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Quantum Diffusion in Cryocrystals Studied by Muon Spin Relaxation

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Abstract

We review our recent studies of muonium diffusion in cryocrystals. Atomic muonium (Mu = μ + e − ) may be considered as a light isotope of hydrogen and so provides the prototypical light interstitial defect in these sytems, themselves the simplest of insulators. Experiments using the muon spin relaxation techniques in transverse and longitudinal (zero) magnetic fields reveal tunneling motion at low temperatures, governed by various mechanisms of phonon scattering. The results are compared with the current theories of quantum diffusion in insulators. A two–phonon scattering mechanism is found to dominate at low temperatures in solid nitrogen, methanes and carbon dioxide, whereas a one–phonon interaction provides the main channel at temperatures comparable to the Debye temperature in solid nitrogen, xenon and krypton.

Particular attention is devoted to quantum diffusion processes in the presence of static crystal disorder. At low temperatures, the muonium diffusion can no longer be described in terms of a single correlation time. The localization and delocalization effects in the Mu diffusion in such inhomogeneous crystals are discussed in detail. Finally, the authors give an analysis of trapping phenomena for muonium in insulators.

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Author notes

  1. J. H. Brewer

    Present address: Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and Department of Physics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 2A3

  2. S. F. J. Cox

    Present address: ISIS Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Oxfordshire, OX11 OQX, United Kingdom

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Russian Science Centre “Kurchatov Institute”, Kurchatov square 1, Moscow, 123 182, Russia

    V. G. Storchak, J. H. Brewer & S. F. J. Cox

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  1. V. G. Storchak
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Storchak, V.G., Brewer, J.H. & Cox, S.F.J. Quantum Diffusion in Cryocrystals Studied by Muon Spin Relaxation. Journal of Low Temperature Physics 111, 303–319 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022275317457

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