Surface self-diffusion of quench condensed hydrogen films

The annealing behaviour of quench condensed H₂-, HD- and D₂-films has been investigated using acoustic surface waves. Upon annealing at temperatures far below the triple point we observe drastic changes of sound velocity and attenuation which can be attributed to a considerable rearrangement of the film structure via surface diffusion. These findings are in good agreement with recent experiments using surface plasmons. From the temperature dependence of the speed of the structural changes we deduce the activation energies for surface self-diffusion as 23 K, 35 K, and 47 K for H₂, HD, and D₂, respectively.