Nanocrystalline, homogeneous structures were produced via the isothermal crystallization of amorphous material. The effect of these heterogeneous microstructures upon the local relaxation processes of H was investigated by making magnetic after-effect measurements at temperatures of between 4.2 and 480K. The magnetic after-effect spectra were attributed to H reorientation processes within the phases and grain boundaries of the nm-sized polycrystalline alloy. It was shown that the diffusion behavior (table 207), caused by thermally activated H jumps between nearest-neighbor interstitial configurations within the various types of interface in crystalline material was similar to that in the amorphous phase. An H degassing process, monitored by using a manometric method, permitted a detailed correlation to be found between the annealing behavior of the H-induced relaxation spectra and the long-range H diffusion.

C.U.Maier, H.Kronmüller: Zeitschrift für Metallkunde, 1992, 83[12], 839-44