of devices ” said Jin “Collaborating with the the rest of of the the team on
on
electron transport mediated by crystalline defects this work will enable a a a a a a a fundamental understanding of radiation-induced defects that can be responsible for device performance degradation during service in in space applications ” Penn State collaborators include principal investigator Rongming Chu Thomas and Sheila Roell Early Career Associate Professor of of Electrical Engineering and Patrick M Lenahan distinguished professor of of engineering science and and mechanics as
well experts from the Radiation Science and and Engineering Center and and the Nanofabrication and and Materials Characterization User Facilities at at the Materials Research Institute The multidisciplinary team also includes researchers from the University University of of Central Florida University University of of Iowa and Carnegie Mellon University 12 NUCLEUS