This article is cited in 15 papers

Three Regimes of Diffusion Migration of Hydrogen Atoms in Metals

Yu. A. Kashlev

A. Baikov Institute of Metallurgy and Materials Science, Russian Academy of Sciences

Abstract: The classical diffusion theory cannot explain the temperature kink of the activation energy and the anomalous isotopic effect observed in the hydrogen atom migration in BCC metals. We present a theory based on the equations of quantum statistical mechanics that permits interpreting both these phenomena completely. We consider three possible mechanisms for an elementary act of hydrogen diffusion in metals: the over-barrier hopping, the thermally activated tunnel transition, and the tunneling due to decay of a local deformation near the hydrogen atom.

Keywords: quantum statistical mechanics, hydrogen atom, metal, diffusion, atom jump, tunneling, activation energy.

Received: 14.02.2005
Revised: 07.04.2005

DOI: 10.4213/tmf1900

 English version: Theoretical and Mathematical Physics, 2005, 145:2, 1590–1603

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