Ubiquitous impurities of absorbed hydrogen dramatically affect the electric
and mechanical properties of solids as realized in microelectronic devices,
hydrogen embrittlement, H-storage, and H-induced metal-insulator transition.
Due to the light mass and nuclear spin, quantum effects such as the possible
delocalization of the hydrogen atoms are furthermore of profound fundamental
interest. This project therefore aims to develop a micro-beam nuclear reaction
detection technique, which will allow mapping out the hydrogen distribution in
solids in all three dimensions with sub-micrometer resolution, even under
atmospheric conditions. In addition the quantum-mechanical wavefunction of
surface hydrogen can be observed directly in momentum space by means of
Doppler-spectroscopy.