Analysis of hydrogen in Nb thin films and Nb/Cu multilayers, using ion beams

Abstract A Nb/Cu multilayered structure was prepared on sapphire substrate using molecular beam deposition technique. The prepared structure and the hydrogen incorporation behaviors were examined using 16 MeV 16 O 5+ RBS before H-charging and 15 N-NRA after H-charging. Both the Nb and Cu layers are found to be strongly textured, through planar channeling experiments, with the same crystallographic symmetry of Cu(100)/Nb(100)/α-Al 2 O 3 (0112). In polycrystalline Nb/Cu multilayers, the hydrogen atoms are localized in the Nb layers, and the concentration decreases with decrease in thickness of the Nb layers below 80 nm. In Nb/Cu multilayer the hydrogen atoms are solved both in Nb and Cu.