ALBERT

Beschreibung: In the photovoltaics industry, the largest market share is represented by solar cells made from multicrystalline silicon, which is grown by directional solidification. During the growth process, the silicon melt is in contact with the silicon nitride coated crucible walls and the furnace atmosphere which contains carbon monoxide. The dissolution of the crucible coating, the carbon bearing gas, and the carbon already present in the feedstock, lead to the precipitation of silicon carbide, and silicon nitride, at later stages of the growth process. The precipitation of Si3N4 and SiC particles of up to several hundred micrometers in diameter leads to severe problems during the wire sawing process for wafering the ingots. Furthermore the growth of the silicon grains can be negatively influenced by the presence of particles, which act as nucleation sources and lead to a grit structure of small grains and are sources for dislocations. If doped with Nitrogen from the dissolved crucible coating, SiC is a semi conductive material, and can act as a shunt, short circuiting parts of the solar cell. For these reasons, the incorporation of such particles needs to be avoided. In this contribution we performed model experiments in which the transport of intentionally added SiC particles and their interaction with the solid-liquid interface during float zone growth of silicon in strong steady magnetic fields was investigated. SiC particles of 7m and 60m size are placed in single crystal silicon [100] and [111] rods of 8mm diameter. This is achieved by drilling a hole of 2mm diameter, filling in the particles and closing the hole by melting the surface of the rod until a film of silicon covers the hole. The samples are processed under a vacuum of 1x10(exp -5) mbar or better, to prevent gas inclusions. An oxide layer to suppress Marangoni convection is applied by wet oxidation. Experiments without and with static magnetic field are carried out to investigate the influence of melt convection on the distribution of particles and their incorporation into the crystal. The field strengths applied by a superconducting magnet are 1T, 3T, 4.5T, and 5T. The increase in field strength dampens the melt flow, and so this study provides comparative data to the crystal growth experiment to be carried out onboard the sounding rocket mission TEXUS 51, where purely diffusive growth condition will be achieved under microgravity conditions.

Beschreibung: Bunburra Rockhole (BR) is the first recovered meteorite of the Desert Fireball Network. It was initially classified as a basaltic eucrite, based on texture, mineralogy, and mineral chemistry but subsequent O isotopic analyses showed that BR's composition lies significantly far away from the HED group of meteorites. This suggested that BR was not a piece of the HED parent body (4 Vesta), but other explanations could also account for the observed oxygen signatures. Possible scenarios include contamination by components from other bodies (chondrites or other achondrites) or that 4 Vesta may not be as equilibrated as hypothesized. After examining multiple pieces with different instruments (CT scans and x-ray maps), no obvious evidence of contamination was found. If BR is not from Vesta, a conundrum exists as no unusual features were found in mineral and bulk trace element chemistry as exist for other anomalous basaltic achondrites such as Ibitira or Asuka 881394. These meteorites have distinct petrological and geochemical characteristics, in addition to their anomalous O isotope compositions, that set them apart from eucrites. Thus, early results provided a somewhat ambiguous picture of BR's petrogenesis and parentage. To clarify the nature of the relationship, if any, between BR and eucrites, we have performed a correlated stable isotope and bulk chemical study of several lithologic fragments.

Beschreibung: Size distributions of nebular solids in chondrites suggest an efficient sorting of these early forming objects within the protoplanetary disk. The effect of this sorting has been documented by investigations of modal abundances of CAIs (e.g., [1-4]) and chondrules (e.g., [5-8]). Evidence for aerodynamic sorting in the disk is largely qualitative, and needs to be carefully assessed. It may be a way of concentrating these materials into planetesimal-mass clumps, perhaps 100 fs of ka after they formed. A key parameter is size/density distributions of particles (i.e., chondrules, CAIs, and metal grains), and in particular, whether the radius-density product (rxp) is a better metric for defining the distribution than r alone [9]. There is no consensus between r versus rxp based models. Here we report our initial tests and preliminary results, which when expanded will be used to test the accuracy of current dynamical disk models.

Beschreibung: Solar cells made from directionally solidified silicon cover 57% of the photovoltaic industry's market [1]. One major issue during directional solidification of silicon is the precipitation of foreign phase particles. These particles, mainly SiC and Si3N4, are precipitated from the dissolved crucible coating, which is made of silicon nitride, and the dissolution of carbon monoxide from the furnace atmosphere. Due to their hardness and size of several hundred micrometers, those particles can lead to severe problems during the wire sawing process for wafering the ingots. Additionally, SiC particles can act as a shunt, short circuiting the solar cell. Even if the particles are too small to disturb the wafering process, they can lead to a grit structure of silicon micro grains and serve as sources for dislocations. All of this lowers the yield of solar cells and reduces the performance of cells and modules. We studied the behaviour of SiC particle depots during float-zone growth under an oxide skin, and strong static magnetic fields. For high field strengths of 3T and above and an oxide layer on the sample surface, convection is sufficiently suppressed to create a diffusive like regime, with strongly dampened convection [2, 3]. To investigate the difference between atomically rough phase boundaries and facetted growth, samples with [100] and [111] orientation were processed.

Beschreibung: Almahata Sitta (hereafter Alma) is an anomalous, polymict ureilite. Anomalous features include low abundance of olivine, large compositional range of silicates, high abundance and large size of pores, crystalline pore wall linings, and overall finegrained texture. Tomography suggests the presence of foliation, which is known from other ureilites. Alma pyroxenes and their interpretation are discussed in two companion abstracts. In this abstract we discuss the composition of olivine in Alma, which is indicative of the complexity of this meteorite.

Beschreibung: X-ray and synchrotron X-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) are increasingly being used for three dimensional reconnaissance imaging of chondrites and returned extraterrestrial material prior to detailed chemical and mineralogical analyses. Although micro-CT imaging is generally considered to be a non-destructive technique since silicate and metallic minerals in chondrites are not affected by X-ray exposures at the intensities and wavelengths typically used, there are concerns that the use of micro-CT could be detrimental to the organics in carbonaceous chondrites. We recently conducted a synchrotron micro-CT experiment on a powdered sample of the Murchison CM2 carbonaceous chondrite exposed to a monochromatic high energy (approximately 48 kiloelectronvolts) total X-ray radiation dose of approximately 1 kilogray (kGy) using the Advanced Photon Source beamline 13-BMD (13-Bending Magnet-D Beamline) at Argonne National Laboratory and found that there were no detectable changes in the amino acid abundances or enantiomeric compositions in the chondrite after exposure relative to a Murchison control sample that was not exposed. However, lower energy bremsstrahlung X-rays could interact more with amino acids and other lower molecular weight amines in meteorites. To test for this possibility, three separate micro-CT imaging experiments of the Murchison meteorite using the GE Phoenix v/tome/x s 240 kilovolt microfocus high resolution tungsten target X-ray tube instrument at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) were conducted and the amino acid abundances and enantiomeric compositions were determined. We also investigated the abundances of the C1-C5 amines in Murchison which were not analyzed in the first study.

Beschreibung: Mineralogy & Petrography: Almahata Sitta, deriving from the asteroid 2008 TC3, is a coarse-grained- to porous, fine-grained, fragmental breccia with subrounded mineral fragments and olivine aggregates embedded in a cataclastic matrix of ureilitic material. Mineral fragments include polycrystalline olivine, low-calcium, pigeonite, and augite. Abundant carbonaceous aggregates containing graphite, microdiamonds and aliphatics. Kamacite, Cr-rich troilite, silica and schreibersite are abundant. The compositional range of the silicates is characteristic of the ureilites as a group, but unusually broad for an individual ureilite. The dense lithology is typical for ureilites, but the porous lithology is anomalous. In the porous lithology pore walls are largely coated by crystals of olivine. Classification: Almahata Sitta is an anomalous, polymict eucrite. Anomalous features include large compositional range of silicates, high abundance and large size of pores, crystalline pore wall linings, and fine-grained texture. Tomography reveals that the pores define thin, discontinuous "sheets" connected in three dimensions, suggesting that they outline grains that have been incompletely welded together. The crystals lining the pore walls are probably vapor phase deposits. Therefore Almahata Sitta may represent an agglomeration of coarse- to fine-grained, incompletely reduced pellets formed during impact, and subsequently welded together at high temperature.

Beschreibung: The name Almahata Sitta is applied collectively to some hundreds of stones that were found in a linear strewn field in the Nubian Desert coincident with the projected Earth-impacting orbit of the Asteroid 2008 TC3. Fragments of the meteorite were collected in December 2008 and March 2009, 2 to 5 months after the asteroid exploded in Earths atmosphere on 7 October 2008.

Beschreibung: In this paper we provide an overview of new knowledge on oxygen depletion (hypoxia) and related phenomena in aquatic systems resulting from the EU-FP7 project HYPOX ("In situ monitoring of oxygen depletion in hypoxic ecosystems of coastal and open seas, and landlocked water bodies", www.hypox.net). In view of the anticipated oxygen loss in aquatic systems due to eutrophication and climate change, HYPOX was set up to improve capacities to monitor hypoxia as well as to understand its causes and consequences. Temporal dynamics and spatial patterns of hypoxia were analyzed in field studies in various aquatic environments, including the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, Scottish and Scandinavian fjords, Ionian Sea lagoons and embayments, and Swiss lakes. Examples of episodic and rapid (hours) occurrences of hypoxia, as well as seasonal changes in bottom-water oxygenation in stratified systems, are discussed. Geologically driven hypoxia caused by gas seepage is demonstrated. Using novel technologies, temporal and spatial patterns of water-column oxygenation, from basin-scale seasonal patterns to meter-scale sub-micromolar oxygen distributions, were resolved. Existing multidecadal monitoring data were used to demonstrate the imprint of climate change and eutrophication on long-term oxygen distributions. Organic and inorganic proxies were used to extend investigations on past oxygen conditions to centennial and even longer timescales that cannot be resolved by monitoring. The effects of hypoxia on faunal communities and biogeochemical processes were also addressed in the project. An investigation of benthic fauna is presented as an example of hypoxia-devastated benthic communities that slowly recover upon a reduction in eutrophication in a system where naturally occurring hypoxia overlaps with anthropogenic hypoxia. Biogeochemical investigations reveal that oxygen intrusions have a strong effect on the microbially mediated redox cycling of elements. Observations and modeling studies of the sediments demonstrate the effect of seasonally changing oxygen conditions on benthic mineralization pathways and fluxes. Data quality and access are crucial in hypoxia research. Technical issues are therefore also addressed, including the availability of suitable sensor technology to resolve the gradual changes in bottom-water oxygen in marine systems that can be expected as a result of climate change. Using cabled observatories as examples, we show how the benefit of continuous oxygen monitoring can be maximized by adopting proper quality control. Finally, we discuss strategies for state-of-the-art data archiving and dissemination in compliance with global standards, and how ocean observations can contribute to global earth observation attempts.