Purely Spatial Quantum Diffusion of H Atoms in Solid H_{2} at Temperatures below 1K. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • We report on a direct measurement of the quantum diffusion of H atoms in solid molecular hydrogen films at T=0.7K. We obtained a rate of pure spatial diffusion of H atoms in the H_{2} films, D^{d}=5(2)10^{-17}cm^{2}s^{-1}, which was 2 orders of magnitude faster than that obtained from H atom recombination, the quantity used in all previous work to characterize the mobility of H atoms in solid H_{2}. We also observed that the H-atom diffusion was significantly enhanced by injection of phonons. Our results provide the first measurement of the pure spatial diffusion rate for H atoms in solid H_{2}, the only solid state system beside ^{3}He-^{4}He mixtures, where atomic diffusion does not vanish even at temperatures below 1K.

published proceedings

  • Phys Rev Lett

author list (cited authors)

  • Sheludiakov, S., Lee, D. M., Khmelenko, V. V., Jrvinen, J., Ahokas, J., & Vasiliev, S.

citation count

  • 1

complete list of authors

  • Sheludiakov, S||Lee, DM||Khmelenko, VV||Järvinen, J||Ahokas, J||Vasiliev, S

publication date

  • January 2021