A process for the deposition of yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) films, on porous substrates, has been developed. These films have possible applications as electrolyte membranes in fuel cells. The films were deposited from colloidal suspensions through the vacuum infiltration technique. Films were deposited on both fully sintered and partially sintered substrates. A critical cracking thickness for the films was identified and strategies are presented to overcome this barrier. Green film density was also examined, and a method for improving green density by changing suspension pH and surfactant was developed. A dependence of film density on film thickness was observed, and materials interactions are suggested as a possible cause. Non-shorted YSZ films were obtained on co-fired substrates, and a cathode supported solid oxide fuel cell was constructed and characterized.

The authors present the results of a new measurement of the t{anti t} production cross section using e{mu} channel in p{anti p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.8 TeV. This study corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 108.3 {+-} 5.7 pb{sup {minus}1} acquired by the D0 detector during the Fermilab Tevatron Collider Run 1 (1992--1996). By using neural network techniques instead of the conventional analysis methods, the authors show that the signal acceptance can be increased by 10% (for m{sub t} = 172 GeV/c{sup 2}) while the background remains constant. Four e{mu} events are observed in data with an estimated background of 0.22 {+-} 0.14 corresponding to a t{anti t} production cross section of 9.75 {+-} 5.53 pb.