New Inorganic Spin-Peierls Compound NaV2O5Evidenced by X-Ray and Neutron Scattering

Abstract
In this letter we report lattice dimerization and spin-gap formation of NaV 2 O 5 below its spin-Peierls transition temperature T sp =35.3 K, in which there are V 4+ ( S =1/2) linear chains along the b axis of its orthorhombic structure. A single-crystal X-ray scattering experiment shows superlattice reflections with a lattice modulation vector q =(1/2, 1/2, 1/4) . Inelastic neutron scattering from a powder sample at T =7 K clearly demonstrates a gap energy of 9.8 meV at a scattering vector | Q |=1.0 Å -1 corresponding to the reciprocal lattice point (1, 1/2, 0).