Off-center impurity in alkali halides: reorientation, electric polarization and pairing to F center. IV. Reorientational rate

This last Part IV is aimed at deriving relaxation rates (times) of an off-center Li+ impurity. We follow Christov's reaction rate method to define general rate equations in terms of the exact Mathieu eigenvalues, as well as of harmonic-oscillator eigenvalues approximating for the energy spectrum near the bottom of the reorientational wells. To calculate the rate in each particular case, we derive configurational tunneling probabilities by either Mathieu eigenfunctions or by harmonic oscillator eigenfunctions. The electron-transfer probability is calculated by generalizing Landau-Zener's method. Typical examples are considered and compared with experimental relaxation times in KCl:Li+.