Incoherent quasielastic neutron scattering investigation of chlorine ion hopping in the fast-ion phase of strontium chloride

Energy broadening of the incoherent quasielastic neutron scattering from a single crystal of the fast-ion conductor strontium chloride at 1053K has been measured for scattering vectors along the three principal crystal symmetry directions. The data are well accounted for by either the random-jump diffusion model of Chudley and Elliott (1961) or by Wolf's encounter model. A vacancy diffusion mechanism is found to predominate in the fast-ion phase, with anion hops mainly between nearest and next-nearest neighbour regular anion sites and a mean residence time of 25-29*10 -12 s.