Dual roles of f electrons in mixing Al 3p character into d -orbital conduction bands for lanthanide and actinide dialuminides

Abstract

Correlated electron phenomena in lanthanide and actinide materials are driven by a complex interplay between the f and d orbitals. In this study, aluminum K-edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations are used to evaluate the electronic structure of the dialuminides, MAl 2 (M = Ce, Sm, Eu, Yb, Lu, U, and Pu). The results show how the energy and occupancy of the 4f or 5f orbitals impacts mixing of Al 3p character into the 5d or 6d conduction bands, which has implications for understanding the magnetic and structural properties of correlated electron systems.

Charge density wave behavior and order-disorder in the antiferromagnetic metallic seriesEu(Ga1−xAlx)4Stavinoha1, Cooley2, Minasian3 et al. 2018Phys. Rev. BSelf Cite26170View full textAdd to dashboardCite

“…Single energy images, elemental maps, and Eu M 5,4edge x-ray absorption spectra (XAS) were acquired using the scanning transmission x-ray microscope instrument at the spectromicroscopy beamline 10ID-1 at the Canadian Light Source according to data acquisition methodology described previously. 15,16 Samples were prepared by grinding crystals of the analyte into a fine powder with a mortar and pestle and brushing the powder onto carbon support films (3-4 nm carbon, Electron Microscopy Sciences) with a fiber, which arranged a large number of micron-sized particles in a compact area suitable for Eu M 5,4 -edge XAS.…”

Measurement of f orbital hybridization in rare earths through electric dipole-octupole interference in x-ray absorption spectroscopy

“…XAS measures the transition probability for a core electron of an absorbing ion to be promoted into unoccupied electronic states, which is mainly achieved by electric dipole ( = 1) E 1 transitions and in second order by electric quadrupole ( = 2) E 2 transitions. XAS provides insight into the local electronic structure of the absorber, including valency, ligand-metal covalency, or on-site mixing of atomic orbitals, as has been demonstrated in rare-earth compounds using both ligand and rare-earth absorption edges (e.g., [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]). Over the years, the technique has been popularized under different forms, amongst which, x-ray magnetic circular and linear dichroism (XMCD [16,17] and XMLD [18]), x-ray natural circular and linear dichroism (XNCD [19] and XNLD [20]), exploiting the dependence of XAS upon the polarization state and/or the direction of the incident x rays to reveal anisotropy in charge, orbital, or spin distribution, or the mixing between electronic states with different parity.…”

Ferromagnetic quantum critical point in CePd2P2 with Pd → Ni substitution

“…Single energy images, elemental maps, and Ce M 5,4edge x-ray absorption spectra (XANES) [41] were acquired using the scanning transmission x-ray microscope (STXM) instrument at the spectromicroscopy beamline 10ID-1 at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) according to data acquisition methodology described previously. [42][43][44]…”