Effect of temperature on radiationless transitions. Part 2

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of the electronic energy gap and the strength of the coupling constant (or the Huang–Rhys factor) on the temperature dependence of nonradiative rate constants. Quantitative criteria for the applicability of the approximations involved in treating the weak coupling and strong coupling cases are provided. The general theoretical results obtained are then applied to rare earth ion systems for the reason that relatively few theoretical investigations have been carried out in these systems. The electronic matrix element of the promoting portion of the nonradiative rate constant is determined for each system.