Electric Field Gradients Around Point Defects in Metals

The splittings of nuclear energy levels caused by the electric field gradients acting on the quadrupole moments of nuclei in the neighbourhood of atomic defects in cubic metals may serve as ‘‘fingerprints’’ providing us with a unique characterization of these defects. In favourable cases the NQDOR technique (n̲uclear q̲uadrupole d̲ouble r̲esonance) permits sensitive measurements of these splittings with good resolution. The present paper outlines the status of the ab-initio calculation of electric field gradients with emphasis on the theoretical basis (density functional theory with local density approximation) and on the techniques required for handling the specific problems associated with defects. Recent work by the supercell approach on atomic defects in Al and Cu, making use either of the full-potential linearized augmented-plane-wave method or of the ab-initio pseudopotential method, are reported and compared with experiments. The excellent agreement between experiment and theory for the field gradients acting on the nearest-neighbour nuclei of monovacancies in Al demonstrates the reliability and the potential of the theory.