Muonium Relaxation in 136Xe

Natural xenon comes in many stable isotopes, most of which have nuclear spins and therefore cause muonium to relax rapidly via nuclear hyperfine interactions with the muonium electron (or just plain random dipolar fields) except when the Mu atom hops very rapidly between sites with different effective local fields.

To study Mu diffusion in temperature regimes where the hop rate is slower, one needs a sample composed of a nearly pure spinless isotope such as 136Xe.



Oddly enough, muonium relaxes fairly fast even in the absence of nuclear moments, especially above about 120K, where the data suggest Mu relaxation by paramagnetic ions (probably those created in its radiolysis track).

Data taken in natural s-Xe are compared with those shown here to determine (crudely) what fraction of the Mu relaxation rate can be attributed to nuclear moments and quantum diffusion.

Author: JHB.     Figure created ~1995.    
Prepared by Jess H. Brewer
Last modified: Mon Dec 1 16:35:05 EST