Abstract
The oxidation of the active, high energy density materials, titanium and titanium hydride, has been studied by electrochemical and electron spectroscopic techniques. The apparent thickness of the oxide was controlled by the magnitude of the applied potential across thin (200–6000Å) films of these materials. Our electrochemical measurements indicated that after irreversible oxide formation, the thin films behaved as typical semiconducting oxide electrodes. A technique of electrochemical aging is described which permits comparison with oxide thicknesses produced by thermal aging. Post mortem analysis by XPS and AES was used to characterize the extent of oxidation of the film surface. Observation of the 
and 
Auger spectrum (especially the 
transition) indicated that all electrode film surfaces are a mixture of 
, suboxides, and the respective metallic phases (Ti or 
).This observation is confirmed by the predominant XPS Ti transition. The extent of oxide growth into the films was measured by the AES/depth profiling technique and the results are comparable for the two systems to a depth of ∼50Å. The results of these experiments are compared for titanium and titanium hydride and are examined with respect to a model for oxide formation and growth.