A fusion-fission (hybrid) reactor is a combination of a fusion device and a subcritical fission reactor, where the fusion device acts as a neutron source and the power is mainly produced in the fission core. Hybrid reactors may be suitable for transmutation of transuranic isotopes in the spent nuclear fuel, due to the safety margin on criticality imposed by the subcritical fission core. The SFLM Hybrid project is a theoretical project that aims to point out the possibilities with steady-state mirror-based hybrid reactors. The quadrupolar magnetic mirror vacuum field is based on the Straight Field Line Mirror field and the central cell is 25 m long. A fission mantle surrounds the mirror cell. The fission to fusion power ratio is about 150 with keff = 0.97, implying that almost all the produced energy comes from fission. Beyond each mirror end magnetic expanders are located, which increase the plasma receiving “divertor” area and provide tolerable heat load on wall materials. The plasma is heated with ion cyclotron radio frequency heating and the fission mantle is cooled using a liquid lead-bismuth eutectic. The device is self-sufficient in tritium, and does not seem to suffer from severe material problems. A remaining issue may be the plasma electron temperature, which need to reach about 500 eV for efficient power production.  In this doctoral thesis, theoretical work has been done with the magnetic coil system of such a device and also with the overall concept. A new coil type, the fishbone coil, suitable for single cell quadrupolar mirrors, has been invented. Two vacuum field coil sets with satisfying properties have been found, where the most recent coil set consists of fishbone coils. Finite ß effects on the magnetic field have been investigated, showing that the flux tube ellipticity increases with ß. The ellipticity of the vacuum field increases slightly with radius, but with finite ß it decreases with radius. The maximum flux surface radial extensions decrease with ß, which is an unexpected and beneficial result. A radial invariant has also been identified, and particle simulations have been made to emphasize that quadrupolar mirrors must be symmetric or confinement may be lost.

NMR spectroscopy has evolved into one of the most important characterization techniques in chemistry with which it is possible to obtain valuable structural, dynamical, and mechanistic information. Most applications of NMR have however been limited to the use of nuclei having spin quantum numbers of 1/2. This thesis discusses the developments that have been advanced in order to extract quantitative structural information from the NMR spectroscopy of quadrupolar nuclei (spin, I>1/2) which account for the vast majority of the NMR-active nuclei. In a first part of the thesis, a NMR crystallographic method is developed which uses the electric field gradient tensor measured at the nuclear sites as an experimental constraint in DFT-based crystal structure refinements. This inclusion of experimental data into crystal structure refinements enables the determination of higher quality, and experimentally-relevant, structures. We apply this new methodology in order to determine higher quality crystal structures for the non-linear optical material Na2B2Al2O7, sodium pyrophosphates, and the near-zero thermal expansion material ZrMgMo3O12. In a second part of this thesis, experimental techniques are developed for the measurement of spin-spin coupling between pairs of quadrupolar nuclei; the measurement of spin-spin coupling carries with it extremely valuable distance and connectivity information. Using DOR NMR, heteronuclear residual dipolar coupling as well as homonuclear J coupling multiplets can be observed. Notably, the J coupling between quadrupolar nuclei can still be measured in A2 spin systems, unlike in the case of pairs of spin-1/2 nuclei. The theory that was developed for the characterization of these multiplets was extended for the general simulation of exact NMR spectra of quadrupolar. This program, known as QUEST, is now free to use by anyone in the scientific community. Pulsed J-resolved NMR experiments are then described which enable the facile measurement of J and dipolar coupling in homonuclear pairs of quadrupolar nuclei. Notably, the J splitting is greatly amplified in A2 spin systems which provides strong structural information and enables the precise detection of smaller J coupling constants. These techniques are applied towards directly studying gallium metal-metal bonding interactions as well as boron-boron bonds in diboron compounds of importance in β-boration chemistry.

Recentemente, o Laboratório de Espectroscopia de Alta Resolução por RMN (LEAR), do Instituto de Física de São Carlos - USP, decidiu iniciar pesquisa na área de materiais magnéticos sem a aplicação de campo magnético externo. Por esta razão, montou-se um espectrômetro de RMN em campo zero (RMNz), tendo como componente principal um console de banda larga (1-600 MHz) da empresa TECMAG, adquirido com o apoio da FAPESP. Para o início das atividades de pesquisa nesta nova área de atuação, optou-se por estudar uma amostra modelo já bastante estudada, o composto intermetálico policristalino GdAl2. Apesar desta amostra já ter sido muito estudada nos últimos 60 anos, surpreendentemente resultados inéditos foram obtidos para este material. Neste estudo, adquiriu-se sinais de RMN com a utilização da técnica de spin-eco, empregando-se dois pulsos de rf separados por um período de tempo denominado tempo ao eco. Esta técnica foi empregada de duas formas básicas distintas. A primeira, devido ao fato das larguras dos espectros nestes estudos serem sempre muito largas (dezenas de MHz), não é possível excitar toda banda espectral com apenas uma excitação de radiofrequência (rf), sendo necessário se fazer a varredura das frequências de excitação e respectivas observações dos sinais, e, posteriormente, para obtenção do espectro como um todo, reunir todos esses resultados em apenas um gráfico das amplitudes dos sinais adquiridos versus as frequências utilizadas. A segunda forma envolveu a aquisição do sinal de RMN fixando-se a frequência e variando-se o tempo ao eco, obtendo-se as denominadas oscilações quadrupolares. Entre os resultados mais importantes, destacam-se a aquisição de espectros de 27Al com alta resolução, onde se pode observar, diretamente a partir dos espectros, o acoplamento quadrupolar deste núcleo com o gradiente de campo elétrico produzido pela distribuição de cargas elétricas locais. Além disso, variaram-se parâmetros experimentais tais como separação e largura de pulsos em experimentos de spin-eco e se analisou como estes parâmetros influenciam os sinais adquiridos. Pôde-se constatar também que os experimentos de oscilação quadrupolar corroboram os experimentos realizados em função da frequência, fornecendo os mesmos valores de acoplamento quadrupolar. Com a variação da largura e separação dos pulsos de rf usados nos experimentos de spin-eco, se observou o aparecimento dos múltiplos ecos para o núcleo de 27Al (spin 5/2), já previstos pela teoria. Os mesmos experimentos foram realizados para os núcleos de 155Gd e 157Gd (ambos spin 3/2). Neste caso, também se mediu os valores dos acoplamentos quadrupolares diretamente a partir dos espectros, mas não foi possível medi-los a partir da observação das oscilações quadrupolares. Variando-se a temperatura, observou-se também que o comportamento da magnetização segue a lei de Curie-Weiss, através do deslocamento das linhas observadas. / Recently, the Laboratory of High Resolution Spectroscopy for NMR (LEAR), of the Institute of Physics of São Carlos - USP, decided to initiate a research on the area of magnetic materials without the application of external magnetic field. For this reason, a spectrometer of NMR in zero field was assembled (NMRz), having as main component a broad band equipment (1-600 MHz) from a company named TECMAG, acquired with the support of FAPESP. For the beginning of the activities of research in this new area, it was opted to study a sample model already sufficiently studied, the polycrystalline intermetallic compound GdAl2. Although this sample is known to have already been much studied in the last 60 years, surprisingly unpublished results were obtained for this material. In this work, one acquired signals of NMR with the use of the spin-echo technique, using two rf pulses separated by a period of time called time to echo. This technique was employed using two distinct basic forms. The first one, due to the fact that the widths of the spectres in these studies are always very wide (tens of MHz), it is not possible to excite all spectral band with only one radiofrequency (rf) pulse, being required to first do a sweeping of frequencies of excitation and respective observation signals, and, after that, in order to get the spectrum as a whole, to collect all these results in only one graph of the amplitude of the signals acquired versus the used frequencies. The second form involved the acquisition of the NMR signal fixing one frequency and varying the time to echo, getting the called quadrupole oscillations. Amongst the most important results, are the acquisition of spectra of 27Al with high resolution, which is observed, directly from the spectra, the quadrupole coupling of this nucleus with the gradient of electric field produced by the local electric charges distribution. Moreover, experimental parameters were varied, such as separation and width of pulses in spin-echo experiments and it was analyzed as how these parameters influence the acquired signals. It was seen that the experiments of quadrupole oscillation corroborate the experiments carried in function of the frequency, resulting the same values of quadrupole coupling. With the variation of the width and separation of the used pulses of rf in the spin-echo experiments, it was observed the appearance of the multiple echoes for the nucleus of 27Al (spin 5/2), already provided for theory. The same experiments had been carried out for the nuclei of 155Gd and 157Gd (both spin 3/2). In this case that, also it was measured the quadrupole couplings values directly from spectra, but could not measure them from the quadrupole oscillations. Varying the temperature, it was also observed that the behavior of the magnetization follows the law of Curie-Weiss, through the displacement of the observed lines.

Recentemente, o Laboratório de Espectroscopia de Alta Resolução por RMN (LEAR), do Instituto de Física de São Carlos - USP, decidiu iniciar pesquisa na área de materiais magnéticos sem a aplicação de campo magnético externo. Por esta razão, montou-se um espectrômetro de RMN em campo zero (RMNz), tendo como componente principal um console de banda larga (1-600 MHz) da empresa TECMAG, adquirido com o apoio da FAPESP. Para o início das atividades de pesquisa nesta nova área de atuação, optou-se por estudar uma amostra modelo já bastante estudada, o composto intermetálico policristalino GdAl2. Apesar desta amostra já ter sido muito estudada nos últimos 60 anos, surpreendentemente resultados inéditos foram obtidos para este material. Neste estudo, adquiriu-se sinais de RMN com a utilização da técnica de spin-eco, empregando-se dois pulsos de rf separados por um período de tempo denominado tempo ao eco. Esta técnica foi empregada de duas formas básicas distintas. A primeira, devido ao fato das larguras dos espectros nestes estudos serem sempre muito largas (dezenas de MHz), não é possível excitar toda banda espectral com apenas uma excitação de radiofrequência (rf), sendo necessário se fazer a varredura das frequências de excitação e respectivas observações dos sinais, e, posteriormente, para obtenção do espectro como um todo, reunir todos esses resultados em apenas um gráfico das amplitudes dos sinais adquiridos versus as frequências utilizadas. A segunda forma envolveu a aquisição do sinal de RMN fixando-se a frequência e variando-se o tempo ao eco, obtendo-se as denominadas oscilações quadrupolares. Entre os resultados mais importantes, destacam-se a aquisição de espectros de 27Al com alta resolução, onde se pode observar, diretamente a partir dos espectros, o acoplamento quadrupolar deste núcleo com o gradiente de campo elétrico produzido pela distribuição de cargas elétricas locais. Além disso, variaram-se parâmetros experimentais tais como separação e largura de pulsos em experimentos de spin-eco e se analisou como estes parâmetros influenciam os sinais adquiridos. Pôde-se constatar também que os experimentos de oscilação quadrupolar corroboram os experimentos realizados em função da frequência, fornecendo os mesmos valores de acoplamento quadrupolar. Com a variação da largura e separação dos pulsos de rf usados nos experimentos de spin-eco, se observou o aparecimento dos múltiplos ecos para o núcleo de 27Al (spin 5/2), já previstos pela teoria. Os mesmos experimentos foram realizados para os núcleos de 155Gd e 157Gd (ambos spin 3/2). Neste caso, também se mediu os valores dos acoplamentos quadrupolares diretamente a partir dos espectros, mas não foi possível medi-los a partir da observação das oscilações quadrupolares. Variando-se a temperatura, observou-se também que o comportamento da magnetização segue a lei de Curie-Weiss, através do deslocamento das linhas observadas. / Recently, the Laboratory of High Resolution Spectroscopy for NMR (LEAR), of the Institute of Physics of São Carlos - USP, decided to initiate a research on the area of magnetic materials without the application of external magnetic field. For this reason, a spectrometer of NMR in zero field was assembled (NMRz), having as main component a broad band equipment (1-600 MHz) from a company named TECMAG, acquired with the support of FAPESP. For the beginning of the activities of research in this new area, it was opted to study a sample model already sufficiently studied, the polycrystalline intermetallic compound GdAl2. Although this sample is known to have already been much studied in the last 60 years, surprisingly unpublished results were obtained for this material. In this work, one acquired signals of NMR with the use of the spin-echo technique, using two rf pulses separated by a period of time called time to echo. This technique was employed using two distinct basic forms. The first one, due to the fact that the widths of the spectres in these studies are always very wide (tens of MHz), it is not possible to excite all spectral band with only one radiofrequency (rf) pulse, being required to first do a sweeping of frequencies of excitation and respective observation signals, and, after that, in order to get the spectrum as a whole, to collect all these results in only one graph of the amplitude of the signals acquired versus the used frequencies. The second form involved the acquisition of the NMR signal fixing one frequency and varying the time to echo, getting the called quadrupole oscillations. Amongst the most important results, are the acquisition of spectra of 27Al with high resolution, which is observed, directly from the spectra, the quadrupole coupling of this nucleus with the gradient of electric field produced by the local electric charges distribution. Moreover, experimental parameters were varied, such as separation and width of pulses in spin-echo experiments and it was analyzed as how these parameters influence the acquired signals. It was seen that the experiments of quadrupole oscillation corroborate the experiments carried in function of the frequency, resulting the same values of quadrupole coupling. With the variation of the width and separation of the used pulses of rf in the spin-echo experiments, it was observed the appearance of the multiple echoes for the nucleus of 27Al (spin 5/2), already provided for theory. The same experiments had been carried out for the nuclei of 155Gd and 157Gd (both spin 3/2). In this case that, also it was measured the quadrupole couplings values directly from spectra, but could not measure them from the quadrupole oscillations. Varying the temperature, it was also observed that the behavior of the magnetization follows the law of Curie-Weiss, through the displacement of the observed lines.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

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Solid-state NMR spectroscopy is used to investigate strong hydrogen bonds in a variety of solids. NMR measurements of the 2H nuclear quadrupole coupling (CQ) and nuclear magnetic shielding tensors are performed on samples of trimethylammonium chloride (TMAC), protonated 1,8-bis(dimethylamino)napthalene (DMANH+), and potassium and sodium bifluoride. 2H CPMAS is used to obtain high quality spectra while reducing experimental time. From spectral simulations, values of 127, 36, 59 and 58 kHz are determined for the 2H CQ of TMAC, DMANH+ CF3SO3-, NaHF2 and KHF2, respectively. The 2H CPMAS spectrum of TMAC shows a minor secondary component resulting from a solid phase in which the trimethylammonium cation is experiencing precessional motion. At high temperature the 2H CPMAS spectrum of DMANH+ shows unexpected spinning sideband lineshapes because of residual dipolar coupling to 14N. The experimental 2H CQ values are corroborated by ab-initio and DFT calculations; for DMAN and the bifluorides the 2H CQ values are averaged over the potential energy surface to improve the computational quality. Large values of the isotropic chemical shift (>10 ppm) are observed for all of the hydrogen-bonded deuterons. To complement the 2H NMR work, other nuclei in the compounds of interest are investigated, for TMAC these include: 35Cl, 37Cl, 1H, 14N, 15N. The 35Cl CQ shows a small, but observable deuterium/proton isotope effect. Quadrupolar and chemical shift parameters for assorted nuclei in TMAC are calculated at various N-H distances, demonstrating the strong dependence of the chlorine and hydrogen parameters on the proton position. For DMANH+ the 15N CPMAS spectrum of a static sample of DMANH+-d1 provides a value for the average dipolar 15N-D coupling constant of 870±30 Hz, corresponding to a distance of 1.29 A. Spectra of the counterions in the bifluoride salts are obtained, providing CQ values of 123 kHz and 1.141 MHz for 39K and 23Na, respectively.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Magnetic flux emergence is a fundamental process in the Sun, during which magnetic fields emerge from the solar interior to the surface, to build up active regions and give onset to spectacular dynamic phenomena, such as eruptions and jets. In this thesis, we performed 3D, resistive MHD simulations to study the emergence and the associated magnetic activity of a quadrupolar region in the Sun. Our aim behind the setup of this initial condition (i.e. a quadrupolar region) was to study a magnetic field configuration, which has not been studied in detail before, although it has been repeatedly observed in the Sun and it has been shown that it can host intense magnetic activity (e.g. in the form of jets, flares and eruptions). The results of our experiments showed that the internal dynamics of such regions leads to the onset of eruptions in the form of twisted magnetic flux tubes (flux ropes). These eruptions are recurrent but they cannot escape the outermost field of the emerging flux (envelope field). They remain confined within the envelope field, as the downward tension of the outermost field lines overwhelms the upward Lorentz force of the erupting field. When we add an ambient magnetic field in the solar atmosphere, external reconnection between the emerging and the ambient field triggers the emission of (standard) reconnection jets. The external reconnection also releases the tension of the ambient field lines and, thus, the eruptions move in an ejective way towards the outer space. Namely, the confined eruptions become ejective eruptions, which escape from the numerical domain. These ejective eruptions drive a newly observed class of jets, the so called "blowout" jets. Our experiments reproduce some of the main observed characteristics of the "blowout" jets. We showed that "blowout" jets emit hot and cool plasma into the outer solar atmosphere simultaneously, and they undergo untwisting motion due to the relaxation of twist during their ejection. We found that the untwisting motion of the "blowout" jets is associated with the propagation of torsional Alfvén waves. Finally, we performed a parametric study to explore the effect of the ambient field strength on the onset and dynamics of the eruptive events. We found that one of the main effects is that the stronger ambient field suppresses the vertical expansion of the magnetic envelope of the quadrupolar region due to the higher magnetic pressure above it. This result has an effect on the emission of jets, which are emitted due to reconnection between the two fields. When the ambient field is relatively weak, it is pushed away from the strong emerging field and reconnection between them is not so persistent. On the other hand, when the ambient field is relatively strong, we find that more jets are ejected due to more efficient and more frequent reconnection between the two flux systems. As a consequence, we find that more mass and flux is being transferred into the solar corona by the reconnection jets. Also, we find that there are more eruptions when the ambient field is stronger. The study of the total energy flux carried by the jets showed that it is sufficient to provide the energy required to accelerate the high speed solar wind. This indicates that the "blowout" jets may play an important role in driving the solar wind.

In the past decade, the field of NMR spectroscopy has seen the emergence of ever more powerful superconducting magnets, which has opened the door for the observation of many traditionally challenging or non-receptive nuclei. In this dissertation, a variety of ionic solids with organic coordination environments are investigated using quadrupolar solid-state NMR experiments with an ultrahigh-field magnet (21.1 T). Two general research directions are presented including a 79/81Br solid-state NMR study of a series of 6 triphenylphosphonium bromides for which single-crystal X-ray structures are reported herein. A second research direction is also presented wherein alkaline-earth metal (25Mg, 43Ca, and 87Sr) solid-state NMR is used to characterize a systematic series of 16 aryl and alkyl carboxylates. In both studies, the quadrupolar nuclei studied are deemed “exotic” due to their unreceptive nature to NMR spectroscopic analysis including low natural abundances, large quadrupole moments, or low resonance frequencies. A variety of coordination modes to alkaline-earth metals, including N-atom coordination, are characterized herein for the first time using alkaline-earth metal solid-state NMR. In all cases, the electric field gradient (EFG) and chemical shift (CS) tensors are characterized and correlated to structural features such as interatomic distances measured from the crystal structure of the compound under study. In all of the projects undertaken herein, the gauge-including projector-augmented-wave density functional theory (GIPAW DFT) method is used, which allows for the prediction and rationalization of the experimental EFG and CS tensor parameters based on the input crystal structure. In the case of 43Ca solid-state NMR experiments reported in this dissertation, a linear correlation between the calculated and experimental 43Ca quadrupolar coupling constants, CQ, is used as a calibration curve for GIPAW DFT calculations performed on the 18 structural models currently available for the vaterite polymorph of CaCO3. Vaterite cannot be fully characterized by X-ray diffraction alone; therefore an NMR crystallography protocol is used in order to identify the model that best accounts for 43Ca solid-state NMR experiments performed on vaterite. It is expected that the conclusions from this dissertation can be used for future studies involving structural refinement and elucidation of solid materials containing challenging quadrupolar nuclei.