Growth and decomposition of lithium and lithium hydride on nickel

In this paper we have investigated the deposition, structure and decomposition of lithium and lithium-hydride films on a nickel substrate. Using surface sensitive techniques it was possible to quantify the deposited Li amount, and to optimize the deposition procedure for synthesizing lithium-hydride films.By only making thin films of LiH it is possible to study the stability of these hydride layers and compare it directly with the stability of pure Li without having any transport phenomena or adsorbed oxygen to obscure the results. The desorption of metallic lithium takes place at a lower temperature than the decomposition of the lithium-hydride, confirming the high stability and sintering problems of lithium-hydride making the storage potential a challenge.