Generation of atomic H in a hydrogen matrix by tritium decay

Abstract

The generation of atomic H in a hydrogen matrix by tritium decay was studied by a phenomenological rate theory. Theoretical expressions were developed for the dependence of storage time, recombination time, and maximum density of trapped H atoms as a function of temperature for a given tritium concentration. An application to Webeler’s recent experiments implies that Δts=0.145 T−1.886 exp(0.860/T) and nmax×10−16=0.158 T−1.886 exp(0.860/T), where Δts is the storage time in hours, nmax is the maximum trapped H-atom density in atom cm−3 and T is the temperature in kelvins.