title: Electron spin echo of Cu(2+) in the triglycine sulfate crystal family (TGS, TGSe, TGFB): electron spin-lattice relaxation, Debye temperature and spin-phonon coupling.
abstract: The electron spin-lattice relaxation of Cu(2+) has been studied by the electron spin echo technique in the temperature range 4.2-115 K in triglycine sulfate (TGS) family crystals. Assuming that the relaxation is due to Raman relaxation processes the Debye temperature Θ(D) was determined as 190 K for TGS, 168 K for triglycine selenate (TGSe) and 179 K for triglycine fluoroberyllate (TGFB). We also calculated the Θ(D) values from the sound velocities derived from available elastic constants. The elastic Debye temperatures were found as 348 K for TGS, 288 K for TGSe and 372 K for TGFB. The results shown good agreement with specific heat data for TGS. The elastic Θ(D) are considerably larger than those determined from the Raman spin-lattice relaxation. The possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed. We propose to use a modified expression describing two-phonon Raman relaxation with a single variable only (Θ(D)) after elimination of the sound velocity. Moreover, we show that the relaxation data can be fitted using the elastic Debye temperature value as a constant with an additional relaxation process contributing at low temperatures. This mechanism can be related to a local mode of the Cu(2+) defect in the host lattice. Electron paramagnetic resonance g-factors and hyperfine splitting were analysed in terms of the molecular orbital theory and the d-orbital energies and covalency factors of the Cu(gly)(2) complexes were found. Using the structural data and calculated orbital energies the spin-phonon coupling matrix element of the second-order Raman process was calculated as 553 cm(-1) for TGS, 742 cm(-1) for TGSe and 569 cm(-1) for TGFB.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Smoluchowskiego 17, Pl-60 179 Poznan, Poland.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lijewski
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Goslar
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Hoffmann