Hydrogen 3D-distribution and the kinetics in a Ti/H system studied by micro-ERDA, NRA and XRD

The micro kinetics of titanium hydrogenation is studied by measuring the three-dimensional hydrogen distribution in titanium subsurfaces by elastic recoil detection analysis with a heavy ion micro-beam, H-1(N-15, alpha gamma) C-12 resonant nuclear reaction analysis and X-ray diffraction. The hydrogen rich layers in the titanium subsurface region are formed by mechanical polishing and hydrogen ion implantation. An inhomogeneous hydrogen distribution is found in the subsurface region. The inhomogeneity varies with hydrogen concentration and depth. The hydrogen loaded by surface polishing distributes roughly homogeneously in the near surface with a high concentration up by 60 at.%, whereas the implanted hydrogen distributes inhomogeneously inside the sample with a lower concentration. Nevertheless, the inhomogeneity changes with the implantation fluence; the higher the fluence, the better the homogeneity. This phenomenon is considered to be affected by complications such as the hydrogen ingression process, hydrogen states, titanium grain size and orientation, etc.