U.S.-Argentina Cooperative Research: Charge and Energy Relaxation at Insulators and at Surfaces

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9724820 Baragiola This Americas Program award will fund a collaborative research project between Dr. Raul Baragiola, University of Virginia, and Dr. Edith Goldberg, Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnologico para la Industria Quimica (INTEC), Argentina. They will investigate fundamental processes in insulating thin films and at metal surfaces resulting from high energy excitations by UV photons, ions or electrons. The main questions to be addressed are how electrostatic charges are developed under irradiation, and how the resulting electric fields affect the relaxation of the electronic energy into light, damage, and the emission of atomic particles. The problem of how the interface between the insulator and a metal electrode neutralizes holes and relaxes energy will also be studied. These are fundamental problems central to a number of disciplines, including industrial applications of insulators (electrical, electronic and xerography industries), atmospheric physics (electrical charging), and in biology (radiation damage to cells). The complementary expertise of both research groups will allow a range of experimental and theoretical approaches to the project that will prove beneficial to both countries. ***