Electric quadrupole interactions in nano-structured SnO2 as measured with PAC spectroscopy

Abstract

Measurements of the electric quadrupole interaction were used to characterize pure and cobalt-doped samples of SnO2 prepared by the sol-gel method. Perturbed gamma–gamma angular correlation (PAC) spectroscopy using 111In–111Cd probe nuclei was employed for these measurements. A methodology was developed for sample preparation that were prepared by sol-gel method from pure metallic Sn (99.9999%) and Co (99.9998%) as starting materials. Carrier-free 111In was added to the precursor sol-gel solution prior to the formation of gel. PAC measurements were carried out to follow the formation of the SnO2. PAC measurements were carried out in the temperature range from 10 k to 1123 K and the results show that the electric quadrupole frequency depends on the annealing temperature.