No Arabic abstract
We investigate the optical properties of hydrogen as it undergoes a transition from the insulating molecular to the metallic atomic phase, when heated by a pulsed laser at megabar pressures in a diamond anvil cell. Most current experiments attempt to observe this transition by detecting a change in the optical reflectance and/or transmittance. Theoretical models for this change are based on the dielectric function calculated for bulk, homogeneous slabs of material. Experimentally, one expects a hydrogen plasma density that varies on a length scale not substantially smaller than the wave length of the probing light. We show that taking this inhomogeneity into account can lead to significant corrections in the reflectance and transmittance. We present a technique to calculate the optical properties of systems with a smoothly varying density of charge carriers, determine the optical response for metallic hydrogen in the diamond anvil cell experiment and contrast this with the standard results. Analyzing recent experimental results we obtain $sigma^{Drude}_{DC}=(2.1 pm 1.3) times 10^3$ ($Omega$ cm)$^{-1}$ for the conductivity of metallic hydrogen at 170 GPa and 1250 K.
Optical properties of compressed fluid hydrogen in the region where dissociation and metallization is observed are computed by ab-initio methods and compared to recent experimental results. We confirm that above 3000 K both processes are continuous while below 1500K the first order phase transition is accompanied by a discontinuity of the DC conductivity and the thermal conductivity, while both the reflectivity and absorption coefficient vary rapidly but continuously. Our results support the recent analysis of NIF experiments (P. Celliers et al, Science 361, 677-682 (2018)) which assigned the inception of metallization to pressures where the reflectivity is about 0.3. Our results also support the conclusion that the temperature plateau seen in laser-heated DAC experiments at temperatures higher than 1500 K corresponds to the onset of of optical absorption, not to the phase transition.
Mg-Ti alloys have uncommon optical and hydrogen absorbing properties, originating from a spinodal-like microstructure with a small degree of chemical short-range order in the atoms distribution. In the present study we artificially engineer short-range order by depositing Pd-capped Mg/Ti multilayers with different periodicities and characterize them both structurally and optically. Notwithstanding the large lattice parameter mismatch between Mg and Ti, the as-deposited metallic multilayers show good structural coherence. Upon exposure to H2 gas a two-step hydrogenation process occurs, with the Ti layers forming the hydride before Mg. From in-situ measurements of the bilayer thickness L at different hydrogen pressures, we observe large out-of-plane expansions of the Mg and Ti layers upon hydrogenation, indicating strong plastic deformations in the films and a consequent shortening of the coherence length. Upon unloading at room temperature in air, hydrogen atoms remain trapped in the Ti layers due to kinetic constraints. Such loading/unloading sequence can be explained in terms of the different thermodynamic properties of hydrogen in Mg and Ti, as shown by diffusion calculations on a model multilayered systems. Absorption isotherms measured by hydrogenography can be interpreted as a result of the elastic clamping arising from strongly bonded Mg/Pd and broken Mg/Ti interfaces.
Knowledge of the behavior of hydrogen in metal hydrides is the key for understanding their electronic properties. So far, no experimental methods exist to access these properties beyond 100 GPa, where high-Tc superconductivity emerges. Here, we present an 1H-NMR study of cubic FeH up to 200GPa. We observe a distinct deviation from the ideal metallic behavior between 64 and 110 GPa that suggests pressure-induced H-H interactions. Accompanying ab-initio calculations support this interpretation, as they reveal the formation of an intercalating sublattice of electron density, which enhances the hydrogen contribution to the electronic density of states at the Fermi level. This study shows that pressure induced H-H interactions can occur in metal hydrides at much lower compression and larger H-H distances than previously thought and stimulates an alternative pathway in the search for novel high-temperature superconductors.
Co$_3$O$_4$, ZnFe$_2$O$_4$, CoFe$_2$O$_4$, ZnCo$_2$O$_4$, and Fe$_3$O$_4$ thin films were fabricated by pulsed laser deposition at high and low temperatures resulting in crystalline single-phase normal, inverse, as well as disordered spinel oxide thin films with smooth surface morphology. The dielectric function, determined by spectroscopic ellipsometry in a wide spectral range from 0.5 eV to 8.5 eV, is compared with the magneto-optical response of the dielectric tensor, investigated by magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) spectroscopy in the spectral range from 1.7 eV to 5.5 eV with an applied magnetic field of 1.7 T. Crystal field, inter-valence and inter-sublattice charge transfer transitions, and transitions from O$_{2p}$ to metal cation 3d or 4s bands are identified in both the principal diagonal elements and the magneto-optically active off-diagonal elements of the dielectric tensor. Depending on the degree of cation disorder, resulting in local symmetry distortion, the magneto-optical response is found to be strongest for high crystal quality inverse spinels and for disordered normal spinel structure, contrary to the first principle studies of CoFe$_2$O$_4$ and ZnFe$_2$O$_4$. The results presented provide a basis for deeper understanding of light-matter interaction in this material system that is of vital importance for device-related phenomena and engineering.
We investigate the response of palladium-cobalt bi-layer thin films to hydrogen charging at atmospheric pressure for spintronic applications. We find that hydrogen absorption by the palladium layer results in the narrowing and shifting of the ferromagnetic resonance line for the material. We explain the observed phenomena as originating from reduction in spin pumping effect and from variation in the magnetic anisotropy of the cobalt film through an interface effect. The shift of the resonance frequency or field is the easiest to detect. We utilize it to demonstrate functionality of the bi-layer films as a hydrogen sensor.