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The physics of rotational tunneling: hole-burning spectroscopy of methyl groups

Authors :
Josef Friedrich
Mark M. Somoza
Source :
Low Temperature Physics. 32:1020-1027
Publication Year :
2006
Publisher :
AIP Publishing, 2006.

Abstract

Methyl groups are most outstanding quantum systems due to their inherent symmetry properties which cannot be destroyed by any kind of lattice disorder. We show how optical hole-burning techniques can be employed to measure rotational tunneling relaxation processes. Since the tunneling parameters are extremely sensitive to changes in the host lattice, there is a rich variety of relaxation phenomena that can be observed. Hole-burning techniques have the capability of measuring not only extremely slow processes with high precision but also rather fast processes. We exploit this possibility to show that the relaxation times at 2K change by 14 orders of magnitude if the permutation symmetry of the methyl group is destroyed by asymmetric deuterium substitution.

Details

ISSN :
10906517 and 1063777X
Volume :
32
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Low Temperature Physics
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........bc16e046720cee370930da53e56c6d62
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2389008