Title:	Hydride vibrational properties and thermodynamics
DNr:	SNIC 2021/5-387
Project Type:	SNIC Medium Compute
Principal Investigator:	Pär Olsson <par.olsson@mau.se>
Affiliation:	Malmö universitet
Duration:	2021-08-30 – 2021-11-04
Classification:	10304
Keywords:

Abstract

Ultracold neutrons are neutrons with remarkably kinetic energy, < 350 neV. At such low energy, they can be stored in material bottles for long durations of time and their kinetic energy can change significant when manipulated by gravity or magnetic field. Their wavelength is on the order of 100nm, which make them ideal for the study of surface hydrides. To quantify the hydrogen content accurately using this new exploratory method it is necessary to have the phonon-density-of-state for the specific metal hydride. The purpose of the present short-duration project is to support the experimental activities connected to hydride characterization using a novel ultra-cold neutron technique. The experimental activities will be performed under the supervision of Dr. Takeyasu Ito at the Neutron Science Center at Los Alamos Science Lab, while the researchers in Lund and Malmö will support the experimental activities with first-principles DFT data regarding phonon and thermodynamic properties. Of special interest are uranium hydrides (UHx) and zirconium hydrides (ZrHx).