Electronic structure of substitutional nitrogen impurity in TiO 2 studied by the β-NMR method

In order to study the local electronic structure of nitrogen impurity in rutile TiO₂, we have measured double-quantum NMR spectra of short lived β-emitter ¹²N(I = 1, T _1/2 = 11 ms) implanted into a rutile single crystal by means of the β-NMR technique. The resonance line obtained at room temperature is well accounted for by the second order shift due to the quadrupole interaction at the oxygen substitutional site. The spectrum at 25 K has shown the other lines than the central diamagnetic line shifted by 10?15 kHz to both sides, which has been already shown in the previous data obtained with a different crystal orientation and an external field. The present results supports the existence of a paramagnetic state formed by the substitutional nitrogen impurities.     

Electric Field Gradients of B in TiO2

We observed the electric quadrupole interaction of ¹²B implanted in the interstitial site of TiO₂ using β-NMR method. The electric field gradients including the direction of the principal axes were determined. The direction agreed well with the theoretical calculation.     

Electromagnetic moments of the doubly closed shell ±1 nucleon nuclei and on-line nuclear polarization

Electromagnetic moments of doubly closed shell ±1 nucleon nuclei were studied. Recent technical developments of the β-NMR was shown that was applicable for the polarized β emitters. Also, the implication of those new moments were discussed especially on the nuclear interactions and non nucleonic degrees of freedom.     

Electric field gradient in Mg and Zn detected by β-emitters,8Li and12x0392;x0392;x0392;

The quadrupole coupling constants of⁸Li and¹²B in hcp Mg and Zn are determined by use of a newly developed nuclear quadrupole resonance technique (NNQR) as ¦eqQ(⁸Li in Mg)/h¦=3.0±0.3 kHz, ¦eqQ(⁸Li in Zn)/h¦=33.5±2 kHz, and ¦eqQ(¹²B in Mg)/h¦=47.0±0.1 kHz. Correspondingly, the electric field gradients at room temperature are deduced: ¦q(⁸Li in Mg)¦=(3.81±0.39)×10¹⁸, ¦q(⁸Li in Zn)¦=(4.25±0.27)×10¹⁹, and ¦q(¹²B in Mg)¦=(1.47±0.03)×10²⁰, all in V/m². The experiments are compared with the results of first-principles super-cell band structure calculations which can treat local lattice relaxations around the impurity nuclei. The calculations show that the most favorable location of these light interstitials in hcp Mg is not the octahedral-like sites which have the biggest interstitial volume, but the basal trigonal sites with a local lattice expansion of as big as 30%. Calculated electric field gradients at the impurity nuclei reproduce the experimental values fairly well.     

Precise measurement of the magnetic moment of17F(I x =5/2+,T 1/2=64.5 s) and its hyperfine interactions in ionic crystals

Hyperfine interactions of β-emitting¹⁷F implanted in single crystals of NaF and CaF₂ were studied. The nuclear magnetic moment of theT ^π=5/2⁺ state was determined with an improved precision to be |μ(¹⁷F;π=5/2⁺,T _1/2=64.5s|=4.72130±0.00025. nm. Isoscalar magnetic moments of the doubly closed shell ±1 nucleon nuclei around mass number 16 were derived and the effective nucleon mass in the nucleus was discussed.     

Oxidation behavior of NiAl alloy at low temperatures

Oxidation behavior of NiAl alloy at low temperatures was studied. A NiAl plate was oxidized by exposure to ambient atmosphere at room temperature, heated at 473 K in air, and heated at 773 K in air. The oxide formed on the NiAl surface was investigated by angle‐resolved X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (AR‐XPS). Chemical composition and atomic concentration in the oxide layer were analyzed with factor analysis of XPS spectra. Exposure of the NiAl plate to the ambient atmosphere resulted in the formation of an Al₂O₃ layer along with a small amount of NiO. Oxidation of the NiAl plate at 473 K in air formed a film of double‐layered oxide; the top layer consisted of NiAl₂O₄ and a small amount of NiO, and the second layer was Al₂O₃. Successive oxidation at 773 K only changed the oxide‐layer thickness without changing the structure. Formation of oxide observed in the present study corresponds to the thermodynamic prediction for the oxidation behavior of NiAl at 1373 K. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

NMR studies on polarized12B implanted in highly oriented pyrolytic graphite

NMR measurements on¹²B nuclei implanted in a thin sheet of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (Grafoil) have been made to study the magnitude of the polarization of¹²B and its electric quadrupole coupling. The magnitude of the residual polarization of¹²B held in carbon material is of crucial importance to the experiment measuring the average polarization of¹²B produced in the muon capture by¹²C. It was found that the polarization of¹²B can be maintained at 101.0±2.2% in Grafoil under a magnetic field of 3 kG. The electric quadrupole coupling was determined to bee ² qQ/h=+1207.3±8.2 kHz. From the magnitude and the sign of the electric field gradienteq, the location of¹²B was found to be a substitutional site in the carbon lattice. The anomalous B-C bond involving thesp ₂ hybrid orbitals with partially filledp _z electrons is also discussed.     

Beta-NMR measurement of 58Cu in Si

The β-NMR study of short-lived nucleus ⁵⁸Cu (I ^π ?=?1^?+?, T _1/2?=?3.2 s) in Si has been performed. Spin polarization of ⁵⁸Cu induced by the charge exchange reaction of ⁵⁸Ni was observed in Si at 15 K. The ⁵⁸Cu magnetic moment $|\upmu[^{58}\mbox{Cu}]| = (0.46 \pm 0.03)\upmu_{\rm N}$ deduced from the β-NMR spectrum is consistent with the previous results on the laser spectroscopy. The present result shows that the ⁵⁸Cu nucleus is promising as a new nuclear probe for the microscopic study of Cu impurities in Si.     

Precise nuclear moments of extremely proton-rich nuclus 23 Al

Electric quadrupole coupling constant eqQ/h of the extremely proton-rich ²³Al (I ^π ?=?5/2^?+?, T _1/2?=?0.47 s) nucleus implanted into an Al₂O₃ single crystal has been measured for the first time, using the β-ray detecting nuclear quadrupole resonance method (β-NQR) in a high magnetic field. As a preliminary result, the quadrupole coupling constant was determined as |eqQ/h(²³Al) |?=?2.66±0.77 MHz. Using the quadrupole coupling constant of ²⁷Al in Al₂O₃ as a reference, the Q moment of the ground state of ²³Al was extracted as |Q(²³Al)|?~?160 mb, which is well explained by the shell model calculation in the sd-shell model space with the USD interaction.     

Nuclear moments as a probe of electronic structure in material, exotic nuclear structure and fundamental symmetry

We report our studies in various fields of Physics through nuclear moments utilizing the β-NMR technique, including material sciences, nuclear structures and fundamental symmetries. Especially, we focus on the recent progress in the studies on the electronic structure in Pt through Knight shifts of various impurities, lattice locations of impurities, electric field gradients, the analysis of nuclear spin in terms of its components, anomaly in the spin expectation value for ⁹C-⁹Li mirror pair, the G-parity conservation law, and the Ramsey resonance on UCN for future neutron EDM measurements.