Growth and hydrogen uptake of Mg-Y thin films -: art. no. 104903

Wedged Mg-Y films with compositions ranging from pure Mg to Mg0.83Y0.17 were grown by dc-magnetron sputtering and hydrogenated. Mgl-xYx forms a substitutional alloy, ranging from 0 to at least 17 at. % in thin films. The c lattice parameter of the film containing 17 at. % of yttrium is determined to be approximatively 1% larger than in pure Mg. Upon exposure to 1 bar of hydrogen at 300 K, the samples switch from shiny metals to colorless semiconductor. Different characteristic hydrogen depth distributions are found for different Y concentrations. At low yttrium contents, a large concentration gradient is observed, with the highest hydrogen concentration close to the Pd/Mg1-xYx interface. For yttrium concentrations larger than 7 at. %, the obtained hydrogen distribution is almost independent of depth. The optical band gap is determined to be 3.6 eV, for all the Y concentrations. The optical transmission is found to decrease for increasing Y content, which is associated with an incomplete hydride formation in the films. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.