Optical properties of vanadium pentoxide in the region of photon energies from 2 eV to 14 eV

Measurements of the reflectrance R for V/sub 2/O/sub 5/ single crystals and photon energies h..omega.. from 2 eV to 14 eV are given, and the spectral dependence of the real and imaginary parts of the dielectric constant epsilon and of the refractive index N is calculated for h..omega.. ..3d (V/sup +5/) electronic transitions and for h..omega..>8 eV or 9 eV with transitions between the 2p (O/sup -2/) and 4s (V/sup +5/) electronic states. It is shown that the dispersion of epsilon for h..omega.. below the intrinsic absorption edge is chiefly determined by strong optical transitions near 3 eV, and the absorption edge in this material corresponds to the low energy tail of a weak absorption band with a maximum at 2.5 eV. An investigation of the shape of the R (h..omega..) extrema of V/sub 2/O/sub 5/ single crystals is carried out, and a comparison of these characteristics with the analogous dependencies for other oxides of transition metals (SrTiO/sub 3/ andmore » NiO) as well as with the transmission spectra of dilute solutions of V/sub 2/O/sub 5/ is made. On the basis of such an investigation a hypothesis is given about the significant contribution that localized excitations together with interband transitions, make to the optical properties of this material. (AIP)« less