Experimental study of the Fermi surface of vanadium

Abstract

The Fermi surface of vanadium has been studied experimentally using magnetothermal-oscillation techniques in the {100} and {110} planes in fields of 7-11 T. The Fermi surface has qualitatively the same topology as those of tantalum and niobium: a set of six distorted ellipsoidal surfaces centered at $N$ in the Brillioun zone, and a multiply connected jungle-gym surface consisting of interconnecting arms along the $〈100〉$ directions with intersections at $\Gamma$ and $H$. The data, taken on samples supplied by the U.S. Bureau of Mines, are qualitatively consistent with recent augmented-plane-wave (APW) calculations, and agree excellently with previous experimental data. The observed extremal areas near the symmetry directions are: $〈100〉$, 33.1 ${\mathrm{nm}}^{-2\mathrm{}}$ attributed to the jungle-gym necks, 50.5 and 57.6 ${\mathrm{nm}}^{-2\mathrm{}}$ attributed to the ellipsoids; at $〈111〉$, 47.9 ${\mathrm{nm}}^{-2\mathrm{}}$ attributed to the ellipsoids; at $〈110〉$, 64.1, 50.4, and 53.1 ${\mathrm{nm}}^{-2\mathrm{}}$ attributed to the ellipsoids. Effective masses, measured using the de Haas-van Alphen effect, ranged from 1.7 to 2.2 times the free-electron mass for the ellipsoids, while the orbit around the jungle-gym arms at $〈100〉$ was found to have an effective mass of 3.0. The data are consistent with the existence of necks along the $\Gamma -N$ direction, connecting the ellipsoids to the jungle gym.