Hyperfine spectroscopic study of the metal-insulator transition in V2O3

The metal-insulator (M-I) transition in vanadium sesquioxide V₂O₃ has been investigated by time differential perturbed angular correlation measurements of the electric fieldgradient (EFG) and the magnetic hyperfine field at dilute¹¹¹Cd impurities. The EFG undergoes a first-order change at the M-I transition at T_t=160 K, but does not reflect the high temperature resistivity anomaly. The increase of the EFG with temperature in the metallic phase can be attributed to thermal variations of the oxygen sublattice. The temperature dependence of the magnetic hyperfine field in the insulating phase follows a Brioullin function with a saturation value of H_hf(O)=15 KOe and an extrapolated Neel temperature, which, depending on the impurity concentration, varies between 188 and 230 K.