Muonium formation via charge transport in solids and liquids

We review our recent experimental studies on delayed muonium formation in insulators and semiconductors. This involves the positive muon capturing one of the excess electrons liberated in its own ionization track and competes with recombination or escape of the electrons. The muon is generally found to thermalise well “downstream” from the center of the electron distribution, so that the transport mechanism of the electrons is a crucial factor. This is discussed in terms of the different tendencies to localization (as polarons in solids or in bubbles in liquids) vs. band‐like propagation. Studies of Van der Waals cryocrystals and cryoliquids are reviewed and some preliminary results reported for sapphire and silicon. Transport distances and times are determined from the variation of μSR signal amplitudes with applied electric and magnetic fields, respectively, enabling the development of a new technique for measuring electron mobilities on a microscopic scale. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.