Boron carbide (B4C) is a hard material whose value for extended engineering applications such as body armor; is limited by its brittleness under impact. To improve the ductility while retaining hardness, we used density functional theory to examine modifying B4C ductility through microalloying. We found that replacing the CBC chain in B4C with Si-Si, denoted as (B11Cp)-Si2, dramatically improve...

We characterize inductors fabricated from ultra-thin, approximately 100 nm wide strips of niobium (Nb) and niobium nitride (NbN). These nanowires have a large kinetic inductance in the superconducting state. The kinetic inductance scales linearly with the nanowire length, with a typical value of 1 nH µm(-1) for NbN and 44 pH µm(-1) for Nb at a temperature of 2.5 K. We measure the temperature an...

The proposed linear electron-positron collider TESLA is based on 1.3 GHz superconducting niobium cavities for particle acceleration. For a center-of-mass energy of 500 GeV an accelerating field of 23.4 MV/m is required which is reliably achieved with a niobium surface preparation by chemical etching. An upgrade of the collider to 800 GeV requires an improved cavity preparation technique. In thi...

In an attempt to correlate the performance of superconducting radiofrequency cavities made of niobium with the superconducting properties, we present the results of the magnetization and ac susceptibility of the niobium used in the superconducting radiofrequency cavity fabrication. The samples were subjected to buffer chemical polishing (BCP) surface and high temperature heat treatments, typica...

Field emission and thermal breakdown are the main mechanisms limiting the accelerating gradient of niobium radio-frequency cavities. Diagnostic tools to study these mechanisms include quality measurements, thermometry, and microscopy. Results presented here demonstrate that micron-size, conducting particles are the source of field emission. Thermal breakdown is caused by a variety of defects su...

The influence of various preparation methods on the performance of V-Nb-0 catalysts has been investigated. It was found that the activity and selectivity of a vanadium site depend on the nature of the neighbouring atoms. Vanadium neighbours provide activity, while niobium neighbours provide selectivity. Careful preparation of these catalysts ensures a homogeneous distribution and good mixing of...

We report small-angle neutron-scattering (SANS) measurements of flux line properties near H(c2) in an ultrapure sample of niobium with weak pinning of flux in the bulk. These confirm in detail the Abrikosov picture of the flux line lattice to within 20 mK of the upper critical field line. However, it has recently been claimed [X. S. Ling et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 712 (2001)], on the basis of...

Press hardening steel has become a much used material in car body manufacturing due to its excellent safety and lightweight potential. In some recent car models press hardening steel has reached already a weight share of more than 20% in the body structure while it is estimated that it could reach even around 40% in the future. However conventional press hardening steel based on the alloying co...

Name: Jiong Hua Department: Physics Title: Commensurate Effect in Superconducting Niobium Films Containing Arrays of Nanoscale Holes Major: Physics Degree: Doctor of Philosophy