Electric field gradient Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Mathematically the
electric field gradient (EFG) is the second derivative of
the
electrical potential V
It is an important structural property of a
crystalline solid, where it is defined at the location of a
nucleus. The EFG is non-zero only if the charges surrounding the nucleus violate cubic symmetry and therefore generate an inhomogeneous
electric field at the position of the nucleus. The individual components V
ij form a symmetrical and traceless
tensor. The principal tensor components are usually denoted V
zz, V
yy and V
xx in order of decreasing
modulus. Due to the tensor's traceless character,
holds, which allows for a description of the EFG using only two parameters, V
zz and the
asymmetry η
Any quadrupolar moment of the nucleus interacts with the inhomogeneous
field surrounding it, thus the electric field gradient can be
measured using several
spectroscopic methods, such as
nuclear magnetic resonance (
NMR),
nuclear quadrupole resonance (
NQR),
moessbauer or perturbed angular correlation (
PAC), provided the nucleus in
question has a quadrupolar moment.
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