The motion of light interstitials in metals: Recent experiments

Abstract

Recent theoretical considerations suggest, that at low temperatures the transport properties of light interstitials in metals are dominated by the interaction with the conduction electrons. After briefly surveying the state of the theory, experimental examples for the low and high temperature cases are presented. We begin with the low T regime and display first neutron scattering experiments on H trapped at O-impurities in Nb where a coherent tunneling state is observed. Its dependence on temperature and its properties in normal and superconducting Nb are discussed. Thereafter muon diffusion results in Al are examined. In Al, muon diffusion is observed via diffusion limited trapping and local properties of the impurity as well as long range diffusion are playing a role. Using a large variety of impurities it was possible to evaluate the diffusion coefficient over a large T-range. Muon motion in Al at accessible temperatures falls entirely in the hopping regime and constitutes an example for the high T regime of the theory.