Negative muon depolarization in oxides

Depolarization of negative muons in Esub(m)Osub(n) oxides mainly of the elements of the 4 and 5 periods are studied with the aim of checking to what extent chemical properties of an element E define the occurence of chemical reactions involving oxygen mesic atoms. The muon relative polarization a/ac (in reference to graphite) was determined by means of the muon spin precession method in a weak transverse magnetic field. The experiment was carried out at room temperature and for a number of oxides at the liquid nitrogen temperature. The results obtained are compared to the hydroxide data. An increase of the residual polarization with increasing atomic number from the beginning to the end of the period is observed for the oxides of the fifth period. For the oxides of the fourth period a change in a/ac for different oxides is larger as compared to hydroxides. As for hydroxides, an increase in a/ac with decreasing the ionicity (i) of the E-O bond is observed for all oxides excluding transition element oxides of the 4 period. This points to the resemblance of chemical reactions of mesic nitrogen in the both types of compounds