Abstract: A hydrogen storage material is provided, the hydrogen storage material comprises a hydride-forming solid disposed in a film, a hydrogen-diffusing solid media disposed in the film with the hydride-forming solid, and a high density of interfaces between the hydride-forming solid and the hydrogen-diffusing solid media in the film. The hydrogen storage material may be made by co-depositing the hydride-forming solid and the hydrogen-diffusing solid media to form the film having different solid phases of the hydride-forming solid and the hydrogen-diffusing solid media and a high density of interfaces therebetween.

Abstract: A simple, compact optical spectrometer employs solid-state nonlinear crystals for obtaining broadband multichannel infrared spectra with picosecond or femtosecond time resolution. Spectrally broad infrared pulses are produced by difference frequency mixing in a first LiIO.sub.3 crystal between the second harmonic of a picosecond Nd.sup.+3 :YAG laser and broadband output of a synchronously pumped dye laser, and a resultant broadband IR pulse is upconverted by a second LiIO.sub.3 crystal to yield a blue visible pulse which is dispersed by a 0.25 meter spectrograph onto a multichannel vidicon or reticon detector to obtain four wavenumber resolution single-shot transient infrared spectra of a sample. The present invention enables rapid acquisition of ultrashort time infrared spectra over a broadly tunable spectral range (in the mid to near infrared) at minimal cost and by a simple but versatile optical system employing readily available components.