Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance Study of Potassium - - Chloride.

Fast Fourier transform nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) was used to study the cubic antifluorite crystal potassium hexacloro-osmate, K(,2)OsCl(,6). The study of the ('35)Cl and ('37)Cl resonances were performed on three samples of K(,2)OsCl(,6), a powder sample, a powder sample recrystallized from D(,2)O and a single crystal sample. The studies were carried out in the temperature range 300 to 6K. A detailed study of the ('35)Cl and ('37)Cl NQR lineshapes, in the temperature range 70 to 300K, showed that the lineshapes reflect the strain fields produced by lattice dislocations and point defects. The temperature evolution of these strain fields give rise to a satellite line which previously was attributed to H('+) ion impurities present in the samples. A comprehensive study of the temperature evolution of the NQR spectrum in the vicinity of the phase transition revealed a drop of line intensity and the progressive appearance of an extra broad resonance component. Both effects are associated with the existence of precursor dynamic clusters at temperatures higher than T(,C). Qualitatively similar but quantitatively different behaviour was observed in the powder and single crystal samples. Although the precursor clusters are an intrinsic property of the phrase transition, their detailed dynamics is sample independent. A NQR study of the tetragonal phase showed that at the lowest temperature the ratio of line intensities is 2:1. The phase shift effect previously observed in the tetragonal phase of K(,2)ReCl(,6) was also observed in K(,2)OsCl(,6). The effect has been explained as an experimental artifact introduced by the truncation of the FID due to the spectrometer dead time. Spin-lattice relaxation measurements in the cubic phase show two component relaxation in the vicinity of T(,C). The behaviour is quantitatively different in the powder and single crystal samples. The short relaxation time is associated with dynamic clusters. Spin-lattice relaxation time measurements on the tetragonal phase show only one relaxation time for each resonance line. The relaxation time of the "z" line is a continuation of the cubic relaxation time, the "xy" line relaxation time is shorter.