A new method for the detection of hydrogen spillover

In this work, a new method is used to study the spillover of hydrogen from a catalytic metal onto an insulator. The method makes use of the so-called scanning light pulse technique (SLPT) and is applied to palladium gate silicon dioxide-silicon capacitors with the substrate being p-doped. It is concluded that there exist two types of spillover species. The spiltover hydrogen changes the conductance of the SiO2 surface, making it possible to charge the surface. The results for p-type silicon suggest that the induced surface charge must be positive. The results of SLPT and inversion capacitance measurements obtained on similar samples during hydrogen exposure are compared.