A technique was described for measuring the room-temperature permeability of molecular H through thin films of thermally grown oxide on Si substrates. This technique was used to determine the H2 permeability in oxide films which ranged from 16.1 to 108.2nm in thickness. It was found that the permeability decreased as the film thickness decreased. Even in the thickest films, the permeability was equal to only about 8% of the value which was characteristic of the bulk oxide. The permeability differences were attributed to a gradient in the density of the thermal oxide.

B.J.Mrstik, P.J.McMarr, N.S.Saks, R.W.Rendell, R.B.Klein: Physical Review B, 1993, 47[7], 4115-8