Systematics in the metal-insulator transition temperatures in vanadium oxides

Abstract

Nine of the known vanadium oxides, VO$_{2-1/n}$ (n - a positive or negative integer) with n=2 - 6, 8, 9, $\infty$ and -6, undergo metal-insulator transitions accompanied by structural transitions, at various temperatures T$_{MIT}$ (V$_7$O$_{13}$ is metallic above T=0). Among the persistent efforts to determine the driving force(s) of these transitions, electron-electron (Mott-like) and electron-phonon (Peierls-like) interactions, there were several attempts to find systematics in T$_{MIT}$ as function of n. Here we present an unexpectedly simple and illuminating systematics that holds for positive n: if T$_{MIT}$ is the absolute value of the difference between T$_M$(n) and T$_P$(n), which represent the contributions of electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions, respectively, all data points of T$_M$-T$_P$ versus 1/n lie on, or close to, two simple straight lines; one is T$_M$-T$_P$= T$_{\infty}$(7/n-1) for V$_3$O$_5$, V$_4$O$_7$, V$_5$O$_9$, V$_7$O$_{13}$, V$_8$O$_{15}$, V$_9$O$_{17}$ and VO$_2$ and the other is T$_M$-T$_P$= T$_{\infty}$(3/n-1) for V$_2$O$_3$, V$_6$O$_{11}$ and VO$_2$.