OPTICAL-IMAGE TRANSFER BY MULTILAYER PHOTOGRAPHIC MATERIALS

By an example of black-and-white photographic layers, it is theoretically shown that the shapes of microcharacteristic curves of a multilayer system do not coincide with the shape of the macrocharacteristic curve and that they depend on the frequency of the superimposed exposure even at small modulations. Therefore, the concept of effective exposures used now for evaluating the sharpness properties of such systems is, strictly speaking, not applicable. Nevertheless, this concept may be used as a convenient approximation for solving some problems dealing with the analysis of multilayer systems. The transfer characteristic determined in terms of optical densities of blackening is shown to be expedient for use in multilayer systems. We have performed an analysis and elucidated the functional dependences of density change on the optical modulation transfer function determined by the light scattering in the undeveloped layer, on the characteristic curves of elementary layers forming the multilayer system, and on the mean value and modulation depth of the superimposed exposure.