Positive and Negative Muon Spin Rotation and Relaxation

Abstract

Although a positive muon spin rotation and relaxation (μ+SR) technique is commonly used for materials science, its counterpart technique, μ-SR, has been less common due to its very limited availability and a very slow counting rate. However, a combination between an intense pulsed muon beam, such as, J-PARC and ISIS, and the development of a multi-channel counter system enables us to utilize μ-SR for studying a small nuclear magnetic field in solids. Here, we summarize the advantage and disadvantage of the two μSR techniques and propose μ±SR as a novel tool to identify diffusing species and clarify the ion diffusive nature in battery materials.