Hyperfine characterization of pure and doped zircons

The aim of this work has been to investigate the influence of two coloring dopant ions on the ZrSiO4 host lattice. Pure, vanadium-doped and praseodymi um-doped zircon powders have been synthesized by the ceramic method and ana lyzed using X-ray diffraction and the perturbed angular correlations (PAC) hyperfine technique, which probes the nearest environments of zirconium ion s. XRD results indicated that vanadium and praseodynamium incorporations in the host lattice result in crystalline solid solutions, In turn, PAC infor mation allowed in both cases the determination of tno contributions to the hyperfine interaction. In the case of vanadium-doped zircon, V4+ substitute s mainly for Zr4+ and in a minor fraction for Si4+ or else it localizes at a tetrahedral interstitial site. In praseodymium-doped zircon, a low fracti on of Pr4+ cations locate at Zr4+ sites. A slight modification of the zirco n Lattice is probably caused by the incorporation of the remaining cations at tetrahedral interstitial sites of the solid solution. (C) 2000 Academic Press.