Charge transport variation from Bloch–Grüneisen to Mott variable range hopping and transport change due to hydrogenation in Palladium thin films

We report a systematic investigation of the differences in charge transport mechanism in ultra-thin nano-island like films of palladium with thickness varying between 5 nm and 3 nm. The thicker films were found to be metallic in a large temperature range with a dominant Bloch–Grüneisen mechanism of charge transport arising due to electron-acoustic phonon scattering. These films were also found to exhibit an additional electron–magnon scattering. At temperatures below 20 K, the two films displayed a metal-insulator transition which was explained using Al’tshuler’s model of increased scattering in disordered conductors. The thinner films were insulating and were found to exhibit Mott’s variable range hopping mechanism of charge transport. The thinnest film showed a linear decrease of resistance with an increase in temperature in the entire temperature range. The island-like thin films were found to display very different response to hydrogenation at room temperature where the metallic films were found to display a decrease of resistance while the insulating films were found to have an increase of resistance. The decrease of resistance was ascribed to a hydrogen induced lattice expansion in the thin films that were at the percolation threshold while the resistance increase to an increase in work function of the films due to an increased adsorption of the hydrogen atoms at the surface sites of palladium.