Developments in nuclear techniques for hydrogen depth profiling

Abstract

~bstraet, Hydrogen plays a crucial roIe in the properties of various materials, devices and in growth of hydrogenated amorphous materials. Therefore, its quantification and determination of concentration at various depths is of immense interest. Among various techniques of hydrogen depth profiling, the nuclear techniques being non-destructive in nature are widely used. Elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA) with helium ions was first used for hydrogen depth profiling. Later on, the heavy ions were utilised due to certain advantages. It has been qmwn recently by us that H alongwith other elements in thin film up to Ca can be detected simultaneously with heavy ion ERDA, if the elements being detected are well separated in masses. It also has been shown that even the neighbouring elements such as C, N, O alongwith H can be detected provided a AE-E detector telescope is used in ERDA. The time of flight (FOF) with ERDA, nuclear reaction analysis (NRA), neutron TOF are other nuclear techniques for hydrogen profiling. There are. however, certain problems that arise in nuclear techniques such as hydrogen loss during the measurement, which must be taken into account for accurate and reliable results. A scenario of developments in nuclear techniques with suitable examples is given in this brief review.