Hydrogen absorption in epitaxial W/Nb(001) and polycrystalline Fe/Nb(110) multilayers studied in-situ by X-ray/neutron scattering techniques and X-ray absorption spectroscopy
Hydrogen can be absorbed in large quantities by 100 {angstrom} thin Nb layers embedded in epitaxial W/Nb and polycrystalline Fe/Nb multilayers. The solubility and the hydrogen-induced structural changes of the host lattice are explored in-situ by small-angle neutron/X-ray reflectometry and high-angle diffraction. These measurements reveal for both systems that the relative out-of-plane expansion of the Nb layers is considerably larger than the relative increase of the Nb interplanar spacing indicating two distinctly different mechanisms of hydrogen absorption. In Fe/Nb multilayers, hydrogen expands the Nb interplanar spacing in a continuous way as function of the external pressure. In contrast, the Nb lattice expansion is discontinuous in epitaxial W/Nb multilayers: A jump in the Nb(002) Bragg reflection position occurs at a critical hydrogen pressure of 1 mbar. In-situ EXAFS spectroscopy also exhibits an irreversible expansion of the Nb lattice in the film plane for p{sub H{sub 2}}> 1 mbar. This can be regarded as a structural phase transition from an exclusively out-of-plane to a three-dimensionally expanded state at low and high hydrogen pressures, respectively.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab., IL (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 750573
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/IPNS/CP-100373; TRN: US0003339
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 6th International Conference on Surface X-Ray and Neutron Scattering (6SXNS), Noordwijkerhout (NL), 09/12/1999--09/17/1999; Other Information: PBD: 2 Nov 1999
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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