Computer simulation is used to study how electron trap depth affects the efficiency of latent-image formation. These traps, modeled as products of chemical sensitization, are located at the corners of a 1.0 × 0.2 μm tabular “grain.” Comparisons are made with uniformly distributed 0.2 eV traps and irreversible traps located at the grain corners. For a minimum developable size of three atoms, there is no clear advantage of the corner traps over that for the uniformly distributed trap case, even though the trapping radius in the former is 2× that in the latter. For a minimum developable size of four atoms, there is some efficiency advantage of the corner traps, particularly at high irradiance. Some decrease in efficiency for the deeper traps was noted. This behavior is due to enhanced free-hole/trapped-electron recombination at these traps.
R. K. Hailstone, R. De Keyzer, "The Effect of Trap Depth on Latent-Image Formation in an AgBr Tabular Grain: A Computer Simulation Study" in Journal of Imaging Science and Technology, 2001, pp 388 - 392, https://doi.org/10.2352/J.ImagingSci.Technol.2001.45.4.art00011