Dynamics of superionic Rb3H(SeO4)2 single crystals studied by 1H and 87Rb spin–lattice relaxation

The 1H and 87Rb spin–lattice relaxation and spin–spin relaxation times in superionic Rb3H(SeO4)2 single crystals grown by the slow evaporation method were measured over the temperature range 160–450 K. The temperature dependencies of the 1H T1, T1ρ, and T2 are measured. In the ferroelastic phase, T1 differs from T1ρ, which is in turn different from T2, although these three relaxation times converge to similar values near 410 K. This transition seems to occur at temperature which is about 40 K lower than the superionic transition temperature. The observation of liquid-like values of the 1H T1, T1ρ, and T2 in the high temperature is compatible with the phase being superionic, indicating that the destruction and reconstruction of hydrogen bonds does indeed occur at high temperature. In addition, the 87Rb T1 and T2 values at high temperature were similar (on the order of milliseconds), a trend that was also observed for 1H T1 and T2. This behavior is expected for most hopping-type ionic conductors, and could be attributed to interactions between the mobile ions and the neighboring group ions within the crystal. The motion giving rise to this liquid-like behavior is related to the superionic motion.