Tunneling of H and D trapped by O(N) in niobium by anelastic relaxation measurements

Abstract

Deuterium trapped by oxygen (nitrogen) in niobium gives rise to two anelastic relaxation processes at 1.5 and 4 K at 20 kHz. The process at higher temperature and the analogous one observed in Nb-O(N)-H have been interpreted in terms of a two-level tunneling system (TLS) interacting with phonons or electrons. Two-phonon and electron interactions in the superconducting state give nearly equivalent fits to the data. In both cases the tunneling matrix element is found to be about 0.9 meV without appreciable isotope effect; the coupling parameters of the TLS to electrons and phonons have also been estimated.