The hopping motion of the self-trapped exciton in NaCl

The decay kinetics and the yield of the π luminescence from the lowest triplet state of the self-trapped exciton have been studied in NaCl containing Li⁺ ions. It is found that the π luminescence band which is observed at 6K is replaced by a luminescence band peaked at 3.34 eV above 77K. The 3.34 eV luminescence band is ascribed to the recombination of the relaxed exciton trapped by a Li⁺ ion, (V_ke)_Li. The decay of the π luminescence induced by an electron pulse and the time change of the luminescence from (V_ke)_Li are explained in terms of the characteristic equation of the diffusion-limited reaction of the lowest triplet self-trapped excitons with the Li⁺ ions. From the analysis of the dependence of the decay rate of the π luminescence on temperature and on the Li⁺ concentration, we found the diffusion constant D of the lowest triplet self-trapped exciton in NaCl to be given by with $\text{D}{}_0\text{= 2.13 × 10}{}^{\mathrm{?3}}\text{cm}{}^2\text{s}$ and E₀ = 0.13 eV. The present result can be regarded as the first clear experimental evidence for the hopping diffusion of the self-trapped exciton in alkali halides. The obtained values of E_a and D₀ are discussed using the small polaron theory. The effect of the anharmonicity on the hopping of the self-trapped excitons is suggested to be significant.