Depolarisation studies of positive muons in copper, vanadium, niobium and tantalum single crystals
H Schilling; M Camani; F N Gygax; W Ruegg; A Schenck; H Schilling; Lab. for High Energy Phys., Swiss Federal Inst. of Technol., Villigen, Switzerland; M Camani; Lab. for High Energy Phys., Swiss Federal Inst. of Technol., Villigen, Switzerland; F N Gygax; Lab. for High Energy Phys., Swiss Federal Inst. of Technol., Villigen, Switzerland; W Ruegg; Lab. for High Energy Phys., Swiss Federal Inst. of Technol., Villigen, Switzerland; A Schenck; Lab. for High Energy Phys., Swiss Federal Inst. of Technol., Villigen, Switzerland
Журнал:
Journal of Physics F: Metal Physics
Дата:
1982-05-01
Аннотация:
The behaviour of positive muons ( mu <sup>+</sup>) has been studied in Cu, V, Nb and Ta single crystals, using the muon spin rotation ( mu SR) technique. The measurements were performed in the temperature regime 5-365K, in transverse external magnetic fields of 50-5500 G. In FCC Cu the mu <sup>+</sup> diffusional motion can be described in terms of quantum mechanical jump processes of a small polaron among octahedral interstitial sites. An orientation average leads to an activation energy of E=79.2+or-3.1 meV, a pre-exponential factor of D(0)=(1.66+or-0.33)*10<sup>-8</sup> cm<sup>2</sup> s<sup>-1</sup> and a tunnelling matrix element of J=(18.3+or-1.8)*10<sup>-6</sup> eV. The mu <sup>+</sup> total volume expansion was found to be Delta V=3.91 AA<sup>3</sup>. Furthermore, the electric field gradient (EFG) at the mu <sup>+</sup> nearest-neighbour nuclei has been determined as q=0.30 AA<sup>-3</sup>. In BCC V, Nb and Ta the mu <sup>+</sup> diffusion is trap-limited. As a function of the temperature the mu <sup>+</sup> probe different classes of trapping sites associated with host metal impurities. At low temperature, before decaying, the mu <sup>+</sup> always end up in a trapped state which shows that the intrinsic mu <sup>+</sup> motion between traps is fast and seems to reflect properties of a band diffusion.
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