Almost Non-Magnetic Ground State of the V4+ Ion: The case of BaVS3

Abstract

We have shown that the V4+ ion with 1 d electron can have almost non-magnetic ground state under the action of the octahedral crystal field in the presence of the spin-orbit coupling and off-cubic distortions. Such the situation occurs in the hexagonal BaVS3. The fine discrete electronic structure with the weakly-magnetic Kramers-doublet ground state is the reason for anomalous properties of BaVS3. Keywords: crystal-field, spin-orbit, orbital moment. PACS: 71.70.E, 75.10.DComment: 5 pages in RevTex, no figur