Metal–insulator transitions of SrTi1−xVxO3 solid solution system

Compounds in the solid solution SrTi1−xVxO3 system were synthesized and studied for their conductivity and magnetic properties. The conductivity data show that the compounds with high vanadium content (x>0.7) are metallic and that the compounds with low x are semiconductors with various conduction mechanisms depending on x. The x=0.7 compound shows a temperature dependent metal–insulator transition at 120 K. Compared with the literature data on the same system, the present data can be explained with clustering of vanadium atoms that forms discrete vanadium d-bands. A model that involves localized states or bands is proposed to explain the composition and temperature dependent conductivity and magnetic properties of the present data.