Abstract: It is known that the neutral image tone of a developed photographic film becomes brownish when the thickness of the original silver halide tabular crystals is reduced. We investigate by electron microscopy to what extent the silver filament structure has changed and how it induces the shift in image tone. Therefore, two samples of AgBr {111} tabular crystals with average thicknesses of 160 nm and 90 nm respectively, are compared. It is shown that the dimensions and defect structure of the filaments are comparable, but that the 90 nm crystals result in a more widely spaced structure, which explains the shift in image tone on a qualitative level. The influence of the addition of an image toner, i.e., phenylmercaptotetrazole, on the filament structure is also investigated. An even more open filament structure of longer, but smaller filaments was observed.

Abstract: The He-Ar-Cu+ IR laser operates in a hollow-cathode discharge, typically in a mixture of helium with a few-% Ar. The population inversion of the Cu+ ion levels, responsible for laser action, is attributed to asymmetric charge transfer between He+ ions and sputtered Cu atoms. The Ar gas is added to promote sputtering of the Cu cathode. In this paper, a hybrid modeling network consisting of several different models for the various plasma species present in a He-Ar-Cu hollow-cathode discharge is applied to investigate the effect of Ar concentration in the gas mixture on the discharge behavior, and to find the optimum He/Ar gas ratio for laser operation. It is found that the densities of electrons, Ar+ ions, Ar-m* metastable atoms, sputtered Cu atoms and Cu+ ions increase upon the addition of more Ar gas, whereas the densities of He+ ions, He-2(+) ions and He-m* metastable atoms drop considerably. The product of the calculated Cu atom and He+ ion densities, which determines the production rate of the upper laser levels, and hence probably also the laser output power, is found to reach a maximum around 1-5% Ar addition. This calculation result is compared to experimental measurements, and reasonable agreement has been reached.

Abstract: We analyzed ultra-thin ZrO2/SiO2/Si gate dielectrics under post-deposition anneals in dry O-2 at temperatures from 500 to 700 degreesC. TOF-SIMS profiling of ZrO2/SiO2/Si stacks is hampered by many sputter induced artifacts. The depletion of oxygen leads to a decrease in SIMS intensities. However, preferential sputtering is accompanied by transport of the depleted species towards the surface. Due to recoil implantation oxygen gets piled-up near the ZrO2/SiO2 interface. Either normal or radiation-enhanced diffusion transports oxygen back to the surface. Simultaneously also segregation of zirconium towards and through the interface is observed, resulting in a large zirconium tail in the underlying silicon substrate. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract: Gas discharge plasmas are used for a wide range of applications. To improve our understanding about gas discharges, which is necessary to obtain good results in the various application fields, we perform numerical modelling of gas discharge plasmas. Various kinds of modelling approaches, for various types of gas discharges, are being used in our group. In this paper, some examples of this modelling work are outlined. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Abstract: The optical behavior of a four-level system in a ring cavity driven by two coherent laser fields is studied. One laser field is treated as the incident field and the other the control field, respectively. It is found that there is optical transparency when the difference between the two frequency detunings of the incident and control fields from the corresponding atomic transition frequencies is zero. Optical bistability can be produced and controlled by increasing the magnitude of the frequency difference. The bistable hysteresis becomes larger when the frequency difference is increased. Further increase of the latter can lead to onset of multistability.