NMR study of the electronic structure in titanium niobium dihydride

Abstract

The niobium spin-lattice relaxation time T1 and Knight shift K in Ti1-xNbxH1.94 (0.05<or=x<or=0.65) were measured as a function of temperature and niobium concentration. For analysis, the customary scheme of electronic band structure for transition metals in a tight-binding model was assumed. In this approximation the presented data together with values of the magnetic susceptibility have been partitioned into spin (s and d) and orbital components. The latter was found to be strongly dependent upon the composition. It decreases with the increase of niobium concentration and becomes near zero for x=0.65. The d-band density of states decreases also with the increase of x, however, with moderate rate. The importance of these results for proton NMR and low-temperature specific heat data in the studied system is examined.