Nuclear Electric Quadrupole Spectra in Solids

Recent experiments have demonstrated the feasibility of observing nuclear electric quadrupole interactions of widely varying magnitudes in solids. While these effects can often be observed in powdered samples, the most complete information is obtainable from the Zeeman pattern of a single crystal. To facilitate interpretation of these experiments, the nuclear spin energy levels are derived for different relative magnitudes of quadrupole interaction and external magnetic field. Besides the knowledge of the gradient of the electric field tensor, in principle, low frequency molecular rotation should be detectable by means of the quadrupole spectra.