The aim of this paper is to summarize the results of experiments carried out at our laboratory on the response of the work function of several thin films of transition metals and rare earth metals to interaction with molecular hydrogen. The main focus concerns the description of surface phenomena accompanying the reaction of hydride formation as a result of the adsorbate's incorporation into the bulk of the thin films. Work function changes Δ Φp caused by adsorption and reaction concern the surface, hence this experimental method is appropriate for solving the aforementioned problem. A differentiation is made between the work function changes ΔΦp due to creation of specific adsorption states characteristic of hydrides, and ΔΦp arising as a result of surface defects and protrusions induced in the course of the reaction. The topography of thin metal films and thin hydride films with defects and protrusions was illustrated by means of atomic force microscopy. For comparison, the paper discusses work function changes caused by H_2 interaction with thin films of metals which do not form hydrides (for example platinum), or when this interaction is performed under conditions excluding hydride formation for thermodynamic reasons. Almost complete diminishing of ΔΦp was observed, in spite of significant hydrogen uptake on some rare earth metals, caused by formation of the ordered H-Y-H surface phase.
Hydrogen adsorption on thin platinum films under isothermal conditions within the temperature and pressure intervals 78-298 K and 10^{-10}-10^{-2} Torr has been studied measuring simultaneously surface potential (SP) and pressure (P), by means of a sensitive, short response time apparatus. Two forms of hydrogen deposit of different electrical character have been distinguished. The first one arising at the beginning of adsorption decreases the surface potential, the second one following it increases the SP due to positively polarized adspecies formation. This positively polarized form is inhomogeneous as concerns binding energy. Hydrogen uptake associated with the decrease of SP becomes larger with increase of temperature. It seems that this β¯ form of the adsorbate stabilizes the positively polarized adspecies on the surface.
Thin europium films (20-50 nm thick) on a glass substrate were transformed into EuH_x (0 < x < 2) by interaction with H_2 introduced into the reactor in successive calibrated doses. By measuring the pressure, the hydrogen uptake (H/Eu) was determined at every step of the reaction. In situ monitoring of bulk properties (electrical resistance R(H/Eu), relative transparency to light T(H/Eu)/T_0 and (H/Eu) dependent light transparency spectrum) confirms metal-semiconductor transition at room temperature. Both the electrical resistance and optical transparency of the film strongly increase with hydrogen concentration as a consequence of the resulting increase of the content of semiconducting dihydride. Moreover, the course of work function changes ΔΦ(H/Eu) indicates inversion of the charge-transfer direction on the surface. The transition at room temperature from positively to negatively polarized hydrogen adsorbate was observed in situ during hydrogen uptake. As a result, the work function at equilibrium state varies with hydrogen content from +18 to -18 mV with respect to pure metal film, reflecting the change of "mirror potential" generated on the surface due to the accumulation of hydrogen adsorbates in the subsurface region.
A study of the thin gold film growth, during the deposition on glass substrate under UHV conditions at low temperatures, is presented. The complementary methods, the atomic force microscopy and grazing incidence X-ray reflectometry, are used for the research. It is shown that due to variation of the time of deposition from 2 to 50 min different kinds of thin Au films nanostructures are obtained: from discontinuous films consisting of isolated islands, via formation of the chains of islands, up to continuous films.
We present millikelvin studies of magnetoresistance for epitaxial films and wires of CdTe:In. In comparison to the data with theoretical predictions for the weakly localized regime we put into the evidence the presence of the temperature-induced dimensional crossovers in the studied systems. Our measurements probe the electron phase-breaking rate and indicate that the main dephasing mechanism arises from electron scattering from thermal fluctuations of three- or two-dimensional electron liquid.
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.