Search

Photon-excited B K fluorescence spectra were measured for hexagonal boron nitride using tunable synchrotron radiation below and above the B K edge. We report Raman-like resonant inelastic scattering of soft x rays involving excitation of delocalized valence-band electrons. The inelastic scattering features track with the excitation energy below threshold, go through a resonance as the excitation is tuned to the B(1s) core-exciton energy, and evolve into incoherent fluorescence as the excitation is raised further. The energy loss is identified as equivalent to an electronic transition of valence $\ensuremath{\sigma}$ electrons to ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{*}$ conduction-band states.

Soft x-ray fluorescence (SXF) spectroscopy using synchrotron radiation offers several advantages over surface sensitive spectroscopies for probing the electronic structure of complex multi-elemental materials. Due to the long mean free path of photons in solids ({approximately}1000 {angstrom}), SXF is a bulk-sensitive probe. Also, since core levels are involved in absorption and emission, SXF is both element- and angular-momentum-selective. SXF measures the local partial density of states (DOS) projected onto each constituent element of the material. The chief limitation of SXF has been the low fluorescence yield for photon emission, particularly for light elements. However, third generation light sources, such as the Advanced Light Source (ALS), offer the high brightness that makes high-resolution SXF experiments practical. In the following the authors utilize this high brightness to demonstrate the capability of SXF to probe the band structure of a polycrystalline sample. In SXF, a valence emission spectrum results from transitions from valence band states to the core hole produced by the incident photons. In the non-resonant energy regime, the excitation energy is far above the core binding energy, and the absorption and emission events are uncoupled. The fluorescence spectrum resembles emission spectra acquired using energetic electrons, and is insensitive to the incidentmore » photon`s energy. In the resonant excitation energy regime, core electrons are excited by photons to unoccupied states just above the Fermi level (EF). The absorption and emission events are coupled, and this coupling manifests itself in several ways, depending in part on the localization of the empty electronic states in the material. Here the authors report spectral measurements from highly oriented pyrolytic graphite.« less