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Observation of fractional Stokes-Einstein behavior in the simplest hydrogen-bonded liquid
F Fernandez-Alonso1, F J Bermejo, S E McLain
1ISIS Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0QX, United Kingdom. F.Fernandez-Alonso@rl.ac.uk
Abstract:
Quasielastic neutron scattering has been used to investigate the single-particle dynamics of hydrogen fluoride across its entire liquid range at ambient pressure. For T>230 K, translational diffusion obeys the celebrated Stokes-Einstein relation, in agreement with nuclear magnetic resonance studies. At lower temperatures, we find significant deviations from the above behavior in the form of a power law with exponent xi=-0.71+/-0.05. More striking than the above is a complete breakdown of the Debye-Stokes-Einstein relation for rotational diffusion. Our findings provide the first experimental verification of fractional Stokes-Einstein behavior in a hydrogen-bonded liquid, in agreement with recent computer simulations [S. R. Becker, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 055901 (2006)10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.055901].
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