Effect of octupole interaction on the rotational motion of rotors in a solid Kr–CD₄solution

Abstract

The heat capacity of solid (CD4)nKr1−n solutions with CD4 concentrations n = 0.09, 0.17, 0.25, 0.35 and solutions with n = 0.25 doped with 0.0005, 0.0021 and 0.0123 of O2 impurity has been investigated at T = 0.6–30 K. It is found that the molecular field responsible for a qualitative change in the rotational motion of the rotators increases sharply as the number of nearest neighbours increases from one to three. Below 1.6 K the temperature dependence of the heat capacities of the rotational subsystems of the solutions can be described by a sum of the contributions made by molecules finding themselves in effective weak, moderate and strong molecular fields. The average concentration and the effective energy differences between the ground and the first excited energy levels of the CD4 molecules in the above mentioned fields have been estimated. It is shown that the considerable changes in the experimental heat capacities of the rotational subsystem normalized to a mole of rotors are mostly due to the changes in the relative concentrations x(n) of the rotors in these molecular fields. Above T = 0.6 K the nuclear-spin A, T and E species of the molecules reach equilibrium distribution within one measurement of the heat capacity. The O2 impurity is found to produce great influence on the heat capacity of the rotational subsystem in the solution with n = 0.25 and the equilibrium composition of the nuclear-spin species of the molecules.