Localization, hopping, and diffusion of electrons in molten salts

The electronic states and dynamical properties of dilute liquid K-KCl solutions are studied by simultaneous integration of the coupled time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation for the excess electrons and classical equations of motion for the ions. Excess electrons are found to spend most of their time in localized F-center states, whose size and shape can fluctuate significantly. Transport is mostly due to jumps between localized states, with a jumping rate {}3×{}10¹² s^-1. The optical excitation spectrum and the electron diffusion coefficient are calculated and found to be in agreement with the experimental data.