Positive muons in single crystal sodium fluoride: A simple spin system

Abstract

We report on the relaxation of positive muons (μ+) stopped in a single crystal of sodium fluoride at 15±0.2K. At this temperature theμ+ is believed to be static, and the observed time dependence of theμ+ spin polarization is seen to deviate from the familiar Kubo-Toyabe form at late times. Specifically these data exhibit oscillations in the long time tail, which are attributed to hyperfine transitions between theμ+ and neighboring spins. Quantitative comparison of these data to exact quantum mechanical calculations indicates that most of the time dependence can be explained by considering only interactions with the first shell (i.e., two fluorine and two sodium nuclei), and suggests strongly that the muon occupies a site along the axis, midway between two fluorine nuclei.