Analyzing hydrogen with nuclear reactions

OCT 01, 1977

Nuclear‐reaction techniques for determining depth profiles of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium are of value in solar‐cell manufacture and metallurgical problems such as steel embrittlement and radiation damage.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3037748

Samuel T. Picraux

There are many ways in which hydrogen plays an important role in today’s materials problems. Our newly developed ability to detect and probe sensitively and quantitatively for hydrogen has provided valuable new insight into many of these problems. By means of nuclear‐reaction techniques we can develop depth profiles of the hydrogen, deuterium and tritium concentration in various materials; these techniques have already been of practical assistance in several areas of technology, and promise to be helpful in others as well (see box on page 45). Here we shall describe rather briefly the types of nuclear‐reaction techniques now used to probe for hydrogen. Then we shall concentrate on the way these techniques have been applied to studies of hydrogen isotopes in various materials, making particular note of the uses of implantation for these studies and the effect of changing the implanted‐hydrogen concentration on the observed properties of the bulk materials.

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More about the Authors

Samuel T. Picraux. Ion‐Solid Interactions Research Division, Sandia Laboratories, Albuquerque.