NMR Studies of TmVO4

TmVO4 undergoes a tetragonal to orthorhombic structural phase transition below 2.2K due to a cooperative Jahn-Teller distortion. The Tm ions experience a crystal-field effect with a non-Kramer’s ground state doublet. We have performed 51V NMR in a single crystal to investigate the role of magnetic and quadrupolar fluctuations. We find that the spin lattice relaxation rate varies strongly with field orientation, which reflects the role of quadrupolar(nematic) fluctuations near the critical temperature. We have also observed strong angular dependence of the 51V NMR Knight shift.