Factors influencing fabrication of erbium hydride films used as targets to generate high energy proton beams

Erbium hydride films were prepared via two steps. In the process, the erbium films fabricated via rolling reacted with hydrogen under high temperature and the hydrogenation process should last more than 24 hours for quality consideration. The hydrogen pressure and the reaction temperature play key roles in the fabrication process, and fine erbium hydride films can be obtained under proper control of the two factors when the hydrogenation process and the release of the stress generated in hydrogenation are both slow. The derived fine erbium hydride films with thickness of 5 to 15 μm have been used as the targets in experiments to produce high energy proton beams bringing good experimental results.