Publication Date:
2015-05-21
Description:
We performed x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) measurements at Fe L 2,3 and N K -edges for Fe 4 N epitaxial films grown by molecular beam epitaxy. In order to clarify the element specific local electronic structure of Fe 4 N, we compared experimentally obtained XAS and XMCD spectra with those simulated by a combination of a first-principles calculation and Fermi's golden rule. We revealed that the shoulders observed at Fe L 2,3 -edges in the XAS and XMCD spectra were due to the electric dipole transition from the Fe 2 p core-level to the hybridization state generated by σ* anti-bonding between the orbitals of N 2 p at the body-centered site and Fe 3 d on the face-centered (II) sites. Thus, the observed shoulders were attributed to the local electronic structure of Fe atoms at II sites. As to the N K -edge, the line shape of the obtained spectra was explained by the dipole transition from the N 1 s core-level to the hybridization state formed by π* and σ* anti-bondings between the Fe 3 d and N 2 p orbitals. This hybridization plays an important role in featuring the electronic structures and physical properties of Fe 4 N.
Print ISSN:
0021-8979
Electronic ISSN:
1089-7550
Topics:
Physics
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