Browsing by Author "Shenton, JK"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Observation of a charge-neutral muon-polaron complex in antiferromagnetic Cr2O3
    (American Physical Society (APS), 2019-11-26) Dehn, MH; Shenton, JK; Holenstein, S; Meier, QN; Arseneau, DJ; Cortie, DL; Hitti, B; Fang, ACY; MacFarlane, WA; McFadden, RML; Morris, GD; Salman, Z; Luetkens, H; Spaldin, NA; Fechner, M; Kiefl, RF
    We report a comprehensive muon spin rotation (μSR) study of the prototypical magnetoelectric antiferromagnet Cr2O3. We find the positively charged muon (μ+) occupies several distinct interstitial sites and displays a rich dynamic behavior involving local hopping, thermally activated site transitions, and the formation of a charge-neutral complex composed of a muon and an electron polaron. The discovery of such a complex has implications for the interpretation of μSR spectra in a wide range of magnetic oxides and opens a route to study the dopant characteristics of interstitial hydrogen impurities in such materials. We address implications arising from implanting a μ+ into a linear magnetoelectric and discuss the challenges of observing a local magnetoelectric effect generated by the charge of the muon. © Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Site and High Field βNMR Properties of 8Li+ Implanted in α-Al2O3
    (IOP Publishing, 2023-03-01) MacFarlane, WA; Shenton, JK; Salman, Z; Chatzichristos, A; Cortie, DL; Dehn, M; Fujimoto, D; Karner, VL; Kiefl, RF; Koumoulis, D; Levy, CDP; McFadden, RML; McKenzie, I; Morris, GD; Pearson, MR; Stachura, M; Ticknor, JO
    We present high (> 2 T) magnetic field βNMR measurements of 8Li+ implanted in single crystals of sapphire, a commonly used backing material for other samples. From the well-resolved quadrupolar splitting, we extract the electric field gradient (EFG) at the implanted 8Li+ site. Comparison with supercell density functional theory calculations of the EFG allows us to identify the octahedral interstitial site as the most likely candidate. In contrast to the zero field βNQR spectra, where multiple singals are detected, only a single site is evident at high field. We discuss possible explanations for this discrepancy. The spin lattice relaxation is extremely slow (1/T1 < 0.02 s−1 ) over a broad temperature range from 4 to 300 K, demonstrating that cross relaxation with the 27Al nuclear spins is quenched in such high magnetic fields.