Theory of E.P.R. of 3d impurities in metals

The application to the E.P.R. behaviour of dilute alloys of the generalized s-d interaction model appropriate to a 3d impurity with orbital degrees of freedom is considered. It gives rise in some cases to a large spin-lattice relaxation rate in addition to the usual cross relaxation to the conduction-electron spin. Our calculation shows why bottlenecking is effective for some 3d impurities and ineffective for others, leading to qualitative differences in the observed E.P.R. behaviour. It is emphasized that, as a result of the bottlenecking phenomenon, E.P.R. is a uniquely powerful method for determining the electronic states of 3d impurities in metals.