Jahn-Teller resonance states in the Vb metal hydrides: static and dynamic consequences

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Abstract
A Hamiltonian with a localised Jahn-Teller electron-phonon interaction plus a band-coupling term belonging to a metal cluster state adjacent to interstitial hydrogen in the Vb metals is presented. It is shown that in a low-frequency approximation, this problem is analogous to that of magnetic impurities in metals. The role of hydrogen in triggering the Jahn-Teller instability is clarified in the context of the Hartree-Fock solutions of the low-frequency Hamiltonian. Anelastic relaxation mechanisms are described and an elastic susceptibility expression is derived and compared with an observed elastic relaxation. The empirical connection of the hypothesised Jahn-Teller distorted metal cluster to the experimentally determined elastic dipole tensor is also discussed. Several experiments suggested by the model are proposed.