The dielectric properties of α-MgH2 are investigated in the photon energy range between 1 and 6.5 eV. For this purpose, a novel sample configuration and experimental setup are developed that allow both optical transmission and ellipsometric measurements of a transparent thin film in equilibrium with hydrogen. We show that α-MgH2 is a transparent, colour neutral insulator with a band gap of 5.6 ± 0.1 eV. It has an intrinsic transparency of about 80% over the whole visible spectrum. The dielectric function found in this work confirms very recent band structure calculations using the GW approximation by Alford and Chou. 1 As Pd is used as a cap layer we report also the optical properties of PdHx thin films.

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Apart from a reflecting and a transparent state, rare-earth-Mg alloys ͑RE-Mg͒ exhibit also a highly absorbing, black state during loading with hydrogen. The occurrence of such a black state is due to the disproportionation into subwavelength size REH 2ϩ⑀ and Mg grains during the first hydrogen loading. While the optical properties of REH x change continuously with a further increase in hydrogen concentration x, Mg changes abruptly from a good reflector to a transparent insulator (MgH 2 ). Thin pure Mg films also show this black state when ͑un͒loaded carefully at elevated temperatures. By using the Bruggeman effective medium approximation in combination with the transfer matrix method it is shown that the coexistence of Mg and MgH 2 grains is the cause of this high absorption. Furthermore, we compare this phenomenon to the high absorption of light observed in metal-dielectric composites.

Mg 2 NiH x switchable mirrors, which switch from shiny metallic Mg2Ni to transparent Mg2NiH4, are shown to exhibit also dramatic reversible changes in reflectance at remarkably low hydrogen concentrations. Already for x≅0.3 a 232 nm thick Mg2NiHx film has an absorptance of ∼90% over the whole visible optical spectrum. The transition from highly reflective to black occurs in the concentration interval 0.1<x<0.3. The volume changes involved are one order of magnitude smaller than in the transition from reflecting to transparent. This is expected to enhance the lifetime of future devices based on these materials.