Muon-Spin Rotation Studies of Electronic Properties of Molecular Conductors and Superconductors

Muon-Spin Rotation Studies of Electronic Properties of Molecular Conductors and Superconductors

Blundell, Stephen J.
Chemical Reviews 104, no. 11 (2004): 5717–5736
https://doi.org/10.1021/cr030632e

“The muon is a versatile probe that can be used to study molecular conductors and superconductors. Both positive and negative muons can be produced in accelerators, but it is mainly the positive muon that is used for experiments on the solid state. The negative muon μ⁻, which implants close to an atomic nucleus, is generally much less sensitive to the phenomena of interest (magnetism, superconductivity, etc.) than the site of the implanted positive muon μ⁺, which sits well away from nuclei in regions of large electron density. In fact, even though the positively charged muon is a lepton and therefore essentially a heavy antielectron, for our purpose, it is more useful to consider it as a light proton.”

— Stephen J. Blundell