4f hybridization and band dispersion in gadolinium thin films and compounds

Authors

Takashi Komesu, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
H.-K. Jeong, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
David Wooton, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, OH
Yaroslav B. Losovyj, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
J. N. Crain, University of Wisconsin-Madison
M. Bissen, Synchrotron Radiation Center, Stoughton, WI
F. J. Himpsel, University of Wisconsin-Madison
J. C. Petrosky, Air Force Institute of TechnologyFollow
Jinke Tang, University of WyomingFollow
Wendong Wang, University of Wyoming
I. N. Yakovkin, National Academy of Science of Ukraine, Kiev
Peter A. Dowben, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

2009

Comments

Published in Physica Status Solidi B 246, No. 5, 975–980 (2009) / DOI 10.1002/pssb.200881553 Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag. (This article is a US government work and is not subject to copyright in the United States.)

Abstract

There is interplay between intra-atomic orbital hybridization and extra-atomic hybridization in various gadolinium systems, which affects magnetic coupling and electron itinerancy (localization). The results do not always follow expectation. The experimental band structure of thin Gd(0001) films, grown on the Mo(112) surface, along the Γ − M does not agree with expectations even qualitatively. In particular, the dispersion of the gadolinium band, with strong 5d weight near 2 eV binding energy provides considerable evidence to support the case for 4f- 5d hybridization, with increasing 5d localization. On the other hand, there is also evidence of extra-atomic Gd 4f hybridization leading band dispersion in the occupied 4f levels in Gd₂O₃.