Exfoliation of Coatings from Silicon Crystals Electroless-Plated with Nickel and Electroplated with Gold

The microhardness and content of carbon in electroplated gold coatings were studied as influenced by the operation time of citrate and citrate-phosphate gold-plating electrolytes. Such physicomechanical properties as porosity, microhardness, internal stress, plasticity, and microstructure of electroless-plated and electroplated nickel coatings were studied and analyzed.     

Forecasting call frequency at a financial services call centre

A forecasting model is developed for the number of daily applications for loans at a financial services telephone call centre. The purpose of the forecasts and the associated prediction intervals is to provide effective staffing policies within the call centre. The model building process is constrained by the availability of only 2 years and 7 months of data. The distinctive feature of the data is that demand is driven in the main by advertising. The analysis given focuses on applications stimulated by press advertising. Unlike previous analyses of broadly similar data, where ARIMA models were used, a model with a dynamic level, multiplicative calendar effects and a multiplicative advertising response is developed and shown to be effective.     

An improved Gaussian approximation for probability of bit-erroranalysis of asynchronous bandlimited DS-CDMA systems with BPSK spreading

This paper analyzes probability of bit-error (P_e) performance of asynchronous bandlimited direct-sequence code-division multiple-access systems with binary phase-shift keying spreading. The two present methods of P_e analysis under bandwidth-efficient pulse shaping: the often-cited standard Gaussian approximation and the characteristic function (CF) method suffer from either a low accuracy in regions of low P_e (< 10^-3) or a prohibitively large computational complexity. The paper presents an alternate method of P_e analysis with moderate computational complexity and high accuracy based on a key observation. A sequence of chip decision statistics (whose sum yields a bit statistic) forms a stationary, m-dependent sequence when conditioned on the chip delay and phase offset of each interfering signal. This observation permits the generalization of the improved Gaussian approximation previously derived for the rectangular pulse and the derivation of a numerically efficient approximation based on the CF method. Numerical examples of systems using the square-root raised-cosine and IS-95 pulses illustrate THE P _e performance, user capacity and the accuracy of the proposed method     

Radiation bursts from particles in the field of compact, impenetrable, astrophysical objects

The radiation emitted by charged, scalar particles in a Schwarzschild field with maximal acceleration corrections is calculated classically and in the tree approximation of quantum field theory. In both instances the particles emit radiation that has characteristics similar to those of gamma-ray bursters.     

Surface grating formation and erasing on a-Se films

Surface relief formation at holographic recording on amorphous selenium films was demonstrated and investigated. The presence of this optical phase modulation component is essential for ensuring significant, stable and erasable optical recording in a-Se films at 290–320 K temperatures, where conventional photodarkening was known as insignificant and unstable. Photocrystallization can only be observed in super-exposed a-Se films at the given experimental conditions of hologram recording. Erasing behavior of surface relief gratings under heat treatment was also investigated in order to reveal further details of the mechanism. Photoinduced structural transformations within the amorphous phase, connected to local ordering under the condition of light-induced fluidity, are proposed as an explanation for the relief formation and erasing. The observed reversible optical recording process may be useful for the various optoelectronic applications of photoconductive a-Se layers. Received: 12 June 2000 / Accepted: 6 June 2001 / Published online: 30 August 2001     

Quantum-well states and resonances in thin single-crystal layers of noble metals on W(110) substrates

This paper reports on the first experimental observation of quantum-well states and sp-type resonances in thin single-crystal gold, silver, and copper layers formed on single-crystal W(110) surfaces, which result from spatial localization of Bloch-type electronic wave functions in a quantum well with potential barriers at the vacuum/metal and metal/W(110) interfaces. The quantization of the valence-band electronic structure in Au/W(110), Ag/W(110), and Cu/W(110) systems was studied experimentally using angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy.     

An investigation of the Al2O3-CdSe interface in accumulation

The Al₂O₃−CdSe interface of a thin-film transistor is investigated in the frequency range 30 Hz-30 kHz under weak depletion and accumulation. The surface states are, most likely, located in the insulator Al₂O₃ with a concentration varying from 4·10¹⁸ to 10¹⁹ cm⁻³ eV⁻¹. The surface states have a negligible influence on the thin-film transistor operation.