Stress Release during Cyclic Loading of 20 nm Palladium Films

Gas phase loading of nanocrystalline and epitaxial 20 nm Pd films deposited on single crystalline sapphire substrates was studied in this work. The nanocrystalline film was deposited at room temperature and the epitaxial film deposited at 800 °C. The nanocrystalline film suffers from in-plane compressive stress imposed by atomic peening processes. The epitaxial film exhibits tensile stress caused by the different thermal expansion coefficients of Pd and sapphire substrate. Coherent phase transition into the hydride phase was observed both for the nanocrystalline and for the epitaxial film. For both films, the lattice parameters continuously increase during the phase transition to the hydride phase. Both films exhibit enhanced hydride formation pressure compared to bulk Pd. Misfit dislocations are formed at interface between Pd film and substrate during hydrogenation. This leads to irreversible change of stress state of the films subjected to sorption and desorption cycle with hydrogen