Conduction-electron mediated H-1 nuclear spin-lattice relaxation in Ti45Zr38Ni17Hx icosahedral quasicrystals

Nuclear magnetic resonance spin-lattice relaxation rates for H-1 in quasicr ystalline Ti45Zr38Ni17Hx are presented as a function of temperature and hyd rogen concentration x. The temperature dependence demonstrates that the rel axation is via interaction with conduction electrons. The relaxation rate i s extremely sensitive to hydrogen content, with the rate changing by a fact or of as munch as two for samples that differ in x by at most 2%. We interp ret the changes in the conduction-electron-mediated spin-lattice relaxation as due to fine structure ('spikiness') in the electronic density rho (E) o f states and estimate that rho (E) changes by 40% over an energy range of 7 5 meV.