Nuclear relaxation of deuterium-tritium adsorbed onto silica aerogel

The longitudinal nuclear relaxation times of tritons in equilibrium deuterium–tritium (eD–T, actually D2–DT–T2 ) adsorbed onto amorphous silica aerogel has been measured from 4.2 to 23 K from 0.5 to 6.2 monolayers of coverage. Below 7 K, the relaxation time dramatically increases with decreasing temperature, especially for low coverages. A value of 16 s for 0.5 monolayer at 4.2 K may be compared with the usual electric quadrupole–quadrupole (EQQ) determined relaxation time of 0.1 s. It is shown that absorption of 10% of the tritium beta particle energy occurs in aerogel fully loaded with D–T. This decreases the concentration of J=1 T2 and increases the nuclear relaxation time. Similar energy absorption calculations in the thin layers shows that long relaxation times are expected, and that the measured values must be caused by spin–lattice relaxation with the aerogel surface. Both (temperature)−7 and exponential mechanisms are considered with no final decision being possible. Electric field gradients from ...