%0 Journal Article %J Electrochimica Acta %D 1998 %T Effect of Hydrogen Insertion on the Optical Properties of PD-Coated Magnesium Lanthanides %A Klaus von Rottkay %A Michael D. Rubin %A Franck Michalak %A Robert D. Armitage %A Thomas J. Richardson %A Jonathan L. Slack %A Peter A. Duine %X

Metallic magnesium lanthanide thin films upon insertion of hydrogen transform to a highly transparent hydride phase. With a Pd overlayer, the transformation can be produced either by electrochemical insertion of hydrogen or by exposing the film to hydrogen gas. Unlike amorphous oxide electrochromics, the transformation is accompanied by a large change in visible reflectance (about 50%). The optical switching effect in these materials is investigated in terms of changes in the complex refractive index as determined by variable-angle spectroscopic ellipsometric and normal-incidence radiometric measurements over the solar spectrum. Furthermore the optical effect of converting the Pd caplayer to Pd-H was determined. It is shown that the pd layer limits the visible transmittance of the hyrdrided stack to about 35-40%. Whereas the extinction coefficient of the dehydrided LnMg-layers at 550 nm is between 2.2 and 3.1, it is as low as 10-4 in the transparent state.

%B Electrochimica Acta %C London, U.K. %8 9/1998 %G eng %L LBNL-42277 %1

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%2 LBNL-42277