New interpretations of XPS spectra of nickel metal and oxides

A current interpretation of XPS spectra of Ni metal assumes that the main 6 eV satellite is due to a two hole c3d⁹4s² (c is a core hole) final state effect. We report REELS observation in AES at low voltages of losses (plasmons and inter-band transitions) corresponding to the satellite structures in Ni metal 2p spectra. The satellite near 6 eV is attributed to a predominant surface plasmon loss. A current interpretation of Ni 2p spectra of oxides and other compounds is based on charge transfer assignments of the main peak at 854.6 eV and the broad satellite centred at around 861 eV to the cd⁹L and the unscreened cd⁸ final-state configurations, respectively (L is a ligand hole). Multiplet splittings have been shown to be necessary for assignment of Fe 2p and Cr 2p spectral profiles and chemical states. The assignments of Ni 2p states are re-examined with intra-atomic multiplet envelopes applied to Ni(OH)₂, NiOOH and NiO spectra. It is shown that the free ion multiplet envelopes for Ni²⁺ and Ni³⁺ simulate the main line and satellite structures for Ni(OH)₂ and NiOOH. Fitting the NiO Ni 2p spectral profile is not as straightforward as the hydroxide and oxyhydroxide. It may involve contributions from inter-atomic, non-local electronic coupling and screening effects with multiplet structures significantly different from the free ions as found for MnO. A scheme for fitting these spectra using multiplet envelopes is proposed.     

The effect of microscopic features upon the transmissivity of enclosed laser ablated laminated metallised polymer films

A vacuum-deposited aluminium layer (20 nm) is sandwiched between two layers of laminated oriented polypropylene (OPP) film whose thickness varies from 20 to 40 μm. Selected areas of this sealed system were transparentised by the redistribution of the aluminium layer without breaking the seal or causing damage to the OPP film using a 75 W Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. The resultant transparentised films contain aluminium particles, distorted polymer areas and intact areas of the vacuum-coated aluminium layer. This paper investigates the effect of microscopic features upon the overall transmissivity of the laser-treated films and hence the quality of the transparentisation process.     

A global existence theorem for the general coagulation–fragmentation equation with unbounded kernels

In this article an existence theorem is proved for the coagulation–fragmentation equation with unbounded kernel rates. Solutions are shown to be in the space X⁺ = {c∈L¹: ∫ (1 + x)∣c(x)∣dx < ∞} whenever the kernels satisfy certain growth properties and the non-negative initial data belong to X⁺. The proof is based on weak L¹ compactness methods applied to suitably chosen approximating equations.