Abstract
We report on a direct measurement of the quantum diffusion of H atoms in solid molecular hydrogen films at . We obtained a rate of pure spatial diffusion of H atoms in the films, , 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 . 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 , the only solid state system beside mixtures, where atomic diffusion does not vanish even at temperatures below 1 K.
- Received 23 December 2020
- Accepted 14 April 2021
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.195301
© 2021 American Physical Society