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The structural, optical, and electrical transformations induced by hydrogen absorption and/or desorption in Mg-Ti thin films prepared by co-sputtering of Mg and Ti are investigated. Highly reflective in the metallic state, the films become highly absorbing upon H absorption. The reflector-to-absorber transition is fast, robust, and reversible over many cycles. Such a highly absorbing state hints at the coexistence of a metallic and a semiconducting phase. It is, however, not simply a composite material consisting of independent MgH2 and TiH2 grains. By continuously monitoring the structure during H uptake, we obtain data that are compatible with a coherent structure. The average structure resembles rutile MgH2 at high Mg content and is fluorite otherwise. Of crucial importance in preserving the reversibility and the coherence of the system upon hydrogen cycling is the accidental equality of the molar volume of Mg and TiH2. The present results point toward a rich and unexpected chemistry of Mg-Ti-H compounds.

Single phase epitaxial pure γ′-Fe4N films are grown on MgO (001) by molecular beam epitaxy of iron in the presence of nitrogen obtained from a radio frequency atomic source. The epitaxial, single phase nature of the films is revealed by x-ray diffraction and by the local magnetic environment investigated by Mössbauer spectroscopy. The macroscopic magnetic properties of the γ′-Fe4N films are studied in detail by means of transverse Kerr effect measurements. The hysteresis loops are consistent with the cubic atomic structure, displaying easy [100] magnetization directions. The films are single domain at remanence, and the reversal is dominated by 180° or 90° domain wall nucleation and propagation, depending on the applied field direction. When 90° domain walls are responsible for the magnetization reversal, this proceeds in two stages, and the measured coercive fields vary accordingly. Magnetic domain observations reveal the two distinct reversal —driven by 180° or 90° domain walls— modes displaying large domains, of the order of mm. From magnetometer techniques, the saturation magnetization, μ0Ms, is measured to be 1.8 T. A magneto-optical torque technique is used to obtain a value of the anisotropy constant of 2.9×104J/m3., The authors acknowledge partial financing from EC project HIDEMAR G5RD-CT-2002-00731 and PHANTOMS network. The authors are indebted to A. Gupta and K. V. Rao from the department of Materials Science and Engineering, KTH, Sweden for help with the low T SQUID measurements, and to L. Ballcels and M. A. García from Materials Science ICMM CSIC, Spain for high-T VSM measurements. This work was part of the research program of the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter-FOM, The Netherlands. J.M.G.M. acknowledges financing through the Ramón y Cajal program from the Spanish MCyT.