Thermal Hopping Of Mu+ Between F-Mu-F Centers In Naf

Strongly hydrogen-bonded diamagnetic “FμF” centres are formed by theμ + in a wide variety of fluoride crystals. Hydrogen atoms are expected to form similar “FHF” complexes. Through the “motional narrowing” of the zero-field muon relaxation function in NaF, we have observed an Arrhenius temperature dependence of the dissociation rate of theFμF complex, yielding a binding energy of 1700 (200) K for theμ + in theFμF centre.