Temperature and concentration dependence of hydrogen diffusion in vanadium measured by optical transmission

Abstract: Hydrogen diffusion is investigated in a 50 nm film of vanadium and a vanadium superlattice. Diffusion constants for three different temperature and pressure pairs are determined for the 50 nm film. The diffusion constants for the temperature and pressure pairs are determined to be 4.5 $\pm$ 0.1 $\cdot 10^{-5} \text{ cm}^{-2}$ at 463 K and 0.05 H/V, 5.6 $\pm$ 0.1 $\cdot 10^{-5} \text{ cm}^{-2}$ at 463 K and 0.12 H/V and 8.0 $\pm$ 0.2 $\cdot 10^{-5} \text{ cm}^{-2}$ at 493 K and 0.05 H/V. The temperature and concentration dependence of the diffusion constants are determined. A concentration dependence of the diffusion constant is found with a higher rate of diffusion for a higher hydrogen concentration. The activation energy of chemical diffusion is determined to be 0.38 $\pm$ 0.03 eV.