Resistivity of hydrogen-loaded Fe/V and Mo/V (100) superlattices:: The role of vanadium expansion -: art. no. 205409

We present measurements of the in-plane resistivity of Fe/V and Mo/V (100) superlattices as a function of H loading. The resistivity in Mo/V reaches a maximum at 50% H loading, whereas the maximum in Fe/V is only reached at 100% H loading. We have performed first-principles self-consistent density-functional theory calculations for the structural optimization and solved the Boltzmann equation in the constant relaxation-time approximation to obtain the resistivity. Our calculations reproduce the experimental findings. We find that the sole determining physical quantity behind the different behavior of the in-plane resistivity as a function of the H loading is the magnitude of the vanadium expansion.