The electrodynamics near the metal-to-insulator transitions (MIT) induced, in V3O5 single crystals, by both temperature (T) and pressure (P) has been studied by infrared spectroscopy. The T- and P-dependence of the optical conductivity may be explained within a polaronic scenario. The insulating phase at ambient T and P corresponds to strongly localized small polarons. Meanwhile the T-induced metallic phase at ambient pressure is related to a liquid of polarons showing incoherent dc transport, in the P-induced metallic phase at room T strongly localized polarons coexist with partially delocalized ones. The electronic spectral weight is almost recovered, in both the T and P induced metallization processes, on an energy scale of 1 eV, thus supporting the key-role of electron-lattice interaction in the V3O5 metal-to-insulator transition.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0701742,
title = {Electrodynamics near the Metal-to-Insulator Transition in V3O5},
author = {L. Baldassarre and A. Perucchi and E. Arcangeletti and D. Nicoletti and D. Di Castro and P. Postorino and V. A. Sidorov and S. Lupi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0701742},
year = {2009}
}