An anomaly of positron parameter appearing in the study of an electron brush-plated material — Is it possible to use positron to detect molecular hydrogen content?

Abstract

On account of the ease with which positron annihilation experiments may be made and the well-known manner in which positrons behave much in the way that hydrogen protons do, the positron technique is thus commonly used to study hydrogen-charging and hydrogen-absorbed metals and alloys. Indeed, the positron technique has been an indispensable and powerful tool to investigate the influence of hydrogen on microstructures and properties of materials, thus a lot of the related papers have been published. However, papers regarding the use of positrons to detect molecular hydrogen content are few in the literature. This is because hydrogen-charging of metallic materials is a quite complicated process. Generally speaking, when hydrogen-charging, the content of hydrogen increases but occasionally it becomes lower instead of higher with increasing charging time. In addition, positrons, after entering a material, are affected not only by the old defects and the newly generated defects, but by hydrogen proton screening as well. Therefore, the existence of certain relationships between the measured positron parameter and hydrogen content in the material has not been found. Among the curves of positron parameter as a function of charging time which appeared in publications, the one which has a wavelike characteristic was frequentlymore » seen. In this letter, the author found that the measured Doppler lineshape parameter happens to be roughly directly proportional to the molecular hydrogen content involved in a particular material.« less