Investigation of the nuclear quadrupole interaction in ZnO by the method of perturbed angular correlations of nuclear radiations

It has been demonstrated that the sign and magnitude of the nuclear quadrupole interaction in ZnO can be determined using perturbed angular correlations of nuclear radiations. Information on the magnitude of the nuclear quadrupole interaction for the 184-keV ⁶⁷Zn level can be obtained from the observation of the gamma-gamma perturbed correlation of the directions for the ⁶⁷Ga → ⁶⁷Zn decay, and information on the magnitude and sign of the nuclear quadrupole interaction can be derived from the experiment on the induced beta-gamma correlation of the directions for the ⁶⁷Cu $ xrightarrow{{beta ^ - }} $ xrightarrow{{beta ^ - }} ⁶⁷Zn decay. The results of measurements have been interpreted using the calculation of the electric field gradient in the ZnO crystal by the full-potential linearized augmented plane wave method with the generalized gradient approximation of the exchange-correlation potential.