NMR study of the electric field gradient in the paramagnetic phase of M3V2O8 (M = Co, Ni) compounds

The NMR spectra and the decay of a spin echo signal from 51V nuclei in Kagome-staircase Co3V2O8 (CVO) and Ni3V2O8 (NVO) single crystals are measured in the temperature range 30–300 K and a magnetic field H 0 = 20 kOe. The orientation dependences of the 51V NMR line shape are used to determine the electric field gradient (EFG) parameters, namely, quadrupole frequency ν Q and asymmetry parameter η. These parameters for NVO and CVO are ν Q = 180(10) kHz, η = 0.5(1) and ν Q = 130(10) kHz, η = 0.6(1), respectively. A comparison of the results of calculating EFG tensors with a point charge model and the NMR data indicates that the crystallographically equivalent vanadium atoms in the Ni3V2O8 and Co3V2O8 compounds differ in the EFG axis orientation. M3V2O8 crystals are found to have vanadium positions (V1, V2) with different orientations of the z axis, which specifies the direction of the principal value of EFG (V zz ): these orientations lie in the bc plane and make an angle of either +51(5)° (V1) or −51(5)° (V2) with axis c. In the temperature range 30–300 K, the EFG tensor components and the local symmetry of the charge surrounding of the vanadium positions in NVO and CVO oxides are found to change insignificantly.