Determination of very slow. mu. /sup +/ hop rates in Cu by LLF-. mu. SR

Muon spin relaxation in low (weak) longitudinal magnetic field (LLF-..mu..SR) provides a means of independently determining the static dipolar width ..delta.. characterizing the ..mu../sup +/ lattice site and the correlation time tau/sub c/ for ..mu../sup +/ hopping, in a manner that is nearly model-independent for tau/sub c/ and especially accurate in the near-static limit (tau/sub c/ > tau/sub ..mu../). The advantages of this method are illustrated by its application to muon hopping in Cu near the tau/sub c/ maximum around 50/sup 0/K.