Electronic spin lattice interactions

Electron spin-lattice interaction. The transition between a and p spin states takes place by the interaction between the A spins and the lattice vibration of surrounding molecules. The excess energy of the A spin system is transferred to the surrounding molecules to induce lattice vibration. This relaxation takes place even for an isolated electron spin having no interaction with other electron spins at all. 

OIDEP usually results from Tq-S mixing in radical pairs, although T i-S mixing has also been considered (Atkins et al., 1971, 1973). The time development of electron-spin state populations is a function of the electron Zeeman interaction, the electron-nuclear hyperfine interaction, the electron-electron exchange interaction, together with spin-rotational and orientation dependent terms (Pedersen and Freed, 1972). Electron spin lattice relaxation Ti = 10 to 10 sec) is normally slower than the polarizing process. 

Furthermore, the method of orientation selection can only be applied to systems with an electron spin-spin cross relaxation time Tx much larger than the electron spin-lattice relaxation time Tle77. In this case, energy exchange between the spin packets of the polycrystalline EPR spectrum by spin-spin interaction cannot take place. If on the other hand Tx < Tle, the spin packets are coupled by cross relaxation, and a powder-like ENDOR signal will be observed77. Since T 1 is normally the dominant relaxation rate in transition metal complexes, the orientation selection technique could widely be applied in polycrystalline and frozen solution samples of such systems (Sect. 6). 

The crystal field interacts directly only with the orbital motion of the unpaired electrons and it has an effect on the electronic spins only through the spin orbit coupling. The strongest spin-lattice interaction will therefore occur for ions with ground states having an appreciable orbital character. 

In practice nuclear spin-lattice relaxation is always within the Redfield limit, i.e. the interaction energy with the lattice is always much smaller than rc-1. This is true even with paramagnetic systems, where the nuclear spin-lattice interaction eneigy is often much larger than usual. On the other hand, it is not obvious that electrons are always in the Redfield limit. When electrons are outside the Redfield limit, although nuclear relaxation is in the Redfield limit, it is not easy... 

Relaxation of nitrogen nuclei apparently is governed by modulation of the electron-nuclear dipolar interaction, the so-called END mechanism. The nitrogen nuclear relaxation probability can be greater than the electron spin-lattice relaxation probability. See, for example, the paper by Popp and Hyde [45]. One consequence of this process is that it can alter the apparent relaxation time of the electron since it gives rise to parallel relaxation pathways. One must distinguish between apparent and actual electron spin-lattice relaxation probabilities. 

The conditions necessary for observation of proton magnetic resonance spectra in paramagnetic systems are well established (1). Either the electronic spin-lattice relaxation time, T, or a characteristic electronic exchange time, Te, must be short compared with the isotropic hyperfine contact interaction constant, in order for resonances to be observed. Proton resonances in paramagnetic systems are often shifted hundreds of cps from their values in the diamagnetic substances. These isotropic resonance shifts may arise from two causes, the hyperfine contact and pseudocontact interactions. The contact shift arises from the existence of unpaired spin-density at the resonating nucleus and is described by 1 (2) for systems obeying the Curie law. 

Often the electronic spin states are not stationary with respect to the Mossbauer time scale but fluctuate and show transitions due to coupling to the vibrational states of the chemical environment (the lattice vibrations or phonons). The rate l/Tj of this spin-lattice relaxation depends among other variables on temperature and energy splitting (see also Appendix H). Alternatively, spin transitions can be caused by spin-spin interactions with rates 1/T2 that depend on the distance between the paramagnetic centers. In densely packed solids of inorganic compounds or concentrated solutions, the spin-spin relaxation may dominate the total spin relaxation 1/r = l/Ti + 1/+2 [104]. Whenever the relaxation time is comparable to the nuclear Larmor frequency S)A/h) or the rate of the nuclear decay ( 10 s ), the stationary solutions above do not apply and a dynamic model has to be invoked... 

As discussed in Sect. 6.2, the electronic states of a paramagnetic ion are determined by the spin Hamiltonian, (6.1). At finite temperamres, the crystal field is modulated because of thermal oscillations of the ligands. This results in spin-lattice relaxation, i.e. transitions between the electronic eigenstates induced by interactions between the ionic spin and the phonons [10, 11, 31, 32]. The spin-lattice relaxation frequency increases with increasing temperature because of the temperature dependence of the population of the phonon states. For high-spin Fe ", the coupling between the spin and the lattice is weak because of the spherical symmetry of the ground state. This... 

Ammonium alums undergo phase transitions at Tc 80 K. The phase transitions result in critical lattice fluctuations which are very slow close to Tc. The contribution to the relaxation frequency, shown by the dotted line in Fig. 6.7, was calculated using a model for direct spin-lattice relaxation processes due to interaction between the low-energy critical phonon modes and electronic spins. 

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