Abstract
Atomic-deuterium gas has been studied at temperatures just above 1 K. A short rf discharge was used to dissociate solid D 2 on the surface of a sealed pyrex bulb lined with a saturated helium film. Pulsed magnetic resonance on the β-δ transition at its minimum frequency (309 MHz in a magnetic field of 3.9 mT) was used to observe the resulting D. The free induction decays were shortened by spin-exchange collisions with impurity H atoms present in the sample. The H density, inferred using calculated spin-exchange cross sections, was typically higher than the D density. In addition, the samples of D were short-lived, decaying exponentially in time with a strongly temperature-dependent lifetime. We were able to show that recombination with the H impurity was not the cause of the sample decay, and we propose that the decay is due to the thermally activated process wherein D atoms penetrate the liquid helium film that coats the cell walls. Analysis of the lifetime data yields the value 13.6 (6) K for the rest energy of a D atom dissolved in liquid helium, the first measurement of this quantity for any hydrogen isotope.
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M. E. Hayden, M. W. Reynolds, and W. N. Hardy, to be published.
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Reynolds, M.W., Hayden, M.E. & Hardy, W.N. Hyperfine resonance of atomic deuterium at 1 K. J Low Temp Phys 84, 87–108 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00681618
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00681618