The full temperature dependence of the electric field gradient tensor at the Na sites has been determined by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in the temperature range 8-330 K in aNa,.V205 (x = 0.996). Above the spin-Peierls transition (T, = 34.7 K), only a single Na site is observed in agreement with the Pmmn space group proposed to describe this compound as the first example of a 1/4-filled ladder system. Below T,, eight distinct quadrupolar 23 Na sites are observed according to the distortion wave vector k c = ( 1/2, 1/2, 1/4) previously reported. In addition, the opening of a spin gap is evidenced by a rapid drop of the magnetic hyperfine shift 23 K at T.. The results are discussed in the context of a charge-order-driven spin-Peierls transition.
I IntroductionAmong the growing family of interesting low-dimensional magnetic systems the vanadium oxide bronzes have attracted considerable interest in recent years. Various ground states of quantum magnetism can be experimentally realized such as an S = 1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnetic (HAF) chain for y-LiV 2 O5, S = 1/2 HAF dimers for CsV2O5, an S = 1/2 HAF spin-ladder for CaV2O5 , an S = 1/2 HAF frustated spin-ladder for MgV 2 O5 and a possible two-dimensional (2 -D) spin liquid state for CaV,O 9 [1]. A magneto-elastic transition at TT 34 K has been reported for another compound of this family, a-NaV 2 O5, by Isobe et al. [2] which showed typical signatures of a spin-Peierls (SP) transition, resulting as purely due to quantum effects [3]. a-NaV 2 O5 was thus conjectured to represent the second inorganic spin-Peierls compound after CuGeO 3 discovered in 1993 [4,5]. An early room-temperature crystal structure determination of this compound in the space group (SG) P2,mn [6] revealed V double chains to run along [010] but required two different vanadium sites in the unit cell being occupied either by magnetic V 4 + ions with a 3d' configuration or spinless V 5 + ions. The proposed discrimination of two different vanadium sites in the unit cell leads to