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Classical simulations of model O( 3 P) atom isolated in Ar, Kr and Xe crystals with the variable magnitude and sign of the angular momentum anisotropy are performed. The guest–host interaction anisotropy remarkably affects the structure of the atomic trapping sites and the barriers to the temperature-induced atomic mobility. For interstitial trapping, inversion of anisotropy induces a kind of critical phenomenon, which transforms the migration path saddle point to a minimum and another saddle. As a result, a new peculiar axially symmetric interstitial site is formed with the migration barrier reduced. Preliminary ab initio-based study of the C( 3 P) atom, whose interactions with Ar, Kr and Xe have the anisotropy opposite to oxygen, fully confirms the model analysis. Our results emphasise profound effect of the angular momentum anisotropy on the structure and dynamics of the open-shell atoms at matrix isolation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low-lying electronic states of Yb isolated in a solid Ar matrix grown at 4.2 K are characterized through absorption and emission spectroscopy. Yb atoms are found to occupy three distinct thermally stable trapping sites labeled "red," "blue," and "violet" according to the relative positions of the absorption features they produce. Classical simulations of the site structure and relative stability broadly reproduced the experimentally observed matrix-induced frequency shifts and thus identified the red, blue, and violet sites as due to respective single substitutional (SS), tetravacancy (TV), and hexavacancy (HV) occupation. Prolonged excitation of the ¹S → ¹P transition was found to transfer the Yb population from HV sites into TV and SS sites. The process showed reversibility in that annealing to 24 K predominantly transferred the TV population back into HV sites. Population kinetics were used to deduce the effective rate parameters for the site transformation processes. Experimental observations indicate that the blue and violet sites lie close in energy, whereas the red one is much less stable. Classical simulations identify the blue site as the most stable one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]