Hyperfine Resonance of Deuterium Atoms Stabilized in Impurity-Helium Solids

We describe a method of combining the stabilization of impurities in superfluid helium and magnetic resonance techniques to study hyperfine resonance in atomic deuterium obtained by passing a D ₂ -He mixture through a radiofrequency discharge. The resulting D-D ₂ -He gas mixture penetrates a superfluid helium surface and forms a Van der Waals solid mixture containing atoms of D and He as well as D ₂ molecules. In preliminary experiments we have applied magnetic resonance (309 MHz) to the – transition to study spin-spin and spin-lattice relaxation in atomic deuterium and to provide information about the surroundings of atomic deuterium isolated in the D-D ₂ -He solid.