The muons are implanted into the sample of interest where they lose energy very quickly. Fortunately, this deceleration process occurs in such a way that it does not jeopardize a μSR measurement. On one side it is very fast (much faster than 100 ps), which is much shorter than a typical μSR time window (up to 20 μs), and on the other side, all the processes involved during the deceleration are Coulombic (ionization of atoms, electron scattering, electron capture) in origin and do not interact with the muon spin, so that the muon is thermalized without any significant loss of polarization.
The positive muons usually adopt interstitial sites of the crystallographic lattice, markedly distinguished by their electronic (charge) state. The spectroscopy of a muon chemically bound to an unpaired electron is remarkably different from that of all other muon states, which motivates the historical distinction in paramagnetic and diamagnetic states. Note that many diamagnetic muon states really behave like paramagnetic centers, according to the standard definition of a paramagnet.   For example, in most metallic samples, which are Pauli paramagnets, the muons positive charge is collectively screened by a cloud of conduction electrons. Thus, in metals, the muon is not bound to a single electron, hence it is in the so-called diamagnetic state and behaves like a free muon. In insulators or semiconductors a collective screening cannot take place and the muon will usually pick up one electron and form a so-called muonium (Mu=μ+e), which has similar size (Bohr radius), reduced mass, and ionization energy to the hydrogen atom. This is the prototype of the so-called paramagnetic' state.