Low temperature specific heat of vanadium carbide

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Abstract
The specific heat has been measured at low temperatures (∼ 1°K to 20°K) for four large crystals of VCx, with results that indicate the presence of maxima near x=0.85 in both the Debye characteristic temperature, θ0, and the electronic density of states at the Fermi level N γ(ζ). The behaviour of θ 0 suggests that the maximum melting temperature of VCx occurs at a composition close to that of the ordered compound V6C5, rather than at the composition VC0.75 proposed recently by Rudy. The variation of N γ (ζ) with x has been used to obtain an estimate for the density-of-states curve in the vicinity of the Fermi level. The result is discussed in terms of the behaviour expected from elementary considerations of the electronic structure.