STRUCTURAL, ELECTRONIC, AND MAGNETIC-PROPERTIES OF LAXSR1-X VO3 (0.1-LESS-THAN-OR-EQUAL-TO-X-LESS-THAN-OR-EQUAL-TO-1.0)

We report on the properties of LaxSr1-xVO3 which has a phase diagram which is similar to Sr-doped La2CuO4 in that it too shows a composition-induced insulator-to-metal transition with strontium doping. In addition, the fact that the insulating compositions in the vanadium-based system are antiferromagnetic, as well as, the perovskite structure of LaxSr1-xVO3, makes them candidates for a detailed study of their properties in order to gain greater insight into the mechanisms at play in the high-T(c) cuprate superconductors. Magnetic susceptibility, x-ray powder diffraction, and V-51 NMR Knight shift and relaxation rates, T1(-1) and T-2(-1), are reported as functions of temperature and composition in LaxSr1-xVO3. A combined analysis of the susceptibility and the V-51 NMR data yields values of the density of states D (epsilon(f)) and for the enhancement of the uniform susceptibility. These are indicative of a strongly exchange-enhanced narrow d-band metal for x < 0.7. No evidence was found for antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations in the metallic phase nor for superconducting behavior, in contrast to cuprate superconductors where neutron-scattering evidence shows antiferromagnetic spin correlations in the normal state of the superconducting compositions.