EPR and Optical Absorption Study of VO2+ Ions Doped Potassium Hexaaquazinc (II) Sulfate Single Crystals

X-band single-crystal electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) studies are done on VO²⁺ ions doped in potassium hexaaquazinc (II) sulfate, K₂Zn (H₂O)₆] (SO₄)₂ (PHZS) at room temperature. The spin Hamiltonian parameters, i.e., g and A tensors and their direction cosines, are evaluated by the standard diagonalization procedure using angular variation of the EPR spectra in three planes (ab, bc* and c*a), with the help of a computer program. The EPR spectrum is simulated using the EasySpin program to verify the calculations. The detailed EPR analysis indicates the presence of two magnetically inequivalent VO²⁺ sites. Both the vanadyl complexes are found to take up the substitutional position in the host lattice. The optical absorption spectrum of VO²⁺ ions doped in PHZS single crystal at room temperature is also recorded and four main d–d transfer bands in the visible region are assigned. The theoretical band positions are obtained using energy expressions and a good agreement is found with the experimental values. With the help of assigned bands the crystal-field parameters (Dq, Ds and Dt) are evaluated. Finally, with the optical and EPR data, the nature of bonding in the complex is discussed.