Electron spin resonance study of atomic hydrogen stabilized in solid neon below 1K

Abstract: We report on an electron spin resonance study of atomic hydrogen stabilized in a solid Ne matrices carried out at a high field of 4.6 T and temperatures below 1 K. The films of Ne, slowly deposited on the substrate at the temperature $\sim$1 K, exhibited a high degree of porosity. We found that H atoms may be trapped in two different substitutional positions in the Ne lattice as well as inside clusters of pure molecular H${2}$ in the pores of the Ne film. The latter type of atoms was very unstable against recombination at temperatures 0.3-0.6$\,$K. Based on the observed nearly instant decays after rapid small increase of temperature, we evaluate the lower limit of the recombination rate constant $k{r}\geq5\cdot10^{-20}\,$cm$^{3}$s$^{-1}$ at 0.6$\,$K, five orders of magnitude larger than that previously found in the thin films of pure H${2}$ at the same temperature. Such behavior assumes a very high mobility of atoms and may indicate a solid-to-liquid transition for H${2}$ clusters of certain sizes, similar to that observed in experiments with H${2}$ clusters inside helium droplets (Phys. Rev. Lett 101, 205301 (2008)). We found that the efficiency of dissociation of H${2}$ in neon films is enhanced by 2 orders of magnitude compared to that in pure H$_{2}$, which is instigated by a strong emission of secondary electrons.