Intermetallic silicide compounds, LaScSi and Y5Si3, known for being hydrogen (H) storage materials, are drawing attention as candidates for electrides in which anions are substituted by unbound electrons. It is inferred from a muon spin rotation experiment that the local field at the muon site (which is the same site as that for H) in these compounds exhibits a large negative shift under an external magnetic field, which is mostly independent of temperature. Such anomalous diamagnetism signals a unique property of electride electrons associated with transition metals. Moreover, the diamagnetic shift decreases with increasing H content, suggesting that the electride electrons existing coherently in the hollow interstitial positions are adsorbed by H to form hydride ions (H−)
@article{arxiv.2106.00921,
title = {Anomalous diamagnetism of electride electrons in transition metal silicides},
author = {M. Hiraishi and K. M. Kojima and H. Okabe and A. Koda and R. Kadono and J. Wu and Y. Lu and H. Hosono},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2106.00921},
year = {2021}
}