μSR study of Al-0.67%Mg-0.77%Si alloys

Abstract

Zero-field muon spin relaxation measurements were carried out with Al-0.67%Mg- 0.77%Si alloys in the temperature range from 20 K to 300 K. Observed relaxation spectra were compared with the relaxation functions calculated by a Monte Carlo simulation with four fitting parameters: the dipolar width, trapping rate, detrapping rate and fraction of initially trapped muons. From the fitting, the temperature variations of the trapping rates reveal that there are three temperature regions concerning muon kinetics. In the low temperature region below 120 K, muons appeared to be trapped in a shallow potential yielded by dissolved Mg atoms, and thus little effect of heat treatment of the samples was observed, while in the mid and high temperature regions, the trapping rates clearly depended on the heat treatment of the samples suggesting muon-cluster and/or muon-vacancy interactions.