Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• M. H. Dehn
• J. K. Shenton
• S. Holenstein
• Q. N. Meier
• D. J. Arseneau
• D. L. Cortie
• B. Hitti
• A. C. Y. Fang
• W. A. MacFarlane
• R. M. L. McFadden
• G. D. Morris
• Z. Salman
• H. Luetkens
• N. A. Spaldin
• M. Fechner
• R. F. Kiefl

Titel

Observation of a Charge-Neutral Muon-Polaron Complex in Antiferromagnetic Cr_{2}O_{3}

Ist Teil von

• Physical review. X, 2020-02, Vol.10 (1), p.011036

Ort / Verlag

American Physical Society

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• We report a comprehensive muon spin rotation (μSR) study of the prototypical magnetoelectric antiferromagnet Cr_{2}O_{3}. 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.