Magnetic and spectroscopic investigation of partially reduced vanadium pentoxides. I. α-CuxV2O5

The electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and magnetic susceptibility of both powdered and crystalline α-Cu_xV₂O₅ near the compositional limit have been studied as a function of temperature. The EPR data indicate that the paramagnetic species are isolated V⁴⁺ centers in a nearly axially symmetric ligand field. It is demonstrated that reasonably precise EPR parameters can be derived from powdered spectra. The narrowness of the EPR line suggests that the spectra are motionally narrowed via thermally activated hopping of the paramagnetic electron of V⁴⁺. Expressions are derived for the temperature-dependent magnetic moments of the octahedral ²T_2g term under the combined perturbation of spin-orbit coupling and an axially symmetric ligand field, and the susceptibility data are interpreted in terms of this model. It is found that the sixfold degenerate ²T_2g level is split into three levels with the lowest and highest levels possessing a magnetic moment and the intermediate level having no moment. This model is also consistent with the g-tensor and can account for the temperature dependence of the EPR linewidth.