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Radiography in Modern Industry - Kodak

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Thus, the change that makes an exposed photographic gra<strong>in</strong> capable of be<strong>in</strong>g transformed <strong>in</strong>tometallic silver by the mild reduc<strong>in</strong>g action of a photographic developer is a concentration of silveratoms--probably only a few--at one or more discrete sites on the gra<strong>in</strong>. Any theory of latent-imageformation must account for the way that light photons absorbed at random with<strong>in</strong> the gra<strong>in</strong> canproduce these isolated aggregates of silver atoms. Most current theories of latent-imageformation are modifications of the mechanism proposed by R. W. Gurney and N. F. Mott <strong>in</strong> 1938.In order to understand the Gurney-Mott theory of the latent image, it is necessary to digress andconsider the structure of crystals--<strong>in</strong> particular, the structure of silver bromide crystals.When solid silver bromide is formed, as <strong>in</strong> the preparation of a photographic emulsion, the silveratoms each give up one orbital electron to a brom<strong>in</strong>e atom. The silver atoms, lack<strong>in</strong>g onenegative charge, have an effective positive charge and are known as silver ions (Ag+). Thebrom<strong>in</strong>e atoms, on the other hand, have ga<strong>in</strong>ed an electron--a negative charge--and havebecome brom<strong>in</strong>e ions (Br-). The "plus" and "m<strong>in</strong>us" signs <strong>in</strong>dicate, respectively, one fewer or onemore electron than the number required for electrical neutrality of the atom.A crystal of silver bromide is a regular cubical array of silver and bromide ions, as shownschematically <strong>in</strong> Figure 128. It should be emphasized that the "magnification" of the figure is verygreat. An average gra<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong> an <strong>in</strong>dustrial x-ray film may be about 0.00004 <strong>in</strong>ch <strong>in</strong> diameter, yet willconta<strong>in</strong> several billions of ions.Figure 128: A silver bromide crystal is a rectangular array of silver (Ag+) and bromide(Br-) ions.A crystal of silver bromide <strong>in</strong> a photographic emulsion is--fortunately--not perfect; a number ofimperfections are always present. First, with<strong>in</strong> the crystal, there are silver ions that do not occupythe "lattice position" shown <strong>in</strong> the figure above, but rather are <strong>in</strong> the spaces between. These areknown as <strong>in</strong>terstitial silver ions (See Figure 129). The number of the <strong>in</strong>terstitial silver ions is, ofcourse, small compared to the total number of silver ions <strong>in</strong> the crystal. In addition, there aredistortions of the uniform crystal structure. These may be "foreign" molecules, with<strong>in</strong> or on thecrystal, produced by reactions with the components of the gelat<strong>in</strong>, or distortions or dislocations ofthe regular array of ions shown <strong>in</strong> Figure 128. These may be classed together and called "latentimagessites."<strong>Radiography</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>Modern</strong> <strong>Industry</strong> 201

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