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Rotational tunnelling: The width of the quasi-elastic line

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Zeitschrift für Physik B Condensed Matter

Abstract

The tunnelling spectrum of methyl groups or amine molecules in crystals can be measured by high-resolution neutron scattering. With rising temperatures the lines broaden considerably. The broadening mechanism is quite different for the inelastic and quasi-elastic components. The latter mechanism has recently been identified and the quasi-elastic line broadening has been calculated in a perturbative approach. In this paper we examine the same mechanism for the latter, but the perturbation expansion is avoided. This is achieved by a transformation to a surrogate harmonic Hamiltonian for which the relevant correlation function can be calculated for arbitrarily strong coupling to the lattice. The quasi-elastic line is found to be much narrower than the inelastic ones, in agreement with recent experiments.

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Author notes

  1. Alfred Hüller

    Present address: Institut für Theoretische Physik I, Universität Erlangen, FRG

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Laue-Langevin, Avenue des Martyrs 156X, F-38042, Grenoble, France

    Alois Würger & Alfred Hüller

Authors
  1. Alois Würger
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  2. Alfred Hüller
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Würger, A., Hüller, A. Rotational tunnelling: The width of the quasi-elastic line. Z. Physik B - Condensed Matter 78, 479–484 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01313330

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01313330

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