The reorientation of Cd2+-vacancy and Pb2+-vacancy complexes in KCl

The relaxation of Pb²⁺-vacancy and Cd²⁺-vacancy dipoles in purified KCl crystals was studied using a double crystal dc polarization method which self-corrects relaxation effects due to spurious causes. In the radius range from Cd²⁺ to Ba²⁺ these results and most others support Dreyfus' model. The reciprocal relaxation times for each impurity are given by

$\text{τ}{}^{\mathrm{?1}}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>Cd</mtext>}}\text{=2.06x10}{}^{12}\text{exp(?s0.64±0.01}\text{eV}\text{)}\text{kT}$

;

$\text{τ}{}^{\mathrm{?1}}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>Pb</mtext>}}\text{=1.19x10}{}^{13}\text{exp(?0.69±0.01}\text{eV}\text{)}\text{kT}$

.It is also shown that the presence of H₂O or its products greatly perturb the relaxation times observed.