OPTICAL ABSORPTION SPECTRA AND MAGNETIC SUSCEPTIBILITIES OF PRVO4

This paper reports experimental results of measurements of magnetic susceptibilities ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}}$ and ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$ and their anisotropy \ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\chi}, in the temperature range of 300--70 K and the polarized optical-absorption and Zeeman spectra at temperatures 10 and 80 K of single crystal of ${\mathrm{PrVO}}_{4}.$ The magnetic anisotropy reversed its sign at $180\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}2\mathrm{K}$ and two lines of the ${}^{3}{\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{{H}_{4}}}^{1}{D}_{2}$ transitions split by 5.1 and 4.7 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$ in the Zeeman field of 49 K G. The lowest two levels were found to be singlets, separated by $35\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}2{\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$ and followed by a doublet at $84\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}2{\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}.$ The observed magnetic results on ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{\ensuremath{\parallel}},$ ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}},$ \ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\chi}, ${T}_{i}$ and crystal-field (CF) levels of ${}^{1}{D}_{2},$ ${}^{3}{P}_{0,1,2},$ and ${}^{1}{I}_{6}$ multiplets and the Zeeman splittings were fitted simultaneously considering intermediate-coupling states mixed under a crystal field with ${D}_{2d}$ symmetry present in ${\mathrm{PrVO}}_{4}.$ The best fitted parameters are ${E}^{1}=4425.0,$ ${E}^{2}=22.7,$ ${E}^{3}=455.0,$ $\ensuremath{\zeta}=800.0,$ $\ensuremath{\alpha}=22.5,$ $\ensuremath{\beta}=\ensuremath{-}800.0,$ $\ensuremath{\gamma}=1520.0,$ ${B}_{20}=\ensuremath{-}130,$ ${B}_{40}=1020,$ ${B}_{44}=1525,$ ${B}_{60}=1150,$ ${B}_{64}=\ensuremath{-}200$ (all in ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$). Using the J-mixed pattern of ${}^{3}{H}_{4},$ the different components of the nuclear quadrupole splitting $4P,$ were found to be ${4P}_{1}=3.2,$ ${4P}_{2}=12.0,$ and ${4P}_{3}=0.2$ (all in MHz) at 1.6 K. These results are close to the values reported from NMR studies by others. Schottky component of electronic and nuclear specific heat are also calculated with the best fitted CF levels of ${}^{3}{H}_{4}.$