The thermal expansion and adiabatic elastic constants of several single crystals of vanadium were investigated over the temperature range 4.2-300K. Although certain anomalies in the thermal expansion and in the elastic constants were observed at specific temperatures, in this paper emphasis is placed on the over-all elastic properties of vanadium, and attention is focused on those specimens in which the anomalies were less striking. The anomalies and their origin are the subject of a second paper which follows. The 4.2-K values of the elastic constants of a specimen exhibiting essentially no anomalous behavior were measured to be C₁₁=23.70, C₄₄=4.708, C^'=5.793, C₁₂=12.20, and the bulk modulus $B=15.98$, all in units of 10¹¹ dyn/cm². Except for C₄₄(T), the over-all temperature dependence of the elastic constants agrees with that predicted by current theoretical models. C₄₄(T), however, exhibited an upward concavity over much of the temperature range, and was characterized by an athermal value lower than the measured 4.2-K value. Above 150 K the coefficient of thermal expansion was approximately constant for those specimens showing no anomalies, with a value α8.5×10^-6K. Below 150 K, α decreased monotonically to 0 at {~} 10 K. The value of the Debye temperature extrapolated to 0 K was calculated to be ΘD (elastic)=403 K.
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Bolef et al. (1971) studied this question.